New Author

Hello out there. I have just become a new author. I self-published a book titled "Acrocanthosaurus - The Bones of Contention     The True Story of Cephis Hall and Sid Love. The Arkansas Hillbilly and the Choctaw Indian Who Outsmarted the Corporation and Saved the Dinosaur.   I printed 1,000 copies at Malloy Printing and I have not found a distributor or publisher although I am working on that now.  So far it is a lonely and bewildering experience. Everything is stacked against the author, at least an unknown author who is alone and forced to learn the business by trial and error. It is like walking in a mine field and it seems everybody is trying to scam the author. Self-publishing is tough. I chose to go that path because I did not want to mess with all those rejections by indifferent, aloof publishers. I wrote the book and now I am stuck with the books. I set up a seller account on Amazon on Sunday and I have not sold a single book yet. Although I did not ask for it, they set me up in what they call a Pro Merchant Account so that I am charged $40 per month or at least for the first month until I am downgraded to an individual account. I learned that in their Advantage Program for authors they charge 55% of the sales price, while the author gets only 45%. I chose not to get in that program. I already have a negative opinion of Amazon and wondering if they gouge or scam the author/bookseller.   I would like the establish a dialogue with self-publishing authors who might be going through similiar experiences so we can exchange notes, etc. Looking forward to hearing from you. Russell