I was called today by Amanda Gray of Gold Touch Press. Anyone know these people? I'm writing a biography for a local family and community leader. In fact, its advisable to get editing and designing services from reliable professionals to make sure your book is of top quality. I can't find anything about them either, which is generally a bad sign (a reputable publisher, even small, would have a website). Vanity presses pretending to be traditional publishers, 2. Thanks. Thanks. HI all, I was approached by Octa publishing company, to publish on Amazon my daughter poetry book? Many scammers impersonate reputable literary agents, film producers, and traditional publishers with fake publishing or movie rights offers requiring author "investments" of thousands of dollars. His claims don't seem to pan out. It's your money you need to be worried about. I have lodged a complaint with the BBB of central Indiana and attempted to dispute some of the charges via VISA. Anyhow she said my submissions will be reviewed and she would get in touch with me in about a week. There are whole books written about it. I am responsible for paying the air time It seems fishy to me. He makes every genre . They approached me about my book I published with Tate. My guess is that their services will involve little more than making you a book trailer, maybe setting up some Facebook ads and perhaps getting you a "guest blog" on some site you've never heard of. They look like a self-publishing services company, with relatively low prices (especially for cover design) but a number of oddities: Plus, 99% of the time, folks that pioneer their book on amazon or Ingram themselves have a crappy product, front matter that is not industry standard, low res files, weird spacing, and janky metadata. I'm glad I investigated first. I've checked their website and it seems to pass the initial smell test. Before you recommend that I could do this myself, please know I a fairly computer illiterate and it will probably not get done. Writers Branding LLC New Books The Little Bear and The Peach (0 reviews) 1st July 2022 The Carrotastic Ninja Bunnies (0 reviews) 13th June 2022 The Zookeeper (0 reviews) 9th December 2021 The Zookeeper (0 reviews) 9th December 2021 The Carrotastic Ninja Bunnies (0 reviews) 16th November 2021 The Runaway Avocado and Waterm. Reviews research 2. The Apricot Outlook of Katherine Koon Hung Wong. I don't work with anyone who tries to scam me or bash on my publisher in order to get me to work with them. Title, bullets, description, A+ content, photos, Images We will be providing full training & access to our custom software and processes. I found out later that my book was never presented at the events as she claimed, and I had been taken for a fool. What kind of companies are Author House and Christian Faith Publishing? Using your ISBN ************* to do a search is the simplest way to locate your book title at these sellers. You have a really good article here, but I feel you bleed these two kinds of companies together. So what is the difference with me just using google to research. Do you know anything about them? Ive seen several vanity publishers that were either rip offs or scammers who went out of business. If it's graphically complex, then you may want to consider hiring a formatter otherwise you can, if you want, use a free tool to format the book yourself. From the research I've done, it's one of the many courses started by semi-successful authors who're looking to monetize their knowledge of publishing. Have you heard anything positive or negative about Westwood Book Publishers in LA? Everything you read above about scammers is true with this group. Scams in Action. I finally settled on Writers Clique. Self-Publishing vs. This isnt necessarily bad unless you mind paying $80 for a slab of acrylic dozens more have also won that month. Is Trilogy publishing Reparable? Is Rushmore press legit. Does anyone have any experience with Covenant Books? If they're soliciting you directly, asking for upfront payments (on top of taking a massive chunk of your royalties), and insisting that you print 100 copies with them then they don't exactly pass the smell test. They promote to the mentally ill, I'm sure as easy prey. Authors' brand perceptions are shaped by every interactiononline and offlinethat they have with readers and fellow publishing industry professionals. I have experienced cold calls. There is no specific language regarding refunds, but they have sent him a flurry of emails promising to work on the manuscript or to pay him back in installments. One last thing: when a company like that says they'll do your marketing, it tends to mean very little. After working through some initial problems, with her assistance they produced a book of high quality. I am an author myself and will not help anyone who scams authors. They are offering a spot on Publisher's weekly. They are a wonderful company to work with. Unqualified staff. I have stupidly deposited USD $1600 in one of those self publishing on line courses (I won't name) only to find out it is not what I signed up for. (For a primer on the topic, check out this guide.) .. and ever since it hit 30+ reviews on Amazon, my phone has been ringing. with a "let us help you market you book better" sales pitch. Im working with Professional Ghostwriters Im