James Russell Publishing

[veinglory]

http://www.jamesrussellpublishing.biz/

On another forum I cam across someone asking about getting a screenplay published here. Input appreciated.

 

[thothguard51]

From their about us page...

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James Russell Publishing is an independent book publisher and product developer. Our International Standard Book Number Prefix (ISBN) is 1-916367. Our International Standard Address Number (SAN) is 295-852X. We are listed in all major trade magazines and publications.​

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James Russell Publishing has one of the World's largest Websites and offers many free gifts gifts to our Website visitors. See Free Gifts.​

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If you are an author we would like to hear from you.​

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We have worldwide distribution for our books with Baker & Taylor, Ingram, Lightning Source in the United Kingdom. We also have many smaller wholesalers who carry our books in the USA.​

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We are not a vanity or subsidy press or a limited market e-book marketer. We are a conventional book publisher. We charge no fees to authors and pay royalties. Click here for book submission guidelines. Click here for screenplay and stage play submission guidelines.​

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All of our published paperback books are also converted to e-books and sold worldwide in all available markets.​

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We don't just sell books. We offer free advice to authors, screenwriters and for competition target trap shooters, motorcycle riders, Christians, and many more. See our Site Map for a complete listing.​

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Start at our home page or site map to negotiate this Website. If you need to contact us our address is below. Thank you for visiting!​

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Vendor inquiries invited. Go to our our Bookseller & Distributor page.​

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Click here​

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To me they sound very legit but looking over their catalogue, it seems they mostly print non-fiction...mostly.

 

[veinglory]

The suggestion seemed to be that publishing a screenplay would help sell it. Which struck me as not necessarily the case?

 

[michael_b]

I took a couple minutes to wander around the site. The ebooks are very over priced--cost as much as the print versions--and are all written by the owner of the company. Some of the links to the print versions on amazon are broken.

Books listed in certain sections are not published by this company, they are published by major NYC based publishers and are linked through to amazon.

Their 'free gifts' are all Christian tracts.

 

[Maryn]

I think Michael's on to something...

Maryn, eyes wide open

 

[Momento Mori]

James Russell Publishing Website:
James Russell Publishing is no longer accepting submissions. However, we may in the future. In the mean time, there is still a lot of helpful advice for you on this Web site. See links below and MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION GUIDELINES & ADVICE

Well that's something at least.

James Russell Publishing Website: (BOLDING MINE)
No publisher, regardless of how large they are, can guarantee your book will end up on the shelves in all the book stores. If you visit a supermarket or bookstore, you will notice the shelves are packed solid. There's no room for your product or book! This means, to place your book on the shelf, some other book needs to be removed; and that "other book" is likely a proven consistent seller. The bookstore's buyer makes these decisions, not the publisher or the writer. There's more to this, but to get a self-published book into the major chain bookstores is close to impossible. Why? Because you need clout, contacts, reputation and major distribution representation. These are items publishers have and the self-publisher simply can not obtain. The distribution system is complex and has rules that are quite difficult for the small self-publisher to meet. It's pretty well designed for the publishers who have good distributors, and they are very difficult to get! We were lucky and the Lord smiled upon us that we were picked up by Baker & Taylor and Ingram, the two largest book distributors in the world. It can be done if you put time and money into the venture. How much money? About $30,000 to $40,000 of investment per title and there is no guarantee you will succeed.

I've bolded all of the information that is misleading.

James Russell Publishing Website: (BOLDING MINE)
Small publishers will generally keep your book on the market longer. You earn royalties for many years, since they have few books, they push them hard to all the established markets. Large publishers will take you on, present the book in a fast-track manner. If the books sells? Great! If not, you go into the backlist, fast! Example: Publishers Weekly (10-15-99 newsletter issue) stated one major publisher had 13,500 titles in print, 8,200 were backlist and had sales of less than 100 copies a year! The average backlist title sold just 32 copies and 1,000 titles were discontinued in just one year. Those poor authors! The large publishers are like shredding machines grabbing as many manuscripts as they can, trying to see what sells and what does not. The author's book is grinded up in the process along with any hope of obtaining royalties. It's a numbers game with the large publishers. The small publisher will likely do you better. Also, when a book becomes a bestseller it is often subcontracted from small to large publisher. The bottom line, it's not the publisher that is better or not, it's the book. Most books fail simply because the book did not take well in the market.

