Secret Cravings Publishing

Same feeling from me: a responsible publisher will *gently* steer authors away from using substandard cover images and formats, because mistakes will reflect badly on both publisher and author. Letting authors use as-is images and blurbs is NOT good business practice. I've avoided publishers when I see them excusing bad covers as authorial fiat...and often, that isn't the only problem with such publishers.

I have friends who published through SCP and loved the experience. Others did not. When I've researched publishers in the past, I've been careful to balance author contacts with more objectively-sourced data points.

As for the "Zon" ranking, it changes by the hour. I'd rather have people buy my books directly from my publisher. At least I know the "Amazon Machine" isn't getting their hard-earned money. Comparing it to how it's doing elsewhere is wrong also. You do not have my royalty statements or my sales reports. You are using Amazon as the guide? Have you seen my Amazon author ranking? No? Well, I've been in the top 3,000 and dropped as low as the top 10,000. My book rankings go up and down, up and down. You know as well as I do that unless you have a HUGE following and sales of a certain amount every single day, out of MILLIONS of books and authors, it's very hard to get the stats that some authors get. So, make sure you include that in your "stat report". Tell authors that their rankings will change faster than the weather in Ohio. That is more realistic than what you've used to inform new authors. If you want to tell the truth about something, make sure you have all of the facts...not just quick observations. By not doing more research, you miss out on a great publisher and a lot of great authors.

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Amazon is the big fish. Looking at how a book is doing at Amazon is not an unreasonable thing to do since so many people buy their books through the store. Fewer people buy from publisher websites. If you don't think having a look at how the books are distributed to retailers makes sense, okay.

When I wrote Natural Lust, I had no idea that people would like it as much as they did and ask for more of the story. I didn't plan on there being more until I received email after email from readers who told me they loved Kallie and Hank. That is what led to You'll Never Be Lonely being written. Granted, I...and I do mean "I", could have asked SCP to label them Book 1 and Book 2. However, with both of these being in the Weekend Getaways line, I didn't think I needed to. Maybe I was wrong.

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The second book isn't even listed as part of the Weekend Getaways line at Amazon, as I pointed out. You shouldn't have to ask for them to be labeled as original and sequel. That's a huge selling point! That's an obvious thing to do, and I'm still fairly boggled that they didn't do this.

As for the book in the #4 spot by another SCP author: I've watched this list for months and that book wasn't even on the list until yesterday. Your "observation" of it outselling newer books is wrong. The three books I have on that list have been on there for almost a month. Anything You Want, River Jewel Resort Series, Book 1...appeared last week. The other two have been on that list for over 3 weeks now and climbed their way up to those spots. Spots that may not impress you but I'm quite happy with them and I won't allow you or anyone else to take that away from me. Obviously other readers agree and like the books.

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You're taking my criticisms of the publisher's practices personally as if I'm criticizing you.

My blurbs and excellent cover art have not deterred anyone else. I may not be on any BestSeller lists on Amazon, but a few years ago, I didn't even exist. I understand your opinions of my books and everyone else's are just that...opinions. But, making judgements and passing along misguided information to authors who would like to submit to a truly wonderful company is wrong.

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It's not wrong to look at a publisher objectively and criticize where appropriate. It's simply not.

And let's face it...some authors want their story the way they want it. I'm an author who takes advice and constructive criticism.

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The publisher, with a reputation to uphold, should not indulge authors to the detriment of their brand.

The point is this: You do not work for SCP. Yet, you've taken a glance out the site and made your own opinion, passing it along to others as gospel.

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No, I passed it along as an opinion.

You've essentially bashed our publisher, cover artists, editors, website, authors, books and readers without once ever reading one of our books. You never spoke to any of us before posting your "findings".

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With all due respect, I don't have to speak to anyone at SCP to have an opinion and post it here. I don't have to read a book to know a cover and bad blurb are terrible selling tools and wonder why a publisher would do that to a book. I'm speaking generally and not about yours specifically.

Again, I'm sorry that I've offended you. But you should consider why my criticisms of your publisher have made you this defensive. They didn't even make it clear on Amazon that your two books are connected in any way. That's dropping the ball on something so incredibly simple, I still don't understand it.

