THE MISSING IMPRINT

I took both my books (HOT STATUS and MAD MINUTE) down earlier this evening—and put them both back up at the same moment. I expect their listings will be gone for six or seven hours.

The annoying thing is, I may have to do it all over again tomorrow.

What's up?

I happened to read a blog by writer Lindsay Buroker about whether it's a good idea to list a personal imprint name when you Kindle your indie book.

I used one—on a whim. Just a small and very personal joke, really, decipherable by no living person.

On the Kindle publishing page, Amazon says filling in the Publisher box is optional. If you are the author of the book, they suggest putting your own name there. Or the name of your publishing company. They make no comment concerning "fake" publishing companies.

If you leave the box empty, when the book is published there is no listing for "Publisher" in the Product Details. Just the listing for "Sold by" (Amazon Digital Services, Inc). I presume if you fill in the box with your name it will say just that—Publisher: Your Name.

I was surprised by the comments of Buroker's readers. Many were vehemently opposed to putting a made-up publisher's name in that box.

They saw it as a fraud, a trick designed by evil and shameless writers to pull the book bag over the heads of potential buyers.

Apparently there are many readers out there who refuse to contaminate their eyes with the text of indie books. These sensitive folk check to see if a publisher is named in the description of the book in question. If there is none, they hightail it away, muttering "unclean, unclean!"

News to me...

The theory is this: Any publisher's name sanctifies the text, even a whimsical one you have to presume belongs to some whimsical—but nevertheless legitimate—small press. If a writer provides a bogus name, he or she is clearly perpetrating a fraud on the reading public.

Everyone knows publishers put out lousy books from time to time, but purists know any book not anointed by a real publisher's name is FAR more likely to be dross.

Using a fake publisher falsely suggests the book has been vetted by professionals, has survived the slush pile, has benefited from paid editors and proofreaders.

Folks, the stigma of self publication is alive and well.

Some readers of the Buroker's blog defended the imprint route, saying they intend to publish other writers beside themselves (eventually). And they remind folks they have just as much right to publish books as anyone else.

Let the market separate the wheat from the chaff, right?

Anyway, I decided to end my personal pattern of deceit by removing the fake publisher's name from my listing—and taking it off my title page image (which meant revising and re-sending the mobi file.)

The reason I might have to do it all over again is that I forgot to remove the information from the "Dublin core" section of the opf files. I have to wait until the books go live again to see if my "publisher" still lays claim to my books. [Update: There is no mention of the "publisher" in the Product Details section of the display page. Is it lurking in some secret spot? Time will tell...]

Whether or not I will ever create a "real" publishing imprint is up in the air. Now we're talking about starting an actual business. Government officials become involved. Money will have to change hands.

I hate all that...