Austin Macauley Publishers, Ltd. (formerly Austin & Macauley)

[fisaffie1]

Thank you JulieB for the warm welcome to A W. I have every intention of sticking around and gleaning as much information as I possibly can, starting with the link you have sent me.

All my best,
Fi

[waylander]

Memoirs are a very tough sell. Here's is agent Janet Reid's recent comments: http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.co.uk/

[aliceshortcake]

I just came across this ad on Amazon:

We Accept All Author Submissions. Send your work and see what happens!
www.austinmacauley.com/

Which tells you everything you need to know about this company.

[Eltondiva]

Hmmm....'nuff said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIaEL0gOxN0

[Old Hack]

I would not even consider Austin Macauley as a publisher. They earn their money from the authors they publish and not from selling the books they publish: your book is extremely unlikely to sell in any decent amount if you go with them, as they just don't have the distribution needed to do better.

The only thing that prevents me from self publishing is that the big publishing houses, with whom I still have a chance as they have had my submission for three weeks now, make it very clear that they won't touch a book that has already been self published. This reduces my chances of getting any follow up books in my trilogy published either – or does it? I am in such a quandary as what to do. But I know that the one thing I won't be doing is paying nearly £3000 for what sounds like a shoddy product.

Very few reputable publishers will consider publishing books two and three in a trilogy if they didn't also publish book one. It doesn't matter if book one was self-published or published by a major publisher: trilogies have to stay together, as far as publishers are concerned.

If you want a trade publisher for any of the books in this series, your best bet is to query the socks off the first book in your series, and do all you can to find a good agent to represent you.

[doubledoc]

I'm new to this forum, and came here to investigate this most misleading publisher. The information I found here prompted me to be very cautious after meeting with initial enthusiasm from them. In reply to my submission of a query and three chapters I got a letter by mail, on very thick paper and mailed to Canada from the UK (impressive but quite unnecessary when an email could have done), informing me that the editors wanted to read my full manuscript. Instead of sending the manuscript I sent this letter:

"Dear Editors,


I received by mail a letter from XXXXXX informing me that the board of editors would like to view the complete manuscript of my novel Reticence following initial review. I am very heartened by this, but as a realist I would like to obtain some information before I take up your time assessing the full manuscript.


As a linguistics major with experience in teaching creative writing, I can offer you an impeccably edited manuscript. As a previously unpublished author, however, I would rely on vigorous marketing to make my book visible to readers interested in such a work (a lighthearted novel of ideas that juxtaposes two cultures and mentalities). I thoroughly enjoy public speaking and can fire up an audience - if and when I have an audience. Being self-employed, I have enough time and all the willingness to engage in publicity campaigns - if an when I have access to the right venues. I am fully aware that a literary novel by a “dark horse” might require financial input from me for you to proceed with publication and marketing, and this in itself does not make me pause. What I want to be more informed about are some statistics on authors similar to myself whose books you have published. What venues of distribution and marketing have been used? What have their sales been?


I hope you can appreciate that the intent of this letter is to save us both time and unrealistic expectations, and to clear in advance any obstacles to a fruitful interaction.


Yours sincerely,


NNNNNNNNNN"

Never heard from them after this. I don't think the letter was rude or uppity, but maybe they thought so. I certainly don't intend to have further contact with them unless they respond.

[aliceshortcake]

I don't think the letter was rude or uppity, but maybe they thought so. I certainly don't intend to have further contact with them unless they respond.

I'm fairly sure they thought - correctly! - that you were someone capable of using caution and common sense. In other words, not their target market.

And it amuses me that they make such a big deal of sending out acceptance letters when one of their own adverts states that they accept everyone!

[doubledoc]

And it amuses me that they make such a big deal of sending out acceptance letters when one of their own adverts states that they accept everyone!

Ah, but it's difficult to resist feeling special when you receive a letter on paper thick as cardboard with a stamp of the queen on the envelope. Some of us are more easily impressed than others

[InterestedAuthor56]

Ah, but it's difficult to resist feeling special when you receive a letter on paper thick as cardboard with a stamp of the queen on the envelope. Some of us are more easily impressed than others

So, it would appear an ex employee has spilt the beans about AM on a Glassdoor review.

