Deciding on a publisher is one of the most important decisions you will make in your author journey. I have certainly learned my lessons from making a poor choice. For everyone who has asked me (or will ask me) about my publishing experience, this article is for you.
I will preface my writing by sharing that if I went into detail about every small thing that went wrong with New Degree Press, this article would be even longer. These are the highlights (more accurately, lowlights) of my experience. I organized this reflection into seasons and focused on the main points of frustration from each part of my publishing journey.
Fall 2019 (October – December) – Joining the Creator Institute
In late August, a professor from Georgetown University named Eric Koester reached out to me with the opportunity to write a book. I’ve shared more detail about that experience in this blog post. I paid $199 to join the program, and it was a pivotal part of my author journey.
Eric gave weekly presentations based on his experience writing books and working with authors. He recorded the presentations and shared the slides, which made balancing my busy college schedule with his sessions easier. I was also assigned a developmental editor who motivated me with weekly check-ins and invested time in improving the quality, flow, and structure of my writing. Looking back, she was the best editor I had throughout my entire experience.
Writing with a group of authors motivated me. The experience took me out of my comfort zone, and I will always be grateful to Eric for giving me the platform and space to start and finish my first book.
Winter 2020 (January – March): Starting the Publishing Process with New Degree Press
Toward the end of the Creator Institute process, Eric shared an overview of the publishing options authors had:
1. Traditional publishing
2. Self-publishing
3. Hybrid publishing
It was clear from the discussions that hybrid publishing was presented in the brightest, most cost-effective light. At this point, I should have taken note of the fact that the majority of the authors in the Creator Institute were “green-lit” (aka approved) to publish with New Degree Press regardless of the topic or length of their writing. I also should have looked more closely at the staff’s level of experience. Many were recent grads or new to the publishing industry entirely. Ultimately, I should have trusted myself and my writing enough to more thoroughly explore each publishing option. Given the short time I had to decide, I prioritized convenience over quality.
Early Warning Signs
The first concerning point in my New Degree Press journey was my experience with my assigned acquisition editor. This process was the first time someone other than my developmental editor had taken a close look at my writing, and I was looking forward to updating my manuscript based on her feedback.
After a month of waiting, I received feedback based on a template used for all the authors. Given that it was a standard template, you can imagine that many of the comments left much to be desired. For example, one portion of the feedback was a chart (see screenshot) with a short phrase to describe what each point meant.
I thought I would have a series of thorough discussions about improving my writing before moving forward in the publishing process. Instead, I had one opportunity to ask follow-up questions, and I wasn’t allowed to ask the acquisition editor directly! I had to send my questions through my marketing editor.
When I realized one round of questions wouldn’t be enough to move forward and make changes (some of her feedback was unclear to me), I decided to be bold and reach out directly to my acquisition editor anyway.
Afterward, my marketing editor criticized me during a catch-up chat for sending more questions instead of merely accepting that the feedback was positive overall. Despite some feedback being as vague as “add more quotes," it was "surprising" that getting one round of edits wouldn’t be enough for me to make substantive changes to my manuscript.
“Pushing Past” the Pandemic
If you noticed the months that I included in this section, you know that in March 2020 life around the globe changed as the pandemic overtook everyone’s lives. At the time, I was stuck in the UK due to travel restrictions. I knew that stay-at-home orders and lockdowns were being discussed in the UK earlier than they were in the United States. I warned my publishing team about the seriousness of COVID-19, and I suggested changing the crowdfunding timeline for my book. (Screenshot below)
The response I received from their team was to “focus on the positive,” “be a source of good news,” and that “everything would be fine.” As a compromise, I asked to move my crowdfunding launch date from late March to early April. I wanted to give my community at least a week or two to adjust to life at home before bombarding them with sales-oriented posts and personal DMs. In response, the head of publishing told me the two-week change would delay my entire publishing timeline from a July publishing date to a December publishing date. Moving my publishing timeline by multiple months was not an option for me. I knew that after university, I would begin working full-time and have less free time to work on the book.
I was upset and concerned about asking my community for money during such an uncertain time, but I assumed the team’s reaction meant that New Degree Press ran a tight ship where missing deadlines would be nearly non-existent.
My assumption could not have been further from the truth.
Spring 2020 (April – June): Crowdfunding Campaign and Editing
From April to June, I balanced running my crowdfunding campaign with editing my manuscript and completing my final year of university. During this period, the lack of experience and organization of New Degree Press started to reveal itself more clearly.
On the lack of experience: this may have been unique to the team I was assigned, but I often found myself doing the heavy lifting for my promotion ideas and execution before, during, and after my book was published. For now, I’ll share a bit of detail about my experience before getting published.
The Lackluster Messaging
When it was time for me to promote my crowdfunding campaign, I received three primary resources:
1. Outreach message templates
2. A blank spreadsheet with column headers (New Degree Press told authors to fill their spreadsheets with the personal details of hundreds of friends, family members, colleagues, and teachers.)
3. Weekly publishing workshops (aka presentations with distracting filler slides and generic information)
I quickly discovered that the outreach templates I received were too verbose to receive replies. Instead of relying on the lackluster materials, I drafted messages on my own. Filling out the blank spreadsheet with the contact details of my close friends and family took hours of work as well, but it was the best I could do at the time to keep track of my outreach efforts. Since the campaign had already launched and I was busy with classes, I didn’t have time to think of alternatives.
New Degree Press pushed the idea of scheduling emails to go out to my audience to save time, but my community responded best to DMs and text messages, not scheduled emails that would get sent to their spam folders. So, I took matters into my own hands and focused on what actually worked. All in all, I sent out nearly 2,000 personal direct messages and text messages to generate support on top of my frequent posting across my social media channels.
Now, people are beginning to notice that New Degree Press encourages all of its authors to use the same cookie-cutter crowdfunding campaign script on Indiegogo. In each cycle, many authors have ended up far from reaching their goal.
While New Degree Press promoted crowdfunding campaigns that quickly exceeded their goals (to improve their public image), if you didn’t meet your goal after a 60-day campaign, you were asked to change the topic of your book to generate more public interest or pushed to a different author cohort. Some authors resorted to buying each other’s books to make up the difference in their campaigns. While the blank spreadsheet and the templates were provided, ultimately, everything is left to you alone.
