Accomplice Press, LLC

http://www.accomplicepress.com/

Run by people with minimal experience in publishing, who are for all intents and purposes, authors.

From the FAQ Page:

Why should I submit my book to Accomplice Press for publication?
Accomplice Press I run by two authors who have been published in the e-book industry, and have also worked for e-book publishers in various positions. We have over 10 years experience in the industry. We have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. We know how hard it is for talented people to get published. It is easy to get overlooked at the big corporate publishing companies, and too easy to get published at amateurish e-publishing companies that have little to no screening process.

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They don't look any different from a typical startup to me.

An all-genre e-publisher run by people with experience only as authiors? A muddled website with broken links and a single book released so far? I wouldn't be optimistic.

They tried to recruit me too. I'm not sure how they got my name or email address. I wouldn't go to them at all.

We don't "recruit"

I wanted to reply to the comments above. I appreciate the concern, but believe some of the comments were a bit unfounded and harsher than necessary. It should be noted, that all of the comments about our website were made BEFORE we officially opened. (We did not officially launch until September 2009).

Accomplice Press Publishing a very small, independent publishing company. We make no bones about who or what we are and do not hide or lie about our history or experience.

For "rockitwoman" we have NEVER and WILL NEVER email ANYONE with the intent to "recruit". When we first started up some of our authors and editors sent out emails to their own contacts letting readers and authors alike know that we were opening and accepting submissions, but that is the extent of it. If you received an unsolicited email from someone claiming to be affiliated with Accomplice Press Publishing, you should not reply. It is not us. I would appreciate it if you go to our website and report it using our contact page.

Beyond those points, we realize we are not for everyone. We encourage anyone who is thinking about submitting to us to read through everything on our website thoroughly and to research us.

If you have a negative experience or a problem with us, please let us know immediately. However, please do not post something negative about us unless you have actually had a negative experience with us.

Hi, accomplicepress, and welcome to AW.

accomplicepress:
please do not post something negative about us unless you have actually had a negative experience with us.

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Why should someone have to wait until they've had a negative experience before pointing out potential pitfalls of signing their manuscript up with your company?

The whole point of this forum is to enable authors to go into a contract aware of all of the risks so that they (hopefully) do not have a negative experience.

Having had a quick perusal of your website, you don't have (and don't claim to have) any previous publishing experience. That's a worry. Publishing is not an entry level career. It's competitive, capital intensive and requires contacts to get books placed and promoted properly. Why should authors be your learning curve?

I see that both D J Alling and Marlene Liotti claim to have "successfully" had books published elsewhere. For D J Alling I can find only one book self-published through Create Space (hardly a professional credit). I can't find anything on Amazon.com for Marlene Liotti. If you're going to rely on pen names, then give those names because otherwise you lack credibility.

Both founds claim to have worked with other publishers but these publishers are not named. Again, it goes to credibility.

A lot of the claims on your website amount to hyperbole and certainly don't instill confidence in anyone familiar with how publishing works.

You dish out the same old b-s about agents only being interested in the bottom line and commercial publishers only being interested in blockbusters.

The fact that you're accepting poetry is the sure sign of an amateur because unless you are very well known and highly regarded, there is no money in poetry at all as a market.

MM

I completely understand the reason for this thread, and am all for it. My comment about negative comments was meant more towards "please don't say we did something unless you are sure we did it".

Our webmaster is in the process of updating our website and your questions will be answered there. Other than that, I won't argue or debate. This thread IS for authors to give their opinions and make up their own minds. I only wanted it known that we are not a "scam" and we have never and will never try to "recruit" authors.

Submission Guidelines

Thank you for your interest in Accomplice Press. We are small press that is looking for new writers whose characters and stories may not be “commercial” enough to be picked up by the big guys. We believe that choosing not to publish something based on “commercial potential” rather whether or not it is a well told story by a talented writer not only cheats the writer out of the ability to tell their story, but it cheats the reader! We want to help you tell your story.
Although we are a small press we do get a lot of submissions. We openly accept submissions and will not close submissions. However, because of the volume of submissions we MUST have rules to abide by. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE read ALL of the pages linked to this page before submitting.
PLEASE do not submit to us if you are not serious about contracting with us. If you have read all of our information and guidelines and still have a question, PLEASE email using the CONTACT US page FIRST! Your time is valuable, and so is ours. Every submission is read by three people. This takes us time and energy. Please keep that in mind and realize that our minimum respond time on a manuscript is 30 days and maximum is 90.

