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Turquoise Morning Press / Sapphire Nights Books

jennontheisland

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Fae Sutherland

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http://www.turquoisemorningpress.com/

Epublisher that seems to be hosted by blogger. They have a lot of general fiction catagories, but I can't figure out how to buy the books from the site.

They also have Sapphire Nights Books http://www.sapphirenightsbooks.com/ for romance and erotica.

Owner appears to be a teacher with writing credits.

You can't buy books because it looks like they're not open yet. Sidebar says the 16th of this month.

Never heard of them before this morning.
 

jennontheisland

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You can't buy books because it looks like they're not open yet. Sidebar says the 16th of this month.

Never heard of them before this morning.
More clicking results in books for sale, but not on the site ...

If you click the TMP Amazon Bookstore there are actually 2 books for sale. You click them, and there is a buy link that takes you to Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003FSU70C/?tag=absolutewritedm-20



And I just noticed that Maddie James is one of the owner's pen names.
 
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Fae Sutherland

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Not if this started as a self-pub venture.

Which seems to be the case, since the print versions appear to be through Createspace. It seems like your average start-up created to showcase the owner's books and then opened to the public. I get the impression the two available books, both by the owner, were done before they decided to go public, since those have a publication date of April, which is well before their proposed August 16th launch date.

I know someone who just signed with them and frankly, the impression so far does not make me optimistic for her. Doesn't seem shady, just...amateur. :(
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

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It should be pointed out, before someone plays the they're-not-scammers card (Fae your comment brought it to mind) that an amateur startup can be just as much of a Bad Idea as an outright scammer. Self-publishing doesn't equate to industry experience.
 

para

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This publisher is being discussed on one of my yahoo groups. I notice that some of the reviews on amazon are written by other authors in this house.
 

jennontheisland

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This publisher is being discussed on one of my yahoo groups. I notice that some of the reviews on amazon are written by other authors in this house.
Of course they are. Who else would buy the books?
 

michael_b

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Is it me, or is that red text on black a little hard to read? I'm talking about the Sapphire Night's site.

And if it's 'Sapphire' Night's, why red? Why not blue?

Also noticed that their last update was in September.
 
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Fae Sutherland

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This publisher is being discussed on one of my yahoo groups. I notice that some of the reviews on amazon are written by other authors in this house.

Of the half a dozen books I looked at there's only one that appears to be an actual review. The others are all either the pub owner, other TMP authors or from a person who has *only* reviewed TMP books, which leads me to believe it's someone associated with the pub.

I really just find that so unprofessional. Publishers should not rate their own books, imo. Maybe it's just me. :/
 

staceyb9

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Hi, Does anyone have any recent information on this publisher?
 

kaitie

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I can't tell if Sapphire Nights even still exists. The site says that they aren't updating anymore, and that was some time ago, and on the main page I don't see any mention of it. Huh.

That said, I'm just flipping through the site to see what it says and looking up the books on Amazon. I'm just going through the releases within the past couple of months, and most of them have pretty low rankings--200,000 to over 1,000,000. These weren't released yesterday, and considering many books sell most of their copies in the first couple of months, it makes me wonder what their sales are like. One of their older titles is in the low thousands, though, so it's hard to say, and it's possible they make good sales through their website.

Their covers are hit or miss, IMO. Some are pretty good, and some look really bad. Covers are important to me, so I'd be cautious of going with a company that has iffy covers, just because I'd hate to get one of the bad ones.

I read some samples, and while one was pretty good and I'd probably have probably considered reading it, the others had a lot of amateur writing errors (again, IMO). Not problems with grammar competency, but things like odd repetitions, telling instead of showing, unusual phrasings, and the sort of awkward exaggerations that bring me out of a story thinking "that's not even possible."

On the bright side, they don't have a lot of the language you see these days about how terrible traditional publishing is, and I don't see any myths espoused as truth, so that's good. They're up front with the fact that their print books are only available to order and aren't carried in bookstores.

I've seen a lot worse, but I wouldn't personally submit to them. *shrugs*
 

Tromboli

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Not that it's something that should designate a good publisher but, bad covers are a deal breaker for me. There are some gorgeous ones on their site. And some seriously bad ones.

There's little more to go on here and with so many little e-pubs popping up, I always like to wait until I hear good things before I take a chance. (Not that I'm sending to pubs right now, still agent hunting)
 

VoireyLinger

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I took a chance with this one because I have friends who all had wonderful experiences there. Short story in an anthology so it wasn't a big deal to me.

My experience has been very negative though. We were supposed to receive two print editions of the book within 6 weeks of publication. I had one come about ten weeks later. When I asked about my second I was told that was a typo on my contract. I did eventually get the second five months after publication. I know others who still have not gotten theirs seven months later. I also have another friend who had similar issues with another anthology. Her anthology came out before mine and last I heard she never got her print copy.

This pub pays quarterly. On the last day payment could be sent and meet contract specs, I as emailed to ask if I wanted my money.

I also know of one editor who has a history of not getting edits to her authors until after the author revision deadline. This editor has been given more responsibility in the company recently. I also have a crit partner who was offered a contract with them but never received it.

My personal recommendation at this point, based on my experience and that of some of my close friends, is to steer clear of this one.
 

VoireyLinger

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Information on the TMP loop is now stating the "policy" is to get print out as soon as possible, but there is no firm timeline. For the record, I reviewed my contract many times and it has a set 6 week timeline.

The owner has also stated she is no longer interested in pursuing foreign or audio rights and anyone with an existing contract which includes those may request them back. This is a turnaround from 6 months ago when she was actively working on a contract with an Italian distributor.

Contracted books are still taking forever to move forward and include at least one person who has had a contract for close to a year and didn't get any edits until this spring. She's only done one round of edits, has had 2 editors pulled or fired, and still has no idea on release time frame, even though she's turned everything required of her in on time.

The more I see, the more I want to scream AVOID.
 

VoireyLinger

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Update: Today I received notice that three anthologies, including mine, will have rights reverted within the next few days. This will be less than a year into my story's three-year term. The owner is citing low sales as a reason.

The removal is supported by the contract signed, however her timeline isn't. The contract specifies 60 days notice, we're getting 14. I'm seeing the discrepancy as just one more place the owner has fudged on contract terms. I have issues with any company that won't stand by the letter of their contracts.

I won't complain about having this contract behind me, though. I'm very unhappy with my experience with TMP and am looking forward to having them behind me.
 

Christine N.

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I heard from a friend who had an offer from TMP that they "Don't work with agents". Between the time she submitted and got the offer, she got an agent.

That, to me, is a huge red flag. Why don't you work with agents? Are you afraid of them, or that they'll explain your contract to their clients, or what?

Yeah, no way, thanks.