Hirst Publishing / 100 Publishing

I've moved this thread here from self-publishing, just to keep things tidy.

According to its website, 100 Publishing is linked with Hirst Publishing.

100 Publishing offers pay-to-play publishing packages and has several statements about trade publishing on its website which I take issue with.

Hirst is publishing several Doctor Who spin-offs this year; I wonder if the BBC knows anything about them?

My husband knows Tim Hirst, who owns both Hirst Publishing and 100 Publishing.

http://www.hirstpublishing.com/
http://www.hundredpublishing.com/index.html

Hirst is a very legit publisher who has had a lot of success in a small space of time, with several bestsellers. It started as a one man operation to publish a couple of books and within a year Tim took it on as a full time job.

100 publishing is owned by Tim too, but is a separate company and is more of a printer/vanity press. There is no 'refferal' to 100 or anything like that, and the two companies have always been separate.

100 publising will do simply that - print 100 copies of your book for a set fee.

Hirst Publishing does tend to attract many TV types, due to Tim's own interests, with many actors and actresses from, mostly cult sci-fi, writing books published by him.

The books are available in bricks and mortar stores, with an active push for author signings and appearances etc. You can check out photos on the facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=432235978598&set=a.432228388598.206121.146539213598&type=1&theater


As for the Dr Who books: Hirst publish a lot of Dr Who related stuff, books that are a sort of fanzine - like Shooty Dog Thing, books by cast members, biographies and autobiographies etc.

They don't publish DW novels or fanfiction or anything like that.

All in all it's a small and quite speciailised publisher - as you'l see from the list - but Hirst knows what he likes and he knows what he can sell and who too. In all it's a publisher which really knows their corner of the market well.

In the interest of being honest and impartial, I have to point out that things have changed considerably since my last posting on this thread.

For the last few months there has been some sort of supply problem with Hirst, which seems to be centred around the pre-orders. It appears that Hirst have been using the income from pre-orders to fund printing of books which, instead of fulfilling the pre-orders, he's then sold at fan conventions. This has led to a number of folks being very displeased at not recieving their pre-ordered books. In addition, using pre-orders to fund printing isn't good business.

I know that there was some issue earlier in the year with books not being delievered and no one was responding to complaints about it, again, ignoring your customer queries is not a good idea.

I'm not sure what's caused this change, but right now things seem to be in a bad way for Hirst. That said, they still produce quality books from good writers, but for the moment I'd be wary.

Further update - as of this week Hirst no longer seem to be trading. The main site is undergoing 'restructuring', the facebook page has gone completely and several of their authors have jumped ship to other publishers.

Tim still isn't responding to folks - and the problems are adding up - authors are complaining of lack of response, payment issues, and customers are complaining about orders not being fulfilled.

In the meantime Tim Hirst, if going by his other online activity, has been spending much of his time on holiday, which is further infuriating his customers and authors.

For now I would this is one to avoid.

100 Books still seems to be operating though.