Again, I've bolded the misleading information.

James Russell Publishing Website: (BOLDING MINE)
Probably the the 10%. Advances are "lures" to attract writers. The advance money is always paid back to the publisher, one way or another, taken from your royalties. Publisher expenses will certainly account for the advance and you'll pay for it. Royalty and advances can be very misleading to writers. It's not the royalty or the advance that counts, but the sales of your books! Pick the publisher you believe has the most experience in the specific genre. It's better to take a 10% royalty on $100,000 in sales than 15% from $1,000. Look in the book contract for hidden expenses, etc. One of the bigger problems in book contracts is the publisher offers a large 15% royalty based on the retail price. This sounds fabulous, but there will be a "royalty reduction clause" for discounted sales. Since most all sales are discounted to book distributors your royalty could be as low as 5%. Other cautions: the 15% royalty may be based on net sales, meaning all the publisher's expenses are deducted first, then if any money is left over, then you get 15% of that, which could be nothing for many years. We don't use these formulas. We use the gross formula for royalties based on actual sales. Every book we sell you earn a royalty payment. Keep in mind, that big 15% royalty will need to be shared with your literary agent, so what are you really getting now?

That is pure, unadulterated bullshit. Publishers do not take back advances. The point about an advance is that it is cash in hand predicated on the publisher believing that a certain number of sales can be met. If those sales aren't met, you don't earn royalties but you will still have your cash advance.

James Russell Publishing Website:
A publisher wants me to sign a contract for a 34 year term. Is this good or bad?
It is good as long as there is a "Reversion of Rights" clause in the contract that states if sales go south or the books are not made available for sale in a certain time period the contract can be terminated. Many authors suffer when they find their book on the publisher's "backlist" category forever (35 to 45 years is the copyright max for publishers) and can not get the book back to submit it to another publisher. The larger the publisher, the higher this abuse appears to be. Welcome to the world of writing and publishing!

Actually it's bad. You should have an out of print clause in your contract, under which rights will revert to you once the publisher ceases publication of it.

James Russell Publishing Website:
Should I copyright my manuscript before sending it to agents and publishers?
Yes, in most all cases. Write to: Copyright Information Center, Suite 480, 1707 L. St. N.W., Washington, DC 20005. Phone: (202)-479-0700. Ask for a instructional guide book and an application to copyright a book. They will send you form PA. Fill in the form, include a check for approximately $20 (fee has increased) with a sample copy of your manuscript. It's that easy. Most publishers and agents are not going to steal your work, in fact, it rarely happens at all. The copyright is important to "prove" you are the original author. A copyright registration lasts your lifetime plus fifty years.

Actually, the answer is "no".

James Russell Publishing Website:
How do I copyright a pen name?
There is a line you fill out on the copyright form for this purpose. It's very easy.

You can't copyright a pen name.

There's some sound advice in there too, but it's lost among the bullshit.

At best, this is some well-meaning but clueless amateur trying to help people.

MM

 

[M.R.J. Le Blanc]

I've never heard of a successful pub who sold anything other than books. I don't think a publisher would have to. These people sound like they're too all over the place to be effective in anything.

 

[ejr]

JAMES RUSSELL PUBLISHING

Has anyone heard of this publisher? His web site makes him sound a bit like a kook:

http://www.jamesrussellpublishing.biz/aboutus.html

 

[CaoPaux]

If it wasn't before, it's now strictly a self-publishing operation.