This message goes out to all authors

Especially new authors, published or unpublished.
I have given some thought to my blog. Obviously, I thought you might be interested in my travels to this point.
My paramount thought is and will always be the immense pleasure I get out of writing. There are, of course, other milestones which can provide a lot of pleasure; one of them must be getting your first book published. Very easily said, not so easy to get it done.
It used to be that if you created a magnificent piece of work, worthy of publication, that you would receive a letter,

Dear Mr Fred Bloggs,
We thank you for sending in your manuscript, and congratulations, we are pleased to inform you that we are the world’s best publisher, has accepted your work and will publish your work. Our editor will be in touch with you soon to offer you.
we attach a copy of our contract, and of course a reminder to tick option B, blah blah
“We have completed our review and can confidently state that your work was found to be a most brilliant, intriguing and evocative read that will undoubtedly captivate a wide audience. A thought-provoking novel with a powerful storyline and compelling cast of characters that builds and sustains the story, delivering a convincing work. ‘My Jewish Wife’ is a well-written and researched novel worthy of attention and it is believed it would have a place in the market.”
please sign and return to us having ticked “option B,”
Now read option “B;” you will pay “£2,500.00” for the following services, Blah Blah, Blah.
As soon as you have paid this some, we can start making you a lot of money and make you famous. Blah, Blah, Blah.

If you have not received one of these yet, you may still do so.

If you have £2,500 to spare, go ahead, and I hope it goes well for you. Rightly or not, I chose not to. I was angry, very angry; numerous other “Publishers” had made me the same offer without the charades. They said Yes, we can publish your manuscript; you have options: A, B, C, D. Choose which option best suits your budget.
A will cost you “£2,100 B, £3000, etc. Don’t get me wrong; I suppose that each of these companies will deliver the services for which they want to charge you.
There seem to be only self-publishing companies nowadays; please do the research. I can share my experiences with my manuscript. You and yours may be completely different, and I wish you the best of luck.

I am telling you about my Experiences, my path and the choices I have made.
The only advice I can offer is that you have made it this far; that is only thanks to you and your perseverance. Only you can and should decide when and if you should stop or continue. I will continue; time will tell to what extent I will succeed.
After many Exploratory emails, I decided that if I am to self-publish, then that is what I will do. Self-publish all the way without paying out an enormous amount of money.

There are a lot of companies out there that will offer their services free of charge as the bait; an upgrade for a small payment will enable you to check your work for Spelling (standard), grammar, punctuation, formatting and so on.
This will cover you for most of the services that the “Self Publishing” companies want to charge you anything between £1,600 and £9,000; another bridge you will come across is distribution.

I believe this is a tougher one, unless you are already well versed in the world of social media.
The first and most obvious is your own website, this is your shop window on the internet, you need to have a payment platform there, to sell your book directly, even more satisfying than getting an email from other platforms saying “This month’s sales are XXX=£XXX, to realise the sales as and when that happen, is even more exciting and satisfying, not to mention profitable.