"
“Writers Beware ”

Former Employee - Editorial in Witchford, England

Doesn't Recommend

Negative Outlook

I worked at Austin Macauley Publishers part-time (Less than a year)

Pros
You can buy a tin of soup or two on the slave-wage they deem acceptable for staff to live from.

Cons
After not even being with the employer for a matter of weeks, my employment was 'terminated' by their 'Senior Editor', a young girl who worked with the firm under a false alias, much like most of the 'large', cough small team they employed. The firm operated out of a refurbished farmers hut in a quiet village outside of rural Cambridgeshire, far from the virtual office they used in Canary Wharf. Of course, a few mistakes had been made and I wasn't suitable for the job and in hindsight, probably for the best. The young girl who interviewed me and read me my marching orders acted as many different positions in the firm, Senior Editor, Office Manager, as well as Editor-in-Chief, to the extent of signing contracts under the alias created for the last job function. If any authors are currently seeking a way to get reimbursed for the thousands of £'s through Austin Macauley, this is your trump card. The system used for establishing 'authentic authors' to join the long list of other paid for authors was a few Google Adverts, followed by accepting cold-call aspiring writers, all of which, led to a lucrative business of charing £1,500 + to publish the work. I was advised by another member of the team that it would be rare for the author to make back 1% of their money made from 'net' sales, in other words, the percentage of sales made from discounted deals with suppliers who ordered publications on demand. My advice would be to stay clear of this company at all costs.


Advice to Management
In many cases you attract young people to companies who aren't as established as more solid workers. In order to be a reputable employer it is your duty to nurture these individuals, instead of criticising immediately on simple mistakes.

----

It would appear many of the questions in this thread have now been answered by the above and I will now definitely be staying WELL AWAY from any dealings with this company.

Source: https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Job/Aust...bs-E994275.htm

[gingerwoman]

Austin & Maclauley is a vanity publisher. I've gotten reports of fees in the £3,000 range.

Like many vanity publishers, Austin & Macauley claims to offer "traditional" publishing, and lures authors in with this promise. Once authors have submitted, they get a letter from "Chief Editor Annette Longman" saying that A&C thinks their work "has merit" and "deserves to be published." However, due to "the difficulty in placing the books of new or untried authors, as well as the general increased competition in publishing today, we feel that it may be necessary to ask for a contribution from you." There then follows some stuff about how such arrangements are "likely to be more common in future," and then Annette lowers the boom:

Let me stress: the situation is that, at the moment, we are only asking you to agree in principle [to make a contribution]. I can, however, assure you of one important point. If you were to agree in principle, the amount asked of you would be reasonable; it would be a contribution to initial costs only; it would not match the investment we ourselves would be putting into teh publishing, promoting, and marketing of your work.

The final paragraph of this letter sinks the hook, implying that the contribution may not be required after all: "...on the other hand, [the Publishing Board] may well agree to take responsibility for the entire financial risk."

These are standard vanity publisher sales tactics, designed to make authors believe that a) the publisher isn't solely a vanity publisher, and b) if they pay, the publisher will contribute either its own money or services of substantial value. However, it's quite likely that neither is true. While some vanity publishers do have non-vanity programs, in many if not most cases the claim to provide "tradtional" publishing is a sales ploy designed to make authors feel more confident that the publisher is reputable ('cause any publisher that does non-vanity publishing is reputable, right?). Ditto for the joint venture claim--it's far more likely that the author's "contribution" has been carefully calculated to cover not just publication costs, but the publisher's overhead and profit.

Apart from anything else, A&M's website is deceptive in that there's no indication that any of its authors will have to pay. However, as Old Hack noted, to anyone with any real publishing experience, it screams "vanity publisher."

- Victoria

This maybe needs re quoting since Austin & Macauley offering contracts to "new authors" is coming up first as a google ad on any google search related to publishing.

[fruitful]

I just wanted to say a big thank you for this forum and in particular, this post about Austin Macauley. Last Thursday, I received an email from them to say that they found my book favourable. I was so excited until I read the attachments which said they would want a contribution from me. I then felt so gutted and upset. I have, over the Easter weekend, calmed down but have replied to them to say that I had since discovered that they are a vanity publisher and have a bad name. As a new author, I had no idea these sorts of publishers existed. If someone isn't prepared or have the money to self publish, then you want to go through a publisher, don't you. You simply don't expect to 'pay' a publisher at all. I was just so relieved to find your forum. Thanks to my partner, he said why don't you google Austin Macauley to see if it is a scam, because even he said no way was I going to fork out money. So, I won't give up, because one day my first book will be published and I will remain positive about it.