I'm sure there will be more authors accusing me of bashing them and bashing this and that, and that's fine. But there are certain objective standards that a publisher and its website should meet. I pointed out where I think the publisher doesn't meet them, and offered some sales comparisons and my opinions on both. That's what this thread is for.

It's good to hear they're obviously doing some things right, like royalty statements, payments, a friendly atmosphere and strong social network among authors. That doesn't negate the things that look problematic, but it's great to hear.

What other motivation do you think we have? I think that sometime sharing opinions is just that. If people could only have opinions of things they had immediate experience of the internet would be a very quiet place.

Msev74, the "painfully obvious reasons" I spoke of as to why your sequel wasn't doing well currently at Amazon have nothing to do with your actual story. I wasn't even speaking about the blurb. They're to do with the cover and the fact that it's a sequel but nobody knows it. Those are problems. None of that reflects on your writing abilities. And none of it was meant as a personal slight to you.

I understand that you're angry, and I'm sorry I'm the cause of it, but my opinion is what it is.

MSev74 said:

Thank you for clearing that up.

I just want everyone to understand that there's more than the errors you found and cover problems to our publisher.

No one is perfect. Human beings are involved. It happens.

I'm not sorry that I don't have a bad opinion or story to share about SCP. They've helped me in many ways and that's a lot more than I can say for other publishers. And every author is different. They play a big part in their own work.

Regardless, SCP is not a bad apple.

Again, thank you for clarifying what you said. I'm sure your findings will be checked out and if they are in need of fixing, I'm sure they will be.

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I just said something similar to this in a reply to your PM, but I'll say it here. I've given my opinions publicly, so it's only fair to apologize publicly, too.

First, though, my criticisms of SCP are just that, not criticisms of the authors. I personally feel that if an author insists on a certain cover and blurb and finished copy that are not good, it's the publisher's responsibility to say no rather than let the author publish poorly. And there are simply blurbs and covers that help sell books, and those that do not. There's a mix at this publisher, a wide range from very good to terrible, and that's something that makes many of us raise our eyebrows.

A lot of us have watched people publish with small presses that don't do a good job on covers, blurbs, editing and promotion, and we've watched those people get so discouraged it breaks a heart. Maybe I'm a bit sensitive to things I see as problems, and maybe I wasn't gentle in my assessment, but it springs from a constructive place, not one meant to tear anyone, least of authors, down. Enthusiasm is wonderful, but publishing is a business, and I tend to look at the business aspects very critically. It's my business, so I take it very seriously and don't make comments flippantly.

SCP or any publishers are not doing anyone a favor by publishing them--it's a partnership, not a good deed done for authors. Business partners need to keep each other in check and be sure they're working toward the same goal. Potential business partners should look with a very critical eye to make sure the publisher is going to uphold their side of the bargain. I don't think any publisher can find fault with that idea. I'd be leery of one who did.

Anyway, thank you for your message. I'm glad there are no hard feelings, though I'm sorry I upset you. I absolutely never intended to come off as if I meant to take something away from you or any author published there. Doing that was never my intention, and I feel awful that I didn't measure my words better to keep that from happening.

karatemom13 said:

I just heard back and received a contract for all 3 books in the series. I'm so excited! It's the first book I've ever written and it was declined by 2 publishers before SCP. I considered it a long shot.

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Congratulations!! I'm a SCP author and I love it there. I've had 5 books published with them and my last submission was rejected. It needs some work but I can do that. Do you have a Facebook or Twitter account? Those are great places to connect with other authors. Not only can you get feedback, you'll likely make some new friends and grow your support system.

I'd like to share my experience. I've been a SCP author since 2012. My debut novel with them won the RWA 2013 'Ella' award for Novella of the Year, beating out a lot of the larger publishing houses for the prize.

Secret Cravings is a dedicated, hard working publisher, and I have the utmost respect for them. The support network is excellent, all questions are answered by the head publisher within one day, often within one hour, and trust me, as a brand new author, I had a lot of questions when I first signed up.

I didn't even hesitate when it came to submitting the rest of my series to them, and I've never regretted it. When I had an idea for a novella in a completely separate genre from my other published work, I submitted that too, and if Shelleyo needs 'Zon' ratings as a validation, that book peaked at #34.

