Small Publishers and Lack of Professionalism
So far the biggest complain we see is the general lack of professionalism with these small publishers. The main contact person for Venus Press/Titan is often too busy to read her email. Many times authors try desperately to reach someone in charge, posting to their boards hoping someone will email them back when the privately sent emails go ignored. A week or so later a post appears about yet another family emergency, school trips, or other personal oopsy. Authors have told us that this is an ongoing problem (more than 2 years) and what led to the combination of the Venus and Titan lines. It looks like a bored housewife that thought it would be fun to run a publishing company. We checked further into this and the owner isn't even the one running the show. It's a woman with too many family obligations and too little business training.
Capri Publishing was brought to our attention by a self published gent. It seems this is a print only pub that suffers from the same lack of business sense. Rumor has it that emails go ignored for a month or more. Edits are not received, cover art dropped, and publication dates ignored. The owner and one woman show of this enterprise told her authors that she is depressed and has just gone through a divorce. Hey babe, we've all been depressed. It hurts, it sucks. If you can't run a business hire people that can or stop stringing along your authors. Take a hiatus. Whatever but for heavens sake start acting with some responsibility.
Whiskey Creek Press was brought to our attention. A year and a half ago, an author had serious trouble with edits. No biggie. This author worked through the total goof up by this publisher. This publisher also charges their authors a print fee. That's right boys and girls, this is a pub that does not invest in their authors. Ebook is free but to hold a book in your hand they request $90 paid up front to a small press that has NO REAL DISTRIBUTION. To add insult to injury, they required our lady to buy copies of her book to get them listed on Amazon. She had to pay full price for the book but would only receive royalties on their sale. WTF!!!!!! It was supposed to be to increase coverage. They weren't really counting on Amazon sales.
After getting this email I spoke with a few of their authors. WOW. Poor sales. Late edits. Most of their editors concentrate on the erotic side. (Ahh yes, I've heard that story before.) They are trying to work on a better arrangement with Amazon. Watch out for those personal issues with editors.
Mundania Press is trying to clean up their act. Originally their site promised to review manuscripts in 90-120 days. During this time most authors waited 8-9 MONTHS to hear back from this company. Wow. They would defend themselves saying other significant publishers have similar turn arounds. I checked this out with authors. Harlequin responds in 4-8 weeks. TOR (depending on the division) responds in 2-8 months. Kensington approximately 4 months. NAL 6 months. DownTown (Random House) responds in a week. Avon responds in a month to queries. Only Dorchester has the same time frame as Mundania. In their defense Mundania has started a query form to cut down on this wait. Thank you. How long did it take you to figure that out?
Samhain Publishing. Oh the power of the acquisitions editor. Samhain looks like a classy operation. Yes they appear to have a preference for romantic erotica and those nakey covers women cream for. The only negative we've heard is the treatment of those rejected. The ego of the editor finds it necessary to get the author's names wrong, genre wrong, and some times the title of the book wrong in the rejection letter. (5 complaints for this) One editor went so far as to tell the author how to write. We saw the email. They listed what sort of alpha hero hunk women were buying. Ponder that a moment.
RockWay Press. This is another one woman operation. Do not enter this lady's contest. She tries to claim ownership of your work. I've received 10 emails of complaint against this woman. She loves to threaten people, blame her problems on conspiracies, and take author's rights. When she doesn't like an author, she has no trouble in sending out mass emails cursing them and letting the world know she is upset. Poor baby. She also claims not to be a POD. FYI-POD is print on demand not vanity publishing. She uses a print on demand publisher. HELLO!!
Renebooks.com. Only two authors have come forward. Apparently this place does no edits with the author or art approval. One author just searched and found the book had been published. Never knew the release date. I have heard positives from the dirty side. Yes they love the nookie books too.
Treble Heart-This company is another one woman show. It has several imprints. We've heard that often submissions go ignored. Even if you're an author you're lucky to hear from this woman if you have a problem.
Wings Press-Not quite as small. Many complaints unfounded. What we did notice was that they tended to misfile paperwork. They also use PawPrints and charge fees to those who want a book in print. No Amazon. No distribution. Just a few people that thought making books would be fun. One correction, they finally made it back on Fictionwise.
Don't even get me started on the massive screw ups with Forbidden and LoveStruck.
Thos have been mentioned before.
***Word to the wise. If you're going to start a business, run it like a business. This isn't a hobby to the writers. This is their lives, their babies. They don't have time to worry if their publisher is going off the deep end today or busy with school field trips. They need an editor who can edit and edit on time. No one wants to work all night on edits because their editor got behind, had their own book to edit, or had file trouble they forgot to mention. Edits should not arrive the day before release. Yes, I'm looking at you Mardi Gras Publishing. (3 complaints on that one)
Get it together people. An acceptance should be a good thing to a writer, not crap load of trouble.
