Genius Book Publishing (RED FLAG)
Hi, all.
After getting dozens of rejections from agents I decided to search for publishers that take direct submissions for action adventure novels. Genius Book Publishing was one of the names that came up. I know there's another thread on here regarding this publisher but it was from way back in 2012 and no one commenting in that one indicated any red flags. Well, here's a major red flag: I sent my query to them this afternoon and quickly got an e-mail reply back saying thanks and that they were reading it now and that they'd get back to me in a day or so. Then "Steven" wrote back a short time later asking if my novel was professionally edited or self edited. Self edited, of course. He then wrote back again an hour or so later and said he had a rather unique proposal to offer me and asked if I could call him, which I did. He proceeded to say that he really liked the idea of my novel but that it was quite obvious that it was self edited. So, he offered to contribute $200.00 toward having his professional editors edit it for me in exchange for him getting first refusal on the book. I would have to pony up about $300.00. Bear in mind that I only sent him a synopsis and the first 25 pages of my book so why he would be so enthusiastic without reading more of it at this point sent alarms bells off in my head. When he brought up the editing scheme that pretty much made me go to Red Alert. So, I told him no thank you, I'd been approached with this kind of offer before. If anyone else has any interactions with Steven Booth at Genius Book Publishing, whether negative or positive, let's hear them.