The Criminal Abuse of Indies Writers

It's time to face the facts.  Indies writers are a target for attacks online.  Somewhere along the line a pack of trolls have decided that it is their duty and privilege to attack indies and try their best to stalk, bully, harass, defame, discredit, marginalize, insult, and slander indies into quitting sites and even writing altogether. This is an organized campaign to destroy the careers, reputations and livelihood of indie writers and it has to be stopped.

These self proclaimed literati, although rank amateurs incapable of writing a review that is not a personal attack, have in their megalomaniacal delusions envisioned themselves to be authorities, experts and experienced reviewers. But the sad truth is they are none of those things, just opinionated sociopaths who have found a rock to hide under, book reviews.  In their little niche, sheltered and pampered by both goodreads and Amazon who seem to think they are a core group of reviewers.  They may well have been that at one point but have degenerated into the loathsome creatures they are now, leaving 1-star no read reviews or previews reviews all of which have little to do with critiquing literature but everything to do with the mentally unstable losing control and doing nothing but personal attacks disguised as reviews.

It would appear that goodreads is fully corrupted/compromised by the trolls, who there are so bold as to suggest that authors are dangerous and it presents a real threat to the trolls' personal safety if they are allowed any voice with which to defend themselves and therefore should be banned from having blogs there.  And it would seem that goodreads staff is playing along with them.
here's a link to the goodreads suggestion box were they try to justify this.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1358339-removal-of-all-author-blogs#comment_form

I see goodreads as a having become a hate group, with the full co-operation of the goodreads staff.  This is nothing less than conspiracy to violate the first amendment by singling out a group to persecute, harass and deny a voice in their own defense.  In short, goodreads has to go.

To harbor a pack of disgusting, offensive members is one thing, but to conspire with them to violate the first amendment constitutional rights of a target group, writers no less, is crime.  

The Big Six, I feel, are in cahoots with this whole campaign against indies.  They blame self-publishing for their downfall when in reality writers just got tired of being ripped of by both traditional publishing and vanity presses.  Just like dinosaurs smoking three packs a day, they still don't get the message.  They have become as ghosts, sad phantasms haunting a world in which they were once a part. Just as with the dinosaurs it's evolve or die.  Some learned to fly, others how to be fossils.

Time to create a venue where objective, unbiased, dependable book reviews are available for free.  This will entail the used of the double blind with neither writer or reviewer knowing who the other is and a ISO type procedure that is followed in insure unbiased reviews of uniform quality and thoroughness.   Each review will have the results of a multiple choice form that reviewers fill out and  of course the reviewer's own words as in traditional reviews.
Funding will be by advertisement, donations, a bookstore and services offered through the site.  This is the next big thing in indie publishing, writing and reviews.  We will set the gold standard for reviews. 

This too is a method by which reviewers could be compensated for their work without compromising the objectivity and impartiality of the review, thereby. at last, making reviewing a paid profession as is every other professional job on the planet.

Contact me at  rickcarufel.writer@gmail.com if you are interested in being a part of this.  The corporation is set up, the domains are purchased, the website is being built, and staff and reviewers being reviewed.

Amazon Declares: Reviewers don't need to read a book to review it!

Here's the latest Amazon Absurdity.  They declare that a reviewer who states they have not read the book and posts a review for the book they didn't read, does not violate the reviews guidelines.  here's the review in question:

I call it a troll attack by virtue of the fact the reviewer presumes to review a book he's never read and ridicules me for comments to other trolls. He is clearly unhappy that the Daily News posted my review of King's book "Guns".  And proceeds to critique my review of Guns rather than my book.  

In other words he specifically came to my book page on Amazon to attack my review of King's book.

  

How could that possibly fall within  the guidelines of a book review?  

But upon inspecting the guideline I discovered there is no mention that a reviewer has to have read the book they review.  It does say to write a review you have to have purchased an item from Amazon, but it doesn't say you have to have bought what you review.

Given that, how can any review on Amazon be taken seriously?

Original Message
Publisher Code: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Customer Name: RICK CARUFEL
Subject: Malicious 1-star reviews.

I wrote an essay, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B6QBCXQ, and because of the controversial title it has been a magnet for troll attacks. It seems that every Stephen King lover and gun-grabber feel compelled to leave a 1-star review and a personal attack regardless of whether they read the essay or not. Some outright state they haven't yet those reviews, in violation of the Amazon TOS, are still there. 

