Sterling Publicity is an online publicity service, website design via Blogspot, and republishing service owned by Syd Cuevas. I was contacted by the owner to try the republishing service at a discounted price. I used the service to republish the new edition of my YA fantasy Escape from Ancient Egypt that had been previously published by Xlibris. Authors using this service generally do not have their print-ready files since their old publisher did not/will not give these files to the author (which is usually the case with Author Solutions companies), or they want a king’s ransom for them (which shouldn’t happen in the first place since you paid to have them created). This is the case with this book. One point of this review is to designate a cheaper alternative for assistance with republishing a book after a disastrous experience similar to mine without sacrificing quality while cushioning the cost of starting again and salvaging a project from oblivion. Then the author is free to publish any later books as they see fit.

Disclaimer: The service under review is only the republishing service. I did not try the PR or website design services, so they will not be reviewed. This review is based on my overall experience and the trial at reduced costs does not influence my review.

Publishing Platforms

Sterling Publicity generally uses Createspace via their free DIY platform, Lulu, Lightning Source,  and Book Baby for publishing/republishing services. For my raw experience, I used Createspace. I did my ebooks at another publishing company (upcoming review). Personally, I like Createspace better than Lulu.

Order of Operations

Before uploading to Createspace, Cuevas will have phone/email consultations to get ideas about the book’s design, fonts, etc in addition to collecting the files for the text and artwork (if applicable). Escape from Ancient Egypt was a true test for Cuevas’ abilities since it contained a lot of artwork.

After retrieving the files and going over ideas for fonts that I had envisioned, I was given a pdf proof for my review according to the guidelines of Createspace. After quite a few tries, the book was ready. This book was very labor intensive in that some of the old artwork contained problems and had to be replaced which was pointed out by Cuevas. Cuevas went well out of his way to make sure I was happy with the book before approval for publication. You get as many tries as it takes to get the book just like you want it to be. Authors are encouraged to go through their files with a fine-tooth comb to check formatting, image placement, etc.

Cuevas seemed very knowledgeable about the guidelines and functionality with the Createspace DIY platform.

NOTE: This republishing service does not include the Expanded Distribution option, just standard. You can purchase this on your own after services are rendered.

Files

PDF files of the book’s cover (without the old publisher’s logo and barcode) and interior are provided to the author upon request. You have access to all your files and the account set up is the author’s account. Sterling Publicity takes no rights to the work.

Website

The website is pretty easy to navigate, but it may need a little bit of updating. Links all seem to be functional.

Overall

Generally, the service and customer support was good and the overall experience was pretty good–a little bumpy, but good. Cuevas does not harass you relentlessly while working on a project and tries to set up calls ahead of time. Would I recommend him to other authors? Yes.

Rating: 4 out of 5         Pretty Good