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Emma Stern Publishing

aliceshortcake

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http://www.emmastern.com/

I came across Emma Stern Publishing, which has the prestigious-sounding address of 107 Fleet Street, London, via a post on Korede Abayomi's Readersbooks.com. This alone was enough to set alarm bells ringing...and the deeper I dug the louder they got.

Emma Stern is an established trade publishing company that delivers excellence.

Staff members have wide and successful experience in publishing and ancillary fields. We have valuable connections with all parts of the book and media industries.

HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!

There are seventeen titles in ESP's shop, seven of which are public domain classics. Four books are by Jack Rubin, who unless he's the same Jack Rubin who wrote Harness Racing's Winning Secrets has no internet footprint other than a fulsome testimonial on the ESP site. Stranger still, Mr Rubin appears to be a character in these novels as well as being the author. Three other ESP books are little more than pamphlets (£4.99 for a 28-page paperback). There's some unintentional comedy in ESP's description of their books:

Later in 1916 Robert\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s complete and detailed book about School Improvement will be produced and marketed by Emma Stern Publishing.


Tarzan learns he is heir to the British lordship of Greystoke but the title has been usurped by his brother, who is engaged to marry Jane. In an act of love and enunciation, Tarzan returns to Africa and the apes.


What do all these books have in common? None of them are available to buy or pre-order on Amazon, even though they have publication dates of the 18th or 25th January 2016. So much for ESP being "established". The company's Facebook account dates back to 23rd November 2015.

So who's behind Emma Stern Publishing? Not Emma Stern, evidently. I half-expected the mysterious Jack Rubin to be involved, but I was wrong. A quick trip to Whois Lookup revealed a familiar name - the registrant of ESP's website is Mr Bakht Bedar of Cambridge, the man behind vanity publishers Artemis and Pegasus Elliott Mackenzie. Readers familiar with Bedar's modus operandi will not be surprised to learn that the Fleet Street address is nothing more than a furnished office rented for the purpose of fooling clients into the belief that they're visiting the company's HQ:

http://www.regus.co.uk/locations/office-space/london-fleet-street

And guess who lives at the same Cambridge address as Bakht Bedar...none other than Mohammed Bu-Malik, director of Austin Macauley and Ashwell!
 
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Gerald Hornsby

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Ashwell is also Olympia Publishers at a Cannon Street address. From their website: https://olympiapublishers.com/about-us/

Should we be unable to offer a traditional contract, but we feel the work has potential an alternative offer may be made. This offer is known as a ‘partnership contract’ and is based on a contribution, to be paid by the author, to cover initial production and printing of the work.

Hmmm.
 

CaoPaux

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Heh. In Feb '16, they posted to their News page:

Clarification
Perhaps some clarification is needed on two points.

First, we are a publishing company and not a literary agency. While we welcome submissions through agents, we are not an agency ourselves.

Second, it has been claimed in some nefarious quarters that we are in some way connected to other companies. We are pleased to clarify this too. Emma Stern is not, and never has been, connected with any other publisher, or indeed any other company.

And changed their About Us page to read:

Emma Stern Publishing is now making great strides in the right direction and remains open to genuine enquiries. All submissions or enquiries, at whatever level, receive a courteous response.

We wish to reiterate that this is an independent company, with no links, by way or personnel or otherwise, with other publishers or any other company. Claims to the contrary are false.

All our titles are available for sale through our own book shop online or through Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Purchases may also be made through High Street book shops.

We assure everyone that all work is read carefully by our team. Those we consider need further appraisal go to our Chief Editor for a final decision. In those cases where we reject work, the reasons for rejection are given in a positive fashion.

Emma Stern Publishing is always professional. You can place your trust in us at all stages.

And yet ... activity ceased thereafter, and all menu links now redirect to their home page.