Hello! I haven't found a thread about them, but I submitted a sample to them some time ago. Just wanna check. Here's their site: http://www.gypsyshadow.com/
Thanks ya'll!
Thanks ya'll!
Thanks for the response M.R.J! Do you mean by "...offers no criteria on how that is achieved" that the paperbacks might not get into the brick-and-mortar stores?
Gypsy Shadow Website:
We publish high-quality well-written manuscripts in a variety of genres and lengths. We want short stories, short story collections, novellas, novels in installment, novels, poetry to be included in a collection offered by GSP, poetry collections and non-fiction works.
Gypsy Shadow Website:
We will not consider manuscripts that are currently on submission to another publisher unless prior arrangements have been made with us directly BEFORE your submission. Please query FIRST if you wish to submit to other publishers simultaneously.
Gypsy Shadow Website:
It is not necessary for you to register or copyright your work before publication—it is protected by law as long as it has not been published. When a print edition is published, we will copyright the book in the author's name and register that copyright with the Library of Congress.
Gypsy Shadow Website:
Gypsy Shadow Publishing is a brand new publishing company. Its founders, Denise Bartlett and Charlotte Holley, are veteran authors themselves and have worked in various aspects of the print world for decades. With experience ranging from writing short stories and poetry to full length novels, newspaper columns and reviews to news and investigative articles, Bartlett and Holley are not strangers to the written word.
Gypsy Shadow Sample Contract:
The Author, on behalf of the Author and the Author's heirs, executors, administrators, successors and assignees, grants to the Publisher the sole and exclusive worldwide right to the publish:
Gypsy Shadow Sample Contract:
Print Edition: Optionally, to produce and sell in paper format(s) the Work in English. (Check here if the Paper Format is to be included: _____).
Gypsy Shadow Sample Contract:
This Agreement shall begin with the execution of this contract and continue in force for a period of ____ (__) years from the actual date of publication of each edition.
Gypsy Shadow Sample Contract:
Author will be asked to produce proposed back blurb text and suggestions for cover art of Print Editions.
It's one thing to not accept simultaneous submissions (it's something that a lot of publishers say and frankly, most people ignore).
James D. Macdonald:
Ignore that one at your peril.
Hoever, if you are submitting to publishers of this sort there are hundreds and I expect they respond fairly quickly : /
Not all of them respond quickly. Some of them are quite understaffed, and I've experienced waiting for more than 7 months on an ms. Still, it's not as long as Baen Books' RT, I heard they could take as much as 16 months. :O
Eh, What's one to do?
This isn't a reprint collection.
when you consider that less than 1% of all queries are taken seriously (unless you are an established writer) the odds are heavily stacked against the newbie.
If you are a fledgling writer, unknown to anyone but yourself, what better place to get your foot in the door but with a fledgling outfit?
They may not be strangers to the written world, but writing is not the same as publishing and there is no direct publishing experience included in these statements.
MM
kristin724 said:I was on tour all of last year up until this March, so now that its back to writing and submitting I think I'm just hitting a burnout. It seems I keep finding all the wrong publishers. All these new start ups don't make the profit and become author mills, blow up, and breed into new epubs. Loyalties divide, choose sides, banish this one or that one. Eh. Sometimes it just makes me sour on publishing. I miss the old days where you submitted and that was that. No chasing straws on goofy Facebook.
Nitemare said:I recently signed with Gypsy Shadow Publishing, but before I did, I had the contract evaluated by a famous and knowledgeable person we all know (or at least should). I was told that it is a good contract except for the lack of a publishing time frame and an escape clause if they do not publish on time.
I am sure that someone will say that I am an advocate for GSP. Well, I am. Every big time agent and publisher started as a tiny nobody,
and when you consider that less than 1% of all queries are taken seriously (unless you are an established writer) the odds are heavily stacked against the newbie.
If you are a fledgling writer, unknown to anyone but yourself, what better place to get your foot in the door but with a fledgling outfit?
M.R.J. Le Blanc Quote: Their covers are really amateurish.
Your cover is eye-candy, so feed your readers. GSP does not have an art department (yet), so they select a stock picture to reflect the theme of your manuscript. If you want a cover that reflects your vision, have it made for you. Depending on where you go, it is not all that expensive. Since I cannot draw a straight line with a ruler, I contracted 4 pieces with a Canadian outfit. It took 2 months and $350.
michael_b Quote from the GSP Contract
"Once the Work is published and available in print format, Author does not have permission to make print copies for competitions or contests, but must use the free author copies provided or purchase additional print copies for this purpose at Author's discount.
Personally I find that clause to be a red flag."
What red flag? I think the key here is 'make print copies'. IMHO, what if your book was already published (in paper), you won, they wanted to publish, and you had to tell them that it already had been published? What kind of legal ramifications are involved here? Would they let you take the money and run? I think mutual protection is the theme here. If contests are more important than being in print, enter contests before you go to print.
As a historical point about contract negotiations, I had another contract offer (from a different publisher) evaluated by a famous and knowledgeable person we all know, and I was advised that it was a poor contract on several points. Since it was something that I would not sign anyway, I politely asked the publisher about negotiating contract changes. I was curtly told that 'the contract stands as is'. I did not sign it 'as is'.