Tate Publishing

Sure, it's obvious to me now, but the thought just didn't occur to me before. I'm still pretty new to all this, and I do think their pitch is very well crafted. They do a good job of saying exactly what many new and inexperienced authors want to hear.

Of course the pitch is good. It has to be. That's their bank. One thing that's always important for anyone going into any new career is research. Doing a bit of Googling can save years of problems.

James D. Macdonald said:

I don't know of a single legitimate publisher that includes a line like "XYZ Publishing does not charge a fee for publishing and absorbs all the cost of production and distribution of a book (nearly $30,000 per title). You will not pay for publishing with XYZ Publishing."

Can you imagine Random House saying anything like that?

The next question in your mind should be, "Why do these guys think I'll assume they're a pay-to-play vanity press?"

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Actually this is not entirely true James. I have seen many legitimate publishers websites stating that they are not vanity press and do not charge, including digital first imprints of the Big Five. However they do not continue to make a big thing of it like that long statement from Tate. It is usually in the FAQ like this Q "Is this imprint subsidy or vanity publishing do I have to pay? A No absolutely not. We only accept 4% of manuscripts and there are no charges to authors.
I see this being included more and more on websites because the vanity publishers sales reps like to lie and confuse people, and pretend that all publishers charge anyone who is not famous.
http://www.harperimpulseromance.com/write-for-us/submission-guidelines/#sthash.gFnEIHFj.dpuf

It's just best to avoid any place with a "testimonials" page altogether.

All the scammers and vanity outfits have one. They usually get those glowing blurbs when the grateful writer is still in the honeymoon phase. She's just gotten her first print copy of the book and is over the moon. She's not yet found out that overpriced, unedited book is never going to be in a store, will never get reviewed and will gain her no respect or sales with anyone.

A testimonial is on a website for a customer to look at; the writer is a customer, nothing more.

If they were upfront about "using us costs you lots of money" they'd be out of business in a week. I'm absolutely delighted that they're getting their butts kicked by no cost / low cost venues like Kindle and Createspace drawing away customers, but that means the scammers have to get sneakier about posing as a commercial operation.

No matter what you're looking for online, from publishers to auto repair, search for the name + "complaints." There's usually hours of cautionary tales to read.

A blessing in disguise. I recently did a reorganization of my writing files and discovered that I had an outstanding submission that hadn't been responded to. It seems a little cheesy but it gave me the perfect way to politely refuse to do business with Tate. After all, just about all the traditional agents and publishers don't like simultaneous submissions.

Well done, Wallace.

simultaneous submissions

Wallace Cass said:

A blessing in disguise. I recently did a reorganization of my writing files and discovered that I had an outstanding submission that hadn't been responded to. It seems a little cheesy but it gave me the perfect way to politely refuse to do business with Tate. After all, just about all the traditional agents and publishers don't like simultaneous submissions.

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If they don't like simultaneous submissions, then they should reply to every query, whether it's a yes or no. I saw Stephenie Meyer on Oprah, and she said she had sent Twilight to 15 agents, and 9 never responded. Too bad she didn't give their names, but the point is, if you don't send simultaneous submissions, then you'll die before you hear from some agents.

Simultaneous queries to agents are just fine. Has anyone suggested otherwise?

Tate Yikes!

Have a completed manuscript (life story) pitched a couple of years ago and rejected 50 times but a few with good feedback. Decided to get back to it but don't have the time for rewrites. Having a terrible time finding a co-writer for polish and saw Tate site yesterday. They sent me an email stating prices started at $6000 with no promise of representation. Glad I came to this thread. Any advice on finding a co-writer?

She never gave up she gave out

Not to be a meanie about this, Booker c, but you may need to make time for rewrites. Finding a competent co-writer or ghostwriter for your mms may cost beyond that $6K, with no guarantee of a commercially-published or self-published success at the end. Revision and polishing are as much a part of writing as the inspiration and the first draft.

Tate wouldn't be able to represent you in any case, Booker C, unless they've started up a literary agency in addition to their vanity press. I wouldn't pay them six cents if I were you.

We have a forum where writers can discuss memoirs and autobiographies. You might want to check that out - it could help with rewrites.

booker c said:

They sent me an email stating prices started at $6000 with no promise of representation.

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Up to $6,000 now? That's quite a price hike.

I'm guessing that booker c is talking about this: Tate's ghostwriting services (talking head alert if you click).

- Victoria

Hmm. Are Tate's experienced and professional Filipino 'editors' branching out? Or is this from the handful of American staff still at the OK office? Either way, for six grand you can get editorial guidance and ghostwriting from people who have actually been in real commercial publishing.

The AW memoirs forum is a good place to start, and may save you time and money. Just be aware that subsidy/vanity pubs like Tate make bank off of memoir and family history writers every day. So do shady editors.

