Hi,
justfran, and welcome to AW.
justfran:
They gave me a standard royalty schedule in my contract and did not ask me for any money to self publish.
Definite a "standard royalty schedule". Although it's good that they're not asking you for money up-front to self-publish, they're also not paying you for your manuscript. You also need to consider how much you're likely to spend in having to market your own book, including the cost of materials and whether you are likely to have to buy copies of your own book in order to sell it, in which case, you're more than likely going to be forced to sell those books at a higher than cover price to make any money as I suspect the contract you signed will exclude author-bought copies from the royalty payment obligation.
Given Raular's apparent inability to secure instore distribution for books, the chances of you making double figures on your royalty cheques are slim.
justfran:
I also connected with R. A. Lura personally and she has started to get fan mail from her books and is very happy with their marketing plan.
Well, I'd expect her to be happy with their marketing plan given that the company appears to have been set up by her to self-publish her own books.
justfran:
I think you guys are being very negative about a company that hasn't been around long enough to really have earned the bad mouthing.
The "bad mouthing" is based on their complete lack of any publishing experience, coupled with the fact that self-publishing start-ups tend to have a very limited commercial life as the owners realise how much it costs to print and market books. There are plenty of other threads in this forum that are littered with ventures set up by similar inexperienced people that went belly up in the first 12 to 24 months, taking with it author's books.
justfran:
Or maybe you are their competition and want to scare people away? Or maybe they turned you down and you're mad?
No to each of these. If you stick around to check out the site, you'll see that this is a place where people who do have industry experience can explain the realities of publishing to those who don't.
Hi,
MDLG, and welcome to AW.
MDLG:
I am a fourteen time published author, in two languages,
Who were your previous publishers?
MDLG:
my latest publication was published by raularpublishig a publishing house that gives the opportunity to publish new authors helping them putting their foot at the door of sucess.
Given that you've been published 14 times before, why do you categorise yourself as a new author and why do you think you need a start-up like this that has no previous publishing experience?
MDLG:
Many of us authors have no the means to pay up front a publishing house for their services which are the same as raular publishing render to their author, without the up front cost.
No commercial publisher that's set up to sell books to the general public via book stores is going to ask you to pay up front. The only companies that ask you to do this are vanity houses. Vanity publishing is not a publishing credit. Neither is self-publishing.
The fact that Raular is offering expensive books with no distribution in place for free does not mean that they are a good publisher.
MDLG:
I am sure in the publicity critic render by this board, I know that all serious and talented authors like all of you knows that you have to walk the mile to get your work known I am must sure the pinguin group asked their authors to be available for signings and tv interviews and to inquired about having their work sold.
Actually, Penguin Group would usually work with the authors and their agents re organising book signings because the agent/author is most likely to have control over their schedule. TV interviews are the exception rather than the norm in the publishing world, although some authors will have interviews arranged.
While I do not disagree that authors need to be more prepared to engage in helping to promote their book, they should not be the ones out there making the actual sales.
A publisher that cannot and does not get your books into bookstores is, by definition, not set up to sell to the general public. Therefore
you will be the one spending money trying to promote it,
you will be the one who more than likely ends up having to buy copies of your book in order to sell them to other people and
you will be the one who is ultimately out of pocket at the end of the day.
MDLG:
so I feel lucky to have my spiritual self help book published by raularpublishers, which is now saling in Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and almost all stores and librarys in USA also in Europe as I do have a publicist in that part of the world.
There's a difference between a book being available in a book store and being made available for order at a book store.
The former involves the book being physically present in the store. Unless something has drastically changed at Raular since October last year, they are not set up to do this.
The latter means very little in terms of sales. If people don't know about your book because it's not there in the store, they won't know to order it.
MDLG:
If your publishing house do that work, I am sure they should be charging for the services and guess what?
Guess again. Any commercial publishing house will be paying you for your book via an advance and they will have calculated that advance based on how many copies they think they can sell to the public. The marketing budget will also be factored into how the publishing company plans to sell the book and they won't charge you for it.
MDLG:
about the 7 years contract i wish they give me more years in order to have my book in print.
Any commercial publisher would take a contract without the limitation period because even mid-list books can keep selling for years into the future.
MDLG:
Do you know Mark Twain was a self published author.
So you admit that Raular is little better than a self-publishing venture?
Also, did you know that Mark Twain was publishing over 100 years ago and the industry has moved on since then?
MDLG:
Give raular a chance, they just started.
Why? A company with no experience, no distribution and nothing to offer authors than the usual guff about giving them an opportunity is so much same old, same old. Companies like Raular come and go. Except that they mostly go and when they do, they take the author's dreams and hopes with them.
justfran:
But, I think it might be helpful if you have them re-check their website periodically. Raular did a recent face lift to their site and eliminated the voice but also they no longer offer extra services so they can not be considered a self publishing company.
I suggest you check out my post on this thread
here. With the exception of the paid editing services (which do indeed appear to have been dropped from being advertised on the website), everything else I said about:
- their lack of distribution,
- the vagueness as to their marketing and publishing experience,
- the wide variety of genres they are accepting (including stage plays - where there is absolutely no market),
- those marketing efforts they do on the author's behalf, and
- their refusal to set out details of their staff experience,
holds true.
I'll add to this that the front page of their website says they accept "juvenile books" but their submissions page states that they don't accept children's books. This suggests that they don't know what a "juvenile" book is.
justfran:
for someone who has been rejected repeatedly and is trying to get their foot in the door, then it might be worth getting your feet wet by giving them a try.
Or that author could just try to write another book. It's better not to be published than to be published badly.
justfran:
I have looked on the web and find my book is available not only in amazon and bn.com but in Powells and in some stores Australia, etc.
What stores in Australia is it actually stocked in?
justfran:
it really shouldn't matter how many brick and mortar bookstores there are in an area since there are plenty of ways to reach a reader via the internet, which they managed to do.
Unfortunately, it does matter how many stores they're in. Even people who buy books on Amazon will usually have checked the book out first in their local store or library. Being able to physically peruse a book is a big component in making a sale.
justfran, aren't you just a little suspicious as to why R. A. Lura is so positive about a company that is an anagram of her name? Have you asked whether she is responsible for setting up the company? If so, don't you think this is why she's so happy about it and why she's encouraging other 'new writers" to take a chance on it?
She keeps talking about it as though it's nothing to do with her, but her books were the first ones to be published through it.
MM
