AboutD. Patrick Miller Expertise I am an independent self-publisher who sold three projects to major New York houses before starting my own company. I provide editorial services to a major literary agency in Manhattan and work regularly with authors at all levels of expertise. I can answer questions like these: What does "independent publishing" mean? Should I publish myself or use a service like XLibris? What is "print on demand" publishing? How do I publish myself on the Web? What are the best resources for learning about publishing? How do I find a literary agent? What are my chances of getting published by a major New York firm?
Experience
Past/Present clients Professional literary resume available on request
Recently I came across the Authors University of John Harricharan. He asks ca. 400 dollar for am online course that makes it easy to write and publish a book and become highly successful. Of course it should all start with a talent for writing and a lot of perseverance, but suppose that is present, do you know if his course is worth its money? His emails and website sound too slick to be trustworthy, but maybe he is quite bona fide. I don know much about him. Do you?
www.AuthorsUniversity.com
Thanks for your help,
Joost
ANSWER: Dear Joost,
Harricharan is not a familiar name to me. Amazon lists two of his books, both dated to the mid-1990s, and neither one of them is selling significantly now. It's possible that he's offering a unique synthesis of writing and publishing advice that's worth the money, but most of this information is likely available for free and/or low cost through books, magazine subscriptions, etc. My advice would be to do some self-education at a lower cost first, and "follow your nose" in terms of your own curiosity before you spend a big chunk of money on a single source of information.
You can start, for instance, with my free online publishing guide at
www.fearlessbooks.com/PublishingGuide.html
which gives an overview of the major routes to getting published, and is linked to a Writer's Bookshelf offering a number of books on specialized subjects.
best wishes,
D. Patrick Miller
www.fearlessbooks.com
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hello Patrick,
Thanks for your fast answer. I hadn't thought of looking in Amazon.com. Yet Google gives some 90,000 links to sites where John Harrichanan is praised in all kinds of ways and some of those sites seem independent of himself. He's also praised by famous people like Kubler-Ross and Deepak Chopra. (Or do they all made an agreement to praise each other?) Nevertheless, you are right, there are cheaper sources of information. Are they just as good? I'll try them in any case. Iĺl look at your site as well.
Thanks,
Joost
www.gemstories.com
Answer Joost -- I think it's more sensible to get all the basic information about publishing that you can for free or at low cost. At a later time, you will know more about whether a $400 investment is worth it. One concern I would have is that there's very little specific information about what his training includes. You could well be paying for basic information that's freely available elsewhere.