**NOTICE: WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS!**​

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not much of that is encouraging to me, from the typo in line one, to the excessive capitalization and to exclamation points to not accepting sim subs. so for 90 days (three months) you just wait for them to maybe take your manuscript, which they're not concerned about saleability on...

This press has somewhat of an unfortunate name. It brings up connotations in my mind that I doubt the founders intended.

Also the colour scheme looks garish in firefox.

An epublisher who doesn't offer excerpts of their books might as well post a sign saying "We don't expect people who don't know us to buy these books at all."

I would never buy a book from an epublisher without having read a sample first. I don't know anyone who would. Heck, I don't usually buy books from anywhere without having read an excerpt first, but at least with NY published books I have the knowledge that the book will be of a certain quality standard.

Not posting excerpts in shooting yourselves in the foot. Seriously. It's tremendously important. It lets readers know what they're buying. It's proof of how much you believe in the writing.

I have the first five chapters of UNHOLY GHOSTS, and the first three chapters of both UNHOLY MAGIC and CITY OF GHOSTS, available for download on my website. I know for a fact there are people who d/led the sample just to see, and bought the books because of it--they've emailed me, or mentioned it online. The chapters have been downloaded over a thousand times. People read excerpts, and people buy from excerpts, period. If a publisher doesn't understand that incredibly basic thing--which is essentially saying they don't understand how and why people buy books--I wouldn't trust them with my ms.

I found an excerpt from one of their books, Sanity Interrupted, but there's a typo in the second paragraph, the protagonist is nameless and the sentence construction is... repetitive, to say the least.

Realizing, after turning forty, that she possess a powerful allure to younger men is a wake-up call.

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Queen of Swords said:

I found an excerpt from one of their books, Sanity Interrupted, but there's a typo in the second paragraph, the protagonist is nameless and the sentence construction is... repetitive, to say the least.

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Is that an excerpt or a very long blurb? I don't understand it; it doesn't actually seem like a story, just a description.

So, we were 'harsher than necessary', about a press that will have an overall lifespan of less than a month?

A year. Thanks. And our closing has nothing to do with our success. But thanks a lot.

Will you return the rights back to the authors?

So what happens to the rights of those authors who have published with you during the last year of operation? Presumably they are being returned for no charge and Accomplice Press will make full payment of any and all outstanding royalties due?

MM

OF COURSE ALL RIGHTS REVERT TO THE AUTHORS AND ALL OUTSTANDING ROYALTIES ARE PAID!... We are not a scam and never were! If ANY of you had ever taken the time to email us or talk to us, or to any of our authors you would know that. Our contracted authors know why we are closing and not one of them has any complaints about us.

Geez don't be so freakin defensive! Who said you were a scam?

Wow. Way to go with the CAPSLOCK RAGE there. It's always nice to see a professional response to a reasonable question. Maybe you'll accomplish it some day.

As regards your being a scam - where has that accusation been made on this thread? Answer: nowhere. If you want to have an eppy, could you take it elsewhere please. Your over-defensive attitude for what seems to be yet another failed start-up publisher is tiring.

MM

If a bunch of people were tearing down something you have spent the past year and a half putting every bit of your work and heart into, only to see it close due to life circumstances, you would probably get a bit defensive too.

Learn to accept critism. If you put yourself out there, it's going to happen.

Questioning whether rights will be returned and outstanding royalties paid (while understandable given the circumstances) is also essentially asking whether the publisher intends to cheat his writers out of their rights and fair due, which is probably why accomplice press took offense (and scams, by definition, cheat people, soooooo...)

Accomplice Press - I'm sorry to hear you're closing. Best of luck to you. The comments here may seem harsh, and in my opinion, they often are a bit harsh, but this is only because most writers here subscribe to the "better safe than sorry" mentality. If a publisher is innocent till proven guilty, then it will take many a writer down with it before it is proven guilty. If a publisher is guilty till proven innocent, then writers will stay away until they know it's safe. It's a defense mechanism of sorts, and as much as I wish we didn't need it, unfortunately we do.

And they are free to answer nothing.