Reck House Press

Al Stevens said:

She dismissed much of what was said here, saying that many responders "assumed that a standard press contract should resemble a self-publishing contract."

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I'm confused. Which is she - mainstream publisher (which I highly doubt) or pay-to-play/vanity?

Nowhere on their site do they mention that they're a vanity publisher, which has wrongly been dubbed "self publishing." Self publishing is when the author has his/her own publishing company.

No one has ever assumed a mainstream press contract should resemble a vanity contract. Quite the opposite, in fact. Most standard vanity publishers have very easy escape clauses that allow authors to cancel with 30-days notice. This publisher's contract appears to be extremely onerous for the author and far outside the realm of "standard."

My guess is that she has a zealous lawyer who does not understand the publishing business.

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Forget the law for a second, and let's concentrate on her lack of knowledge about the publishing industry.

I like small presses and startups.

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I'm glad you've enjoyed good fortune. Start-ups are a risky business because too many of them lack a solid publishing foundation, inferior finances, and no distribution.

If your only litmus is the fact that a small press will get back to you quickly, then I recommend that you consider the potential success with a large press like HC vs. a start-up.

It's important to learn about the publishing industry because it's the only way to make informed decisions that will favorably impact your writing career.

It's ok...either way you slice or dice it, she's wrong about contracts. Period.

Al Stevens said:

She's a good editor, which I conclude based on my association with her on this project. Her name is Janis Bolster. She has published but I haven't read any of her work. She's responsive and easy to work with and her editoral suggestions were all spot on.

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A quick search will show you that she is published by Reck House. suggesting that teh venture is a self publishing made to look legit operation.

If I decide to self-publish I will gladly use her editorial service. Assuming I can afford it, that is.

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And what actual experience has she got? Other than Reck House? i would make sure to check that before commiting to anything. I did a search for her and, after 23 google pages, I can;t find ANYTHING about ehr that isn't related to Reck House. If she was a publishing professional with 20 plus years of experience, they SURELY she would have appeared somewhere, in something other than her own company.

She said that some but not all of the contract provisions are negotiable.

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Did she say which ones?

She dismissed much of what was said here, saying that many responders "assumed that a standard press contract should resemble a self-publishing contract."

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In which case she clearly doesn't know what she is talking about.

And she clearly doesn't know that many people here do.

Al, there are many, many publishing professionals on this site who will talk to you and share what is standard and what is someone talking through thier arsehole. I, for one, would volunteer. My husband owns and runs a reasonably sucessful small press and I can tell you right here and now to stay away from cowboys like Reck House, especially if they are going to spout shit like the quote above. I'm happy to talk to you if you want to PM me.

No one, and I mean absolutely no one here, would ever think that a self pub and a traditional contract should be the same. But I sure as hell wouldn't be singing any contract as crap as the one they offer.

The whole thing screams of lack of experience, knowlege and professionalism.

My guess is that she has a zealous lawyer who does not understand the publishing business.

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My guess is that SHE doesn't fully understand the publishing business.

I like small presses and startups. I got my start in publishing with one in the 1980s. Things move more quickly.

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GOOD small presses, start up or otherwise, are awesome. I know this from experience. But that greatness and opportunity comes from someone who is knowlegable, smart and sharp and has experience and contacts in teh industry.

I am so grateful to the members of this board for their counsel on this issue. I can't say that often enough.

(I don't care for the website, either, but I wasn't shopping for a web designer.)

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Given that thier web designer seems to be one of their editors you might not have much choice. Also, thier covers suck ass.


Without wanting to start a fight over this, when I did a google search on this earlier I found another writing/publishing forum where you had asked the same question under the name Al Stevens. Although there the posts were dated as May 2011. Are we to assume that this is new or old or what?

shaldna said:

Quote:

She dismissed much of what was said here, saying that many responders "assumed that a standard press contract should resemble a self-publishing contract."

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In which case she clearly doesn't know what she is talking about.