As this detailed Writer’s Beware article explained, “…anyone who decides to sign up with NDP [New Degree Press] should be aware that to all intents and purposes they are self-publishing, that crowdfunding success is not assured, and that--as with any self-published book--the burden and expense of marketing will fall to them.”
I wish I’d read that before I published my book, but the article was posted in January 2021.
Creating A Waitlist
As a fellow New Degree Press author who spoke vocally about her experience with the publisher shared, “They [New Degree Press] have no financial stake in the success of your book.”
Your book doesn’t have to go through a thorough editing process because they don’t need to care if your book sells copies beyond the ones required for you to meet your goal and pay them to publish your book. All the money raised during the campaign goes directly to a New Degree Press bank account, so they get paid before completing any of the work they have committed to doing.
If I’d left things up to New Degree Press, anyone interested in my book after the crowdfunding campaign would have had no way to pre-order the book for months as I prepared to publish. The gap was even longer than expected after I had delays to my publishing timeline…but I’ll share more about that later.
To fill the time between the end of my crowdfunding campaign in May and my publishing date scheduled for July, I took the initiative to create a waitlist via Google Forms. The waitlist was critical for me to build up my email list and generate momentum in the weeks leading up to publishing my book.
Caption: A graphic I created on Canva.com to promote my waitlist.
An editor or professional listener?
I received my best marketing suggestions from friends and mentors, not my assigned editor. After a handful of conversations, I realized my marketing “editor” was more like my marketing listener. Rather than giving me suggestions based on his publishing or marketing experience, he would listen to my ideas and add comments (or make more blank spreadsheets with headings and little else).
Once, he even “introduced” me to the popular editing platform Canva.com as if it was a new idea months after I told him I used the platform for my clubs in college and had been using it to make all of the graphics for my promotional posts.
In the fall, I decided to change my communication approach by sending him my questions in advance. I hoped the extra time to prepare for our discussions would lead to better advice. However, when I asked for tips on potential Christmas promotion ideas (a question on the list I shared in advance), I could hear him typing in the background (Googling an answer?) before listing off generic suggestions like “host a giveaway” or “collaborate with other authors.” The "guidance" was disappointing. Without a formal marketing background, I was hoping for professional support.
When I did receive concrete suggestions, I later discovered that I was used as a guinea pig for future cohorts because I was enthusiastic and dedicated to the success of my book. For example, he suggested that I host live chapter readings each week for my early crowdfunding campaign contributors. (This wasn’t a new idea either as he’d poached it from another New Degree Press author.) Months later, when I viewed a crowdfunding campaign from an author in a different cohort, I discovered that my campaign was a trial run for other authors. Not only were they doing the same thing, but they were also charging their crowdfunding donors for access to the live readings as an added “perk.”
“Must-haves” for success or long-term goals?
In addition to providing lackluster support during the crowdfunding campaign, New Degree Press frequently shared suggestions about promotion and speaking opportunities that were communicated as “must-haves” for success but did not align with what their previous authors had achieved. For example, New Degree Press pushed my author cohort to give a TED talk about their book as a promotional tool either before or after publishing. New Degree Press talked about how they’d worked with authors who’d given TED talks in the past.
Out of hundreds of authors, only two had given TEDx (note the “x”) talks in their communities–one of which was on a topic different from the author’s book itself! Rather than being transparent about this, the staff used the unrelated accomplishment as “proof” that it was critical for success and framed the two authors as the standard rather than unique examples.
How did they “support” authors in accomplishing this goal? By merely copy-pasting the questions from the TEDx speaker application into a document on their writing platform and telling us to fill it out so that they could give feedback.
When I found myself staying up past 12 AM night after night sending outreach messages or editing my manuscript, my mother would often ask me, “What exactly is New Degree Press doing for you?” If I had paid closer attention to my growing doubts and her constant questioning, I would have saved myself months of additional stress.
The Deadline That Nearly Led To My Hospitalization
As I mentioned earlier, New Degree Press fell short on reflecting the level of experience they boasted and staying organized. On the organization side, New Degree Press shared every deadline in the documents and presentations authors received as set-in-stone and urgent. In reality, everything was flexible.
Throughout my editing process, June 5th, 2020 was mentioned in multiple presentations and conversations as the date that final manuscripts needed to be complete. New Degree Press told authors that after June 5th, we would not be able to make any major changes to the book again.
Despite that deadline being in the same week as my finals’ week in university, I spent nearly all of my free time trying to meet it and almost ended up in the hospital. By the time the week of the deadline I arrived, I was getting 1 – 2 hours of sleep (broken up throughout the day) trying to study for my finals and finish editing my book simultaneously.
On the evening of June 5th, my heart rate had increased to dangerous levels, and I was having trouble breathing. I was afraid that if I stayed up any longer, I would collapse. So, I turned in my book to the head of copy editing and made it clear that I still had some footnotes to add toward the end of my writing.
After sending my email, the head of copy editing told me that submitting it on the upcoming Monday would be “just fine.” (Screenshot below)
I was shocked. At no point before that email was the deadline communicated as being flexible. The same deadline that had kept me awake for weeks because I was worried that I would be stuck with a book that didn’t include all my intended changes ended up being a mere “suggestion.”
Copyediting: The Biggest Delay
This section is the hardest for me to write because it was, by far, the most frustrating part of my entire experience. I could likely write an article’s worth of complaints about my copy-editing process alone, but I will focus on a few blunders instead. I doubt that I have captured the depth of my frustration in a short section simply because reliving the emotions through my writing is still a challenge for me.
I will preface this by saying New Degree Press told all authors via an instructional video that the copy-editing process would take about one day per 10,000 words. Given that my book was around 80,000 words, I assumed the longest my book would take for copy-editing would be nine business days. My process took over a month.
I initially submitted my manuscript on June 5th (the deadline referenced earlier). By June 9th, I resubmitted the manuscript with completed footnotes since that was an issue in my first submission. I then resubmitted my book a third time on June 15th and a fourth time on June 19th before finally being assigned to a copyeditor on June 28th. My manuscript was returned on July 11th, and I resubmitted it after making light revisions on July 19th.
I specify light revision because I was told via email that I couldn’t add any content to my book after it was copy-edited. (Again, no major changes were allowed.) I could check for grammar and address comments from my copy editor. However, authors were discouraged from pushing back on grammar edits—or even using popular online tools like Grammarly—because of the “professional standards” the editors followed to do their work and the fact that the editors caught mistakes Grammarly didn’t notice (or so we were told).
