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Soul Star Publishing

jkenton

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Anybody familiar with this indie publisher?
 

mrsmig

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Maybe someone else's Google-Fu is better than mine, but they don't appear to have a website. I did find this at Smashwords. The covers are uniformly awful.
 

Gravity

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From their site, this does not fill me with confidence: "Soul Star publishing, is an indie publishing house run by authors, for authors."

God above, how many times have seen this same business model (unnecessary comma and all)? More to the point, how many times have we seen this same business succeed?
 

Marian Perera

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God above, how many times have seen this same business model (unnecessary comma and all)?

Gravity, you left out the best part!

We are unique.

Yeah, you and a thousand other startups.

We give the author the freedom of self-publishing, while providing contractors who are willing to work on a percentage of perceived income, so that an independent author has the ability to produce quality product on the same standards as the top publishers, even if they do not have a disposable income to pay for such services in advance.

Editors and artists who are willing to work for "a percentage of perceived income"?

That explains the covers and the blurbs.
 

Gravity

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Yep. Sad to say most startups have about the same lifespan as a second lieutenant on Omaha Beach.

Sadder still, they take too many might-have-had-a-chance manuscripts into the gaping maw of Ahor with them when they go.
 

Filigree

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I haven't read any of the sample texts. The covers hurt my brain.

ETA: I just read sample pages from two of their main authors. At least for me, the writing is fairly awkward and derivative. About what I'd expect to see from a start-up publisher like this, and nowhere near strong enough to hold my interest. And I'm an old gamer geek, predisposed to like RPG-inspired stuff.

One author cites a Fran Olson as both editor and agent. LinkedIn shows Olson as an editor with Soul Star.

A quick Google search shows this website: hangell531.wix.com/soulstarpublishing
 
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jkenton

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Ok, so I wasn't just having a day of Google-Failure. I was thinking "there has to be SOMETHING out there about these guys." Thanks for taking a look, folks. Pretty much confirms what I'd been able to find myself.
 

shelleyo

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This is a "run fast, run far" nightmare of a "business."

People will submit, though, if they ever slap up a WYSIWYG Geocities-style eyesore of a website to take them, just to say they've been "published."
 

jkenton

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Pretty much confirming what my gut was saying. Thanks, everyone.
 

shelleyo

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This is a "run fast, run far" nightmare of a "business."

People will submit, though, if they ever slap up a WYSIWYG Geocities-style eyesore of a website to take them, just to say they've been "published."

Correcting myself. There is a website after all. I missed that.

The company talks about helping authors achieve a professional result, but there's nothing professional about the covers (not a single one in the bunch), the merchandise (it's as bad as the covers, and I think one bookmark is illegally using the image of the guy who plays Thor) or even the website. Real businesses don't (or at least should never) use free Wix websites.

If the authors are paying for these types of services in the hope of putting out a professional product, they're getting ripped off. If it's some friends banding together to put their own stuff out, they're just not doing a very good job of it. (There's a submission page, so I'm guessing they at least intend to bring others in eventually.)

I don't see anything that gives me a "wait and see" feeling.
 

Filigree

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Hit their Smashwords page and look inside some of the first novels listed. Mostly story format retellings of RPG campaigns, as far as I can tell. The authors are having fun, but nothing about the books I saw looks truly commercial or professional.

Someone else may decide they're the perfect fit, for other reasons.
 

CaoPaux

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Site's gone. Press-related Tw/FB ceased '14. SW page rebranded to owner.