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Stay Thirsty Publishing / Schiller & Wells / Stay Thirsty Media

herdon

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I came across this publisher while browsing Freelance Jobs for Web and Print. They were advertising for an Acquisitions Editor in Craiglist.

Schiller & Wells

They appear to be a branch of Stay Thirsty Media, which has a publishing arm for 'veteran writers' and four books published from that line.

They also appear to only publish books as eBooks/Kindle.

Here's a great snippet I found from the Telecommute Job List:
Stay Thirsty Media, Inc. (http://www.staythirsty.com), an internationally recognized news and media organization viewed in over 170 countries, announces the launch of Schiller & Wells, Ltd., a new digital book publishing division dedicated to discovering talented new authors who have not yet been published. Schiller & Wells, Ltd. was formed as a publishing cooperative where the risk and the expense of publishing and the reward of royalty revenues are shared between the author and the publisher. Only a limited number of authors will be selected by Schiller & Wells, Ltd. to participate in this cooperative. Please email a resume, synopsis of the work, and the first two chapters to [email protected]. If we are interested, we will contact you.

Obviously, new authors should stay away.
 

Richard White

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Schiller & Wells, Ltd. was formed as a publishing cooperative where the risk and the expense of publishing and the reward of royalty revenues are shared between the author and the publisher.

That says all you need to know.

Money flows toward the author.
 

Richard White

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Stay Thirsty Publishing/Schiller & Wells, Ltd.

Another new publisher rears its head Stay Thirsty Publishing . While perusing through its web site, I note the editors do seem to have some experience, which is a good start. Then I get to their FAQ's and the alarm bells start going off:

How they're different from traditional publishers . . .

1. Traditional publishers typically pay the author an advance against future royalties with a royalty payment schedule of 10% of the Net from hard cover sales and 6-8% of the Net from paperback sales. (See Royalty Software Guide.com) Calculation of the Net is totally within the traditional publisher’s control and often difficult for the author to verify.

Both Stay Thirsty Publishing imprints—Stay Thirsty Press and Schiller & Wells, Ltd.—do not pay an advance against future royalties, but pay a royalty rate of 50% of all Gross revenues received from the sale of the digital book and any sub-license of subsidiary rights. Calculation of the Gross revenue is transparent and easily verified, and there are no holdbacks or reserves for returns from the sale of a digital book.

2. Traditional publishers typically publish physical books and have only recently begun to release titles in digital format.

Stay Thirsty Publishing
publishes digital books and will seek when possible to sub-license the physical book rights for both domestic and foreign sales.

3. Traditional publishers typically bear the entire costs of publication.

Our Stay Thirsty Press imprint for veteran authors and award-winning scholars bears the entire cost of publication just as the traditional publishers do. For more details please read our Stay Thirsty Press section.

Our Schiller & Wells, Ltd. imprint for new authors and scholars requires that the author contribute a fixed amount ($3,750) toward the prepublication costs of their book. A Schiller & Wells, Ltd. author earns 100% of the first Gross revenues from the sale of their digital book and any sub-licensing of subsidiary rights until their prepublication contribution is repaid in full. Thereafter, author and publisher split the revenues 50/50. For more information about why we established this prepublication fee, please read our Schiller & Wells, Ltd. section.

4. Traditional publishers pay royalties once or twice per year.

Stay Thirsty Publishing pays royalties to its authors within 15 business days of the receipt of any revenue received from sales of the author’s digital book or any sub-licensing of subsidiary rights of that book. Royalty payments are generally transmitted electronically to the author or literary agent via PayPal.


How does Stay Thirsty Publishing differ from a vanity press?
Vanity press companies offer book publishing services for a fee. These companies typically offer a wide range of services from editing to cover design, manufacturing and marketing. On the internet an author can find many companies that offer both physical book and digital book publishing services at rates ranging up to $25,000. The entire financial risk of vanity publishing falls solely upon the author.


Stay Thirsty Publishing is not a fee-for-service publisher. The costs associated with publishing veteran authors and award-winning scholars under our Stay Thirsty Press imprint are borne solely by Stay Thirsty Publishing. The costs associated with publishing new authors and scholars under our Schiller & Wells, Ltd. imprint are shared by author and publisher, as detailed in the preceding question. Since we are sharing in the financial risk of publishing a new author or scholar, all books published by Schiller & Wells, Ltd. are carefully vetted. No one is able to “buy” their way into publication.


(Italics added for emphasis)

O.K. commercial publishers pay on cover price, not net.
Commercial publishers do not require a co-pay for new authors
Commercial publishers do not require an author to submit their work to an independent editor if they don't think it's edited enough (from their submissions page).

I can't see any reason to recommend this publisher at all.
 

Elvirnith

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Umm... run. Run far, far away.

However, since the risks of publishing new, emerging, and upcoming writers and scholars are different from the risks associated with publishing veteran, award-winning authors, those writers and scholars accepted by Schiller & Wells, Ltd. will be required to contribute a fixed amount ($3,750) toward the prepublication expenses of their book with the balance of the expenses borne by Stay Thirsty Publishing. Prepublication expenses typically include cover design, preparation of the manuscript for digital publication, completed digital publication, development of product description, promotional strategy and materials, creation of encyclopedic listings when appropriate, and interfacing with internal and external media outlets. Schiller & Wells, Ltd. authors will receive 100% of the first Gross revenues from digital sales and any sub-licensing of their book in order to recoup their prepublication expense contribution in full before the publisher is entitled to share in the royalties.

http://www.staythirstymedia.com/bookpublishing/html/schiller-wells.html
 

Annayna

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TY for the merge, I should have searched but this headache is killing me and a friend recommended this publisher
 

KathrynLang

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Stay Thirsty ePublisher

Hey folks, thanks for the information about this company. They have a new ad up for writers and I am glad I was able to find out some more before going through the application process.

Btw - has anyone had personal experience working with them?