And she clearly doesn't know that many people here do.

Al, there are many, many publishing professionals on this site who will talk to you and share what is standard and what is someone talking through their arsehole. I, for one, would volunteer.

No one, and I mean absolutely no one here, would ever think that a self pub and a traditional contract should be the same. But I sure as hell wouldn't be signing any contract as crap as the one they offer.

The whole thing screams of lack of experience, knowlege and professionalism.



My guess is that SHE doesn't fully understand the publishing business.



GOOD small presses, start up or otherwise, are awesome. I know this from experience. But that greatness and opportunity comes from someone who is knowlegable, smart and sharp and has experience and contacts in the industry.

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I hate to make this look like a pile-on, but I have to agree with Shaldna and Priceless here. I'm very aware of what a commercial publishing contract should look like, both small and large press. And it doesn't look like what she offered you. Nor have I ever heard of a self-publishing contract which takes copyright or offers such tiny royalties.

If it's turned around, and she's calling her contract "standard" and implying those of us here only have knowledge of what a self-publishing contract should look like...well, again, she's extremely wrong, and a quick look at our sig lines or glance at the websites of those posting here will prove that pretty quickly.

CaoPaux said:

Re: industry experience, I'm finding a handful of books from Cambridge University Press acknowledging Ms. Foster as editor and Ms. Riotto as indexer (example). Pub dates range from 1987 to 2009.

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Odd that they would institute such a horrendous contract, have zero distribution, and the only place you can buy their books is through their website. How is this advantageous to writers? They appear to be a well-kept secret.

It's sounding to me like they may well have experience in some aspect of publishing, but they seem to be lacking general business sense and overall experience in publishing.

Also, the high number of books published by them that appear to be written by people who work for them, or are them, suggests that the publisher is trying to hide the fact that it's primarily a self publishing front

CaoPaux said:

Re: industry experience, I'm finding a handful of books from Cambridge University Press acknowledging Ms. Foster as editor and Ms. Riotto as indexer (example). Pub dates range from 1987 to 2009.

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I've done editing and indexing for a variety of publishers, including university presses (but not including Cambridge University Press).

The contracts I've signed for that work aren't particularly similar to the contracts that I've signed for my work as a writer.

So without questioning Foster's and Riotto's experience in providing contracted editorial services for publishers in any way, I still feel confident in saying that doing freelance editing and indexing is not, in and of itself, a qualification for running a publishing company, and that even a long history of distinguished work in that field isn't in itself likely to bestow any particular expertise in drawing up author/publisher contracts.

Running a publishing company needs to include other skills, such as business strategy and personnel management, in which arenas the folks at Reck House have not distinguished themselves with either the contract or their response to the contract being questioned.

The contract that Al received was absurdly crap and exploitative, in my opinion as someone who has seen quite a few contracts from publishers ranging from micropresses to Big Six houses. It is not in any way normal or standard.

Reck House's response is either ill-informed or disingenuous. There's no two ways about it. Either they don't know what they're doing, or they're pissing on their writers' legs and telling them it's raining. In either case, nobody should be entrusting their hard work to this publisher.

CaoPaux said:

Re: industry experience, I'm finding a handful of books from Cambridge University Press acknowledging Ms. Foster as editor and Ms. Riotto as indexer (example). Pub dates range from 1987 to 2009.

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I wonder whether some of the more heinous clauses in the Reck House contract come from the owners' experience with scholarly presses (where lower royalties are common) and scholarly journals (which often take copyright).

- Victoria

victoriastrauss said:

I wonder whether some of the more heinous clauses in the Reck House contract come from the owners' experience with scholarly presses (where lower royalties are common) and scholarly journals (which often take copyright).

- Victoria

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Quite possibly. But if one is branching out into another area of the industry, then surely one should make themselves as familiar as possible with it before hand.

Too many people don't think of publishing as being like other businesses. You would never start another business without being doing all you could to make sure you understood how it worked.