Strand Publishing UK Ltd.

According to Companies House, the company was incorporated in September 2009. It's only got 2 directors - Imran Hanif and Jane Lee. Company's capital only appears to be £1, so the obvious question is how it's funding itself right now because the titles it's got out aren't likely (I'd suggest) to appeal to a wide readership. They published accounts in October last year, but they cost £1 to download.

To be honest, the covers don't impress me. They seem interested in short stories (which doesn't have much of a market and the obvious question is whether they're selling those books to the public or back to authors) and while they've got presence on the main internet venues, I'd want to know if they're planning to sell in stores and if so what their distribution is.

MM

Can I ask how you came to get in touch with the company and are they proposing to pay you an advance or are they only paying royalties?

MM

FTIW, I think it would be worthwhile asking how many copies they've sold on average for their current released books so you can work out how much you're potentially going to make if they're not offering an advance. They should be able to provide you with supporting evidence for those figures as well.

I've always understood that publishers don't take dramatisation/documentary rights anyway because they're not best placed to exploit them - so it is good that they're in line with that.

Check whether they're taking worldwide or territorial specific rights in the work, whether they have any claim over a sequel/your next work, and whether they're taking ebook and audio book rights in addition to print. If they're taking ebook rights, then there may be room to negotiate a higher royalty percentage as 10% is pretty measly on that. For all rights that they want to take, ask how they plan to exploit them.

See if there's a publication schedule in there as well and what the termination provisions are (if any).

Finally, I personally wouldn't sign anything until I knew exactly what they planned to do with regard to marketing, promotion and distribution because on a royalty based contract, sales are critical and you don't want to be the only one trying to shift copies.

Good luck with it.

MM

Unhappy over attitudes

I am a writer promised by Strand Publishing UK to get my book published by Dec 2011. Dec 2012 is gone and my book still not published. they keep saying they are committed to publishing it but are not doing so. Cant negotiate with others because of the contract

Have you checked to see if this constitutes a breach of contract on their end, thus releasing you?

They committed this in an email before i signed the contract. The contract doesnt specify any date thats why i didnt take care

Hi Tribaltimes, welcome to AbsoluteWrite.

This post is in the wrong forum ('New Members' is to say hello to everyone when you join). I've flagged it up so hopefully a moderator will get this moved somewhere more appropriate so you can get a wider response.

Do you have an agent?

Thanks. I am new to the site, forgive my ignorance. No i dont have an agent

Have you saved the e-mail?

Tribaltimes said:

Thanks. I am new to the site, forgive my ignorance. No i dont have an agent

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No worries Tribal, it's easy to get confused when you're new to a forum.

What country are you in and what genre do you write, if you don't mind me asking? Some countries have writing organisations (like Society of Authors in the UK and SCWBI in the US) which can help out unagented writers in situations like this.

Yes i have the emails. I am from Pakistan, belong to Waziristan where the war on terror is taking place. The book is on the war on terror and how it effected us, ordinary people. Thats why the urgency. This was discussed in detail prior to signing the contract.

I even offered to scrap the contract if Strand Publishing is not interested. They wont do that either.

Do they have the rights to ALL publishing mediums, printed, e-books, audio?

I'm not really equipped to provide advice in this situation, but I'm sure others on this forum will. Is it this Strand Publishing? We have a thread about them but it doesn't have much info.

Our member Victoria Strauss helps run a brilliant website tracking down dodgey publishers, so I think this issue would be to her interest. I'd suggest sending her a PM or using the e-mail address on that website's sidebar. (E-Mail address might be easier if you've got a digital copy of your Strand Publishing contract to forward on.)

You need to check your contract very carefully - is there ANY indication of a time scale or date mentioned in your contract?

If not, then this could be a problem that could be tricky to sort out.

Your first step is to speak with your publisher and try to work it out with them.

If that doesn't get you anywhere then there are places and organisations which can help - mentioned by other posters above.

Failing that, if you still aren't happy and can't reach an agreement with your publisher, then you may have to contact a lawyer who specialises in this area and get them to help you.

Tribaltimes, please feel free to contact me directly: beware [at] sfwa.org. I'll be glad to take a look at the contract and give you my (non-legal--I'm not a lawyer) opinion.

- Victoria

If there are emails discussing the time criticality of publication, then (depending on how the contract is drafted and specifically whether it includes an entire agreement clause) there's a possibility of arguing that it was a material condition which has been breached, entitling Tribaltimes to terminate. Failing that, I would try arguing misrepresentation under the Misrepresentation Act 1967, entitling Tribaltimes to rescind. The risk of this though is that if s/he has paid money, the company may not pay it back.

MM

I'd hope Tribal hasn't paid any money to their publisher. Tribal, if you have, please speak up as this is a huge red flag and it would be important to warn other members.

Strand are said in earlier posts to be royalty-paying though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed they're not the kind of sham publisher that would try to take money from an author.

A look at their 'recently published' page shows books published in Jan, March and June this year. I'm wondering why they're not releasing a book monthly if they're 'behind' and have been offering contracts since at least March 2011 -- small publishers like Hot Key Books and Strange Chemistry seem to manage to release a book a month.

There's a certain book listed on their site with a cover, non-working Amazon links and a 0.00GBP price. I'm wondering if it might be the book in question (not wanting to name it because this part of the forum is public and I don't know how anonymous Tribal wants to be). The site lists no release date, and Strand's Twitter doesn't seem to be talking about upcoming books (while it's Facebook seems to think it's a Tumblr page).

EMaree:
I'm wondering why they're not releasing a book monthly if they're 'behind' and have been offering contracts since at least March 2011 -- small publishers like Hot Key Books and Strange Chemistry seem to manage to release a book a month.

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Just as a side point, Hot Key and Strange Chemistry aren't small publishers. Hot Key is backed by Bonnier and Strange Chemistry is part of Angry Robot, which as started by Harper Collins and ownership is now split between the founder and Osprey Publishing. They both also pay advances and are staffed by industry professionals.

Strand Publishing has none of these things.

MM

The timeline was discussed in emails. Since there is no specific clause about the timeline in the contract i assumed what has been agreed stands. I havnt paid any money to Strand Publishing UK. I am asking the publisher to undo the contract if for any reason they are unable to print my book, they wont do that either saying they are committed to publish it. Even after a year they are unable to give me a time frame.