Authors often look online for book publishing training, and some Australians find Self-Publishing School, by Chandler Bolt. He is American. Some novice authors enrol in these kinds of courses with the hope that they will provide book editing or publishing services but always remember that author training schools are not services. (SPS has changed and now includes this, hence the price increase).
Let’s compare Self-Publishing School to Book Creation Success course at Business Author Academy, Australia.
- It is a sequential type of course, delivered one part at a time. With Book Creation, you can also get sequential lessons and videos, with no waiting.
- It is adjusted as feedback comes in and is regularly updated.
- There is a commitment contract to yourself and to the school. This is a good idea and we might implement this later.
- There are some common mindset issues dealt with inside videos. This could be better if running as an interactive webinar, because every writer has a different ‘bear’ to fight. A simple group webinar allows more interaction.
- Book Creation Success offers videos and audios (from an author) about book publishing benefits, planning the book, production matters, and screen tutorials, from a realistic point of view.
- Bonus content keeps things interesting. Our course has been built from our own author experiences. Besides The Niche Marketing & Book Guide (printed or ebook) and Branding with Offers guide, there is always new content (PDFs) being added. With SPS, there is a free 1-hour training on their 3-Step System to creating a book. (So they can email you afterwards).
- In SPS, presentations are all for Americans intended on dominating Amazon. Ours is open to IngramSpark and other avenues, for example, literary crowd-funding or utilising Draft2Digital. So you can have other options too.
Let’s Talk Self-Publishing School Pricing
Self-Publishing School features four or six 1-to-1 mentoring sessions, 1 year of group support, and a publishing package (editing, production, cover design and book formatting). It costs US$ 7,000 for Become a Bestseller in Non-Fiction. That’s AU$ 9,000!
This cost includes the complete self-publishing course and mastermind community membership, plus Amazon optimisation. Set up on the platforms and handling of royalties is included. There is no editing in this package, which is usually an additional cost of $1,500 to $3,000.
The name of the game is to write a great book. If your writing is going awry, how is a group session and group course going to help?
At Business Author Academy, course access is AU $227 for videos, POD resources, brand and book pitch guides, media lists and Q&As. You may also send me your initial table of contents to review – at no extra charge.
Writing coaching and accountability (personalised support/edit suggestions) is available here from AU$2,670. This is covered by legal terms and conditions.
You can upgrade to a mentored marketing program as well, for another $650. So all up, we are sitting at one-third of the American school’s package price.
Plus, you remain an individual self-publisher in control of their ISBN and direction, who is supported all the way to the end.
Where Does the Money Go?
Forbes says, “Chandler Bolt has built his online self publishing services business, Self Publishing School to an Inc. Fastest Growing 5000 private business in the past five years.”
When buying at Business Author Academy, this money goes directly to an Australian business to run things. I (Jennifer) am not a rich author who automates and outsources it all. I am a trained editor and copywriter with a network of great designers!
We also put time and financial resources back into the training, so that it is improving all the time. I am happy to give non-fiction authors a free course, to get started with thinking higher level: More Author Revenue.
Do Your Book Right, or Take the Cheapest Support Option?
Within Chandler’s Publishing book, it seems he promotes that: you should find an editor on Upwork, take only 3.5 weeks for the whole editing process (what about author corrections?), pay your editor US 1.5 cents per word at most… (regardless if every author has a different level of language and needs?) and more poverty-minded insights.
According to the reviewer who wrote these facts, James Ranson, CB’s book is all about speed and saving money. Is this what he also tells his coaches to tell the writers? Whereas, most authors I’ve worked with don’t want to rush things because they are doing this book right. They also don’t mind paying a decent wage to their editor, thankfully.
North Americans like Chandler Bolt seem to assume that every author wants to cheapskate print production too. Au contraire, Australians often want custom publishing options.
Once enrolled in Book Creation Success, you may ask for a referral to a nearby book printer, if that’s the path you want to take.
Don’t Forget iBooks
Finally, while local self-publishing and local author courses can guide on the use of IngramSpark and Draft2Digital, American-based schools are heavily weighted around Amazon. Nearly half of all people in Australia have a device like iPhone or iPad, and while Amazon is quite prevalent, these all come with iBooks installed. So it’s a great idea to ensure your ebook can be found on iBooks too, through an ebook aggregator.
Learn More about Self-Publishing a Book
Besides my concise Niche Marketing and Book Guide (a 39-page softback), I recommend two books. One is by Jacqui Pretty, who used to run Grammar Factory.
The other one is The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Self-Publishing by Ann Wilson, a business owner of author support brands.
Book Blueprint: our review is here. The book is below (best in hardcover or softcover):