starting to question if this company is a scam. And for distribution, if you want to do it without fuss, you can use a distribution service like Draft2Digital which charges nothing upfront, but will take 10% of retail price. If you're in college maybe your brand is sweatpants and too much coffee, late-night Instagram stories, and weekend adventures. I'm very happy with them. Thank you for any advice! I would be very cautious of any company that contacts you unsolicited there are plenty of bad-faith presses out there who are looking to snatch up author's old books and hold on to them. Amazon and ************** have made available the following page links for your book.https://www.amazon.com/Visitation-*****************************/dp/1639451366/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1660696073&sr=8-1 https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-visitation-*****************************/1117049234 I hope this clarifies and answer your confusion. Is anyone familiar with Covenant Publishing? I DID go with Balboa and it was a horrific mistake. My question is: do they sound legit to you and if so, which other similar publishing companies would you recommend that have open reading periods earlier than in December 2018 since the author of the book doesn't want to wait for so long? Hi could you let me know about Lighthouse publishing buford usa, I sent my manuscript and i have had nothing but problems. Classic virtue signaling. The thing to bear in mind is that you need to pay upfront for their services AND also a cut of the royalties As always, do your homework and research the books they've published on Amazon. There, I started my LLC, Windy Peach Comedy, teaching humor writing, producing live comedy shows, and supporting other creatives with my production and project management skills. They had told me that ALL publishing houses require authors to purchase copies of their own books. I submitted my rsum only 2 days ago. Take this short quiz, which will help you sniff out a predatory business. Are they scammers? I used Book Baby for my first book. They did not list a price, but want me to respond by replying to their email or phoning them. Avoid companies that offer grand (yet vague) promises of instant stardom. My personal experience. IMO BookBaby is reputable. You might even be happy to pay some fees to get the ball rolling on the production process. Format. To understand why publishing with a vanity press is a terrible idea, head on over to the next post in this guide, which discusses the dangers of paying to publish. They don't even have to publish the book. Corporate Trainer. I've seen a company, 48 hours books? Throughout the course . He couldn't even get through my email to send me the contracts. You have to sign a contract with them and you will have to pay whatever the contract ask for if you sign. Then a web page, short video and distribution to all the different book companies. Please RUN from this company!! What about dorrance publishing and page publishing? *** No legitimate traditional publisher would ask you to foot the bill. If you search for any of their books on Amazon, I doubt you'll find many (if any) that have reviews or sales. Writers branding as a company have a great team of experts who have been helpful in creating a new and improved version of my book to catch the attention of the buyers and also making the book . can be in the millions of dollars, enhancing the value of the tradpub company by that much. In the 2000s, writers saw the rise of the bogus POD publisher. June 29, 2022; docker swarm load balancing; nigel bruce cause of death I googled BBB and Xlibris and saw an A+ rating but only one star and I didn't see Xlibris anywhere, but the name Authors House. 50% royalties may sound good but is that something they offered you because your book has already been published, and they won't edit it? And that covers most of the publishing companies you want to steer clear of in your career as an author. I don't plan to click on the link because I never do that if I'm not certain of where it will take me. Thank you. I guess you are aware how difficuly it is even to access traditional publishers. They are a hybrid publisher, but i cannot find their cost structure. Publishing is a people business. Thanks for any helpful feedback. 25% of employees would recommend working at Writer's Relief to a friend and 16% have a positive outlook for the business. Hi, do you have any experience with Advantage Books? A Writer's Badass Guide to Branding, Blogging and Social Media is packed full of practical material for novice bloggers from developing your brand and logo down to the minutia of establishing the site, promoting your content and growing your readership. I received an email from Gold Touch Press offering services to republish my book. If their editors contact YOU, then that's a red flag. I was just contacted by someone claiming to be an editor from them wanting to offer me a contract on one of my works on another site. Hi Mary, we weren't familiar with them until now. Sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience. It's tough to know which company you're talking about, as there seem to be a lot of publishing companies with "Mulberry" in their name. DO NOT USE. Please see letter below: And what about Shadow Mountain. After the book