Okay - let me make this clearer for all of you - no one we have published has EVER paid for any service we offer. If an author requests a sample edit (this is free) and we decide from that sample to make an offer, we do. If they opt to only use the editing services, then we move forward with that agreement, but if they decide to accept our offer to publish, then we complete a publishing agreement. No money is exchanged.
Two of the authors we are publishing this year started out this way.
Thank you for clearing that up. Much appreciated. I know I was banging on about it, but I have seen so many publishers weasel their way through getting authors to pay for their services that I feel it's important to know how things work.
You've published one anthology and two books by single authors so far. So are you telling me that you offered to publish those two books after having only read a sample they sent you for editing? Because if so, that's not good.
Like you I've been in the industry for a while - though you've got years on me. I respect your comments based on your experience and accept the changes that need to occur to the website. Funny thing is, it is based off a publishing template, but go figure. Thank you for that input. I started out as an intern for Bloomsbury, with several indie presses, and Oxford University Press. I have edited both fiction and academic non-fiction.
Publishing template? I don't understand.
I also am confused that you have interned for Bloomsbury and the UOP, because it is usual to remain in one genre when working in publishing; and it seems from your background that you live and work in the US, not in the UK.
While this has been lovely, I can see there is zero chance at having a professional conversation. What started out as someone deciding the press was unworthy, but didn't know how to tell their friend, has turned into vitriol. BLP does not scam anyone nor do we require any published author to pay for services (clients yes - though not sure how many times I need to explain that one point). We work to market each book published, but expect our authors to participate in their own marketing.
With the exception of one (Old Hack (btw - love the name)) - none of you have offered your own expertise or experience. You sit, in self-appointed judgement, of publishing companies. If a company has scammed or hurt authors, then go to it. If they are a vanity press, have a good time, but going after indie presses (not just this one) who do not meet YOUR idea of being worthy of existence need to be left to succeed or fail on their own. You claim to be protecting new authors, yet nothing you've said above (again, with the exception of one) offered anything constructive or demonstrated how any author is at risk.
I wish all of you success it whatever it is you choose to do. I would appreciate your leaving my business - my livelihood alone.
I see no vitriol here and if I did, I would stamp on it (and don't forget, you can report posts you feel are inappropriate by clicking on the little warning triangle on that particular post). What I do see is people asking tough but reasonable questions about a publishing house, and the principal of that publishing house responding with less than good grace.
I do understand how authors are associated to their books. I appreciate your experience as well. I am not asking to be treated on a bell. The issue I had from the beginning is that someone had questions/concerns about my company. Instead of asking directly, they came here and started a thread asking for thoughts. Any professional would have approached the company in question and not pulled out comments such as in this thread. If they are so concerned for their friend - they should talk to them and express their opinion (for that is what it is). If they decide to go elsewhere, we would not hold them to the contract.
If you want to employ someone, you ask others who have worked for them, or who have experience in their business, for references. That's what we're doing here.
There's little point asking a press if they're competent and reputable because they're all going to say that yes, they are. So asking you directly would not have been effective. Analysing the information we have on you has revealed a few things that we weren't sure of before. It's revealed that your editing is terrible, your covers are terrible, and your website is terrible; that you don't seem to have much experience in publishing; your books aren't selling well; and you don't respond well to being asked tough questions, which suggests you might be difficult to work with.
I'm not asking you to improve my company. It was a rhetorical question. I have 20 years experience running large businesses and that was before I joined the publishing industry. I asked if you only tear down something or if you actually offered constructive comments. Based on my financials, my business model is doing rather well.
So you worked for twenty years running large businesses, and then you started work in publishing, where you've been for fifteen years. That makes thirty five years, which is about the same amount of time I've been working. Which would make you about the same age as me. I'm 54. But you look a LOT younger than me in your Facebook profile. What moisturiser do you use?
My experience feels like multiple lives lived simultaneously. Business wise, I've worked as an senior operations manager in the financial world, was a business manager for multiple small companies - creating budgets, business models, and running the day to day operations. In the publishing world, I started as an intern as a proofreader and editor at Bloomsbury. I worked for several smaller presses in the UK and US (editing and running daily operations). I worked with Oxford Uni Press with academic non-fiction editing.
I knew better than to start a business without having at least 2 years capital reserves.
If you have worked in editing for Bloomsbury and the OUP (I've never heard of it referred to as Oxford Uni Press before, and the people I know who work there always include the "the") then you should know your stuff. So why have you published books which are in such dire need of a good editor? I am sorry to be so blunt: but I've read the first ten pages or so of each of the books you've published and they are all in need of a lot of work. I couldn't let books go out into the world in such poor shape.