Publishing Syndicate

Looks like a vanity press IMHO.

twnkltoz said:

Yes. It's a hybrid between vanity and traditional publishing.

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I don't think there is such a thing. . .
But I'm sure an expert can pop in to take a closer look.

twnkltoz said:

They do charge a fee up front to cover all the formatting, editing, etc., but they refund it if you sell 2,500 copies.

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How many of their authors sell 2,500 copies? Few or none, I'll bet. And even PublishAmerica turns down some manuscripts.

If the author pays for anything, it's a vanity press. They can call it "hybrid" or "subsidy" or "collaborative," or whatever other terms they come up with, but it's still a vanity press.

That doesn't mean it's a scam or automatically a terrible idea, just that a rose by any other name is still a vanity press.

The website isn't inspiring confidence, nor is the fact that the contact address is a PO Box. The covers they have on the site look awful too.

I'm also wary about the lack of information about who they are - there is no 'about' section, no names - bar 'ken' in the email address. But who is Ken? What is his experience?

twnkltoz said:

Well, if you read their "Option 1" guidelines, they (supposedly) do not take all manuscripts--there has to be some quality to start with.

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Even PublishAmerica doesn't take all manuscripts. No vanity press does - though some of them claim that this shows they're not a vanity press.

I also checked out their other services.

Publishing Syndicate can provide ghost- or co-written book services to nearly anyone for most projects, but expect to pay a minimum of $50,000.

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It's a vanity press.

In other words, avoid it.

Their website, http://www.publishingsyndicate.com/publishing_syndicate/ps_home.html has the "I'm a scammer" layout--the one you can recognize from across the room.

It's vanity. It is not unusual for a vanity to have some selection criteria and to make some payback for runaway successes.

Don't listen to the naysayers... what's good for the syndicate is good for you!

(Sorry, couldn't resist. But seriously, stay away. Stay far, far away. This publisher will now be referred to as Tate Jr.)

It's interesting that the Erma Bombeck Writer's Workshop newsletter of Jan. 4th has a link for the "Not Your Mother's Book" anthology story calls.

Newsletter content is not necessarily vetted, especially if they offer paid spots.

veinglory said:

It's vanity. It is not unusual for a vanity to have some selection criteria and to make some payback for runaway successes.

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Exactly. One of the ways that vanity publishers attempt to dodge the vanity label is to say something like "we're not a vanity publisher because vanity publishers will publish anyone and we're selective." But many vanity publishers have at least some selection criteria, if only to avoid overloading their systems.

If you have to pay something or buy something as a condition of publication, you are not dealing with a publisher, but with something else.

- Victoria

I know this thread is old, but I didn't want to move on without leaving my two-cents about Dahlynn McKowen and Publishing Syndicate.

Dahlynn and I worked on Chicken Soup for the Soul in Menopause. She's listed as one of the authors and you can plainly see her name on the cover, along with Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

She's a veteran of the publishing business and is well-respected in the industry. I think it would be so much better to do some research on people before labeling them as "scammers", even if you're only doing it on a forum. We all work very hard to make a name for ourselves. Tarnishing that name shouldn't be done without careful thought. How would you feel if that were done to you?

By the way, I'm once again working with her on her Not Your Mother's Book series. I also know others working at or with Publishing Syndicate on this series. They seem happy because it's another place to allow our words to be read by readers.

And thus endeth my two-cents.

Lawrence

shaldna said:

I'm also wary about the lack of information about who they are - there is no 'about' section, no names - bar 'ken' in the email address. But who is Ken? What is his experience?

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I think I'm missing something here.

No one called her, or the press, a scam. I did criticize the layout of their webpage, which has subsequently been changed.

1. We charge $997 to publish and market your book, 100% of which is potentially reimbursable to you.

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The press is a vanity. Whether going with a vanity press is a good decision I'll leave up to you. Know this: If Dahlynn McKowen has a publishable book I'm sure she can find a real publisher that will take it.

For others: I'd recommend backing slowly out of the room.

shaldna said:

The website isn't inspiring confidence, nor is the fact that the contact address is a PO Box. The covers they have on the site look awful too.

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Is a PO Box necessarily a bad thing? In the place I live, we don't have door-to-door mail delivery and everyone has to have a PO Box, excepting only the biggest businesses. If there was a small publishing outfit here, they'd probably have to have a PO Box too, and only courier mail would come to their business premises.

Becca C. said:

Is a PO Box necessarily a bad thing? In the place I live, we don't have door-to-door mail delivery and everyone has to have a PO Box, excepting only the biggest businesses. If there was a small publishing outfit here, they'd probably have to have a PO Box too, and only courier mail would come to their business premises.

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A lot of fly-by-night businesses and outright fraudulent operations use PO Boxes. A few states in the USA even went to far as to write legislation prohibiting then from calling the PO Box a "suite." For this reason.

It's not necessarily a bad thing. But it doesn't bode well.

robjvargas said:

A lot of fly-by-night businesses and outright fraudulent operations use PO Boxes. A few states in the USA even went to far as to write legislation prohibiting then from calling the PO Box a "suite." For this reason.

It's not necessarily a bad thing. But it doesn't bode well.

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In this case it's entirely possible that they don't have an actual office and the owner doesn't want to use his home address as the company's address. That would just mean that they're so small/scrappy they don't even have/can't afford an office, not necessarily that anything shady is going on.

And yeah, there are also towns that don't do door-to-door delivery, so everyone has a PO box. Additionally, I have a PO box for my mailing list because I'm required by law (CANSPAM) to put a physical mailing address on my newsletters and I don't want it to be my home address. That's not being shady, that's just protecting my privacy.

LawrenceElliott said:

We all work very hard to make a name for ourselves. Tarnishing that name shouldn't be done without careful thought. How would you feel if that were done to you?

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If I set up a press and charged writers a fee for any part of the publication process, I would expect the same things said about me as have been said about Publishing Syndicate in this forum.

How would I feel about that? I don't know, how should I feel about being accurately labelled as a vanity press?

If you're still there, LawrenceElliott - how many Publishing Syndicate authors have earned back their initial investment by selling 2,500 copies of their book?

Alice Xavier said:

In this case it's entirely possible that they don't have an actual office and the owner doesn't want to use his home address as the company's address. That would just mean that they're so small/scrappy they don't even have/can't afford an office, not necessarily that anything shady is going on.

And yeah, there are also towns that don't do door-to-door delivery, so everyone has a PO box. Additionally, I have a PO box for my mailing list because I'm required by law (CANSPAM) to put a physical mailing address on my newsletters and I don't want it to be my home address. That's not being shady, that's just protecting my privacy.

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You should not, however, be surprised if potential clients judge you by lack of a physical office. Even a home office entails some kind of investment in the "presence" of a company. A PO Box, not so much.

It's the prospective's money, after all. If they choose to judge a PO Box address, that's their prerogative.

I don't judge a PO box. For all I know, the "suite" in NYC I ship stuff off to may be the metropolitan equivalent.