I've never had much luck with publishers which is why I've now
decided to republish some of my novels on Amazon Kindle, and in paperback [via
Create Space].
When I say I haven't had much luck, I don't mean with getting books accepted
for publication but with the publisher practices.
My first novel, 'It Happened One Summer', was originally released to help raise
funds for a cancer charity I worked for at that time. Imagine my
excitement when the first shipment of books arrived from the U.S...the postman
struggled to hoist the humongous sacks down my front
steps! However, my euphoria was short lived when my son, who was a
teen then, opened one of the books and looked inside. "How come
they've spelled your name wrong inside?" he asked.
"What?" I took the book from his grasp and noticed he was
absolutely right. My name was spelled correctly on the cover but inside
my surname was spelled 'Reese' instead of 'Rees'. Not only that but my
name was printed at the top of every page, you just couldn't miss it!
I picked up book after book, checking, hoping it was just that one, but they
were all the same.
How could the publisher make a mistake like that? The only thing I can
think of is that 'Reese's Cups', a chocolate and peanut butter sweet treat, are
very popular in the U.S. and maybe it was imprinted on the editor's or
printer's brain!
The publisher concerned had some sort of alliance with a small printing firm.
The person who owned it was also one of their authors. Not only
that but authors had to pay a so-called 'set up fee' to have their books put
into print. So all of this was a costly mistake, not of my making!
Imagine my annoyance.
I contacted the publisher but they refused to replace the books or even give me
a discount. They didn't even apologise for their mistake! The charity
book launch was already set up, so I had no choice other than to go ahead with
it or wait another six weeks for a shipment of books. A second lot of
books were sent to me following the launch, this time with the correct
spelling, but it was already too late for me, the sparkle of my first published
novel was tarnished.
I was so fed up of the way this publisher was treating me...communication was
poor, emails went unanswered... that I asked to be released from my contract.
I'd also signed a contract for a second book that would also be published
to raise funds for the charity and asked to be released from that too.
I finally found another publisher who was much better to work with, I didn't
have to pay a set up fee and I was also given some free books. The books
had new cover art too [which was far superior to the first book's cover].
I was relieved when these arrived to find no errors and they continued to
be sold for the charity.
***
My next strange experience with a publisher was a more recent one. I
submitted my romance novel to them and was thrilled when it was accepted.
I'd worked hard on it and worked even harder on the publisher edits when
they arrived. The first editor sent me six rounds of edits which I found
strange as usually there are only a couple of rounds. I also found some
of the things she said most odd and slightly offensive.
She made a
comment about the heroine drinking
vodka and lemonade with ice as if it was an unusual thing to do. She tried to
get me to delete the word ice! "When I was in England I had a hard
time finding ice in any bar!" she scoffed. I wrote back saying that
I've never had any problems getting served ice with my drinks and it's true I
never have. I had to really dig my heels in to let the drink I wanted my
heroine to have to remain in the book. I really felt that editor had some
sort of personal issues related to England. Of course she called it
England but we are really the United Kingdom. The heroine was Welsh
anyhow not English!
Then there were the songs in the book. I had mentioned one or two Frank
Sinatra songs being played as the couple danced on the balcony, also a Mario
Lanzo song the hero's mother loved, but the publisher refused to allow me to
use the titles. Instead I had to explain the type of songs playing like,
'a swing song' or 'Italian love ballad', which I found totally ridiculous. The
publisher said it was because if the real titles and artists were mentioned,
they could be sued. Really? My next publisher allowed me to use
titles of songs and the artists. She wasn't afraid of being sued.
The book then had to go through another couple of rounds of edits with another
editor who contradicted the first editor. So there were eight rounds of edits
in all!
This publisher did no promotion for my book at all. I applied to review sites
myself and did all sorts of promo: Interviews, Twitter, Cover Reveal Sites etc.
Now, you would think after all the hours of work from their editors, it would
pay them to promote their books, but they only seemed to promote certain
authors, mainly those who wrote paranormal shift-shaper type stories. The
publishing company then changed their name and set up a new web site and didn't
even add me to it!
Worse was to come. I was really upset when I received the cover art for
my book. The characters looked like how I imagined them to, except for
one thing...the hero had 'man boobs', he had bigger breasts than the heroine!!
