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Koru House Press

TheCuriousOne

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Trying to understand who/what they are... http://www.koruhousepress.com/

Basically, I came across one of their blog posts about digital marketing for self-published authors, and I wasn't very impressed with it - it screams of "we want your business, you're going to be great with us" but then there's a disclaimer that pretty much voids any responsibility if the marketing campaign doesn't work. It's linked to a person called Sam Ovens, who's like some digital marketing guru who seems to coach people for $2K at a time (although I didn't really look deep into it), and whose name, when entered on Google, returned as a first suggestion "Sam Ovens scam"...

Just found out they also have an "established" publishing house. With a website that has no info and no books. Can't find any books on Amazon either.

But most of all, if they're so great at digital marketing/promoting, I'm having problems with the fact that after 2 weeks, their Facebook pages only have 6 likes for Koru House Media, and 2 likes for Koru House Press. Hardly a result if you're such a big shot at digital marketing.

I'm not interested in publishing with them in the least, but the feeling in my belly tells me it's fishy. Will they eventually reveal to be a vanity press? Is there something else brewing? What do you think?
 

Susannah Shepherd

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I agree, this doesn't look promising. They're clearly not an 'established' New Zealand publisher, unless 'established' means nothing more than 'exists as some pixels on a basic website'. The complete lack of names and contact details on the website is likewise odd - and the only contact details on the Koru House Media Facebook page are to a NZ mobile phone number.

Koru House Press and Koru House Media are not registered with the New Zealand Companies Office, or at least not under that name, which is not in itself necessarily dodgy (a sole trader can use a business name), but it makes me suspicious because company registration is really easy here and the website implies this is not just some random on their own in a spare room.
 

aliceshortcake

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I live in NZ, and I've never heard of them. They describe themselves as 'established' but their 'books' section only says 'coming soon', which suggests they have managed to establish themselves by never publishing a single title. So....
 

frimble3

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According to Google, Rumuera is 'an affluent residential suburb'. Which doesn't sound like the kind of place that encourages visible businesses. So, some random on their own in a really big, well-appointed spare room?
 

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Yep, the address listed is your basic three bedroom house.
 

aliceshortcake

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I found the Facebook of a New Zealander named Samantha Armstrong who says she's about to publish a novel, but there isn't enough info to say for sure that KHP is a self-publishing front.

And I have to say that KHP's homepage is deeply unattractive. When I first saw that image, with the Grenfell Tower inferno fresh in my mind, I read it as a smoke-blackened building with plumes of smoke coming out of a couple of windows.
 
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aliceshortcake

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The KHM website is a hoot.

[FONT=avenir-lt-w01_35-light1475496]When you're a self-published author, being a great writer is only half the battle. To achieve long lasting success, you have to be a great marketer. At Koru House Media, we provide authors with the exact road map they need to achieve five and six figure sales volumes like clockwork.
[/FONT]
https://www.koruhousemedia.com/

The small print:

[FONT=avenir-lt-w01_35-light1475496]You recognize and agree that we have made no implications, warranties, promises, suggestions, projections, representations or guarantees whatsoever to you about future prospects or earnings, or that you will earn any money, with respect to your purchase of Koru House Media products, and that we have not authorized any such projection, promise, or representation by others.
[/FONT]
https://www.koruhousemedia.com/earnings-disclaimer

The disclaimer is from the website of aforementioned entrepreneur Sam Ovens:

https://go.samovens.com/earnings-disclaimer/

Aha! On closer inspection the email addy for Samantha Armstrong so helpfully provided by GoDaddy leads to another (now defunct) site called chadesofchic.com, which leads back to the Facebook of Samantha Armstrong:

https://www.facebook.com/samantharmstrongbooks/

Trying to get rich the Sam Ovens way by publishing books when you have no publishing experience is a recipe for disaster.
 
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And I have to say that KHP's homepage is deeply unattractive. When I first saw that image, with the Grenfell Tower inferno fresh in my mind, I read it as a smoke-blackened building with plumes of smoke coming out of a couple of windows.
Yeah, my brain did the same thing. Bad timing.
 

aliceshortcake

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I couldn't resist asking KHP, via Facebook, how many books this "established" press had released. The reply:

Thanks for reaching out. We have published three titles, all due for release in 2017. We're excited to share them all.

So...they've actually published nothing and didn't even share the titles of their forthcoming books. However, the word "established" on the KHP website has now been replaced with "innovative"!

You can also get a free e-book from Koru House Media - How to Build an E-mail Subscriber List, "from the company that has helped countless authors build 100,000s of followers" (http://go.koruhousemedia.com/free-ebook/). That's one hell of an achievement bearing in mind that the KHM site was only registered in March this year.
 

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On behalf of all Kiwis, I hang my head in shame.
 

TheCuriousOne

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Yeah, that blog article was all about how to build a mailing list... but I wasn't very impressed with it, and I don't even know much about digital marketing. Personally, if I get to a Subscribe page that looks anything like the one they use as an example, I'm NEVER going to register. Looks too much like all those pages where you enter your email address and all you only end up getting is loads of spam... Bit worried they'd also have access to the email addresses, if they're the ones setting you up.
 

aliceshortcake

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Koru House has released its first book...and needless to say it's by Samantha Armstrong.
 

PostScript

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Seems like it's doing well.
6 reviews on the same day then nothing though...maybe Im just paranoid. It did get to #40238 in Romance/New Adult in 3 days.

Their about page makes me wonder though
Our mission here at Koru House press is to challenge the status quo. We want to disrupt the power that traditional publishers hold over the literary world.
Bolded for emphasis.
 

CaoPaux

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Second book out this month, by owner.