I have a mate who has self published several books. He can't understand why no-one is buying them. He describes himself as an author. I doubt he's sold 20 books. There are 3 in the series. He's working on the 4th. Apparently they will be an inheritance for his children. #delusional
I really struggled with it. I was offering a technical service and it was entirely their choice to hire me, but I felt bad taking money for a book that was unlikely to be read. I stopped working with self-published authors about a decade ago, and I have no regrets.
My mate paid about £700 per book to the company that did the publishing part. They somehow retain the rights to the publishing so he has to pay them an annual fee to keep the books listed on Amazon etc. Sounds more like a liability than an inheritance to me.
Oh that's dreadful. He needs to cut those ties and/or go to a solicitor, assuming he wants to throw money at the problem. Vanity publishing has always had its grubby edges, but this is grim.
I was at a Christmas market and made the mistake of chatting to someone who was selling his (self published) books. It was all very sad because he was so enthusiastic and they looked absolutely dreadful.
My mate was thrilled to send each book to The British Library. I wonder what they make of this stuff?
There are cheaper ways to achieve posterity!
Chalk it up as another reason why I will never be wealthy, I guess.