Self Publishing School | Reddit

8 min read

What does Redditors say about Self Publishing School?

My novel has won 2 awards, but is still languishing in the Amazon basement. I want to take the next step and either 1. hire a marketing specialist or 2. learn how to market myself.

What do you all think about Chandler Bolt's Self-Publishing School? Is it worth it?

Chandler Bolt is an Internet Marketer. He is an expert in making money from gullible people online using marketing tricks, but he is no publishing expert.

Follow real publishers as others have mentioned here... the likes of Mark Dawson, Chris Fox, Joanna Penn etc. All of them will tell you that you need to be publishing more books, not worrying about how to market your existing book.

Publish more books. Increase your catalogue, and along the way, you'll learn how to sell more books.

He is an expert in making money from gullible people online using marketing tricks, but he is no publishing expert.

This. There are a group of "authors" who got into self publishing to market a product. They don't really care about the books, it's all about making the most money the easiest way. When it's no longer profitable, they either sell courses or just move on to the next big thing.

I looked at the testimonials from authors on the website (because I've never heard of Chandler Bolt before), and cross-referenced them on Amazon, and I'm not impressed. You could immerse yourself in the wiki on this subreddit and get the same to better results.

Learning marketing is intensive studying and slightly dull!

Years ago, I took a very expensive (to me) series of classes on Facebook advertising from Mark Dawson and truthfully I felt silly about it, but it proved to be invaluable with all aspects of marketing.

At the time, he was very hands-on metaphorically, answering questions in his Facebook group etc.

I just looked again at CB's website and the course is $6,000?? That's ridiculous unless he's going to buy 100's of your book on publishing day to artificially shoot you up the ranks, which is black hat, unethical, dumb, and did you really win?

Check out Mark Dawson, or commit to the endless slog of learning effective marketing because it can be done on your own.

I haven't used the Chandler Bolt myself paid courses myself but their free email newsletter is pretty useful. I also find the TCK Publishing and the Author Media newsletters useful.

Before subscribing to any course make sure the teacher has a track record of selling in your same category fiction versus non fiction standalone versus series.

But I would recommend supplementing any course with the free resources from Kindlepreneur. They are great at explaining the nitty gritty technical details like how to choose keywords. And they offer a FREE AMS ads course that is exceptional.

( If you feel like making an investment their KDP Rocket software is amazing). An

Be aware, there is a large section of the self publishing community who contends that you can never market a single book to success.

____________________________________________________________________

Anyone ever work with SPS (Self Publishing School)? Can’t decide if it’s a good 1 stop shop or a way to scam $6k out of hopeful writers.

Never heard of it. But I can't imagine paying six grand worth of bells and whistles for something I learned how to do for free and with relatively costless trial and error. New self publishers would not make back that fee for a very very long time, if ever.

There's a lot of stuff out there that at least sounds like what SPS is (from what I could read about it) and a lot of it is shady and unnecessary. There's no shortage of cash traps for over eager new writers sadly.

That’s the way I was leaning. I’m so brand new that SPS sounded like a great idea. Saw a couple things online that pointed to it being a scam. And it’s a lot of money, knocked down from $8k. Appreciate the help.

Scam. They even have a bigger package for 20k.

I had heard that there would be more fees as you go along as well. Thanks.

I've never heard of that. I don't know what exactly they are offering, but all the information you need to learn about self-publishing is already available for free. So it's hard to imagine what they could offer that would possibly be worth 6 grand.

It’s absolutely a scam. You can pay for high end overpriced cover art and editing at that rate. Visit the Reedsy website for a ton of good and free articles on the topic. They’re still trying to sell things there too. But at least you’ll become more well educated without an up front investment.

There’s a good book on publishing called ‘The Influential Author’ by Gregory V Diehl.

Alternatively, for $5,000 to $10,000 you can hire a competent writer to ghostwrite a 50,000 word book for you. Or you can hire a scam writer for less and edit/rewrite it yourself (but what’s the point of that unless your time has no value - just write it yourself or hire someone competent).

Overall most of the rates advertised on Reedsy are twice or more what you should be paying in most cases - but at least you’re getting something. Unlike the publishing school.

Also, don’t pay anyone to publish your book. It’s free. And don’t give away rights to your book. Keep them and get your own ISBN, unless a good sized publisher offers you and advance and you decide to accept.

I found this post while doing my research on SPS because I've got so many messages out of their students requesting illustration for children books they meant to publish and apparently they learn that a 24/plus page picture book cost is $500 (is not) with a full copyright transfer contract (the messages I receive are a basic copy/paste with this same budget). The fact that this school is teaching its students to devalue other professions/important parts of a book project is sad to say the least and proof that it really isn't worth the investment, which could be better used for making the books.