New Degree Press told authors to expect 95% of the errors in our manuscript to be corrected and the other 5% to be attributed to human error. Months later, when I ended up editing my entire book again from start to finish, those are the words that would frustrate me the most. I later found out that my editor was a recent graduate with no industry experience.
I would have been better off asking my school friends to review my manuscript, but instead, I blindly followed the process and trusted the “professionals” who ultimately did not do their jobs thoroughly. I will share more about that experience in the Winter 2021 section.
My submission timeline for copy editing was delayed because the head of copy editing continuously sent my manuscript back to me with no clear feedback on how to improve my footnote formatting (which seemed to be the root of the issue).
After my third submission, I clarified that I would need more guidance than to “add more commas” and check a citation guide that I had already referenced multiple times. I reviewed over 600 footnotes each time she gave vague guidance.
Her response to my request for more specific feedback, so I could do more than guess what she was asking me to do was, “I just spot check.” (See screenshot.)
Caption: This is the response I received after clarifying that I would need more specific feedback, given that I had to individually check 600+ footnotes for every revision.
I certainly didn’t have the luxury of “spot-checking” a 400+ page book with 600+ footnotes every time she emailed me. Each revision took multiple days of effort to complete and, as June was coming to a close, I was worried that I would not be able to publish on time.
I brought up the issue of timing with New Degree Press staff and insisted on receiving professional support rather than continuing to spend my time re-submitting my manuscript with no clear guidance. When I clarified I was willing to pay extra for peace of mind knowing that a professional would be reviewing and correcting my footnotes, I received pushback that added stress (and delays) to an already drawn-out process.
As the discussions about paying for additional editing progressed, the head of copy editing used the number of footnotes in my manuscript, which I was well aware of given that I had written them all myself, as an excuse not to do her job on time and assign me a copyeditor.
I brought up the inconvenience of the delay and her condescending communication style throughout some of her messages with my marketing “editor,” and he dodged responsibility by claiming that she wasn’t technically a member of New Degree Press staff.
Eventually, the conversation made its way to the head of publishing. He told me I would need to pay an additional $300 to have an editor highlight where there were mistakes in my footnotes, not fix them. He then framed the entire process of New Degree Press assigning a copyeditor to review my work as a favor they offered to me through their strong relationships in the publishing industry and not as a service that I had already paid for through my crowdfunding campaign.
I refused to pay $300 for someone to merely highlight my work—leaving me to spend hours making the actual changes—after I’d already raised $6,000 through the generosity of my support network to cover my publishing costs. Eventually, I received a message from a more experienced New Degree Press staff member clarifying that I would be able to pay $300 to have the edits made as well.
The head of copy editing’s useless feedback single-handedly derailed my publishing timeline by almost an entire month.
When I shared that observation with her, she decided to change how the days between June 9th (my second, complete submission) and July 11th were counted to suit her narrative that the process was completed early.
She managed to squeeze over a month-long process into less than 12 days in her version of time. I tried to be calm in my response, but you can’t have a productive conversation with someone who ignores how many days are between two dates on a calendar.
In one of my final conversations with the head of publishing in March 2021, he told me that my book is now a “case study” for the copy-editing process at New Degree Press. Hopefully, they use it as a tool to have more open discussions about how delayed their timelines are at every stage of their publishing process but, especially, during copy-editing.
Summer 2020 (July – Sept): Editing and Designing
By the end of the summer, nearly ending up in the hospital over a deadline was a mild inconvenience compared to the uphill battle I had to climb to publish.
Back cover quotes
As I mentioned in the spring 2020 section, New Degree Press frequently shared suggestions that were communicated as “must-haves” for success but did not align with what their previous authors had achieved. The disconnect between their expectations for what full-time students and professionals could pursue without substantive support and the reality led to experiences like the one I had trying to source back cover quotes for my book.
New Degree Press strongly encouraged authors to write back cover quotes for each other’s books—books that we hadn’t read and books that, in many cases, were still being edited. I regret writing back cover quotes for books I didn’t read and allowing New Degree Press authors to write quotes for my work. It was dishonest and misleading. I overcompensated for my discomfort by spending a lot of time and energy sourcing quotes from relevant industry leaders for my writing.
New Degree Press emphasized that authors couldn't miss the deadline as it was the same date that our back covers would get finalized. Once again—I still hadn't learned my lesson—I found myself stressed trying to meet a deadline. I had one incredible quote lined up, and the individual needed more time. I was worried the quote wouldn’t make it on the cover.
Despite the prior communication, when the deadline came up, it was flexible. My book cover design process got delayed (surprise, surprise); so, the deadline for the quotes got delayed as well.
Things got even more frustrating when I found out that most of the other authors in my cohort used back quotes from each other and didn’t do any external outreach. To make matters even worse, after all of my efforts to get four high-profile quotes on my back cover, I ended up getting pushed to cut quotes due to space constraints on the back cover. I pushed back multiple times to get at least three of the four quotes I’d spent time and effort trying to source included in the design.
Despite this, I still received a message from New Degree Press staff about my experience. They were considering using it as a “story” about the outreach experience for future authors. After my negative cover design experience (more on that below) and the fact that I couldn’t even use all of my quotes, the request was ill-timed and inappropriate.
Creating my book cover
Throughout the publishing process, authors were continuously told that one of the “most exciting” parts of publishing would be creating our book covers.
New Degree Press instructed authors to spend time on this task to ensure we were happy with our covers, so I dutifully followed the instructions and filled out their design preparation documents.
I spent nearly 12 hours drafting potential designs and narrowed my drafts down to my top selections for discussion. During my introductory call with my cover designer and the head of publishing, I shared these designs and expected us to have enough material for a fruitful discussion. Instead, I watched as my designs—and detailed commentary—were deleted from my preparation document. The head of publishing had identified a “minimalist cover design” trend in the book market that year and wanted to go in that direction instead.
When my original designs got deleted in favor of three more minimalist designs (screenshot below), I followed the new direction. I also shared the drafts with my campaign supporters for early feedback.
Caption: The minimalist designs I was presented with at the start of my book cover design process.
