The term “self-publishing” is often misunderstood to mean that an author personally performs every task in the publishing process. While this is possible, it's rare to find someone with professional-level skills in every aspect of book production. And sometimes, it's simply more efficient to pay someone to handle certain tasks while we focus on the ones we excel at.
That's where the vast panorama of self-publishing services shines. There are service providers for nearly any task you might encounter as an independent author, and a dazzling array of options to choose from within any of those elements.
However, that wealth of options can create confusion. With so many possibilities, it can be difficult to find the best services for your needs, or to pick out the rare and valuable gems from the surrounding dirt.
The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) created the Watchdog Desk to help authors navigate the ever-changing landscape of the publishing industry. We strive to provide authors with the tools they need to make smart business decisions, to assess the value in a service and avoid the hidden dangers.
To that end, we offer regularly updated service ratings so you can, at a glance, identify the best and worst self-publishing services. And to ensure that you're never lost in that wilderness, we offer tips and strategies for performing your own evaluations for any company.
Members also enjoy free benefits such as expert advice, contract reviews, dispute resolution, publishing guidebooks, and more, all designed to help you prosper in your career as an author.
How can we help you today?
What a clever analogy! Just brilliant. Many who are new to self-publishing have no inkling of the complexity of each professional service, and ALLi does so much educate us, at whatever depth we’ve plumbed the industry. Thank you!