Part 1 of this series shared three critical issues to ask any publisher before signing with them:
- Marketing – how would the publisher get word of my book out to potential readers?
- Distribution – how would the publisher get my book into potential readers’ hands?
- Career Development – what would the publisher do to help me become a better author?
This post deals with publisher #4 how they failed on all three. Now out of business (at least no web presence), this post is about how splash can’t make up for facts.
During my headaches with publishers 1, 2, and 3, I sent out Empty Sky. Lots of interest, no contracts, until a British publisher offered to take a look.
Hoorah!, right?
Well, yeah, of course.
They asked for the full manuscript, which I emailed. Two weeks later, they wanted to Zoom meet. One person would be in their LA office, the other in their London, UK, office, so the challenge was timing.
Hey, you tell me when you want to talk, I’ll be there!
The call went well, very flattering of my work, an explanation of their plans for the book (they talked video games, movie, radio play, books, serialization,… they really had all media channels covered) plus an advanced marketing campaign which involved me flying to London to appear on a few morning talk shows, and both NYC and LA for the same.
Too good to be true, right?
Definitely!
I asked for a copy of their business plan during the meeting.
“I’ll email that to you as soon as we’re off the call. Our contract will come from our corporate office and you’ll receive that today for review.”
Consider this, dear reader. They’re saying all the right things, hitting all the right buttons.
I was thrilled.
I’d also been in business for several years.
Their business plan was interesting and different. It wasn’t so much a business plan as a investor’s prospectus (something used to get funding from venture capitalists).
I didn’t mind receiving a prospectus, but the CEO (who was on the call from London) told me he self-funded the publishing house.
Still okay, but more different.
The prospectus/business plan mentioned several authors already in the publisher’s stable, and a number of them were on recognized bestseller lists.
Excellent, I reached out to all of them.
About a quarter replied.
Several replied with “What publishing house is this?”
One replied with “I wrote them several times to remove me from their material. I do not publish through them.”
Definite Red Flag, that.
Then I went through the contract.
Can you say “one-sided”?
Yes, the contract covered a variety of media channels.
Yes, they offered an advance.
Yes, they wanted to own the work for an unprecedented amount of time (we’re talking ~ten years. Most legitimate publishers will go for three and, if sales are good, renew for five).
Yes, their marketing schedule ignored my schedule completely (simply put, they not only owned the work, they owned me, too).
Yes, they had first refusal of any other work both developed, in production, or planned.
And the list of strange Yeses went on and on and on.
A naive author might jump at the chance.
I don’t think of myself as naive and I’m too old to jump.
But the real kicker? Okay, two real kickers?
Kicker 1 – the advance was a true pittance considering what they wanted in return.
Kicker 2 – I couldn’t prove their marketing or production claims.
Kicker 2.1 – And neither could they when I called them on it.
Bye-bye, publisher #4.
Next week, Publisher #5 goes Elemental.
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[…] Broken promises, cancelled contracts After my fiascos with publishers #3 and #4, and in the honeymoon days of working with publisher #5, I reached out to them asking if […]