Tag: #PublishingFoul

Do Some Vanity-Published Authors Suffer Stockholm Syndrome?

#PublishingFoul Logo Indies UnlimitedThis month at IU, we’ve been featuring articles on bad experiences with publishing contracts — either bad deals or scammy companies. You’d think that with the proliferation of stories about companies that swindle authors or offer all-around bad deals, they’d all be out of business. Yet, many persist. And some even have glowing recommendations from authors who’ve used their services.

So, what’s the deal? Are these people getting better service than those who got scammed or do they, as my friend Jim suggested, suffer from Stockholm syndrome? For those unfamiliar, Stockholm syndrome occurs when a kidnapping victim begins to identify with captors and even ultimately defends the captors. Patty Hearst, the heiress kidnapped in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army, later joined in the group’s crime spree and was said to have participated because she suffered from Stockholm syndrome. Continue reading “Do Some Vanity-Published Authors Suffer Stockholm Syndrome?”

My Publishing Nightmare with Publish America

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedGuest Post
by Brenda Perlin

After I finished my first book, I submitted it for publication everywhere I could. As the rejection letters came pouring in, so did a quick reply from a company called Publish America. I should have run as fast as I could but instead I got caught up with the idea of being a published author. At the time, that seemed as farfetched as taking a ride to Mars. For one thing, I had no writing background, and this was a story based on my life. Who was going to want to read it? Still, I wished upon a star and saw my book on the shelves of bookstores. I so badly wanted this pipe dream that I bought into it: hook, line, and sinker.

Continue reading “My Publishing Nightmare with Publish America”

Black Rose Writing — A Less-Than-Ideal First Experience

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedWay back in 2009, I managed to finish the novel that had taken me more than twenty years to write. I was proud, I was elated, and I was clueless as to how to get it published. So I paid for a membership with Writers’ Digest and looked on their website for possible publishers. That’s where I found Black Rose Writing. I sent them a query letter and a brief synopsis of my weighty military thriller. Then I crossed my fingers.

A few days later I received a reply stating they would love to publish my book. Holy cow! I was over the moon! My first query letter and I’d landed a publisher. How did I get so lucky? I’d read about numerous authors sending out thousands of query letters only to be rejected by every publisher under the sun. Was my book that good? Or did I have cause to be worried? Continue reading “Black Rose Writing — A Less-Than-Ideal First Experience”

FOULED! Part 3: Getting Your Book Back

Predatory Publisher Month at Indies UnlimitedSo you’ve tried to get your publisher to give your book the editing, formatting, and marketing attention it deserves, but you’ve had no luck. Your logical next step may be to try to get your book back.

The technical term is reversion of rights. You’re asking the publisher to give you back any rights you granted it to publish your book. This sometimes becomes necessary even in contracts with a traditional publisher. If the book is not selling well, or some other disagreement has come up, an author may decide to buy back the book and shop it around somewhere else. Although increasingly these days, traditionally-published authors are buying back the rights to their books on their publishers’ backlists and going indie with them.

Trad publishers can be reluctant to agree to a rights reversion, but vanity publishers really don’t like them. Continue reading “FOULED! Part 3: Getting Your Book Back”