____________________________________________________________________

Self-publishing school and Chandler Bolt is a SCAM. $5,990 down the toilet.

Self publishing school is a crock of BS. I paid $5,990 for their premium package and I have tried to get a refund but SPS refuses. I filed complaints with the BBB and Consumer Affairs and they couldn't help me. SPS replies with enough lies that BBB and CA accept. I am interested in finding a lawyer and would like to know if you found someone?

My VIP package came with 16 "coaching calls" that amounted to being told to watch a bunch of Youtube videos and pressure to finish my book because one of the big things they don't tell you during the high-pressure call is that you only have one year to use the coaching, finish your book, and have access to the FB "support" group.

I still have 9 of the coaching calls remaining because it, unfortunately, took me 7 of them to realize what a crock of shit this company is. They teach you to manipulate the Amazon algorithms to become a "best seller" for a minute in some obscure combination of genres. The "best sellers" that I've seen come from this group are written as good as an 8-year-old could do. Plus you get bombarded with tons of marketing for their other BS products.

I've never fallen for such a scam in my entire life and cannot believe they refuse a refund. The coach even told me he doesn't care if I get a refund because he's already been paid.

Chandler Bolt is a bull-shit artist who cons people by playing on their dreams. He should be ashamed of himself and shut down.

Keep your money and find a real coach if you need one. SPS is a scam.

"I am so sorry this happened to you. Please know that there's more we can do. I'm got coffeezilla to make a video on them. You can email him and see if he'll share your story too.

I'm also trying to get press, and I found a way that they broke federal consumer law, so I'm going to be filing a case in a small claims court against them. The battle is not over!

Message me! We should definitely talk!"

"At this point you are better off taking it as an expensive lesson. Watch Coffeezilla on youtube and Mike Winnet (they expose these fake guru's and scam artists). A number of people that have been had by these hucksters have done interviews on coffeezillas channel. If you can't recoup your losses at least you can try and help others not make the same mistake you did.

Mike Winnet a couple years ago exposed the "amazon best seller" scam. Where he demonstrated writing a book with literally no text and manipulating the system to get it on the amazon best seller list.

Just make sure it doesn't happen again."

"hey

I used SPS for my book and it did not do as advertised. I am trying to get my money back but they are avoiding me. Can you help. Thanks"

"Join the crowd! By the time I found out it was an upscale scam to nowhere I was past the supposed two week refund window."

_______________________________________________________________________

Chandler Bolt and his company Self publishing school is an absolute SCAM

"Avoid at all costs. Chandler Bolt and his self publishing school steal your money and refuse to refund. Or I should say, they 'agree' to refund you then keep making excuses why it's delayed. Avoid at all costs. Also know he owns several companies -

selfpublishing.com
self-publishing school
The Write Life
The Book Designer
Make a Living Writing"

"The thing is, he got me. He purchased what used to be a reputable writing site and I didn't realize until I made a purchase. Only after, on the receipt I saw it and looked it up. Very annoying. That's why I made the post. hopefully people won't get caught by him using the names of the other companies."

"Well damn. Thank you for the advice and sacrifice. Hopefully u get the money back somehow."

"So many scams out there, also just people out there who will publish your book for you for $xx (which is legit, but just a completel WASTE of money).

I started a youtube channel about a year ago on self publishing and am sharing all the tips I've learned along the way.

My main tip. Don't buy courses (you can get info for free on youtube) and don't pay people money for things you can do/learn yourself to a good level (ie. self publishing / formating / metketing to a certain level). There are things like covers etc definitely worth paying for if you're not a graphic designer."

"It should be pretty obvious it's a scam for those who have a discerning and perceptive mind! xD He has an ugly and untrustworthy face and just look at what their selling. $7000 to $20000 dollars just to learn about Self-Publishing? In my research on Self-Publishing, everyone makes it out to be far more complicated than it actually is. You only should be paying for essential expert skills in the creation of a book that you don't have such as editing and cover design. Everything else such as formatting, marketing and the actual publishing you can do yourself. The most important thing is being in control and ownership of your work, think like a creator and owner.."

Alpha Book Publisher

Self Publishing School | Reddit

What does Redditors say about Self Publishing School?

Anyone ever work with SPS (Self Publishing School)? Can’t decide if it’s a good 1 stop shop or a way to scam $6k out of hopeful writers.

Self-publishing school and Chandler Bolt is a SCAM. $5,990 down the toilet.

Chandler Bolt and his company Self publishing school is an absolute SCAM

Related Articles

Related Posts

Comments