I thought I’d share my experience with Evernight since I’ve been published with them for over a year. Like some in this thread, my experience has not been very positive.
Pros:
•They pay on time, quarterly.
•The covers since 2017 are really eye-catching, but the bar at the top with the Evernight Publishing name has actually gotten my book disqualified from many cover contests because it was deemed ‘ugly’ from the get go, and “vain of the publisher”.
Cons:
•They’re pretty vague with information. For example, they send out a “Welcome to Evernight” email with info, and on the document, it says “We will pay half of the fee if your book is accepted for a deal with BookBub (series books only. $0.99 on Amazon), but they don’t specify you need at least three books published with them before they do this
•They also discourage you from even trying to get Bookbub because “it’s not worth the money”
•In that same email information kit, they tell you they send your book out to dozens of reviewers they work with to get you reviews. I actually emailed those reviewers to ‘check in’, and 90% replied back that they never had received my book from Evernight, and this was around six months after my book had been published
•They do not send you your files in advance so that you can promote ahead of time
•You usually receive your cover five days before your book is scheduled to come out (and that’s if you’re lucky)
•There’s barely any promotion on their end for upcoming releases so your book is going to just appear out of nowhere unless you promote yourself (which is difficult without a cover, and without any of your files). No build up unless you’re one of their “favorite authors”
•They don’t use NetGalley which a lot of reviewers ask for
•I had to email several times in order to get my covers, but they kept insisting I pick a date for some time soon
•The editing is… well, what editing? Two rounds, and I found a bunch of mistakes while reviewing myself that the editors missed after two rounds – that doesn’t say much. And I've dealt with more than one different editor there
•They don’t give you any kind of timeline, so you have no idea when your edits are going to arrive. If you happen to be on vacation, you’ve got one week to return them. Great.
•Did I mention they don’t promote?
•I understand that authors need to promote their own works – I’m fine with that, but if Evernight does basically no promotion, I don’t know why they’re getting 55% of my royalties
•Becoming a full-time author with Evernight is not going to be a possibility. From what I’ve gathered from the authors who have made this possible with this publisher, it’s either because they have a partner who works, or they have self-published books, or are published with other publishers – that’s what I noticed in the Facebook group anyway
•Some stores will not hold anything from Evernight Publishing because they refuse to work with them (as I’ve been told) due to the fact that they do not list/tag their books properly. For example, I had bought a book with a content warning of BDSM, impact play, and anal sex, when in fact, it was a non-con book (non-consensual)
•They are about quantity, not quality. And I’m not just throwing that out there. The marketing person wrote that to me in an email when I asked for more time to promote my upcoming book
•My quarterly royalties are around the price of a Starbucks coffee
I don’t want to be the next J.K. Rowling – I mean, if I did, I wouldn’t complain! – but it is possible for authors to make a living off their writing. It’s possible even if you might need a part-time job. But with Evernight, it’s just not likely. I love promoting because I also get to socialize on social media, but I don’t need to pay 55% of my royalties for getting nothing in return. I can get my own cover designer, and hire an actual editor. I’ll have the ability to put my book up for 0.99$ whenever I feel like it, and not have problems every single time I’ve tried doing this with Evernight. They are just not dependable. Once my 5 year contract is up, I’m looking forward to requesting the rights back to my titles and self-publish them myself.
Having worked with Evernight Publishing, I can honestly say the whole thing has caused me nothing but stress, disappointment, and frustration. Like a few mentioned on this forum, the experience has left a bad taste in my mouth.