New Beginnings: The Reviving of a Kingdom – The Chronicles of Sambreia
As published by Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency. Unofficial motto: “We’re not AuthorHouse, but not for lack of trying!”
New Beginnings: The Reviving of a Kingdom – The Chronicles of Sambreia
As published by Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency. Unofficial motto: “We’re not AuthorHouse, but not for lack of trying!”
You’re holding it the wrong way!
“I stick you with my wooden sword, and you fall backwards because of your giant head.”
You’d think with the thousands of dollars these places cost you would get a cover not drawn by a fifth grader.
You’d be wrong though. There was a lady who came to my writer’s group once. She went to one of these kinds of publishers and was so proud of her result. Her cover was a tartan plastered line-sketch font-slapped nightmare of a beast, the insides were hacked together with random text sizes and virtual gaffer tape, and the entire thing had been cut improperly. Amazingly, she proudly defended them all night long and was pleased with the $2000+ price tag.
Then… I showed her some of my covers and another author showed off her book layout. We said that we often help others in our group with that kind of stuff and accept cheeseburgers as payment. That lady never came back. There were a lot of bridges in the area. We are still worried.
For what it is worth, Preditors and Editors guide (pred.ed.com) advises authors about publishers and self-publishing services and warns authors about Vanity Press/scam press operations. To quote:
AuthorHouse: Not recommended.
Strategic Book Publishing: Poor contract. Strongly not recommended.
download 27 Apr 2015
Lo! A Strategic Book Pub title appears on LBC! Anyone surprised?
And ANY company from Author Solutions:
Authorhouse
iUniverse
Trafford
Balboa
Westbow
Partridge
Exlibris
Archway
Palibrio
and – this is a surprise…
Lulu.
I thought they were just a printer/distributor like Createspace only not as good. Anyone know more?
Well, Lulu has been offering other services for a fee so maybe they smelled bad to the watchdogs over at Preditors and Editors. When I used Lulu (I later switched to CreateSpace due to printing costs), I didn’t have to pay any of those vanity press fees.
I just wish that that whole conglomerate of evil was removed from the planet like the stain they are. 🙂
Am I the only one who thinks that the guy on the ground is highly reminiscent of Crewman Number 6? Or even James Tibererius Jerk himself? The shirts, pants…just feels all Classic Star Trek-y, to me.
Vis-à-vis Authorhouse: the idea that somebody paid that type of dough, for this type of cover. It’s downright scary. I too, have had to deftly and kindly handle covers, interiors, etc., that have walked into my shop (we charge quite a bit more than Cheeseburgers, but not the earth) that were done at places like that, and it’s hard to do without hurting feelings.
Yeah, it’s blurry because of that not-crystal ball, but the clothing does resemble Classic Trek uniforms.
We do sort of have a Scooby-Dooesk bartering system going on.
I would charge much more appropriate rates for someone who hasn’t beta read, and fixed, my, comma errors,.,
I took a Look Inside (TM). The writing isn’t atrocious, but it’s pretty poor. Favorite line: ‘He had never had a dream stick this long.’
I sure hope he stretched first.
My dreamsticks are usually pretty long, too. I use them as back-scratchers when mine is being used by the cats.
Chronicles of Sangria more like.