 Why has Amazon refused to remove theses vicious attacks?
Not only do I have 9 books for sale on Amazon and publish many ebooks and PODs for others but I also buy nearly everything from amazon as a customer.
As a vendor, publisher and good customer of Amazon I expect better treatment.

Hello Rick,

My name is Deleon and I'm from the Amazon Communities department which deals with reviews according to posted guidelines which we consider when upholding a review.

Thanks for bringing these reviews to our attention. We'll read each of the reviews and remove any that violate our guidelines. Any reviews we find outside our guidelines will be removed within 48 hours.

Due to the sheer volume of posts that we receive daily, we aren't always able to catch everything right away. We rely on our Community to help notify us of any inappropriate or abusive comments by using the "report abuse" feature. This will help us know where to focus our efforts.

If you'd like it for reference, here is a link to our participation guidelines:

http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelines/

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us with your thoughts. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Best regards,
Deleon A

Hi Deleon,

Thanks for the reply, I would also like the reviews that in any way try to demean me with insults and name calling also removed. A book review discusses the book reviewed and nothing else. It is not a soap box from which to rant or to use as a vote for or against an issue. Any review that does not discuss the literary merits of the work is a personal attack or an opinion on the issues discussed in the book but not a review of the book. Any review that does not directly discuss the essay, was not from a paying customer, is posted by a troll hiding behind an alias or does not directly reference the contents of the book should be pulled. I'll thank you, but no, I do not want any reviews from people who won't use their names, that's far too sleezey and juvenile.

I am fully aware of the ambiguous guidelines. If Amazon wasn't the only giant books seller many people would leave here because you consistently refused to address your troll problems. In fact Amazon has given over their forums to the trolls and defend them there. I have writers groups on Facebook that have membership of over 20k and every writer I know has had problems with troll reviews and avoid your forums like the plague.

The problem I am having with what is know across the internet, by writers everywhere, as "The Amazon Troll Problem" is not isolated but wide spread. A serious problem exists, caused by your trolls attacking self-published or indie published writers, with insults, name calling, lies, no purchases, and vindictive 1-star reviews. They also get friends to vote for reviews to make sure the very worst stay at the top. This is deliberate actions to cause monetary damages. This is criminal.

Sooner or later all this is gonna hurt Amazon as it is hurting authors now. You cannot condone personal and financial attacks on sellers before legal action is taken against you for monetary damages. I do not write and sell books so the Amazon trolls can trash me and my work online. I am convinced these attacks cost sales. Amazon is allowing it to happen. I see this becoming nothing but a bigger and bigger problem until Amazon grows a pair and purges the trolls.

I have page after page of cases documented where Amazon has pulled tons of 5-star reviews that did not in any way violate the guidelines. Again this is caused by trolls intentionally causing monetary damages by reporting reviews as bogus. Amazon of course takes their word for it and pulls the reviews without looking into the legitimacy of the review. I also have report after report of Amazon absolutely refusing to pull 1-star troll attacks even when shown they are in violation of the guidelines.

Take for instance Michaelangelo who left me a 1-star review. He has done 3 reviews total, one is a direct violation of the guidelines because he states he has not read what he presumes to review. I another of his reviews, a 5-star, he admits he's known the author for years. So here we have 2/3 of this guys reviews in violation. How many time do trolls get away with violating the guidelines before the privilege of doing reviews is rescinded?

These are members of the Amazon community who deliberately give 1-star reviews for material they have not read in many cases, with the explicit goal of demeaning the writer and intentionally trying to discourage sales. This has to stop.

Certain factions of disgruntled writers are looking into the legal implications of Amazon allowing troll to attack booksellers and their products with the goal of destroying their reputation and sales.

Another issue I want to discuss is book returns. I have had close to 50 copies of the book in question returned.

This is Amazon's Legal Notice:

Rick Carufel does not accept returns for ebooks!

I consider returns as theft of my product. Especially when it is only an 100 page essay. Amazon has used the excuse of "purchased in error" in the past, but with nearly 50 returns it is clear to me what is happening is people are buying my 100 page essay, reading it and returning it thereby stealing my intellectual property. I want royalties for all the books returned.