I valued my audience’s feedback greatly. So, I shared a paragraph-long summary of my audience's feedback and mine with my designer. After sending my feedback and additional side commentary in a separate chat, the second round of design I received was the same book cover I’d already seen with a different background color.
Caption: The original cover (left) and the “revised” design on the right.
I was livid. By this stage, too many things were going wrong for me to be patient. I only saw effort made in my design process after complaining to my marketing “editor” about my frustration. I was disappointed that the only way I could seem to get my point across with the New Degree Press staff was through stern language and transparency about my disappointment, but being passive in the past only made things worse.
Even after openly sharing my frustration about the cover design process, I still faced hurdles. For example, when I asked to see an iteration of the back cover with four quotes because I’d worked hard to source them and wanted them all to show, my designer refused. I had to make a rough draft cover myself and ask him to recreate it with his design tools for him to comply. I wish I could say that was the first and last time I needed to draft covers myself, but I ended up needing to make iterations of front and back covers with the specific fonts, sizes, word emphasis, and formatting multiple times to get my points across.
Caption: When my cover designer refused to create a back cover with four quotes, I had to take matters into my own hands and make it myself.
Beyond frustrations with the design process itself, I also dealt with inconsistent directions from staff. For example, my marketing “editor” told me that my author biography would need to fit on the back cover of my book. I spent days concerned about fitting my biography, quotes, AND a book description on the back cover. Then, randomly—after assisting with the shortening process himself—he said it was only a “requirement” for fiction books, and he’d gotten them mixed up. The whole process led to my author biography and book description getting shortened unnecessarily.
Book formatting: Out with the old…right?
The inconsistent instructions continued into the book formatting process.
As I mentioned earlier in my writing, New Degree Press left much to be desired when organizing their materials. They posted documents on their writing platform and had many folders, but rarely provided the critical bird’s eye view needed to keep track of the information over time. This led to mistakes like old documents still being easily accessible and causing unnecessary confusion. For example, as part of my book formatting process, I had to “tag” my entire manuscript from start to finish with symbols that indicated headings, subheadings, bullet points, quotes, chapter titles, and more. For my readers familiar with HTML code, I was essentially adding HTML tags to my manuscript to “guide” the formatting process.
If it sounds like I was doing the majority of the work for formatting, that’s because I was. My layout editor’s job was to check my work.
Because the documents authors had access to weren’t adequately organized, I ended up finding an older version of the instructional document to tag my manuscript. I had to spend additional hours tagging my manuscript again to follow the new standards.
Caption: I asked my marketing “editor” for more clarity on what my layout editor was doing, and this was the response I received. I didn’t have any images in my book, so only 2/3 of these items were relevant.
I submitted a formatted word document for copyediting. My headings, subheadings, and chapter titles were all clear, yet I still needed to tag my manuscript.
It would have been easier for me to approve my book’s formatting based on my document as it was. Instead, my layout editor got paid to “check” work that they could have likely done faster than me.
Further, when I reached out to my layout editor before the process started, he specifically told me that copyediting and manuscript tagging were two separate stages. I heard after the fact that they weren’t separate, and I needed to tag my manuscript earlier than expected. Even with screenshots to prove what I was told, my confusion and frustration were ignored by New Degree Press Staff.
It was becoming increasingly clear that my team was not as well-connected as they presented.
Summer 2020 (July – Sept): Part 2 – Publishing
My frustration with the editing process might have been worth the sleepless nights if I published on time, but I didn’t. In fact, despite the reminders the authors in my cohort received regarding promoting the book, scheduling speaking events, and more, I ended up publishing two weeks late. I would have published even later if I hadn’t frequently checked in with my publishing team.
From the beginning of my writing process in fall 2019, every group chat, document, presentation, blank spreadsheet, folder, and file was labeled with “July 2020." This reinforced the idea that no matter what happened—and what delays occurred throughout the process—if you were in my cohort, you would publish in July.
As the end of July got closer, it was clear that a July date was not a realistic timeline for me to finish my publishing journey. It would have been nice for the New Degree Press staff to be transparent about the delays. Instead, I had multiple conversations via phone and instant messaging that never led to a clear answer about how delayed my publishing date would be.
I spent weeks leading up to my expected publishing date coordinating events so there would be a clear build-up to my launch date and events afterward to keep up the momentum. All of those plans were rendered useless when July 31st rolled around, and my book formatting wasn’t finished. It felt like collaborating on a group project in school where you do 100% of your part with 100% of your effort but still fail because the rest of the group doesn’t show up on the day of your presentation.
At the beginning of August, I reached out to my marketing “editor” expressing my frustration with the delays and inconveniences I had experienced so far. I also shared how disappointed I was about the publishing date delay and the lack of advance communication. With advanced notice, I could have adjusted my marketing schedule. I received a dismissive response (screenshot below) seeming to justify my delay by blaming the fact that nearly all of the authors were delayed as well.
If 90% of authors in my cohort of over 100 authors didn’t publish on time, then the delay could have been communicated much earlier than late July. Beyond that, if some authors publish months after their timelines, changing the publishing timeline for every cohort would paint a more accurate picture for authors who plan events and social media posts around those timelines.
Acknowledging the inconvenience rather than dismissing it would have gone a long way, especially after I saw multiple social media posts from authors who had managed to publish on time. No one on New Degree Press’s staff seemed to take issue with ignoring the timeline they set for authors and themselves. Missing deadlines and being delayed were supposed to be accepted as normal. If you complained, you were dampening the “positive spirit.”
The core of my frustration with the delay was the inconsistency between New Degree Press telling authors to create marketing opportunities for ourselves while simultaneously moving our publishing dates with no formal notice. Audience building and inconsistent timelines do not work well together.
The setback led me to pause my outreach efforts in mid-August for a short period as I didn’t feel I could trust any of the timelines that New Degree Press shared with me. I was participating in promotional events I planned in July and early August but losing potential sales. There was no book to purchase and no release date (or release week). It was a demoralizing experience.
After sharing my expected publication month with my audience for nearly a year leading up to my publication date, I wasn’t comfortable skirting around the truth with my audience in the same way New Degree Press did with me. As soon as I realized that an early August publication date wasn’t in the cards for my book either, I posted an update across my social media channels.
Caption: When the end of July 2020 arrived, and I still didn’t have a finished book to share with my audience, I had to post an announcement across my social media channels apologizing for the delay.
