Anyone have thoughts on this company? Good, bad, in between?
Thanks, Josh Leone
Posted by Josh Leone (Member # 2365) on :
Anyone?
Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :
Might be easier to have an opinion on it if I knew what it was? Any information to help, like a web address? I am new to the publishing world and am avidly following up links to get a sense of the sorts of things being done out there.
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
I have heard of it, but I don't really know much about it. If they've got a deal with Barnes & Noble (and they do), this might be a sort of character reference.
Posted by Josh Leone (Member # 2365) on :
They're sort of in between self-publishing and full publishing by a house. There is a fee but it's very small compared to actual self-publishing and they actually do enough to justify it. They handle listing it, accounting, printing, distribution, etc. The author is the main marketing function, but they have real live people available to help. You get royalties from sales but the royalties are in the 20% area. Print quality is, from what I've seen, as good as anything on the shelves. They also have what seems like a pretty good track record and some decent names have used them, including, so I hear, Stephen King for one of his books because he wanted to be mor einvolved in the process. They've had a few best sellers.
That's all I know. Anyone else know anything?
Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :
Here's my opinion:
Avoid vanity/self-publishing unless you're doing something small, like a memoir that you intend to distribute to family and friends.
Do not use these companies for your fiction. Send them out to a full publishing house. Period.
/end opinion.
[This message has been edited by HSO (edited March 26, 2005).]
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
Ohhhh....that's what you were talking about.
Well, that's easy.
The money flows towards the author. Period. End of story. Good-bye.
You get paid for writing your books. If a publisher wants money they're a scam. Check out "Writer's Beware" on the SFWA page. You will find some of the publishers you speak of. Publish America is one that comes to mind, as well as American Book Publishing. They both have long-standing threads on the Rumor Mill (www.rumormill.org) if you're interested.
Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I would lean towards HSO's position. There are legit reasons for self-publishing, after all, and there are legit reasons for a service like this one. But it is still self-publishing. You are basically paying someone else to do something you could do yourself with a good inkjet and a lot of glue.
If they claim to be doing anything other than what you could do yourself, then they are definitely a scam.
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
The problem with these publishers is that they make writers believe that they are good, even good enough to be published, when they are not. Check out the Great Publish America Hoax here: http://www.sfwa.org/Beware/general.html#PA
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
My mother self-published a book on local history. Since it was local, she was equipped to market it, which consisted of putting it in local bookstores, advertising in the paper IIRC, taking orders, talking to people. She turned a profit. But it would not work for what I want to do, which is: appeal to people around the country and the world.
[This message has been edited by wbriggs (edited March 28, 2005).]
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
I believe the problem with this conversation is that there is a significant difference between self publishing and vanity publishing. The publishers under initial inquiry here were not self-publishers, they were vanity publishers, which exist to make money at the expense of naive authors without doing any real work. Self-publishing has some use, albeit limited use given what most of us on this board wish to accomplish, but there is a time and a place for it.
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
"We help authors to prepare a manuscript, design and self-publish a book of professional quality, publicize and market their book, and print copies of their book for sale online and in bookstores around the world."
I question the "publicize and market their book" clause. I can't believe they really do this, to any useful degree.
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
Perhaps we were still not entirely clear...I did not understand that Universe was a company....I was under the impression that it was a word used to describe a certain time of publishing that sounded to me like it also went under the name "vanity publishing." At least, this does not sound entirely like a scam. They seem to be up front about what they do, although I agree that I am highly dubious about marketing.
For future reference, when posting a thread that poses a question about something, it is entirely helpful not to assume that we all know what you're talking about. Definitions and links, where applicable, will help the conversations so that we don't end up going on in circles like this.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I would believe that they help people "publicize and market", but I wouldn't recommend that writers believe that this help will consist of anything they couldn't do themselves. If they help you print up flyers or design the cover or whatever, then they're helping "publicize and market" the book, right?
There is an elusive line between a self-publishing service and a vanity publisher. The difference is the appeal to your vanity, I think
When a publisher claims to accept your work for publication, rather than frankly saying that you are paying to have it published, that's the appeal to vanity. The self publisher that frankly says "we don't imply any judgement on the quality of your work by accepting your money" is not appealing to your vanity. If you go to such a publisher to get your work published, then try to make out that you've "been published", you are the one running a scam, not the publisher.
Any information to help, like a web address? I am new to the publishing world and am avidly following up links to get a sense of the sorts of things being done out there.