Carole Di Tosti, Ph.D., is a New York City theater and film critic, as well as a Drama Desk member and voter. Her reviews appear in Blogcritics Magazine, Sandi Durell’s Theater Pizzazz, All Along the New York City Skyline, and other outlets.
Her novel Peregrine: The Ceremony of Powers, her poetry collection Light Shifts, and her plays The Berglarian, The Sicilian Lighthouse, the two plays featured in I’ll Take Manhattan (The Squatters’ Project and Maximized Space), and the trilogy All the Rage (Flavia, Camille, and Cyrene) were published between 2021–2025. Her latest play, Yearbook, is forthcoming.
Below is her own written reflection on that experience and her creative journey.
Since I’ve worked with Erinn, who initially worked for another writing service which shuttered after COVID-19 and other reasons, I’ve been able to expand my writing, which I had been working on for many years.
Now, I’m a novelist (working on a sequel to my occult mystery novel, Peregrine: The Ceremony of Powers). I’ve been a poet blogger for a decade. Many of my poems are in a poetry book, Light Shifts, the second book Erinn helped me publish. I am also a published playwright. All of my work is on my general website, https://www.caroleditostibooks.com.
When you go to my website, you will see the efforts of collaboration from the WriteLight Group team, who moved over from the previous writing service to establish their own company. And I am so thrilled that they did.
They have helped me become published and visible on various book sites, including foreign companies as well as American: Amazon and Barnes & Noble. They have helped me update my website and organize all of my writing under pull-down menus so that others may explore my work, which is extensive over the last decade.
As a result, my writing career has blossomed under Erinn’s guidance and in collaboration with Catherine, who has helped me with cover design and website design. Not only are they available when I email them, they provide excellent advice and guidance, and I am able to work with them as they understand what I am looking for and what I need.
The prices are reasonable, and they may work with you on that if you publish more than a few works with them. The cost is listed on their website. As per Amazon, etc., most of your profits stay in your pocket. If you go with a publishing house, they publish and take the costs; however, they also take the profits, and you have to market your own book unless you are a celebrity. And even then, you are doing most of the legwork. Again, their bottom line is what they work on, and unless you can make them a profit, you are a hard sell.
At this point, I have not made back my investment in publishing costs. However, as an agent advised to me years ago, “Everyone on the Upper West Side has a screenplay or a book. I get thousands of requests. Why should I invest my time in you? What is so great about you?” Indeed. And I was referred to him by another author, a guy. I knew because of his imperious, off-putting attitude I would have to constantly prove myself to him. And indeed, I couldn’t deal with another male reinforcing my inferiority, though I had a Ph.D. and worked probably three times as hard as he did.
That was in the 1990s. Now, that attitude hasn’t helped anyone. The business is reeling, and more people are working with services, and some are even putting together their own books. I simply don’t have the time, though I know others who do. Because I don’t, I was so happy a friend told me about the service, and I ended up working with Erinn and Catherine.
Money may be a consideration for you, in all honesty. However, in relation to other writing services which may or may not be more expensive, there are issues. First, they force you to buy books (they make their profit that way) and force you to store them, a problem if you don’t have room. They may use a publishing model which will eventually go bankrupt, as one of my friends unfortunately experienced (and their book prices to the public were very high).
I found the WriteLight Group to be well worth it. They are prodigious workers, very clever in their fields of expertise, and they are accountable. I can’t recommend them more highly. Other services may be untrustworthy. One of my friends used another service that outsourced the manuscript to the Philippines, and the manuscript had so many grammatical errors it had to be sent back and forth for corrections numerous times. There was a reason they were cheaper. They also made my friend purchase many books, forcing him to do their selling. Regardless, they made their profit. Reliability is crucial for a publishing service and a publishing house, which are diminishing as I write this. Niche publishing houses are still out there if you write in their niche.
Finally, know with a publishing house, you often have to relinquish creative control. Two friends of mine worked with publishing houses. The covers produced were not of their own design or liking. In fact, they were bland, and a cover is crucial to attracting attention. They had no recourse. One was faded, the other used a photograph which was OK, but then used a surrounding color which made the book appear lackluster as it faded into the background. But here, you have creative control over the entire process since you are laying out the funds. And realistically, you also have to trust them to get you your percentages, and even celebrities have been stiffed.
All this to say, the WriteLight Group, as I have worked with them, truly meets my needs.
If you have wanted to write and have a book in hand with your name on it, or something available for Kindle or Nook, I suggest you look at my website to see the design of the books published. Check out the entire website, remembering that Catherine, Erinn, and I collaborated on it. Caveat: I need to update a few sections under the pull-down menu. But that’s on me.
Additionally, they also can set you up with their marketing division. That is my next step after the recent release of my latest play, Yearbook.
Happy Writing,
Carole Di Tosti
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