After checking in constantly and asking for timeline updates, I published my book in mid-August. The formal “publishing process” was just watching long recordings of the head of publishing telling authors what buttons to click to self-publish on Amazon KDP and Kobo.
As a “bonus," New Degree Press filled out the details of authors’ books on IngramSpark for global distribution. However, when I looked at the details for my book, the categories were inaccurate based on my book’s content, the table of contents was missing, and their staff incorrectly tried to list my publishing date as being in July instead of August. (After the stress I went through due to their delays, I wasn’t going to let them get away with rewriting history to suit themselves.) Rather than ask them to make the changes and disappoint me further, I corrected the setup work they did to make sure my book was in the appropriate categories on IngramSpark and reflected the accurate publication date.
Pricing Mistakes…despite weeks of discussion and research?
After publicly announcing that my book was available and published, a New Degree Press staff member sent me a message explaining that the price of my book was too low. This comment came after multiple conversations with my marketing “editor” about my pricing strategy. When I asked for an explanation as to why I was only hearing about the issue after I’d already published the book, I was told that New Degree Press didn’t know the final page count of my book until very late in the process (likely due to the delays that they caused…).
This excuse was especially frustrating because I informed my marketing “editor” that my book would be over New Degree Press’s 50,000-word limit in May.
Everyone on my publishing team had access to my documents throughout my writing process, knew my book was longer than most, and had access to the same formatted PDF I had access to at the same time I had access to it. My layout editor shared the formatted PDF with me in a group chat that included the entire team.
The New Degree Press staff member told me to change the price of my book from $15.99 to $19.99 to cover printing costs. In my marketing “editor’s” words, price changes like these were simply “not a big deal” even though raising the price of my book to $19.99 would make it 4 dollars more expensive than a bestselling book on the same topic written by two Nobel prize-winning authors.
With hundreds of authors published, I found it hard to believe that New Degree Press did not have an estimate of things like printing costs for books at various lengths as soon as their layout editors determined the page count.
Though I was disappointed with how the situation was handled, I went to the IngramSpark royalty calculator myself to determine the lowest price I could maintain while avoiding receiving negative royalties to sell my books in more expensive regions globally. I settled on changing the paperback price from $15.99 (as a “promotion”) to $16.99 after its first 30-days of sales. The price increase corresponded with the change in price from $0.99 to $4.99 for the e-book and seemed more intentional that way.
Summer 2020 (July – Sept): Part 3 – Mailing Copies and Promoting the Book
After publishing, I discovered that when New Degree Press said they would cover the costs for printing and mailing the initial copies of my books through my crowdfunding money, it didn’t mean they would sort out printing the initial copies and send them to me. It meant I would be ordering my books via Amazon and getting reimbursed. This whole process isn’t clearly explained until after you publish (ahem, self-publish) and announce that your book is available.
After my publishing date was delayed by two weeks, I had to order copies of my book via Amazon. New Degree Press reimbursed the cost of the author copies out of my crowdfunding money. Then, I had to wait three weeks for Amazon to print and ship those pre-ordered books and make my audience wait even longer as I signed every copy and wrote handwritten thank you notes (as I promised during my campaign.) Beyond the delay from Amazon, New Degree Press was only providing reimbursements for media mail shipping (a slower version of shipping that can take up to 9 days.) As a recent graduate, I didn’t have the extra funds to pay for faster shipping out of pocket.
The community who ordered my book first received their paperback copies in late September. Meanwhile, people who didn't order in advance got cheaper copies of the book much faster.
I was too embarrassed to tell my campaign contributors what was happening.
Seeing people who hadn’t pre-ordered my book receive their copies from Amazon in 2-3 days while my first supporters—the community who made publishing possible—had to wait until the books were shipped, signed, and more was upsetting. I felt guilty with each passing day. When I asked my marketing “editor” about the wait time for my earliest supporters, there was no clear response. He dismissed it as another item that was “not a big deal."
New Degree Press makes many assumptions about how your early supporters will feel about things like that. I value my close network, and I didn’t want to take advantage of their kindness, but I was in between a rock and a hard place. I didn’t want to openly complain about my experience (yet) and risk receiving even worse quality service, but I also didn’t want my audience to feel slighted.
As I waited for the books to arrive, my mom and I made homemade bookmarks to include with the books and the handwritten thank you cards. It was the least I could do to say thank you for their support and patience.
By the time I was able to hold my book in my hands after months of effort, frustration, and setbacks, I couldn’t honestly say that I was happy. I couldn’t help but think of all of the setbacks and disappointments that clouded the moment.
The negative outweighed the positive by the end of my experience.
For the sake of my social media announcement, I had to re-record my “first” response to seeing the book in person with a smile instead of a sigh.
Promotion After Publishing
Promoting my book after it was published required more heavy lifting on my end, as the big, bold statements New Degree Press made at the beginning of the process received a reality check.
“We’ll help you get reviews for your book,” devolved into “Buy other New Degree Press books and leave reviews” or “Venmo your friends $1 to buy your book.”
“We’ll help you plan a huge book tour,” devolved into “Host 2 – 3 events in your hometown.” (And, of course, a “handy” blank spreadsheet with column headers to “guide” the outreach process we were expected to handle alone.)
“We’ll help you get your books into bookstores,” devolved into a few PowerPoint slides that could be summarized into one sentence: “Tell bookstores your book is available through IngramSpark.”
I am ashamed to say that I asked fellow authors to leave reviews for my book on Amazon in exchange for (equally vague) reviews on theirs. I was uncomfortable doing it, but I assumed it was “the way things are” in publishing and acted against my better judgment. After a handful of reviews, I stopped. I drew the line at paying people to buy my book. If someone didn’t think my book was worth 99 cents (the promotional price for the e-book after my launch), then they didn’t want to read it. I wasn’t going to force anyone to feign interest by giving them the money to buy it.
While I’d felt alone in my experience up to this point, I knew I would thoroughly be operating blind after I reached out to my marketing “editor” for advice on language to use for a bookstore shelf-talker. He sent back sample language that made it crystal clear he had not thoroughly read my book or even finished it. One of his suggestions was so offensively misaligned with the core ideas of my book that I crossed it out on the document he shared with me.
Knowing that the person assigned to help me sell my book didn’t even seem to know (or care) about the core message I was trying to communicate reminded me yet again that I would need to work hard to share my writing with the world. I certainly wouldn’t have any “publishing experts” to guide my efforts.