[wozza]

Like other posters, I would like to thank you for your input on the subject of Austin Macauley. I received a 'Publishing Contract' from them last week, and was very excited about it. However, like almost everyone else it seems, after even minimal research about the contract type and them as a publisher, I quickly realised that all was not what it seemed. While I'm disappointed that my work is still no closer to being published, I cannot help but feel that I have dodged an expensive bullet that would not have seen very much return.
With hindsight, I think that I should have been somewhat suspicious about AM due to the sheer speed of their replies to my submissions. Every other agent and publisher seems to work in timescales of months, while AM works in weeks - they even worked within half of their expected timeframe for my second submission, and I cannot help but agree with other posters in that I wonder if they even read my whole manuscript before sending out their standard 'Non-contributory' letter.

So thank you again, and good luck to everyone who is still plugging away - like I am - with submitting to agents and publishers.

[jimmac47]

-To all you negative-minded aspiring writers out there with your petty tales of woe and rejection, let me tell you what you might be lacking.
Talent.
I've written one book, well summary, lately, sent it off to one publisher and immediately received a rave review. One for one!
One publisher, one submission one favourable reply, and a proper letter at that. None of your e-mail rubbish. Within a week! One week! Just confirms that I've got what you don't.
Talent-TALENT. T-A-L-E-N-T.
Don't want to rub it in but let me read some extracts from the relevant letter, which I've just had framed at a cost of $300-I've ordered twenty copies for the relatives, like. Peanuts when the royalties start coming in.

Anyway, the letter;
Re- Tales of the Banal
Further to our previous correspondence, you will be pleased to know that our board of editors-(BOARD- if you don't mind)-have reported back favourably regarding your initial submission Therefore they now wish to view your complete manuscript in its final form.
We look forward to reading your complete manuscript.

EtcEtc,

Austin McAuley sure know how to pick a winner.

I'm already started on my second magnum opus, an autobiography –Oneforoneonerforoneoneforone..
It’s right, I’ve checked.

I'm liking Di Caprio for the film, if he can get a bit fitter, like. I'll probably just have a wee walk-on part, like, Hitchcock-like, or Tarantino-like,like.

[Filigree]

I'm really hoping this is satire. I'm coming off a brutal work week + food poisoning, so my ability to discern nuance is a little challenged.

[josephperin]

I'm really hoping this is satire. I'm coming off a brutal work week + food poisoning, so my ability to discern nuance is a little challenged.

Either that or trolling. Hard to believe that much obnoxity is genuine.

ETA - Their ads have been popping up on my feed lately. That's what made me click the link. Then I found that post

[Filigree]

It's satire. Sorry for being a confused sourpuss, all.

[josephperin]

Yeah, it is.

[Christine Osborne]

My cousin is having a problem getting AMc to confirm a date for the publication of his book. They have had his MS for for more than 12 months and he has paid them some $2000.

A traditionally published as well as being a successful self published author, I decided to send AMc my latest work to gauge their response.

I sent a sample of the non fiction work and had an immediate response saying they considered it had merit and that they would like to receive the entire manuscript.

I acknowledged their interest and inquired was there any payment involved?

I have subsequently never received a reply...

[gingerwoman]

It's satire. Sorry for being a confused sourpuss, all.

It's very odd that that account has only one post and it chose satire in this thread then. I guess considering the book titles it must be after all, so I'm embarrassed I reported it. But the person only having one post made me think it was a bizarre attempt at spam.

[Filigree]

I had an explanation from the OP (I think) that it was satire. A bit heavy, but whatever.

This is one of the pubs that makes me just roll my eyes and go to the other side of the street. I can't help anyone daft enough to fall for them.

[jimmac47]

I had an explanation from the OP (I think) that it was satire. A bit heavy, but whatever.

This is one of the pubs that makes me just roll my eyes and go to the other side of the street. I can't help anyone daft enough to fall for them.