Thanks

Rick Carufel

Richter Indy Publishing

Hello Rick,

We have investigated the one star review on your title, and found them to comply with our posted guidelines.
I understand that you feel very strongly about this issue. One of our goals as an online retailer; however, is to offer our customers the ability to express a wide variety of viewpoints in our Community features. Given the fact that many of the reviews for this title relate to a controversial subject matter, it is unfortunate but inevitable that some of our customers may find a few of these viewpoints objectionable.

While we do strive to build a sense of community, it is important to note that customer reviews are submitted by customers like yourself, and are not employees of Amazon.com. The opinions expressed by customers, both on and off our website, do not reflect the opinions of Amazon.com.

We value all feedback from our customers, and I thank you again for taking the time to send us your comments about this issue. Although we won't be able to comment further on this topic, we hope you'll allow us to continue to serve you.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Best regards,
Carlin

Hi Carlin,

Are you people insane?

1. How can a review where the reviewer clearly states he has not read the book possibly be within the guidelines for reviews?
2. How can it be a legitimate review?
3. How can someone write a valid review for a book they haven't read?
4. Do you people even read the crap you tell people?
5. Do you even read the complaints or just pick a canned reply to send?

Your response is an insult. You insult me by presuming that I am so stupid as to accept your lies or canned non-answers. You are not even familiar with the issue.

There is not one 1-star review on my book, there are 35!! Many that admit to having not read it. Nearly every one is rude and insulting, personal attacks.

Of course the reviews where the reviewer admit they never read the book are in violation of the guidelines.

How dare you so blatantly lie to your sellers and customers of which I am both?

As a marketplace it is Amazon's duty to stand behind its vendors and not allow deliberate attacks on them. In this area Amazon is a pathetic failure. Shielding your trolls instead of your vendors is certainly going to come back to haunt you.

Please answer these 5 questions.

Thanks,

Rick Caurfel

Richter Indy Publishing

Hello Rick,

I'm sorry for the trouble you've had in this regard.

For your reference, refunds are primarily given due to content quality issues

and accidental purchases.

You can view our Kindle content return policy at the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200144510#content

I've checked if there were any quality or formatting-based complaints logged for

your Kindle titles by our customer service team, but I didn't find any. I

suppose we can take it that the title was accidentally purchased by your

customers, and later refunded. Please note, in case we do receive any complaints

regarding your titles, you will be notified about it within three to five

business days.

We strive to provide the best customer experience, and offer refunds when

customers report quality issues or an accidental purchase.

However, please be assured that we have procedures in place to track customers

who request for refunds and identify fraudulent refund requests, and take

appropriate action when necessary. We’re unable to provide you with details

regarding these procedures, and appreciate your understanding with our policy.

Thanks for using Amazon KDP.

Hi Manasa,

"I suppose we can take it that the title was accidentally purchased by your

customers, and later refunded."

50 times for the same book in less than 4 months? Get real, this reply is nothing more than a BS excuse to do nothing while one of your vendors is being stolen from and you refuse to stop it. Not only that but this is the same response, word for word, to my complaint when 10 books had been returned.

Rick Carufel

Boston: This is only a test part 2

I just found out that the gun confiscations have begun.

During the illegal lockdown of Boston and the illegal searches of hundreds of homes it has come to light that all firearms found in the searches were taken and the owners were told they would be able to get them back.

The vast majority of those guns will not be returned and they will be found to be illegally owned. This is because to reclaim your own gun you have to have a certificate of original (first) ownership and the exact info of the manufacturer of the gun, the model number and the serial number.

This makes all those guns that gun owners have that are considered collectable and were thought that they would somehow be classified differently or grandfathered in have just become illegally owned guns.

This is a very bad turn of events because now the gun owner has to have the provenance of a firearm to legally own it.  This is a huge encroachment on the 2nd amendment.  This is a very bad glimpse of things to come.

The most astonishing thing was how easily the home of the original American freedom fighters just rolled over and lets themselves be herded like sheep.  It is also symbolic that the first test in the oppression of the people and the destruction of the Constitution should take place where our freedoms and liberties were fought for and won.

Boston: This is only a test.

Once again our Constitution has been trampled in the name of security.  I am completely appalled by the audacity of the authorities to order a lockdown of the entire Boston area.  By who's authority did they do that?  How fucking dare they tell me to stay in my house because they are looking for a 19 yr old kid.  How fucking dare they search over 200 homes without warrants.  How fucking dare they shut down all public transportation.