"Me so PROFESSIONALl! Me ghostwrite you long time! Mwha! Mwha!"

Gravity said:

"Me so PROFESSIONALl! Me ghostwrite you long time! Mwha! Mwha!"

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Actually...I think you're channeling "Full Metal Jacket," which was to set in War era Vietnam. Many Filipinos, my extended family included, even the elders who came to the States in the 1950s (and are acrobatically multi-lingual), speak English as a second language. The worst translation challenge I've encountered has been with the pronouns, "he" and "she," which don't have similar concepts in some of the dialects, such as Ilocano (my family). So, my university educated school teacher Mom would say, about my son, "She will drive the car to his office." But Mom has never said, "Me so happy you write booky-books, Maddie."

True. I have a fellow book arts aficionado who is Filipino, and her English is perfect. However, for the price that Tate is probably charging, people like my friend would laugh and point.

As an author who uses racism as a common element in my novels to make a point, I get it. As the Avenue Q song goes, "Everyone's a little bit racist." I just wanted to make it clear that the Filipinos I know don't have a cadence like the "Full Metal Jacket" hooker-character. None of the Vietnamese people I know who are multi-lingual talk like that character either, come to think of it.

Your last two posts were tactfully (and generously) stated, Maddie. IMO.

It was gracefully done, and I apologize for making it necessary.

With clarification, my point is that between Tate's controversial offshoring of many departments, their (apparent) extreme domestic employee turnover, and the many complaints about them from authors...I wouldn't trust them with ghostwriting. And I find it sad that many of the authors who will fall for this are the ones least able to afford it.

booker c said:

Have a completed manuscript (life story) pitched a couple of years ago and rejected 50 times but a few with good feedback. Decided to get back to it but don't have the time for rewrites. Having a terrible time finding a co-writer for polish and saw Tate site yesterday. They sent me an email stating prices started at $6000 with no promise of representation. Glad I came to this thread. Any advice on finding a co-writer?

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The only thing Tate is good at is fleecing writers foolish enough to believe their sales pitch. They should be selling Amway, but getting hopeful and inexperienced writers to shell out is ever so much more profitable.

Booker, doing rewrites and polish is part of the job. You learn to make time for it if you want to get better at your craft and to produce the best book possible. Otherwise it's like getting married and turning your beloved over to someone else for the honeymoon.

But if that floats your boat, then you may want to check AW's forums for someone willing to be a collaborator over ghostwriter and split the royalties. If any. There's no guarantee the book will ever sell to a commercial house. (Kindle, Nook Books, etc. are a viable alternative, but again, no guarantee readers will buy.)

You may want to just pay for a full on content edit for that polish. It's still not cheap, but better than Tate. When you make the business arrangement with the editor, you both have to be "on the same page." Have clearly defined goals and make sure there's a solid contract that protects both parties.


Any advance, should you have the great good fortune to sell to a commercial publisher, will NOT be enough to pay a ghostwriter. The good ones are expensive. A good editor is also expensive, but less so.

Or you can learn to polish your prose yourself. Post excerpts on AW and get feedback on the Share Your Work forum.

Paying a slime bag like Tate or any other place to ghost your book, needs to be off the table and tossed in the garbage. Just because they sell the service doesn't mean they know squat about how to do it. You can--if they bother to open the file--expect a spell check. Anything more than that? Forget it. No competent ghostwriter with scruples would associate with them.

Never trust what's on the website of any business. See what's said about them elsewhere. We're glad you came here for the straight story!

Check the link below. See if anything there might suit you better.

http://www.the-efa.org/job/joblist.php

Filigree said:

Hmm. Are Tate's experienced and professional Filipino 'editors' branching out? Or is this from the handful of American staff still at the OK office? Either way, for six grand you can get editorial guidance and ghostwriting from people who have actually been in real commercial publishing.

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If you look at Tate's staff page, you'll notice the only people listed under their editing department these days are their ghost writers and the editor who works with them. The rest of the editors are located in the Philippines.

Side note: right after Tate started farming its editing out to the Philippines, I heard quite a few complaints that the editors had a good grasp of grammar but had problems understanding idioms and colloquialisms. "Edited" manuscripts would be returned to the authors with more mistakes than the original.

Looks like "Dr." Tate is trying to control the internet again.

http://www.thelostogle.com/2014/05/...ng-to-rig-google-autocomplete/#comment-234751

Be sure to read the comments! Plenty of former employees are chiming in. Apparently they've fired all but a few production (editing & design) employees — all that's left are those acting as liaison between authors and the Filipino employees.

Nice to see someone (a big PR firm, evidently) taking Tate Publishing for a ride, instead of Tate taking some naive author for a ride. Can't imagine that money spent trying to control Google will be money well spent...