arlengrossman

Thank you for that advice. It sounds right.

Thank you, Vicki. I appreciate the encouragement!

Your advice sounds good and sensible, Melanielm. I suppose I was looking for someone to save me the trouble of doing my own research and work. I will do as you suggest and see if I have some success. Thank you for reaching out!

I just noticed your response, maitasun. Thank you for your kind words and encouragement, and for doing the extra effort to find the book. It all helps.

I am new to this and don't understand how it works. I wrote a children's book that I want to be professionally published. I found someone who was able to design and do illustrations for me. It cost me about $500. But I thought I would get help marketing it. I was told I needed email lists to make that work. I was referred to someone who does that but I would have to pay anywhere from $400 to $800 for that email list (up to 5000 emails, I believe). Does that sound right? Is this the normal way these things work? Should I pay that much for an email list? And are there more services that I need to get promotion for the book? I would appreciate any help in recommending what I should be doing.

I wrote a silly children's book (middle grade) some years ago and self-published it. It is on Amazon. I have had no success in getting it sold. I identify the main problems as being: 1) a mediocre cover. 2) no illustrations and 3) no effort to market it, because I don't know how. So I decided to get in touch with someone on Fiverr to make it good enough that people would actually want to buy it. I found someone who seems to be able to do almost anything, i.e. illustrating, writing, covers, promoting, marketing, etc This is what I was offered: "We will be doing the following 1. Awareness $150 discount $50 2. Optin page i will offer you this free 3. Landing page $300 giving you $100 discount 4. Amazon redirection section free 5. About the author section free 6. Autoresponder $250 discount $50 7. Automation set up $50 Total = $650." We negotiated and she agreed to $500. I made the assumption that would cover everything and that I would have a presentable book, good enough to interest readers to buy.. I agreed with this arrangement and sent the money. The other day I was told more needed to be done. I was told: "that's good so to be able to publish the book now I will publish your Book on Amazon according to 1. Ranked Title & Subtitle I will do this for free 2. Attractive Description $50 3. HTML Description I will do this for free 4. Top Selling, Ranked and High demanding Keywords &50 5. Keywords from 6+ paid Tools $50 6. Best Selling Category $60 7. Pre-Order of Book (Optional) 8. Ebook+Paperback+Hardcover $150 9. Book Cover Designs $70 10. Pricing Technique I will do this for free Total = $430 But I will give you $100 discount"|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ I asked why I needed to pay more than we agreed upon. This was the response:: I want to help publish your book again then we work on the newly published one which has the best publishing qualities....So the price is for the publishing.......The $500 is for promoYes it has been published so we will have to pause the published book to make the changes then we will republish it againtion and illustration of the book.....Yes it has been published so we will have to pause the published book to make the changes then we will republish it again....Also the reason why it has to be done that way is for the book to meet up to the modern and current publishing format......Many changes has been made on Amazon from 2019 till date so we also have to make all the necessary changes too for your book." Fiverr is new to me. My question is whether I am being treated fairly, I thought I had already paid only to find I needed to pay more.. Does all of this sound right or am I being taken advantage of? Perhaps even scammed? Those with more experience and knowledge, please let me know your reaction. Should I pay more? What should I do?