[ePub] Front Porch Romance

JE9Lizle -- Thank you for sharing your story, I'm sure that it will help other writers make an informed decision. I'm sorry you had such a poor experience.

Stacy said:

I could have been wrong but I decided to follow my gut even though my head was screaming " are you crazy...you are a newbie and dying to be published."

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Good for you -- I know for myself, whenever my gut has said "no" to something (anything) while my heart & head were saying "yes", the gut has been right every single time.

When the heart would leap, the mind must analyze.

Always take the time to ask yourself, "What is the smart thing to do here?"

Focus...

Shunt any and all emotion to the side, and analyze the known facts.

Patience will more often spare you grief, rather than cause it.

Don't budge until you've arrived at a satisfactory answer.

Stacy said:

Hi, thank you very much for sharing. I received an offer from this publisher and I debated for awhile. I rejected them before seeing this post. I had some misgivings namely I could not find any information about how they would market my work. I knew I would do a lot of work in getting myself out there, but I started to feel as if it would be all on me. I also received some information from another of their author ...and she was not impressed with their service. I could have been wrong but I decided to follow my gut even though my head was screaming " are you crazy...you are a newbie and dying to be published."
I am sorry for what you went through. I can only imagine how nail biting and stressing it must have been. I am glad you got back your rights. very glad. and very happy that you shared.

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Glad I could help. As a newbie author I jumped at a chance to get 'my foot in the door'. And that's where publishers like them get away with it. They bully the author into 'what sells' even if it's a misrepresentation of what the books about. Plus you as a writer know your weaknesses. There's no way, just one edit would be okay. I would have started my career as a writer on a very bad note & this is the internet, stuff like that follows you. You'd have to write under another name ( I know someone who had to do that). *shaking head* Shame of stupid choices sometimes silence a person &I only told my writing group about this after I got out of the deal. Now I run stuff by them, lurk on Absolute Write and most important, do my research when my head gets in the way of my gut.

FPR Offer.

Hi Everyone - I received an email I've never received before - offering me an ebook contract - from Front Porch Romance. I checked out the thread from a year ago: <snipped>

... and I'm wondering if anything's changed. Do others have any positive (says the hopeful, unpublished author) experiences now that this pub has a little more experience under its belt?

I'll welcome all input!

If I were you, I would let the publisher know you're considering their offer but need a few weeks to look everything over. Then I would go to their author pages and randomly pick 5 or so of their authors and email them, asking them about FPR, their editing and cover, basically everything you feel you need to know. Let them know you've received an offer and will keep anything they say in confidence.

I did this with the publisher I signed with, though they didn't have the negative posts like FPR does. Also, make sure you at least get the samples available through Amazon or wherever from a dozen-ish of their books. Those most current will probably tell you the most.

Don't be afraid to turn down their offer if your gut, not to mention your head, tells you this publisher isn't the best choice for you. There are so many other publishers out there. If FPR wanted it, chances are another one (or two or three) will want it too.

Good luck and let us know your decision!

Thank you, CrystalKay!

Okay, I've got it now. I've spent about 12 years since yesterday researching this and other like "opportunities" I've been "offered..." and none of what I've seen, esp. with F*PEE-ARE and M*EW-S*A-H are right. And I know that signing with someone just to sign is a bad idea/not what I want/not for me. So it's back to oblivion I go, sigh.

My thanks to Kay and to all the AW contributors whose threads I've researched to help me be better informed when it counts. Cheers.

Updrifting said:

So it's back to oblivion I go, sigh.

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Look at it this way, now you don't have to deal with the stressors of a bad (for lack of a better word) publisher.

Hi everyone *waving* Didn't mean to cause I complete deadlock on this thread, it is surprising to me (or maybe not) that no one of FPR responded to my post. Since the post, I signed on with Decadent Publishing's Ubuntu Line. It helped that the editor was in my writing group (I now call her friend *smile*) as well as some of their authors. I already had knowledge of them by then. In Feb 2014, I submitted to them again and the book got contracted. So you guys were right! If one publisher's interested, another will also be. Another thing I noted in regards to FPR. The authors that I friended on Facebook at the time, and still am friends with, haven't posted anything concerning the publisher on their Feeds. I haven't done a search on them after last year, so don't know what's happening. I only thought it was good to note here

I checked their sales ranks on Amazon. They have a Feb. debut that sold almost 300 copies in March, and is at a four figure rank. The rest are currently around 300,000 in rank or higher, indicating lower sales (at least on Amazon).

Mmm...certainly doesn't look like I missed out on anything. This will be my last thought on this epub.

Even though I said I wouldn't post here again, I had to share. I just saw on my FB, one of their author's saying FPR is closing. Another also stated on their blog that FPR will be going out of business on 1 May 2014. I went to the website to see what's happening there. I couldn't find any statements or anything to the effect.

JE9Lizle said:

Even though I said I wouldn't post here again, I had to share. I just saw on my FB, one of their author's saying FPR is closing. Another also stated on their blog that FPR will be going out of business on 1 May 2014. I went to the website to see what's happening there. I couldn't find any statements or anything to the effect.

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I have heard this as well, also from an author on Facebook. Hopefully the authors all get their rights back.

One of their author's said, she got her rights back. So that's good.