Oh dear! Time to clarify.
I am in the process of writing a satirical novel. As luck would have it, the first publisher I sent a draft to was You Know Who.
Imagine my elation to find that a publisher would, within weeks, send an approving response by snail mail to me in Australia.
That was before I came across the absolutewrite website and this thread.
It was here that I learned for the first time about vanity publishers in general and Austin Macauley in particular.
My post was a satirical, not to say angry riposte.
My real intention though was to post, word for word, the reply I received, because I'm sure it is a form letter. (You do though, have to admire that 'Board of Editors' bit!)
As previously indicated I am an absolute newbie, but my guess is that if a publisher were interested, they would contact me by email,
with a personalised response.
So, my aim was to send a warning to anyone as gullible as I was, to disregard any letter from Austin Macauley that is identical to mine.
Apologies if I caused any confusion.

[Selkiegirl]

Dear Fruitful,

After reading your post you sound like me. After fourteen years, writing on and off, I finally completed my series of four children's books. Anyway, in the last week of April this year I began to submit my synopsis and first three chapters to various literary agents, which I found listed in this years edition of 'The Writers' and Artists Yearbook,' I received 2 rejections letters from the first two agents, which I pretty much expected, but since they were nice I wasn't discouraged, the next three I am still awaiting a reply, so all I can assume is they're not interested, or haven't had the time to look. Well, in early June I found Austin Macauley, by typing in the Google bar, 'Getting my children's book published,' and it came up advertising for submissions, so I sent away an email with three chapters and my synopsis. It took them less than a fortnight to get back, I didn't view this as strange, since the literary agents were quick in their reply. AM said that after reviewing my manuscript the board of editors wanted to look at my complete manuscript, so I emailed it on June 20th. And on the 28th they said I should hear from them in 6 weeks. The other day I viewed AM's webpage in more detail, instead of just a cursory glance as I done in the beginning, and everything seemed lucrative and exciting, however one line really stood out like a sore thumb, and that was, 'the writer may be asked to contribute to the costs of publishing,' as soon as I saw this I immediately thought, 'vanity publisher,' and did some sleuthing on the internet, and was shocked to see how many other people giving, really damning, but justifiable complaints about AM. Of course I was disappointed to find this out, but more relieved. My husband said he wouldn't want me to part with such a large amount of money to people who are nothing more than scammers. Furthermore AM are not listed in 'The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook.' Also major bookshops don't buy books from 'vanity publishers,' considering AM claim to send their authors' books to major bookshops such as WH Smith. Although I regretted sending my manuscript to them, I don't feel too bothered as it was just a copy in any case, not the original. Sorry for the long email, and good luck in getting your book published, and I'm pleased you didn't hand AM any of your money, the only thing to give so-called publishers like then is as wide a berth as possible. As for me, like yourself I'm just going to contact legitimate publishers and agents, even if I get turned down. Getting rejected is one thing, you can shrug it off and move on, however, being left seriously out of pocket is another matter entirely.

[Selkiegirl]

I just wanted to say a big thank you for this forum and in particular, this post about Austin Macauley. Last Thursday, I received an email from them to say that they found my book favourable. I was so excited until I read the attachments which said they would want a contribution from me. I then felt so gutted and upset. I have, over the Easter weekend, calmed down but have replied to them to say that I had since discovered that they are a vanity publisher and have a bad name. As a new author, I had no idea these sorts of publishers existed. If someone isn't prepared or have the money to self publish, then you want to go through a publisher, don't you. You simply don't expect to 'pay' a publisher at all. I was just so relieved to find your forum. Thanks to my partner, he said why don't you google Austin Macauley to see if it is a scam, because even he said no way was I going to fork out money. So, I won't give up, because one day my first book will be published and I will remain positive about it.

Dear Fruitful, I tried to post my reply on your page, but didn't have much luck, however you should see it at the bottom of the page, as I am new. Sorry if it's a bit long-winded.

[Selkiegirl]

Just for the record it's illegal for companies or individuals to dupe members of the public with false promises especially if that company or individuals are also charging a large amount of money for very little in return, and in many cases a jail-able offence, correct me if I'm wrong but aren't Austin Macauley doing this, even though they will claim otherwise, and give the impression they are a genuine, legitimate company.

[Fallen]

At the moment they have the disclaimer that some are published traditionally, some require a contribution, and it's visible on site... somewhere. I think the only time they would break the law is if they publish zero novels the traditional way (I.e., not asking the author to pay), then their dual-publishing business plan wouldn't be advertised correctly. I don't know how many they've published on either side of the fence, but, to be honest, catching the 'may have to contribute towards publication' would steer me clear.