So Mr Weiss of Author Solutions (Author Solutions is in with the HQN/HHz/Dellarte Press mess) has a video response to the outcry coming from the writing community.

Here’s my response to his response.

Mr. Weiss, if Author Solutions truly represented SELF PUBLISHING, I’d have less of an issue.  Granted, the deal where they go after the writers who HQN rejects sucks and as long as that continues, it’s going to be a stain on HQN’s reputation in my eyes.  But AS and the deal with Dellarte Press doesn’t strike me as ‘self publishing.  They can call it ‘assisted self publishing’ all they want, but that’s just a pretty little shine.  What I see when I look at their site is a vanity press.  Plain and simple.  One where the writer fronts one huge, whopping chunk of money and even after fronting all that money, the writer still has to split the profits.  That’s not self publishing.

I don’t have a problem with self publishing.  If a writer wants that option, go for it.  Research and if you decide that’s the deal for you, give it a shot.

Just make sure you know your options.

Mr Weiss also seems interested in providing aspiring writers with ‘options’.  Granted, writers won’t find many hard facts when researching AS, so it’s hard to really understand all the options.  After all, when researching options, one does it to make an informed choice and informed choices are hard to make without knowing facts.

I’m not overly impressed with his video response.  Comes off to me as just spin.  Nothing else.  No substance.  I’m also curious about the comment moderation up at Youtube.  Will AS be letting all opinions be seen or just those that don’t disagree?

Writers, I will agree with one thing Mr. Weiss says.  He says research the market.

Yes.  By all means.  And if you’re really serious about self-publishing, make sure you research well.   In my opinion, there are much better, more affordable options out there.  One where you may have to front the money, but you also keep all the profits.   Options that don’t include charging nearly $1000 for a bunch of stuff you can set up for free, in under a couple of hours.  And no, I’m not joking…nearly $1000 to set up a writer on myspace, facebook, wordpress, goodreads, shelfari, etc.  Set up on those doesn’t cost a nickel.  Just some time.  And while I might considerable my time valuable, it sure as hell isn’t worth nearly $1000 for about 2 hours worth of work.  Or less…