Well I've just taken a look through Merpoint's FAQs and it's not encouraging.
For the reasons discussed by other posters, it's usually better for a start-up publisher to focus on one or two genres - usually those with which it has the most familiarity/presence/experience - so that it will be taken seriously more quickly.
These are all good stores, but I'm surprised that they're not also selling on their own website, if only to help secure brand awareness.
There's also the problem of how to distinguish its authors ebooks from the thousands of other ebooks that are also available on those sites. How is Merpoint going to market their books and make them stand out so that people will want to go to those sites and buy them?
The time frame is ambitious in terms of verifying receipt, particularly if they get a lot of responses. I'd suggest that like many publishers, they'll find they can tell a publishable manuscript from an unpublishable one in the first few pages - thereby reducing the 4 - 6 week time frame.
It's good that they're not charging any money, but then they're not paying anything up front either. I'm reserving judgment on whether they're a vanity publisher until more details emerge of their quality control - particularly given that the number of books they plan to produce is ambitious and holds all the qualities of an author mill.
That's not a great deal because they're basically paying royalties on net rather than cover price and the figure that the 35-50 percent is taken from will vary from retailer to retailer.
Misleading. Not only will commercial publishers pay you an advance up front for your work (meaning that you are less reliant on royalties), but royalty figures will usually be higher and staged. More print publishers are taking ebook rights and that will be factored into the advance and royalty payments.
Whereas some aspects of publishing contracts are fairly standard, key commercial clauses should be negotiable. I'd be interested in knowing what Merpoint will not be open to change.
It's questionable to what extent a 3 year period is of use to authors - depending on who's taking primary responsibility for marketing, it could mean that they cease publishing just as your sales are picking up. This also contradicts another page on the site which states they're looking for contracts of between 3 and 5 years (not that the period matters if the marketing is not there).
The cease-to-exist clause might sound reassuring but check with an insolvency lawyer because if the company goes into liquidation, it is usually open to a liquidator to retain rights and sell them on as assets of the company.
In addition, check how "cease to operate" is defined. If it only covers liquidation, then it could mean that your contract remains in place even if the company is no longer actively trading.
To summarise then, they have no plans to get your books into bricks and mortar stores.
I'm not sure how they're planning to offer POD or audio books given that their contract is not taking those rights. I'd also want to know who these POD and audio publishers are.
I was unaware that the names of illustrators was a trade secret. I'm particularly having problems seeing how it could be a trade secret given that it's planning to use freelancers who would presumably want to be able to point to their work as part of their resume.
Erm ... what? There are several ebook publishers who pay advances for electronic works - the medium does not prevent a company from offering one.
Ebooks might be capable of going to market more quickly than print books, however royalties are only paid on sales and if you've got not strategy in place to sell the same, how are the royalty payments going to be higher?
No.
Royalty payments shouldn't be determined by the amount of editing required on a manuscript. If a manuscript needs a lot of work before publication then either (a) don't accept it or (b) include the cost of such editing in the cover price.
You don't stiff authors for your own poor business decisions.
This is worrying. It suggests that there will be little quality control.
Which ones?
There are also worrying signs on the Services page.
Editing is not just grammar and spelling. Does the structure of the story work? Are the characters believable? Is the dialogue effective?
So basically their marketing strategy is social networking?
What does that 5% come out of? The author's cut or Merpoint's cut?
I'd like to know which publishers, particularly because the range of roles described here is incredibly wide-ranging. I'm particularly interested in knowing which commercial publisher had a role relating to "solicitation of content for publication".
MM
For the reasons discussed by other posters, it's usually better for a start-up publisher to focus on one or two genres - usually those with which it has the most familiarity/presence/experience - so that it will be taken seriously more quickly.
These are all good stores, but I'm surprised that they're not also selling on their own website, if only to help secure brand awareness.
There's also the problem of how to distinguish its authors ebooks from the thousands of other ebooks that are also available on those sites. How is Merpoint going to market their books and make them stand out so that people will want to go to those sites and buy them?
The time frame is ambitious in terms of verifying receipt, particularly if they get a lot of responses. I'd suggest that like many publishers, they'll find they can tell a publishable manuscript from an unpublishable one in the first few pages - thereby reducing the 4 - 6 week time frame.
It's good that they're not charging any money, but then they're not paying anything up front either. I'm reserving judgment on whether they're a vanity publisher until more details emerge of their quality control - particularly given that the number of books they plan to produce is ambitious and holds all the qualities of an author mill.
That's not a great deal because they're basically paying royalties on net rather than cover price and the figure that the 35-50 percent is taken from will vary from retailer to retailer.
Misleading. Not only will commercial publishers pay you an advance up front for your work (meaning that you are less reliant on royalties), but royalty figures will usually be higher and staged. More print publishers are taking ebook rights and that will be factored into the advance and royalty payments.
Whereas some aspects of publishing contracts are fairly standard, key commercial clauses should be negotiable. I'd be interested in knowing what Merpoint will not be open to change.
It's questionable to what extent a 3 year period is of use to authors - depending on who's taking primary responsibility for marketing, it could mean that they cease publishing just as your sales are picking up. This also contradicts another page on the site which states they're looking for contracts of between 3 and 5 years (not that the period matters if the marketing is not there).
The cease-to-exist clause might sound reassuring but check with an insolvency lawyer because if the company goes into liquidation, it is usually open to a liquidator to retain rights and sell them on as assets of the company.
In addition, check how "cease to operate" is defined. If it only covers liquidation, then it could mean that your contract remains in place even if the company is no longer actively trading.
To summarise then, they have no plans to get your books into bricks and mortar stores.
I'm not sure how they're planning to offer POD or audio books given that their contract is not taking those rights. I'd also want to know who these POD and audio publishers are.
I was unaware that the names of illustrators was a trade secret. I'm particularly having problems seeing how it could be a trade secret given that it's planning to use freelancers who would presumably want to be able to point to their work as part of their resume.
Erm ... what? There are several ebook publishers who pay advances for electronic works - the medium does not prevent a company from offering one.
Ebooks might be capable of going to market more quickly than print books, however royalties are only paid on sales and if you've got not strategy in place to sell the same, how are the royalty payments going to be higher?
No.
Royalty payments shouldn't be determined by the amount of editing required on a manuscript. If a manuscript needs a lot of work before publication then either (a) don't accept it or (b) include the cost of such editing in the cover price.
You don't stiff authors for your own poor business decisions.
This is worrying. It suggests that there will be little quality control.
Which ones?
There are also worrying signs on the Services page.
Editing is not just grammar and spelling. Does the structure of the story work? Are the characters believable? Is the dialogue effective?
So basically their marketing strategy is social networking?
What does that 5% come out of? The author's cut or Merpoint's cut?
I'd like to know which publishers, particularly because the range of roles described here is incredibly wide-ranging. I'm particularly interested in knowing which commercial publisher had a role relating to "solicitation of content for publication".
MM
