Influence Publishing / Lean Marketing Press / Bookshaker

I can't figure it out either, and "lost interest" in all the text. It seems like they wrote and wrote and wrote...and never explained what they did/didn't do. I have no patience for that, so sorta gave up.

A couple dead links also made me wonder.

I checked out their books on Amazon.com. Prices are high, but the covers look good. It looks like they may specialize in books for people who sell mostly at speaking engagements, but I'm not entirely certain.

•Access To Our Affiliate Programme (An Optional Service where you get an army of affiliates selling your book for a share in the profit)

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I couldn't open the link (got a warning to change my php.ini file, which isn't going to happen), but this could be one possible money angle.

It’s only happened three times so far, but even authors who have made thousands from our efforts

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The link embedded on the web page under "made thousands from our efforts" links to a redirect page that takes you to a pay-to-play site purporting to teach one how to make their book an Amazon bestseller.

So, there's a couple of places that might possibly be linked to revenue streams. If someone can open that affiliate link, I'd be curious to know what that program is. Every time I hear "affiliate" I think MLM. On the other hand, Amazon's affiliate scheme works quite nicely and isn't MLM at all.

It's easy to read too much between the lines, but although they don't charge for the services they list (typesetting, marketing, etc.), they make no mention of whether or not you have to buy XXX copies yourself.

Call up your local bookstore and ask the acquisitions editor if they would/do stock any book by this publisher (and not on consignment!). Their claims about rocketing up the Amazon.co.uk Top 100 list in a matter of hours sounds fishy to me, but that's not something I would know about.

DeadlyAccurate said:

Prices are high,

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$25 for 220-pg paperback.

Smells like PA

They are selling a system for making your book a bestseller, which is a conflict of interest. Obviously if a publisher knows how to make books bestsellers, they would not sell the system but would apply it to their own books.

A lot of people claim to be able to manipulate the Amazon sales rank. It usually involves getting a bunch of people to buy your book in a short period of time. I'm not sure how well that works--Amazon is smart enough to detect obvious anomalies, and if the rank just looks at short term sales, yours will vanish as quickly as it shoots up.

I think the error Dreamweaver sees is a problem with their site, not something you have to change. However, here's a little info.

If you join their program (which costs money) and sell someone else's self-help title, you get 10%. So yeah, sort of a MLM kind of thing, where your target audience is other people who want to read get rich quick books.

And they pay a royalty of 20% on "profit," which means they pay on net.

[publisher] Influence Publishing/Inspireabook

www.influencepublishing.com

Didn't see a thread for this when I searched, so I thought I'd start one. I got a link through Linkedin from the company's founder, Julie Salisbury. Wanted to see if anyone had experience with this publisher.

Per her information on Linkedin, she started in Marketing and now has 7 years experience in the publishing (coaching) industry. More of her experience lies in Marketing and New product placement.

Inspired more than 150 first time writers.

Linked in says the company is two years old. So AW, what is the verdict on this company?

Have you, personally, read any of their books?

Do you know anyone who has?

From their website:

Author commitment:
200 book minimum purchases within three months of publish launch date, 100% payment with book order. Payment plans available @ $500 per month for 6 months (ROI Retail value approx $4800 based on rrp $23.95, average cost $14 per book) Books are purchased at 50% profit share and will vary with volume.

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So, this is a vanity press.

Ignore them.

Better still, actively avoid them.