As I mentioned earlier, New Degree Press sent out slides after weekly publishing workshops. Whether or not the materials were relevant or effective at getting successful results, New Degree Press focused on giving a large quantity of information.
I took detailed notes of each presentation. I tried my best to follow all of the advice, tips, and suggestions made, I checked the group chats regularly, and I was STILL confused at times. Ultimately, I asked my marketing “editor” to help me track all of the documents and templates in one place. He provided the general structure (ahem, blank spreadsheet with column headers), and I went through all the documents and templates to link the relevant information.
Along with the information avalanche, New Degree Press pushed authors to go on a book tour to support their books and continued to frame the pandemic as a mere blip in the road for pulling off such a feat. New Degree Press shared links to apply for speaking events at in-person events happening later in the year as if even the Olympics hadn’t been canceled.
Despite the outdated advice given the circumstances, I received a helpful suggestion from one of my university mentors—separate from New Degree Press entirely—to plan a series of IG Live speaking events rather than aiming for in-person speaking events at a later point in the year.
Again, armed with only a blank spreadsheet with column headers, I booked every speaking event I participated in before and after publishing with no help from New Degree Press. The process took weeks and weeks of receiving rejections and radio silence. Thankfully, I was able to book a handful of speaking opportunities between July 2020 and January 2021.
Caption: Here’s a screenshot of how my outreach efforts went…a lot of rejection and radio silence! I knew trying to promote a book in the middle of a global pandemic would be challenging, so I kept going.
As a caveat to this, though New Degree Press strongly encouraged us to book speaking events and coordinate a book tour, they didn’t do their part to have the actual book ready in time for those promotional events. In June, when I initially started my event outreach, I was promoting a book that didn’t have a finalized cover and wasn’t fully edited or formatted yet. It was challenging to get people excited to support a book that technically didn’t exist. New Degree Press never acknowledged that their delays would make following their advice harder to do.
During one particularly embarrassing conversation I had in mid-July, an event host asked me for the book cover so she could make a promotional image. I had to tell her that the cover wasn’t finalized—despite my scheduled July 31st publishing date being less than two weeks away—and she would have to use my mockup cover instead.
All I could share to convince people to let me—an unknown recent graduate— speak to their audiences was a PDF copy of my book introduction.
The stress leading up to publishing discouraged my outreach efforts. I later decided to transition from participating in speaking events to writing blog posts. I wanted to give myself a break from months of non-stop outreach and rejection.
When I restarted my outreach efforts, my marketing “editor” encouraged me to try getting featured on podcasts. He suggested it would be a good way to expand my audience beyond my close friends and family. Eventually, he sent me a list of suggestions. Finally, months later, something more than a blank spreadsheet with column headers! Unfortunately, I didn’t receive responses from the podcasts he suggested and stopped reaching out.
Months later, I discovered that podcasts were top of mind for him because New Degree Press had come up with a new program to help students start podcasts and other audio-related ventures. I declined the email offer asking me to participate (for obvious reasons).
Fall 2020 (Oct-Dec): Feedback and the Audiobook
By early October, I felt distanced enough from my prior experiences to speak objectively. I knew I would need to continue my work with New Degree Press for my audiobook, and I couldn’t bear the thought of having to deal with poor quality service for months…again.
Complaining is much easier than taking action. So, before I started my audiobook process, I reached out to the head of publishing directly and shared my experience. I hoped that it might spark some meaningful change. I walked him through five pages worth of notes detailing the disappointments and delays that had defined my publishing experience and made suggestions for ways to improve. I specifically focused on poor communication and lack of organization.
I would idealistically like to believe that future authors who work with New Degree Press will benefit from my honest opinion about my experience, though I couldn’t benefit. I’ve since heard there is now a more organized document (similar to the one I developed) to help organize the marketing materials. There is also a new position to manage communication across the various members of each author’s publishing team to make sure messaging is consistent among staff. Beyond those two changes, I am not sure if anything else I brought up has improved.
Regardless, I was moving onto the next stage of publishing: my audiobook. The process started weeks later than the original timeline (September quickly became late October). By that point, I was used to delays and relatively unfazed by “next week” turning into “next month” in what I dubbed “New Degree Press time.”
From the beginning of the process, there were problems. The audiobook recording guide had typos throughout the PDF (which was an unfortunate reminder of my copy-editing experience) and despite sending sample files the same day that I had my introductory call with my audiobook editor, I wasn’t able to get them approved for weeks due to “unidentifiable background noise.” So, I recorded again, and a third time, and a fourth time in a different country. Then, I organized a call with the audiobook editor and her tech support team to figure out what was going on.
As you might have guessed, this process delayed my audiobook timeline. I was in the middle of an international move, so I decided it would be best to push the timeline entirely. Publishing an audiobook in December looked unrealistic, given that I was still trying to fix technical errors with my sample recordings in November.
Winter 2021 (Jan – March): The Final Straw(s)
As I read my book for the audio recording, I was furious to discover there were errors in every chapter (hundreds of mistakes). After the manuscript had gone through multiple editors and I paid extra money to receive a more thorough revision process, the errors were still there.
I thought back to the editing process when I was told I couldn’t make major changes and resented listening to the “rules.” I ran through a “should have” list in my mind: I should have refused to publish until I could fix the mistakes. I should have insisted that my copy editor reviewed the book again. I should have checked more closely, even after their comments about the professional standards. I should have questioned why copy-editing took over a month, but proofreading took one weekend. I should have…
In mid-January, I reached out about my concerns and offered to re-edit my entire book myself to make changes. While recording my audiobook, I found errors like misspelled words, sentence structure that was updated and no longer made sense, and even a misspelled name in my acknowledgment section! My copyeditor decided to change the spelling without asking me or flagging the edit with a comment. For context, I didn’t check the spelling of the names in the acknowledgment section because I assumed they wouldn't be touched.
New Degree Press confirmed that I could make the edits, and my layout editor would adjust my book files.
I typically work between 10-12 hours a day, so the bulk of my editing was happening late at night or on weekends. I was already spending all my free time after work and on the weekend editing the book as closely as possible.