I've had 2 editors for my 8 books. The same editor for the last 5, which is a wonderful advantage as she now knows my strengths and weaknesses, and doesn't hesitate to kick my butt when needed.

At SCP you have the opportunity to work closely with your cover artist, and despite a negative personal opinion from a previous poster, our cover artist has an excellent reputation and has won countless awards for her work.

I can suggest the following pointer. Enter into your contract with realistic expectations. SCP are very on the ball with marketing, always looking for new opportunities, but the author has to put in the hard work too. Don't sit back on release day, twiddle your thumbs and wait for the six figure royalty check. It wont happen. Books do not sell themselves, marketing is important, especially with a smaller house. My marketing skills are far from perfect but SCP has offered me countless opportunities and suggestions and I'm getting better at promotion all the time. I have a radio spot booked in a few months time discussing my books, arranged by SCP. How cool is that? And I've had adverts in every monthly e-zine which is generating a lot of interest.

If not for SCP, I'd still be storing my work on my desktop, unread by anyone. Instead, I have two beautiful winners trophy's, and a finalist certificate for a third contest. And all of this from my debut published series.

Please feel free to PM me with any questions. I would be happy to answer them.

I accepted the SCP contract today. I really appreciate hearing from so many SCP authors and I look forward to talking to all of you again.

CWren said:

I'd like to share my experience. I've been a SCP author since 2012. My debut novel with them won the RWA 2013 'Ella' award for Novella of the Year, beating out a lot of the larger publishing houses for the prize.

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Congratulations! It looks like your competitors were Totally e-Bound, e-Penguin and Random House Australia. Stiff, stiff competition. You have every reason to be proud!

When I had an idea for a novella in a completely separate genre from my other published work, I submitted that too, and if Shelleyo needs 'Zon' ratings as a validation, that book peaked at #34.

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I don't need Amazon ratings as validation. It's one (fairly good) metric I use to evaluate publishers. Amazon's the big dog.

Congrats again on hitting #34 in the Kindle store--another big achievement.

I've had 2 editors for my 8 books. The same editor for the last 5, which is a wonderful advantage as she now knows my strengths and weaknesses, and doesn't hesitate to kick my butt when needed.

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Editorial turnover is usually a worrisome sign, and often one of the first signs of problems. I'm glad to hear that it's not an issue here.

At SCP you have the opportunity to work closely with your cover artist, and despite a negative personal opinion from a previous poster, our cover artist has an excellent reputation and has won countless awards for her work.

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As I've said at least a few times, some of the covers are very nice--those in the carousel, for instance. Scroll down the home page just a little bit, and there are six covers that are objectively terrible. With apologies to whomever made them, if someone can look at those covers and think they're good or acceptable, that person doesn't know enough about book covers to judge.

Click any category on the left and there's a mix of good to terrible covers. It was pointed out in this thread that sometimes the writers make their own covers. Well, mystery solved. People keep defending the award-winning cover artist, but I'm going to go ahead and assume that she didn't make the covers that are the problems. So there's probably no need to defend her from criticisms that aren't even aimed at her. It's the publisher's fault for allowing people to make their own covers without some sort of quality control.

SCP are very on the ball with marketing, always looking for new opportunities,

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A website is a marketing tool, as are book cover and blurbs. If my book appeared on a page, no matter how great the cover and blurb, next to one with an amateurish cover and blurb containing grammar errors, I wouldn't be too happy with that marketing. These are the most basic marketing tools when it comes to ebooks.

Publishers also need to get the books in the hands of reviewers. The book of yours that has the most reviews on Amazon is your Ella winner with eight. Has that ever been a point of concern for you? Does the publisher do things designed to help you get Amazon reviews? I realize you've had success and might not care, but the number of reviews leads me to think they might not, and I would wonder why when Amazon, I'll say it again, is the big dog.

I have a radio spot booked in a few months time discussing my books, arranged by SCP. How cool is that? And I've had adverts in every monthly e-zine which is generating a lot of interest.

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The radio spot is cool, but I'm not convinced that radio promotion is a huge winner for book sales. I hope it works into big sales for you, though. By monthly e-zine do you mean the publisher's ezine that gets sent to subscribers? Have the books been advertised anywhere else? Feel free to consider these rhetorical--I'm just saying these are questions people should consider.