I emailed the publisher, who just laughed it off and said she could see
what I meant. The man boobs were supposedly trimmed down by the cover
artist, but they looked the same to me. The publisher then said we'd go
with it as it was. In other words, no more discussion. She wasn't
concerned at all. I felt so embarrassed about that cover that I hated
using it as promotion.
Then there was the title. I won't name it here not to identify the
publisher but they didn't like my original title and made me choose something
bland. Their reason being that they thought my original title 'The
Sicilian's Proposition', sounded too crime oriented. Now pardon me, but a
proposition doesn't have to be something sinister, does it?
The dictionary definition is: something (such as a plan or offer)
that is presented to a person or group of people to consider
: a statement to be
proved, explained, or discussed
: something that someone
intends to do or deal with
Merriam Webster.
I think the publisher
thought as the book was set mainly in Sicily that a proposition had to have a
Mafia connection, but in this case, it was an offer that could be refused!
I decided to take action
and asked for new cover art and a new title, which the publisher complied with.
She immediately sent a new cover which was acceptable to me, which made me ask
the question, Why couldn't she have done that to begin with when I first
complained?
She said she'd see how
sales went with the new title and cover and then try it with a 99 cent
promotion, but that never happened. She also said that ** Linda [Not her
real name] would work her magic on promoting the book. Linda never did.
In fact, all I ever saw Linda do was post about some selected books
[mainly shape-shifter romances again] on their Facebook page. The page had few subscribers, all
of whom seemed to be other authors from that publisher.
So what was the point of
that?
After a year of not
receiving any royalty payments for this book after all the work I'd put into
it, I decided to call it quits and asked to be released from my contract. I
finally got sent some money and guess how much it was? A couple of
hundred? A couple of thousand dollars?
Nope. A measly two dollars!
Two dollars for all that effort! Less than the price of a cup of coffee!
I knew my novel hadn't sold many copies, it might have been due to the odd cover art, but
two dollars was taking the proverbial!
It's the least I've ever
earned from a publisher.
Yet that same publisher claimed
that some of their authors had regular earnings of $3,000 a month!
Once released from my
contract, I immediately changed the cover art for my book and gave it back its
original title, 'The Sicilian's Proposition'. Then uploaded it to Kindle
and created a paper back version at Create Space. I've earned more from
selling it myself via Amazon Kindle than I ever did from the publisher. My novel has also been nominated for a RONE Award this year in the Contemporary
Steamy category. So it's proof that someone loves it!
***
My third bad experience
with a publisher, was with an historical fiction one. Almost two years
ago I signed a contract for my Welsh Historical Romance novel. The
publisher in question had big ideas and said we had to have book launches at
Waterstones etc, instructing me not to invite family and friends! She was a total control freak. She used to bark orders at us and didn't allow us to communicate on an author loop. She once sent the following email:
Dear authors,
Please do not use the word 'Strode' in your novels or it's derivatives as I detest that word! Remove all forms of that word before publication!
She wouldn't accept the author photograph I sent her for the
website either, even though other publishers had, telling me I had to have one
professionally taken, which I did. I complied with all her requests of
creating an Author Press Release booklet, etc.
The contract I signed was
long and complicated. She owned some sort of movie making company and
wanted to make movies of some of the books and claimed to be 'in talks with
Hollywood agents'. She wanted the television and movie rights too.
I think to be honest it was all bull about the movies and she had
delusions of grandeur.
When it came to the time I
should have been working on publisher edits, she kept putting me off, so much
so, I had to cancel a planned book launch and talk. I then discovered someone had
recently taken her on in court for non payment of translation rights and they
won. She'd been successfully sued! Other authors had complained too and
left her publishing company. I then asked to be released from my contract.
It was so disappointing as
people had been waiting for that particular novel as it's about my home town. I knew
I couldn't work with her any longer though when she'd put off edits three
times, finally asking me to choose a date.
This publisher claims to
have offices in London and New York which sounds really impressive. In
reality though, the addresses when traced, are just postal addresses and she
herself, lives in South Carolina.
I'm getting to think these
days, if you're a reasonably good author who can sort out your own manuscript,
get a couple of people to proofread and edit, format correctly, and can upload to Kindle and
Create Space, you might as well do it yourself.
Authors like Rachel Abbot
have done this and made a name for themselves and gone on to become best
selling authors. Gone are the days when you had to have a traditional
publisher in order to do this.
The great thing about self
publishing is you the author can have complete control over everything.
