I would have to agree with Kary here. You don’t have all your facts straight about Author Academy Elite, and you certainly don’t have an accurate picture of the publishing industry in general either. Though you aren’t alone in thinking the odds are stacked against you as an author who wants to find success, it’s simply not true that hardly anyone ever finds success publishing independently. In my experience, authors who regurgitate this idea that only a handful of people find success in today’s publishing world are just repeating information they’ve been told by other authors who don’t understand the amount of hard work it requires to become a bestselling author—whether you are traditionally published, self-published, or use a collaborative form of publishing, like Author Academy Elite.

1. In all Kary’s webinars I’ve attended, I’ve never seen him quote any prices. His entire focus for his free webinars are to introduce the concepts that launched him into his own publishing success. The techniques he talks about are his own intellectual property, so while he doesn’t give away the entire farm for free, I can attest that his webinars do have quite a bit of useful information, even if you can’t afford to invest in his educational program.
2. Even if I didn’t know anything about the program you’re talking about, I’d question someone who gives pretty vague details about someone who has allegedly been burned by any company. I’ve personally seen Kary bend over backwards for his authors to make them happy and to help them with any challenges they’ve had.
3. Kary doesn’t make any guarantees of income, but he does promise he can teach you techniques that will make you successful if you do the work. This is something you’ll have to do whether you self-publish, traditionally publishing, or publish through an indie publisher. That’s why people talk so negatively about how it’s impossible to achieve writing success today: they either don’t understand the work that’s required, or they expect an easy, overnight success to be handed to them. That’s not true for any career.
4. I‘m curious … where have you been able to find all the information that Kary offers in his educational and coaching program? You talk in this article about how everything he teaches can be found online, but even if you’re really good at research, it would take most people years to put together all of the content he has created himself. There is simply no easy way to get all the answers for free that will immediately launch you into publishing success. If you’d been able to find this information, I imagine you wouldn’t be writing this post because you would know firsthand exactly how hidden real insight is. Again, this is all Kary’s intellectual property, knowledge he’s built from his years of experience in the publishing industry.
5. You talk about Author Academy Elite like Kary is some mafia boss who will “take care of” anybody who speaks ill of him or his publishing business. That’s simply not true. The fact is that you can’t give an accurate review of what it’s like to work with Kary because you haven’t experienced it firsthand. If anyone reading this article wants an accurate picture of what it’s like, I’d highly recommend they talk to someone who has firsthand experience with Author Academy Elite.
6. It really breaks my heart that you find it necessary to publicly bully authors for their own publishing efforts because they don’t fit inside your mold of success. I’d encourage you to focus that energy instead on how you can make yourself more successful as an author. It’s not necessary to try to tear people down to make a point. The best way you can send an educated and intelligent message is by setting an example for others around you. As a new author myself, I find it very destructive because I feel we’re all in this together. There is no future in the publishing industry without finding a group of supportive friends and readers who would do anything to encourage you to be more successful. (You can look me up if you like, and my ratings suck, to be honest, just like many other new authors still learning their way. But I can guarantee you that I make a full-time income from my work in the publishing industry. I freelance from home full-time as a writer and as an editor, and Kary helped me get there.)
7. What other publishers have you found that guide you step by step through writing, marketing, launching, and promoting your book? How many of them host several coaching sessions per week that answer each and every question a new author might have? And those publishers take huge chunks of your royalties! Author Academy Elite gets no royalty whatsoever from any of their published books. What AAE authors pay is nothing compared to what traditional publishers get when they publish a new author. If I sold $50,000 worth of books, I’d much rather get $50,000 than $5,000-$10,000.
8. I can appreciate that you want to help prevent naive authors from getting scammed. Yes, there are many bad companies out there who take advantage of authors by charging them to be published, but that’s not what’s happening here. When I first heard about Author Academy Elite, I did a lot of research and could find nothing negative about them. I’ve seen Kary take negative hit after negative hit publicly on his social media, and he handles himself with grace and dignity. He doesn’t delete those negative comments because there is no secret scam he’s trying to hide. He’s selling a program that he’s created from the ground up—like many other publishing industry experts—but if you know exactly where to find this information for free online, then it sounds like it’s really not for you. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t help someone else. We are all different people, we learn differently, and we define our success differently.

I truly wish you luck in finding your own version of success. It sounds like you’re on your way.