When my initial estimate for re-editing the book was off by two weeks—something I assumed New Degree Press would be used to considering their constant delays—I shared that I would need additional time. In response, my marketing “editor” told me to submit my edits “before the weekend” since I was working beyond my initial timeline. The day before I got that message I’d stayed up until 3 am editing.
Editing my book again took a long-time because I did a detailed review of a physical copy. I re-read the 416 pages, marked the mistakes with a highlighter, then transfer my highlighted mistakes to a PDF file of the book. I highlighted each error in the PDF and included an example of how the corrected version should look. I wanted to avoid miscommunication.
Caption: An example of the highlighted mistakes in a physical copy of the book.
Getting a message that I needed to “hurry up” completing something that I’d already paid someone else to do but had to redo because of the errors leftover by their staff was incredibly insulting.
I was at my breaking point. I’d paid extra money for peace of mind during the editing process only to have to go back and edit the book myself AND get rushed to finish as well! Given the lack of accountability and poor communication I’d received up to that point, I didn’t expect much better. I decided to finish my editing that day rather than deal with more of their antics and blame-shifting.
By that point, my audiobook still needed to be completed. I received my feedback weeks late (no surprise there), but New Degree Press informed me it was because my editor was in Texas, and the severe thunderstorms at the time were slowing things down.
Eventually, I heard back from my Texas-based editor, who informed me that I would need to re-record nearly half of my chapters due to “explicit noises.” I listened to some of my recordings again and heard nothing in the background. Neither did my Texas-based editor. However, her tech support, who used $3,000 headphones (as she specifically noted in a message), could hear the noises.
If I still lived in a college dorm, that might have been a feasible guess, but I didn’t. I live with my grandmother…who has been a widow for years.
The reality of my living situation versus the far-fetched nature of the assumption was so ridiculous that I decided to reach out to the head of publishing again. I didn’t want incorrect assumptions about my book to lead to editing mistakes as they did with the paperback and e-book versions of my book.
At that stage, my worst-case scenario looked like spending additional months on the audiobook process only to be disappointed with the final result again and need to re-edit my audiobook. In my mind, I thought, I’ve already spent five months on this process, and I’m disappointed. Why waste more of my time?
Ultimately, I took a weekend to mull over the pros and cons of staying and decided to stop working with New Degree Press. However, I didn’t cancel my call with their head of publishing… another mistake.
Within minutes of our conversation starting, New Degree Press’s poor communication was on full display. His conversation “strategy” seemed to be explaining the same excuses at a progressively slower pace in an arrogant tone under the guise of trying to have a “cordial” discussion. Even after spending an hour explaining my negative experience months prior and seeing no noticeable difference in the quality of service I received, I was getting more denial than answers.
When I called attention to the length of time it took to re-edit my manuscript, the head of publishing’s excuses ranged from “Gandalf was spelled wrong multiple times in an edition of Lord of the Rings” to “you received positive reviews, so why are you upset?”
When I explained that receiving positive reviews didn’t excuse the poor-quality work, I was offered “marketing” and “promotion”...to further promote a book…that still hadn’t been corrected. It was a laughable suggestion, and I’m unsure why he assumed I wanted to be associated with their company at all, given my negative experience.
The most frustrating part of our conversation was the lack of accountability that I witnessed. As I wrote earlier, New Degree Press publishing workshops explained authors could expect 95% of total errors to be corrected. When I brought that up, the numbers began to shift.
The head of publishing told me that the problem wasn’t their editors. It was me. He said, and I quote, “Your version of 95% is 97%,” and I should focus on excellence rather than perfection. He argued that I misunderstood the video and the percentage since the total errors benchmark is a broader standard than the number of words or pages in a book.
Let’s ignore the fact that the 95% standard they set for themselves is based on a total number that can shift to suit any narrative New Degree Press decides to share. (How could they possibly know the total number of errors in my book, or any book they “edit,” if they left errors uncorrected in each chapter?) Instead, I would like to focus on the lack of accountability and the shifting of blame from the company to the client.
Rather than acknowledging that the company hadn’t followed through on its principle, I was told that the only problem was my “high standards.” If New Degree Press’s version of “excellence” is anything similar to the quality of service I received, I don’t think it will be possible for the company to improve any time soon.
When I make a mistake, I quickly own up to it. I’m not afraid to say, “I was wrong” or “I could have done better.” When New Degree Press made mistakes, a clear theme throughout my experience was receiving a response along the lines of: “No, we didn’t make a mistake. You are the problem. There’s only a mistake because you noticed it.”
Ultimately, I cut what was scheduled to be an hour-long conversation short. We spoke for 17 minutes.
There was no point in talking to someone who:
1. heard me but didn’t listen, and
2. was more focused on proving himself right than he was on trying to improve in areas where his company is consistently falling short.
Whether my “version” of 95% aligned with New Degree Press or not, I still had to spend nearly a month editing my book again because of the poor-quality work. I wasn’t looking for perfection. (Excellence would have been nice, but I’d long since given up on that option. Mediocrity seemed like a distant possibility.) I was looking for a sign that the company I was working with took pride in their work and the books they published, not just as numbers, but as quality products. Instead, I found more blatant denial and toxic positivity in the form of ill-timed Lord of the Rings references. I had officially reached my limit.
I sent a formal message to my publishing team informing the group that I would no longer be working with New Degree Press and requested a refund for the audiobook process.
The Audiobook Refund
On the bright side, New Degree Press did complete one thing on time: giving me a refund for my audiobook. On the not-so Brightside, it was $1300, which is $200 short of the price breakdown for audiobook production in their publishing overview packet. (See the screenshot for reference to the packet I received when I initially joined the program. The packet breaks down the audiobook costs. There should have been $1500 left after allocating $200 for fees and $300 for printing/mailing 50 books.)
Caption: This is a screenshot from the packet I received when I initially joined the program. The packet breaks down the audiobook cost in the final paragraph.
The $200 difference wasn’t worth having another conversation with New Degree Press that would have likely ended with something along the lines of, “It’s not our fault that you remembered what was in the publishing overview packet. Our version of $1500 is $1300. Your version is higher than that.” To avoid the additional stress, I gave them the benefit of a doubt and assumed the additional fees were due to the fact that the audiobook editors had listened to my files at least once.
At that stage, I considered the situation handled.
The head of publishing sent me a lengthy message that I ignored. (The long messages and conversations weren’t leading to efforts to make improvements.) I breathed a huge sigh of relief and waited to receive my revised book files.
