Hi all and jumping right back in…I know I said I was going to talk about “red flags” but I’ve got more to say on holding potential businesses accountable.
I’m back on accountability because it should be your mantra when it comes to purchasing services as an author.
Every time you are solicited, ask: WHAT IS THEIR ACCOUNTABILITY?
Example: you walk into a store to buy a product. They offer a toaster for xx amount of money and you buy said toaster. You take it home and use it for a week and then it burns up. What do you do? You have your receipt from the purchase (most likely) and even if you don’t you take it back to the store where you bought it to get a replacement or compensation.
When you’re hiring people for Author’s Services you should expect the same. Now most people are online—living in the ether of the internet, BUT there should still be ways to find them and make them accountable for the literary toasters you buy from them. IF you can’t find anything other than an email account to hold them liable, then you don’t work with them.
Period.
I don’t care what great services they claim to offer (remember what I said about too good to be true TGTBT???), IF they aren’t willing to stand by what they’re selling you, then what’s the point of doing business with them?
Would you buy a toaster from a guy/gal who walked up to you on the street and offered to sell you one? More appropriately, would you buy a used car from a total stranger who knocked on your door, wanting cash up front? Without checking the car out independently? Would you take a total stranger’s word for the quality of that used car without checking it out?
Yeah–screw that.
As an Indie author, your money is in short supply. Expect people to follow through on what they’re promising you, and make them back it up. Make them accountable. Make them prove to you they are A) a legitimate business trying to grow their business, and B) they want to do well by you so they can use you as a reference for their work later.
In any transaction between writers/authors and literary services, remember: They NEED you as much as you need them.
You have the power to purchase or walk away. Use it.
Okay, so how do we make sure people/groups/”businesses” are accountable?
Thanks for asking 🙂 In the next sitting we’re getting to “Red Flags.”
Craig