Loucks-Christenson Publishing / Snowy Creek Romance

State of Play, or WTF?

About a year's gone by since we've heard anything of this press. Now comes the story of one of their authors' dealings with this publisher:

It's a story of dealing with Our Friend Lisa LC, and it is batshit. The author goes into Lisa's falsehoods and claims in some (not much, but some) detail, and into Lisa's reporting the author to both Amazon and the FBI...batshit.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five (a digression)

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Seven is especially good, as it is where Clara discovers that LC Publishing was administratively terminated as a corporation in 2008, that it has no physical address, and that Lisa's "distribution center"--an alarm/security company--also does not exist.

Part Eight

Part Nine

(Seriously, I know this is long, but it is fascinating.)

Part Ten

(Interestingly, she links in Pt Ten to her book's page, where Lisa LC left a nasty comment about how she owned the rights and Cara O'Neill is a big ol' meanie-pants stealing stealer who steals or whatever. Clicking Lisa's profile leads to her Amazon page, where she's left a single review, for a book no longer available (which I believe was a Loucks-Christensen book. She has four images there, all book covers for Snowy Creek books, none of which are currently available).

I will object to the author's title for her (series of) blog post(s):
The Dying Publishing Industry's Attempt To Take Me Down With It. The author never got within a sea league of the real publishing industry, dying or otherwise.

I'm willing to bet that she never got within a sea league of a real agent either:

For my third book, The Garden Club, not only did I get an agent, but she sold it, assuring me it was a great contract.

Now, you may be wondering why I didn't jump ship then. Well, not only did I have an agent assuring me all was okay, I wanted to believe...

The four or so other authors my agent sent to Loucks-Christenson Publishing were firing her as well and for the exact same reasons.
http://caraoneill.com/3/post/2013/0...s-attempt-to-take-me-down-with-it-part-6.html

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Would any reputable agent send a client to LC?

Sadly, in spite of (or should that be because of?) her ghastly experience with a gormless publisher Ms O'Neill is herself spreading misinformation about publishing:

The publishing industry is changing dramatically and today anyone can write and upload a book to Amazon or Smashwords. Therefore, a traditional publisher must bring something more to the party before it makes any sense to turn over a substantial percentage of profits...

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A 'traditional' publisher brings quite a few important things to the party, such as quality control - most self-published stuff wouldn't make it out of the slush pile - and distribution.

Luckily, it’s pretty easy to determine whether a publishing contract is good or bad because there really are only three things of any interest to writers:

1. Publicity
“How much publicity do you intend to do” should be the first question you ask a would-be publisher. Don’t be surprised when the publisher says “none” since expecting an author to do all the publicity is the norm these days. Once you realize that you will be doing all the work, you might also realize you don’t want to give away something for nothing.

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Oh, God...here we go again. The only publishers who will expect the author to do literally all the work are not real publishers at all, they are the gormless amateurs/scammers to whom Ms O'Neill has already fallen victim. Is she getting this information from the agent who sent her and five other writers to Loucks-Christenson?

2. Placement in Bookstores
If, however, the publisher will guarantee placement in bookstores, then hello, there might be something to talk about. If not then the next question should be “exactly what’s in this for me?”

3. Professional Covers and Editing
If you are promised professional artwork and editing services, then that’s something of value. But if it is all that is being offered, crunch the numbers. How much would it cost for you to purchase the same services? Is it a big publishing house with a name that makes you feel great? Feel great enough that you’re willing to pay a large chunk of profits for that name?

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You are not paying a large chunk of profits for the publisher's name. You are paying a large chunk of profits because the publisher is taking a financial risk in publishing your book, and making sure that it is professionally edited and has an attractive cover is what publishers do because they want people to buy the bloody book.

If the answer is yes then welcome to the new era where traditional publishing is the new vanity publishing...

The reality is that a new trend is developing in the publishing industry that shakes out as follows:

The author self-publishes the work
The author builds a following or “platform"
Once the platform is developed, the author is picked up by a traditional publisher for hard copy book distribution while retaining electronic rights.

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How often does a thing have to happen in order to be classified as a 'trend'? The authors O'Neill is referring to here can probably be counted on the fingers of both hands. Compare this to the many thousands of self-published books languishing on Amazon, unread by anyone other than the author's friends and family.

...then welcome to the new era where traditional publishing is the new vanity publishing...

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We've heard this claim before, but not from a very savory source.

Still I have nothing but sympathy for this author and don't blame her a bit for being soured on the entire process.

James D. Macdonald said:

Still I have nothing but sympathy for this author and don't blame her a bit for being soured on the entire process.

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Ditto. While I agree Ms. O'Neill seems a bit misinformed on some aspects of publishing, I have to say I'm not comfortable with her posts being "debunked" here. She was lied to and mistreated, and her story is an enormous help to anyone looking for info on how to tell if a publisher is worthwhile or not. She deserves applause and gratitude for telling it.

Correction: Snowy Creek books has acquired CYBEREDITIONS, not Cyberlinks, as stated in my deleted post. As for PM, they have been lax in updating its information about this company, so my statement about Snowy Creek acquisitions was also incorrect. You can go to the Cyberedtions website, which is nice looking. I apologize for any confusion this might have caused, and apologize to Lisa for my mistake.