was published they kept calling me to spend more money on advertising at book fairs which I know is a total scam. I hope you get your money back and they cease preying on writers who are sincere about bringing the plight of mental illness to readers. This will subscribe you to all of our newsletters, announcements, and promotional content. They're a very well known vanity press and not one we'd suggest you pursue. It turns out it's all 'coaching' and I do all the work. Also, is Submittable reputable? I also plan to pay to advertise this page for as long as it takes to get the word out. . Writers' Branding | Cookstown NJ Try to get editing done before submission. Need to file a complaint? However, the main problem is that they are (or at least used to be) quite aggressive in their marketing to attract authors (direct tweets and emails to random authors), and hyperbolic in their marketing language (as you point out above). Avoid Prodigy Gold books at any cost. info@writersbranding.com Give us a free call +1 (877) 608-6550 2022 PACIFIC BOOK REVIEW AWARDEES Three of our outstanding Writers' Branding authors get a resounding recognition in the recently concluded Pacific Book Awards 2022. Wish this 1st time author had known all this before being r***d by a vanity publisher who over-price my book's retail by 3x!!! Thanks, It just didn't add up, and something seemed fishy to me, in spite of links to their website and current magazine issue. From what I gather, Book Baby is pretty good. The Chat GPT (ChatGPT, GPT3, GPT4) AI tool is a cutting-edge natural language processing tool that allows users to generate human-like text in real-time. Thank you for the warnings re: NRM! After listening to him and telling him numerous times I was not interested in putting money into my book, I told him I was not interested, do not contact me, and to place me on the do not call list. Do you know if this is a reputable company? There is Self Publishing companies that are Author Funded and then there is "vanity presses" those two things are entirely different. As always, read the fine print! Fee-charging -whether for the actual printing/production of the book, or for some other item related to the publishing process, such as editing or publicity. Horrible. What is one to do? My Bird Songs is available on Amazon. Thanks- You assured me of a refund . When you search for their titles on Amazon, do you see a lot of (or any) ratings and reviews? I am trying to find out if Self Publishing School would be a good fit for me? Thanks. Do you have any info on Folio Avenue Publishing Services LLC 2031 Union St. #6 San Fransisco CA 94123 ? They also charged him $15 to put it on Amazon. approved for publishing." "The Apricot Outlook of Katherine Koon Hung Wong" is a sons loving tribute to his hardworking, multicultural mother. This is pure speculation, but it could be that all they do is spend 30 minutes redesigning your cover, another 30 minutes uploading it to Kindle and then collect 50% of your money for the next few years. Date of experience: August 10, 2022. I'm entertaining the idea of having my work published through Plowshares Media which operates out of La Jolla, CA., and am interested in any information you might have on their credibility. Keyword research 3. Hello! They're a "boutique" house (everything outside the Big Five is, really) and I enjoyed a lot of support and personal attention from the EIC and the Publisher. Take this quick quiz to see if you're dealing with a legit publishing company. Law firm MinterEllison pulls branding from Writers' Week over anti-Jewish authors Top national law firm MinterEllison has removed the firm's branding from the Adelaide Festival Writers' Week despite being a major sponsor. I believe that Gold Touch was mentioned in the Writer Beware post we linked to in this post. If you or others would like the real facts feel free to listen to our author clients. As always, approach with caution. This doesn't sound like a legitimate operation to me. Though self-publishing, by definition, means that youre doing it yourself, there are companies out there who can give you a hand. My novel "Reflection of Memories" has been doing well . As I imagine she is reworking her scam under another name, I would avoid any publishing company with "thoughts" in their name, just to be safe. Where I had finally had enough and requested to be refunded at first they were apologetic, then blamed me, by the end of the seven hour debate back and forth through email they were threatening me and terminated my contract while still never reimbursing me. You're right to be skeptical. Do keep in mind that if you have to pay to receive the award, or enter the final round, or anything like that, your money is probably best invested somewhere else. This week I was contacted by Atlantic Publishing Group and had a discussion with them. Someone contacted my sisters and me about his appreciation for 1950s science fiction, and wanted to know if we would let him be the literary agent for my father's novels. In 90% of the cases, when you receive an unsolicited email or phone call, it's not going to be from a reputable publishing company. Yesterday I got a call from FolioAvenue, a small company offering a literary agent who will work to have my book accepted by a larger more influential publisher than my current Balboa.