Joan Robinson: "The purpose of studying economics is... to avoid being deceived by economists."
I just thought this quote seemed relevant. As an economics student.
I just thought this quote seemed relevant. As an economics student.
Zharmae's been in business for years. During that time, Travis Grundy hasn't bothered to acquaint himself with basic book layout. He hasn't figured out what distributors do (they're extremely important), or how per-unit costs vary in relation to the size of the print run, or how many copies his competitors sell of what kind of books.
At this point, it doesn't matter what he promises, or what he intends/intended, or whether he's a good person, or what hazily speculative ideas he thinks it might be interesting to try in the future. None of those things matter. What does matter is that he's had years to learn how to be a publisher, and he hasn't learned a blessed thing.
It's bad enough that he started ignorant, given that he's gambling with other people's books. If he's stayed ignorant, there's no hope.
No one should entrust their writing to Zharmae. If they've already done so, they should get it back. My advice is to start working on that now.
Hey guys!
I'm actually a new author with Zhamae. I've been working with them for a year, and my debut novel comes out next July. I saw this thread, and figured I'd reply.
I won't try to defend Zharmae, or apologize for them. However, here and there throughout the next year on this site, I'll mention my progress and announce when my novel will be released, and I'll let the end product speak for itself. This is definitely a great thing about the internet. Shared content allows for informed decisions, and companies get a firsthand look at what the public thinks of their products and their reputation. You can't bottle up the flow of information, but you can take the criticisms/critiques leveled at you and make the end result so much better than it was.
Anywho, as a new guy on this site, I don't want to get drawn into some sort of flame war, so here in this thread this will be my only comment, as tensions here are a bit high. Cheers all, and as always, best of luck on your writing!
Wow. I can't say I'm surprised. I feel nothing but sadness for the authors, and hope to God that Zharmae reverts all the rights quickly and without question.
[h=4]CEO & Publisher[/h][h=5]The Zharmae Publishing Press, L.L.C[/h]October 2010 – March 2016 (5 years 6 months)Greater San Diego Area
Over the last several months we had made massive overhauls to include a very strict quality control program resulting in TZPP'selling reversion of ~80 authors bringing the total list from 120 down to about 40 authors.
Thank you, Travis. Could you please elaborate on this statement (bold mine):
Over the last several months we had made massive overhauls to include a very strict quality control program resulting in TZPP'selling reversion of ~80 authors bringing the total list from 120 down to about 40 authors.
What does that mean?[/COLOR]