If not for SCP, I'd still be storing my work on my desktop, unread by anyone. Instead, I have two beautiful winners trophy's, and a finalist certificate for a third contest. And all of this from my debut published series.

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The thing is that you earned those awards with your writing. Yes, SCP published you, but others might have, too. They haven't done you any favors--it's a business partnership that they're profiting from, too. It's entirely possible that no matter which press published you, you'd have won awards. I'm not saying SCP deserves no credit at all--I don't know what they did for your books--but you deserve the vast majority of it for writing good books in the first place. I'm essentially saying your award-winning books don't necessarily mean the publisher is great. I'm not saying it's not, just that one thing doesn't confirm the other.

I hope you have many more award-winners in your future.

karatemom13 said:

I accepted the SCP contract today. I really appreciate hearing from so many SCP authors and I look forward to talking to all of you again.

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Last advice: let the award-winning cover artist make your cover, and get some outside input and help in crafting an error-free, killer blurb.

Congrats and best of luck, karatemom. I hope you're as happy with SCP and as successful as some in this thread.

I got an email today from this publisher stating that if I don't get an ITIN/EIN they're going to flat out stop sending me royalty payments. Can they do this? Can they force authors to get an ITIN/EIN?

brainstorm77 said:

I got an email today from this publisher stating that if I don't get an ITIN/EIN they're going to flat out stop sending me royalty payments. Can they do this? Can they force authors to get an ITIN/EIN?

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I don't know about the legality of halting payments on royalties, but send them your SSN (which is your reporting code to the IRS as an "independent contractor.") Sending them your SSN precludes a need for a ITIN/EIN. If you're earning royalties, however large or modest, SCP reporting sales is the law according to the IRS.

I'm self-employed. My clients required me to fill out a tax form at the beginning of our business association, and then send me a 1099 form no later than January 31st (again an IRS law). SCP is a business too, and subject to these same requirements. When I hire sidemen (musicians' vernacular), I must issue a 1099 at year's end for earnings over a certain amount. Though SCP certainly would not be obligated to issue a 1099 for earnings under the required amount, I've found publishers do so regardless.

A note--perhaps claiming to halt payments is SCP's way of encouraging authors to report their SSN/ITIN/EIN--whichever pertains to them. But for that answer, you could inquire at the IRS.

ITIN/EIN

It is a requirement by the IRS for us to report the royalty payments being made to individual authors. We cannot claim those royalties being paid without somewhere for them to track the payment to.

This is something we have to do. We don't want to withhold royalties from anyone and have always paid everyone on time every month, but since we are required by the IRS to have this information on our tax forms, we must require it of our authors.

Sandy
Owner/Publisher
Secret Cravings Publishing

Maddie said:

I don't know about the legality of halting payments on royalties, but send them your SSN (which is your reporting code to the IRS as an "independent contractor.") Sending them your SSN precludes a need for a ITIN/EIN. If you're earning royalties, however large or modest, SCP reporting sales is the law according to the IRS.

I'm self-employed. My clients required me to fill out a tax form at the beginning of our business association, and then send me a 1099 form no later than January 31st (again an IRS law). SCP is a business too, and subject to these same requirements. When I hire sidemen (musicians' vernacular), I must issue a 1099 at year's end for earnings over a certain amount. Though SCP certainly would not be obligated to issue a 1099 for earnings under the required amount, I've found publishers do so regardless.

A note--perhaps claiming to halt payments is SCP's way of encouraging authors to report their SSN/ITIN/EIN--whichever pertains to them. But for that answer, you could inquire at the IRS.

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I am not in the USA so I don't have a SSN. Other publishers have withheld 30% back in lieu of not having an ITIN. But they(SC) don't want to do that. I have asked for my rights back.

And no it isn't that easy getting an ITIN. It certainly takes more than a month!

publisherscp said:

It is a requirement by the IRS for us to report the royalty payments being made to individual authors. We cannot claim those royalties being paid without somewhere for them to track the payment to.

This is something we have to do. We don't want to withhold royalties from anyone and have always paid everyone on time every month, but since we are required by the IRS to have this information on our tax forms, we must require it of our authors.

