Tirjasdyn:
I just sent a complaint to companies house about the spamming they are doing.
Companies House won't do anything about that. They're not responsible for and don't care about companies that spam. They're only interested in maintaining the companies register.
You would be better off to check the Terms of Use on each of the websites that they're putting spam on to see if spam is prohibited. If it is, then make a report of it.
Julia Heron:
Catcher Limited and Pulse Books (plus Pulse Music) and the offer we are making to selected writers (and musicians) is not ‘a scam’ and we will be taking legal action against you unless you can find a way of undoing the damage you may have caused.
Julia, if you're reading this - please provide the contact details of the lawyers that you plan to instruct with regard to this "legal action". I'm sure that
Tirjasdyn would love to get in touch with them to verify your threat and if
Tirjasdyn can't be bothered, then I'd like to have a word with them because the English courts take a very dim view of what is termed "vexatious litigation" and in fact plaintiffs found to be wasting the courts time because they have no basis for their claim can themselves be found liable for damages.
In fact, you might want to check out the implications of making a claim before you actually make one - even if you do decide to make good on your words, there's this little process called "Discovery" which means that
Tirjasdyn and any other defendant can ask for documents pertaining to their defence, including matters such as your business model, who you're set up to distribute books to etc etc.
Oh - and you might want to consider the fact that law suits are expensive in England and Wales and I notice that you're registered as a small company. Are you really sure that you want to take the risk of legal action when you appear to have low capitalisation? Because if you lose, the costs against you can be prohibitively expensive.
Julia Heron:
Check us out at
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk - our Company Registration Number is: 4463969.
As
Old Hack has already pointed out, this means precisely bollock all. There aren't many prohibitions on who can set up a company in the UK and in fact the main ones that I can think of from the top of my head is the prohibition on a company having directors who have been insolvent or banned from running a company by the Department of Trade and Industry.
However, one thing I did notice when I took another look at the company's details is that it's not actually listed as carrying out publishing activities (instead it's listed under "9305 - Other service activities"). In itself that means little because so far as I'm aware, that's a broad category, but it does seem interesting that not even the company owners want to describe it as a publisher.
Julia Heron:
Our new offer for unpublished writers is a fantastic idea which makes best use of the web and, frankly, can be the anwer to many unpublished writers’ dreams.
And how
precisely is a company that appears to have no publishing experience and seems to only make books available through its own website (which the company is having to resort to spam in order to promote) "the answer to many unpublished writers' dreams",
Julia?
Julia Heron:
Incidentally, we also run a free (sponsor & government funded) arts and publishing programme with schools and colleges both in and outside the UK
If that's the case, why don't you list those sponsor and government funding bodies on your website?
In any event, any funding that Catcher Limited has with regard to its schools/college programme does not in any way legitimise your self-publishing business. Indeed, I would suggest that operating a self-publishing business at the same time as doing whatever it is you do with schools and colleges could itself be a conflict of interest, particularly if you're promoting that business to the students you're supposed to be educating.
Julia Heron:
why are you so cynical?
I can't say why other people are cynical about Catcher Limited, but the reasons why I'm cynical about them are listed below:
-
Julia Heron does not cite any publishing experience that would give me faith in the fact that she or her company knows what it's doing.
- There is nothing to indicate that Catcher Limited is in any position to sell books to the public. At present they talk only about making books available through their own website, which they're having to use spam in order to promote.
- They're charging £45 for the privilege of being published by them. Commercial publishers don't charge money because they know how to sell books to the public.
- They require authors to generate 300 orders before they'll publish a book. Commercial publishers don't require their authors to do this.
- They're charging authors for services that should be standard for any commercial publisher and they're not open about the fees that they plan to charge.
- At the first sign of people questioning the value of her company,
Julia Heron threatens unspecified legal action. Commercial publishers don't need to do that.
Julia Heron:
We’re not even asking for the £45 administration fee (very under-costed by the way) until the writer/musician has a contract in place!
What exactly does this £45 "administration fee" cover? If it's "under-costed" as you claim, then why do you need it in the first place because you seem to be saying it doesn't actually cover your costs. And in any event, you shouldn't be charging anything without a contract in place anyway so that everyone knows what they're entering into.
MM