This is a huge tragedy for many families and I feel deeply for them, but we cannot be manipulated by circumstance no matter how tragic.  There is no justification to basically place a million people under house arrest and search house to house without probable cause or warrants.

This bodes ill for the future and sends the clear message to the American people:  If we want to suspend your constitutional rights without the authority to do so, we will and whenever we wish.

They have also sent a message to potential terrorists:  You can paralyze a major US city for days with just an exploding pressure cooker.  500 pressure cookers could topple the economy with the insane "No Expenses Spared" attitude of authorities.

I wonder if grandma will get on the persons of interest of some alphabet agency when she goes to Wallmart and gets one for her canning?

Who are the terrorists here? 

Two idiots who explode 2 weak bombs or the thousands of armed to the teeth police of one kind or another laying siege to a major city, imposing a 24/7 curfew, searching house to house dressed as a military commandos,  and locking down any movement in or out of the area.  It is my understanding that only the president or senate in times of national emergency can order Martial Law and suspend constitutional rights.  This did not happen.  

So who greatly overstepped their authority and gave orders only the president could have issued in so short a time?  This person has violated the civil and constitutional rights of millions. 

Is that justifiable?   Is it OK to throw the rules we live by out the window at the first sign of a suspicious pressure cooker?  I for one say no.  As I write this the MSM sock-puppets are touting the lockdown as something remarkable and great. Pathetic.

What is the greater threat?  

Is it a shot-up kid trying to hide or the unauthorized lockdown of a major US city with thousands of armed quasi-military personnel running around just itching to shoot something up?  

How many armored humvees in desert camo does it take to look for a bleeding 19 year old?  

How many overweight doughnut eaters on special overtime pay do you need to bus in to assault a 20 ft. boat on a trailer?

How did hundreds of emergency response vehicles with lights flashing and motors running for hours and hours help?

The discrepancies.

Now we come once again to the only source of info being the authorities.  Why did the FBI see fit to photoshop every image of the brothers they released to the press?  Why did pieces of debris in an early newscast change when a man walked between it and the camera for a second?  

With a running gun battle, bomb tossing, high speed chase happens.  Yet all we have to go on is reports by the authorities.  

Not a single Bostonian, hearing explosions and gunfire, had the presence of mind to look out the window and video it with their cell phone.  Not a single video from the dozens of police cars involved in the incident.  Don't all police cars have video?  No photo of the shot up car? Not a single picture of an empty shell in the street?

What's the story of the gunshots on Friday?  Did the kid decide to suddenly lunge up from his hideout and fire a few rounds for sport?

What about reports of a bomb team drill happening at the same time?  What was going on there?

FBI Entrapment Policy

In the last few years there have been three incidents where the FBI actively tried to enlist terrorists and through either ideological hype or cash convinced certain persons to go along with their plan to bomb US targets.  They even went so far as to provide a dummy bomb in one case.  After enlisting people and planning terrorism bombings the FBI turned around and arrested these people and put them in prison. Then they played it off as though a terrorist plot had been thwarted.  So one must ask are these brothers also FBI terrorist recruits that went rogue on them or if they actually did exactly as the FBI instructed and this was all a test on the effectiveness of a tiny bomb in motivating the entire population of a major city to allow themselves to be incarcerated in their homes indefinitely while hundreds were searched.  It is frightening how the Boston area was so easily manipulated and how readily unconstitutional measures were implemented.

MSM and Corporate Agenda

Main stream media is being used as a propaganda weapon against the American people.  They are pushing the agenda of the security/surveillance industry, an industry based on violating our constitutional rights to privacy.  Unfortunately the words of Ike have come true and our government has been usurped by Trans-national Corporatism the greatest threat to America today.  All across the nation next week hundreds of city, county and state governments will be ordering more video surveillance cameras.  With the poison letters figured in they may even put cameras on every mailbox too.  Billions in sales stand to be made.  This to me would be motive to hire a couple of russian refugees to plant a few small bombs.

There has also been a disturbing trend the last few months of the police presuming to be able to control the news agencies in reporting on these cases.  The Conn. police even threatened the press with criminal charges for exercising their first amendment rights. 