Sandy
Owner/Publisher
Secret Cravings Publishing

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Legally you can just stop paying an author royalties without an ITIN?

My rights have been reverted to me.

When I did not have an SSN my American publishers never had any problem paying me. I simply filled in the forms and marked SSN "N/A foreign national" and they went through just fine. If this has changed it is a recent development.

That said, what country are you in? The process is different by country but getting and EIN is not difficult for most countries. You just ask for one and they issue it to you. For the UK it is just a single phone call and they give you the number on the spot.

veinglory said:

When I did not have an SSN my American publishers never had any problem paying me. I simply filled in the forms and marked SSN "N/A foreign national" and they went through just fine. If this has changed it is a recent development.

That said, what country are you in? The process is different by country but getting and EIN is not difficult for most countries. You just ask for one and they issue it to you. For the UK it is just a single phone call and they give you the number on the spot.

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I will look into getting one eventually.

With my rights back I am done with this publisher and will leave it at that.

As a Canadian, I've had to send my passport in to the IRS with my ITIN form in order to get a number. They've had the paperwork for about three weeks now and I haven't heard anything back; thankfully I started early (My release date with Samhain is in June).

Here's hoping they don't lose my passport.

I think it took 6 wks all up for me to get my ITIN. Anecdotal evidence said sending my original passport was quicker and easier than copies which can be rejected for several reasons. So I did. It came back about 5 wks later, followed by the ITIN number several days later.

They actually processed and approved it swiftly - from the time it arrived in Texas to approval was less than a fortnight. The big wait was because of a very slow journey back. My passport arrived in the thinnest envelope known to man, just as well it didn't rain that day.

Looking at the website because I do like the romance genre, and I had never heard of them. I have a bit of mixed feelings, from the few blurbs I've read with the typos/weird stuff going. From the blurbs, the stories don't inspire me.

I've been checking their FB page, which surprisingly only has 2k members after 4 years (I don't know, romance is a big genre, I'd have expected more) and I like the fact that they have a couple of book clubs, one of them being 900 members strong. It's closed so you can't see how active it is, though.
On their FB page, every time they promote a title, they advertise the link to their website only. I see the point in that (no fees for the middle man) but as a reader, that kinds of puts me off, because I hate the hassle of having to open a window and go look for the book on Amazon. What can I say? I'm lazy. I like the one-click thing on Amazon, and for the book to be delivered straight to my Kindle. If you go through the site, then you have to put the stuff in your cart, go through checkout (meaning fetching my card and entering the number because I wouldn't trust this website to keep my details), get the download, and then send to the Kindle. I just can't be bothered. I'll do it if it's a book I really want, but their books, based on the blurbs, leave me rather cold. Even the historical romance ones, which is my big big crush.

I also like the fact that they do a 4 book-deal for $9.99 per month, meaning books are cheaper than their normal retail price. But you don't get to choose the titles, so as a reader, I wouldn't pick up that kind of deal, because I'd expect to read maybe one or two of the mix and not the others.

I'm curious about this deal, as an author. When you're part of a deal like this one, do you have to forfeit some of your earnings because your book becomes "cheaper" or do you still get the same royalties and the publisher only gets the reduced income? Just wondering.

I just heard they are closing their doors.

Somebody on my Facebook feed confirmed it, closed as of yesterday.

Damn. Helluva way to go.

My experience with them wasn't great, but I only had one short story with them that I have had the rights back now for some time.

I couldn't find any announcement on their FB or website stating that they are closed. I thought they were doing reasonably well. I wonder what caused them to close so quickly?

I do hope that the authors get their rights back promptly and get paid what's owed them.

My friend is signed with them and just received the news yesterday they were closing. According to what my friend said, they are reverting all rights back but the money from books will be dispersed through a lawyer. She doesn't even know how many books she's sold in the last couple of months because her publisher has all the numbers...so who knows if it'll be the right amount. So awful :-( She just signed with them a couple of months ago. You'd think they wouldn't have signed more authors if they were doing so bad. Her book was the first in a series, meaning there are still two more books that need to be published...but what publisher will take one that's already been published? Just a very bad position to be in.