Helm Publishing

Barclay Books

1walkingadverb said:

I'd like to hear from anyone who has comments or experiences, good or not so good, about these small independent publishers. Thanks in advance.

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I had my first novel published with Barclay Books in 2001.
While the book itself looks fine, the publisher has done no publicity for it, or any of the books they publish. The author is expected to do it all.

Plus, their contract is not standard in that they ask for a cut of your film rights to the work, and also options on your next project.

Also, they've recently released a bunch of writers from their contracts, and they haven't published a new book for an awfully long time. I'd be surprised if there's any more books to come from them.

Becki McNeel, the publisher, is generally far too busy getting on with her life to run a publishing business.

Willie
http://www.willie.meikle.btinternet.co.uk

I think this thread demonstrates a real problem in the publishing industry.

There are at least three entities that could be referred to as "Barclay Books"… and two of them are related. I suggest that anyone who needs questions about specific publishers list not just the name, but the city in which that publisher is.

As another example, there are two Sterling Houses. One, in New York, is an arm of B&N, and is a commercial publisher (if a rather difficult one to deal with). The other, in Pittsburgh… is not a commercial publisher, but an outright vanity press that has common ownership with a literary agency. I've had a couple of hysterical authors of the former misunderstand that criticisms of the latter might apply to them!

Returning to Barclay, one of the three is an outright vanity press. The second one is affiliated with the first (but is not the same company for legal purposes), and offers no-advance royalty-paying contracts (without actually paying the royalties, in my experience). The third company hasn't been heard from in a couple of years now, but was a small specialty press that may or may not be in business today.

Some Small Publishers

The following are, ASFAIK, legitimate and upstanding small presses that publish fantasy. I don't believe any have been mentioned here, and P&E does not mention most of them. Has anyone had any experiences with them? I'm considering submitting to them.

Helm
Pyr
Ravenhawk
Rising Tide
Runestone Hill
Trivium

Vomaxx said:

The following are, ASFAIK, legitimate and upstanding small presses that publish fantasy. I don't believe any have been mentioned here, and P&E does not mention most of them. Has anyone had any experiences with them? I'm considering submitting to them.

Helm
Pyr
Ravenhawk
Rising Tide
Runestone Hill
Trivium

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A friend of mine has a good working relationship with Dragon Moon Press. http://www.dragonmoonpress.com is their web site. Don't know if they're in P&E or not, but the authors I have met who've been published through them seem pretty pleased with the relationship.

Just another thing to consider.

Always start hign and work down.

Vomaxx said:

Helm
Pyr
Ravenhawk
Rising Tide
Runestone Hill
Trivium

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The only one of these I'd be confident had any ability to get books reviewed and into stores is Pyr, which is an imprint of Prometheus Books, a sizeable independent. The rest look to me like hobbyist publishers--well intentioned, enthusiastic, but with very limited capacity for marketing and distribution.

I've been told (though I have no documentation) that Helm asks the author to pay some sort of promotional fee.

- Victoria

BookCoverDesigner said:

I looked at some of them...a few seem good, a few are obviously amateur opertions. The thing with Sci Fi is that like romance, it is one of the few genres were the book cover is very important. They're collectible. I have an article abou that on my blog at www.thoughtblog.net. Some of the companies have employed wonderful illustrators, which is pretty much the only good way to create a Sci Fi cover. Many use the Poser program, and while a few artists have mastered it, most haven't and the images look like computerized images (which might suit the book). Also, many of the images made with 3D software look super, super great online, but do not translate well to print, so you really need someone who understands colour and printing and presses. Nothing beats a good painting, though. Don't hand your baby over to just anyone...

Cathi

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You're right about most people not being able to use Poser properly, but don't sell digital art per se short. I'm a digital artist myself, and I can tell you that whatever the tools, it still takes an artist to create art. The problem seems to be that few artists are willing to master the technical end of digital art, and few techies have any artistic talent.

My own work (no, I don't do book covers, except as examples for students) uses a combination of Poser, Maya, Photoshop, ZBrush and occasionally DAZStudio. All of these packages are constantly improving, but it's still necessary to learn how to use them effectively, which most don't do.

The main reason most digital art is bad is that there are so far very few good digital artists. That's changing, albeit slowly.

The main reason most digital art is bad on small-print books is that too many authors/editors/bad illustrators sit down with a copy of Bryce and Poser, think "Wow, I'm like a real 3D artist!", knock something out in about an evening using some meshes from 3D Cafe or where and hit the Render button. It might look cool to them, but either looks boring and cheap to people who don't know the ins and outs of it, or like an evening's work from someone with a copy of Bryce and Poser to everyone with even a vague interest in digital art.

(See also: near offensively bad typography. Times New Roman is a pretty bland font on its own, but an accessory to war crimes when turned neon pink and splattered over a stock model shot)

arkady said:

The main reason most digital art is bad is that there are so far very few good digital artists. That's changing, albeit slowly.

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One of the other problems is that digital-art programs do nothing to teach the artist about the realities of the printing process and commercial display. It can look great on a monitor or one-step digital printer to put a delicate fuschia next to a large patch of indigo with no apparent border between them, just a shocking boundary; it ain't gonna happen with liquid ink on paper in multipass commercial presses (or, for that matter, lithography that's affordable for cover work). Then, too, how many digital artists ever put their work on paper of comparable reflectivity to the finished project and check it under the fluorescent lights one can expect to find in a bookstore?

Without naming names, I've seen the results of this more than once from commercial publishers. One particularly cringeworthy example was a nighttime picture of a horseman for a fantasy book, with various shades of purple dominating. It's an interesting concept. Unfortunately, it wasn't checked under a fluorescent light, which has a tendency to compress the visual spectrum in the reds, muddying the purples; and the physical production process ended up throwing distracting color-mixture artifacts in. It's a horribly unattractive cover, although the digital original is at least "interesting."

Thank you, Victoria, for your (as usual) prompt and helpful reply.

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I think that this fascinating discussion of cover manufacturing might attract more attention in a thread of its own.

Richard said:

And if you think my coat's spacious, just wait 'til you see my pants...

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Dear lord. Why isn't that one buried in the galleries?

Hello. I'm new here too. But the Sages who abound will all tell you: DON'T pay anyone to publish your work. There is a website: Preditors and Editors that gives the lowdown on these scams and tells you who is a scammer and who is for real. If you glom onto the 'Publish America' thread you'll find a link for it.

I'd pay attention. The A.W. community has steered me away from some bad adventures with nefarious people.

Luck and hugs!

I've had one experience with Helm Publ and it was not a happy one. They offered a critique of the first 50 pages of a novel for $50, complete with advice about improvements for salability. I sent the 50 pages which were returned to me within 2 weeks with no mark at all on half the pages and no suggestions for improvement I wrote complaining about what I considered a breech of promised service and received a really nasty letter in return. So that's my story, nanconley. The rest of the story I trust you'll hear from others.

nanconley said:

I just received a contract asking for money. I know that's a red flag, but I was wondering if the fee was worth it.

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Here's all you need to know about that company: They asked you for money.

The first rule of publishing is Yog's Law*: Money flows toward the writer. Have it tattooed on your hands. Refer to it whenever considering any agent or publisher. It comes in handy.

*Yog is our own Uncle Jim, aka James D. Macdonald.