YOU BETTER WAKE UP

Boston Strong is a joke: at the first sign of a tiny bomb going off a million mindless, spineless Bostonians let their constitutional right get taken away by people without the authority to do so.  You can't get much weaker than that, Boston Strong, indeed.

The bottom line is this: because a crime or crimes has been committed is not justification for the authorities to suspend all civil and constitutional rights under any circumstances.  That too is a crime.

Freedom Isn't Free

We as Americans are fortunate to have written into our Constitution a guarantee against disarmament. But it comes with a cost. In order to prevent the usurpation of our freedoms by totalitarian corporations and/or governments we must be prepared to accept the occasional tragic losses from madmen.

Gun ownership should never be questioned or challenged. We must look to the root of the problem that causes such violence. Every year doctors kill nearly 200,000 people in this country, many of them small children and infants. Do you hear people crying bloody murder over this? I don't. Why not be outraged by the 200k needless deaths caused by incompetence? Because this in not reported ad nausium by the MSM to whip the people into a frenzy of outrage. So why is this problem that causes nearly 20 times the deaths every year not harped on constantly as every shooting death is? Because there is a concerted attack on our 2nd amendment right to disarm us.

We as a people are armed by design of the founding fathers to prevent tyranny and insure that we have the ability to remove any government that we deem unfit to rule. But having this insurance is at the cost of occasional mass killings by madmen.

The call to ban assault rifles is not a call to ban them at all. It is a call to get them from the people but the police will be allowed to keep them. The call to ban 10 round or more clip is not a call to ban them at all, the police will still have them. Most handguns, with the exception of revolvers take a clip that hold 10 rounds. So the real threat here is the outlawing of most handguns that citizens keep for personal protection.

The real issues here are a broken mental health care system that has been defunded to the point where it is not longer functional and the use of SSRI drugs that cause these madmen to go off on killing sprees because they have adverse side effects like suicidal and homicidal mood swings.

The constant bombardment by MSM of TV programming that teaches our children that good guys kill people all the time in the name of justice or reality shows when idiots are constantly in conflict and the answer to every problem is screaming, arguing, and fighting. I don't own a gun and never have but I cherish my constitutional rights to do so and we have had our rights eroded far enough. It is time to draw the line in the sand. If we lose this battle for our rights all other rights will be removed in a very short time.

Adolf Hitler once said the way to conquer a people is to disarm them. Those who scream for gun controls are in full support of Adolf Hitler's preferred method of conquest.

WTF is wrong with America?

WTF is wrong with America?  I sit and ask myself this as I am flabbergasted by the lies and absurdity.
It's bad enough that horrible tragedy happened at Sandy Hook.  But when it becomes clear that the Connecticut State Police have been threatening the press to suppress the truth  about the incident and the coroner deliberately lied in his comments about .233 ammunition it is completely unacceptable.
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, NBC news announced that the Newtown shootings were not done with an assault rifle, that gun never was taken into the school.  All the killings were done with four handguns.  So all the spin and all the outrage about assault rifles was created by disinformation, otherwise known as lies, perpetrated by the Connecticut State Police and Coroner's Office.
Here's a link to that story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30sjtuXcvOE
This is an outrage that should result in the perpetrators losing their jobs and being charged with obstruction of justice.
I was ridiculed on Huffington Post for pointing our blaring discrepancies in the "official" story but all my critics are silent now.

Next we come to the circus know as Washington. Why on earth can't Congress pass legislation to avert the fiscal cliff that they themselves created? The will of the people who elected these worthless sock-puppets is well known. Extend the tax cuts to the middle class, don't touch Social Security, renew the farm bill, tax the wealthy and extend unemployment benefits.. Every single one of those people know exactly what the will of the people is but they refuse to enact legislation that reflects that will.
This to me is a complete outrage and insult to the American people. These people need to be removed from office and charged with the obstruction of government. This cannot go on. We need to petition the whitehouse to stop payment and benefits to these traitors.
In the real world if you refuse to do your job, you get fired. If you refuse to follow the instructions of your employer you get fired. This should also hold true for elected officials. We cannot survive as a nation if our elected representatives are taking orders from special interests and foreign powers. This entire situation is beyond absurd and were I president I would declare a state of national emergency due to a non-functional government and write those thing that the American people re-elected me for by executive order and have those who who have signed pledges to lobbyists and foreign powers removed from office.  
Things have to change and never in our history has it been more evident that our government has been compromised and is not representative of the will of the electorate. This is grounds for revolution. This is also why the false flag shooting have been staged to enrage the population into giving up their guns. As Hitler said, "The way to conquer a people is to disarm them."
The Republican'ts have been holding America's most vulnerable citizens hostage to protect the obscenely wealthy from paying taxes. People who hold others hostage are terrorists. So we now have a terrorist faction in out government that must be eradicated. These terrorists must be stripped of their salary, their benefits and their position and prosecuted as we would anyone who has taken hostages. This is another reason for the president to declare a state of emergency and haul the lot of them off to Gitmo.
The American people cannot allow a corrupt faction of criminals within the government to remain. They must be removed either from within or without, but go they must. We cannot tolerate terrorists as a part of this government.