In mid-March, I sent out my monthly newsletter with a note that I’d cut ties with my publisher and uploaded the updated version of my book to Amazon, Kobo, and IngramSpark for future distribution.
Finally! No more excuses, delays, or disappointments!
Lessons Learned
Well, if you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading! One piece of advice I often hear from my mentors is that the best thing to do after making a mistake is to make sure you learn from it.
After a year, I can say I have learned my lessons from making the mistake of publishing with New Degree Press.
Lesson 1: If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
I chose convenience over quality in my publisher and regretted it every step of the way. What I saved in publishing expenses, I spent in nights doing work I paid to have done for me, stressing over New Degree Press and their mistakes, rushing to meet soft deadlines, and running a multi-platform marketing campaign alone.
Paying someone to tell you what to do for a year is not worth the money, time, effort, or stress. I should have explored my publishing options and made a choice that was the best fit for my writing and goals. I shouldn’t have just gone with New Degree Press because they quickly accepted my work, and I was too afraid to see if I could find a reputable publishing house to work with me.
They targeted young, idealistic college students who would be too busy to notice their flaws to boost their publishing numbers. Now, they are starting to target older, more established professionals and hoping no one asks too many questions about their services.
Lesson 2: Know your worth.
Now, I am well-versed in the entire publishing process from start to finish since I essentially self-published my book but put a company’s name down as the publisher. (New Degree Press has recently rebranded their services as “assisted self-publishing” to be more accurate.)
The experience proved that I likely could have handled self-publishing from the beginning. In hindsight, I should have believed in myself enough to self-publish or pitch to traditional publishing companies given the length and depth of my writing. (Did I mention that my book is over double the length of the average New Degree Press author?)
The experience has pushed me to work on building my self-confidence and be bolder with my opinions. I regret not believing in myself enough to aim for a higher quality publisher, and now I know the importance of being self-confident in my work.
Lesson 3: Being too lenient will lead to more disappointments, not improvements.
My passive, accepting attitude in the initial months of my process made things worse. Nothing changed, and I received rude messages from people who weren’t doing their jobs well because I didn’t stand up for myself. When I tried to be more forward and share my complaints, I received excuses, denial, and messages suggesting I was “too negative.”
At times, their communication style was demeaning and rude. I have yet to speak to a New Degree Press author who disagrees with the sentiment that their staff consistently comes across as condescending. As a new author, there were few things more frustrating than paying for services, only to be treated as though I was overreacting for asking that the services be completed properly and on time.
This experience taught me the importance of accountability. When you make a mistake, admit it! Apologize and accept that things did not go as you expected. Don’t point fingers. If you are a business owner, definitely don’t blame the client you’ve inconvenienced for your mistakes.
Lesson 4: You need to be your biggest fan.
Regardless of who you publish with, you need to dedicate time and energy to promoting your work. No one will be as invested in the success of your book as you. New Degree Press is contractually obligated to publish your book. Don’t expect promotion but know that they will gladly take credit for any awards your book receives as a way to distract from their faults in the future.
When I shared my disappointments with my experience, their staff referenced book awards other authors received as if the awards excused their overall poor service and quality.
Caption: Just a month ago, I received a message from a New Degree Press staff member asking me about the scholarship fund I organized. They are completely unaffiliated with the scholarship and did not contribute to my efforts to come up with the idea, promote it, or continue it after publishing. These are the kinds of accolades they use to add legitimacy to their company, despite their lack of contribution.
On the promotional side, despite my experience, I am proud of myself for creating and posting content regularly for the past year, hosting and participating in author events and interviews, and continuing my outreach for future opportunities. I wasn’t sure I would have the time or energy to continue the work, but my passion for my book’s topic, alleviating extreme poverty, prevailed in the end.
Thankfully, my community of support has encouraged me to keep going.
Lesson 5: Don’t assume anything.
To avoid disappointment, double-check that the work you’ve paid for is up to your standards, not anyone else’s (potentially arbitrary) metrics. This author, who was also disappointed by her experience with her New Degree Press editors, hired outside help. I should have done the same.
At first, I thought the experience I was having could be blamed on the shifts happening in nearly every business due to the pandemic. Given that there weren’t systems in place to address the kinds of problems I was having (e.g., no organizational systems in place, inconsistencies in instructions between staff members, the sheer number of delays from beginning to end, etc.) I knew that the pandemic was exacerbating issues New Degree Press hadn’t addressed in past author cohorts.
Don’t assume that people who call themselves “experienced professionals” have the experience or professionalism to back up their claims.
Next Steps
After a year of disappointments, delays, and excuses, I look back at my experience and chalk it up to a major mistake. I was one of the hundreds of authors churned through a publishing process with a company more focused on quantity than quality. I should have been more careful.
I am just grateful that I have a community who was willing to pre-order, like, comment, and share my posts (even to this day) and send me encouraging messages of support despite my publishing in the middle of a pandemic!
I recognize that I was naive, too trusting of strangers, and negligent about checking New Degree Press’s work and background. I blamed my busyness at the time, but it’s my book. I should have been more careful.
For people who are curious about alternatives: I encourage you to look into your resources and options for self-publishing or traditional publishing. There are countless blog posts, articles, YouTube videos, and books about both. If, after reading this, you’d like to know what to do next, I’d recommend:
Finding a community of like-minded authors (or aspiring authors) so you know what opportunities to pursue and to ignore.
(This is an area where the Creator Institute was helpful. After cutting ties with New Degree Press and deleting their writing platform from my phone and computer, I have joined Facebook groups instead.)
Reaching out to authors who have self-published or traditionally published and asking them about their experiences.
Weighing the pros and cons of both. Decide your best publishing option based on your end goals for the book.
After everything that happened, will I still publish an audiobook? Will I publish anything again?
I’m giving myself a break from anything related to publishing companies for a while. My trust in the publishing ecosystem has shattered, and it will take time to rebuild it. It is hard for me to avoid thinking that every publishing house is like this behind closed doors. Writing this article and going back to the writing platform to take screenshots was an emotionally taxing experience.
Right now, I’m going to focus on teaching people the importance of alleviating poverty in their communities and beyond. I’ve learned my lessons. All I can do now is hope that, in sharing my story, I can stop someone from making the same mistakes I did.
Onward and Upward!
