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[Publisher] Calumet Editions / Wisdom Editions

The Suspense Author

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Does anyone know anything about this press. I'm pretty sure it's a vanity press but on a thread, on another website the owner said

"We have a unique business model that we do not publicize; sometimes it involves a shared investment between the author and Calumet, but not always. We offer author services, but only for books that we accept through a submission process. We share publishing risk and rewards with authors."

I'm not entirely sure what they mean. It sounds like they're saying some others don't have to pay? I don't know. Thoughts?

WEBSITE LINK:
http://www.calumeteditions.com/
 

mrsmig

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It sounds very much like a vanity press masquerading beneath the usual veneer of A New And Better Publishing Model. One of the two founders is the typical author-who-couldn't-get-published-and-decided-to-start-his-own-company.

The nuts and bolts are contained in the section labeled "Agents," which contains nuggets like this:

As the old established methods of introducing new authors to the public break down and there is less money and opportunity in the publishing world, Calumet Editions has developed a method we call New Wave Publishing, wherein we contract partnerships with authors and help develop them as name brands in order to sell more books. This is not traditional publishing and neither is it self-publishing.

Well, duh. Of course it's not self-publishing if you have a company doing it for you. Here's the real meat, though (bolding mine):

With sufficient investment from the author, we will share costs and profits up to 50% all through the process. This means we will not be paying advances to authors, and literary agents will not be able to gain commission with us in the old way. However, agents can be included in the contract with their authors for a portion of the 50% royalty structure in return for successfully pitching the book to Calumet Editions. If there is no investment from the author and Calumet decides to publish the book, a royalty of 25-35% may be possible.Presently, we are willing to look at those fabulous books that you felt sure you could sell, but which just don’t get picked up. You all have dozens of these. We would like to give your judgment a chance to shine. We in most cases need an investment of $1K to $5K depending on requirements to equal our expertise and labor in getting the book into POD and eBook formats, develop the product and introduce the author to the huge world of social media. If significant print runs are needed in the case of title experiencing a break out success, costs between author and publisher will be shared.

In other words, your clients can pay us to do exactly what they could do for themselves through self-publishing, and we'll take 50%, thanks so much. You can fight with them over your share.

ETA: The two Calumet Editions books I looked up on Amazon are, oddly enough, free on Kindle. Nuffin' divided by nuffin' still equals nuffin'. They did have pretty covers, but I guess you get what you pay for. I looked at the first few pages of one book and happened on this sparkling example of Calumet's editing skills:

(Author's Name redacted) grew up in a small grew up in a small South African town...

Does that answer your question?



 
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Richard White

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Shared investment, hybrid publishing, partnership publishing - what all of this means is the author puts up money, (usually well more than it costs to get the book formatted, a cover done, and minimal editing) and the publisher "says" they'll match it, but never actually shows anyone what their skin in the game is, and then they take 40-60% of the profits generated (if any).

So, basically, the author is paying a publisher to put out the book for them. This is nothing more than vanity publishing with a fresh set of lipstick.
 

Becca C.

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I find their pitch to agents particularly distasteful. One, how insulting to legitimate agents. Two, what a scary opportunity for not-so-legit agents, or clueless self-proclaimed agents.