A Seasonal Gift for All Self-Publishing Authors

Hi All,
I thought it would be nice to share all the bits of wisdom I have picked up over the last five years of self-publishing.  There are many pitfalls with all the parasitic services available to separate the writer from his money.  I have compiled a list of the things that need to be done to present a professional quality product to the public.

You've finished your book and now you're ready to be the next hot author and sell a million copies.
They never told you that writing the book is the easy part.
There are three things that you absolutely need to have done where you cannot spare expenses.
I will provide links to different resources at the end of this blog post.

1) You absolutely must have your work edited and proofed professionally.

This will be the biggest expense for your book.  Editing rates vary wildly, usually for $.01 to $.05 a word.
This is also the area where it's easiest to get screwed by some self-appointed editor who doesn't even have a degree in English.  There are literally hundreds of websites offering editing services.  I rate these from fantastic to rip-off.  If you have a social presence on facebook or goodreads, find some friends who are very happy with editing services they have had done.  Try to not use someone who has not been recommended by friends or who you know nothing about.  I am lucky enough to know an excellent free-lance editor who I trust to do a thorough job. Your number one biggest priority as a writer is to find a reliable editor and proofreader.  Nothing will make a bigger difference in the quality of your work.
Try not to pay for editing in advance and carefully check the work.  Some editors will only make changes that make your work grammatically correct, others think they have free reign to cut whole chapters and sentences and change elements around altering the entire story.  Be sure you keep a copy of the original to compare the edited version.  Editors need to be watched closely to insure quality work with minimum changes to your story.

2) Get a professional cover.

You can't tell a book by its cover but you can sell books with great covers.  This is an area where there are a few thing that you must insist on.
First of course is any images and/or art work must not be copyrighted.  If it is, you need written proof granting you the rights to use the image. Get an email from the artist/photographer and print it for your records.
Second the cover has to work.  Many times the first view I get of a book is a thumbnail of the cover.  It is absolutely essential that both the title and the author name can be read when the cover is thumbnail sized.  The most beautiful cover doesn't work if you can't read it.  Common elements also fuel sales such as the same font used on multiple books.

3) The actual publishing.

You do not have to pay to get your book published although there are literally thousands of companies willing to charge you to do so.  Never use a vanity press where you pay to get hard copies of your book published and shipped to you.  No need.  Publish on a POD (print on demand) site for free.  The same goes for eBooks.
What you do need to pay for is to get the book properly formatted and submitted for both POD and eBook.
I can't count how may books by authors that have paid for publication that either have terrible formatting and/or poor quality images.  Each venue, be it different size paperbacks or hardcovers or formatting for different eReaders, have different requirements for formatting to get the optimum quality for you book.
Most of these publishing venues will provide free of charge ISBN or ASIN numbers for your books.  You do not have to buy one.  You can easily copyright your work, before editing if you worry about your work being stolen through the US government Copyright Office for as little as $35. It will take 6 months to get the official document of copyright but you are protected from the day of submission.

The last and most  distasteful aspect of being an author is the marketing.  In my next post I'll talk about that.

Helpful Links.
Form to copyright your work for $35 through the US Copyright Office.
Print on Demand paperback publishing  with free ISBN at createspace.com.
Print on Demand hardcover publishing with free ISBN at Lulu.com.
Ebook publishing at smashwords.com, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Nobels, Kobo.
Book editing service and cover design with free consultations: Byron & Kugler.
Cover design, formatting and publishing.  Complete service from edited manuscript to paperback or hardcover proof in your hands with free consultations:  Richter Indy publishing.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Rick