I did a quick search on here and couldn't find anything. I recently came across them for submitting. Anyone got any news on them? They are a small ebook and print publisher in Kentucky.
Itoh Press
Itoh Press
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Itoh Press
- Thread starter kelliewallace
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- London, UK
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Seems to be aimed pretty squarely at authors. That's a red flag. "It is our mission to give a voice to writers who find it difficult to break into the larger markets" - that's not really the mission statement of a publisher.
Covers are amateurish. I had a peek into PORCELAIN PASSINGS: TALES OF THOSE WHO BID US FAREWELL FROM THE BATHROOM, by Carol Itoh, published by Itoh Press, partly out of a sense of bafflement. The insides are amateurishly laid-out and edited.
Ms Itoh's dedication reads, in part:
"...to Kevin Tetrick, my beloved cousin, who died under the bazaar circumstances that inspired this book." (My bold.)
It's not the first place I'd send my work.
Covers are amateurish. I had a peek into PORCELAIN PASSINGS: TALES OF THOSE WHO BID US FAREWELL FROM THE BATHROOM, by Carol Itoh, published by Itoh Press, partly out of a sense of bafflement. The insides are amateurishly laid-out and edited.
Ms Itoh's dedication reads, in part:
"...to Kevin Tetrick, my beloved cousin, who died under the bazaar circumstances that inspired this book." (My bold.)
It's not the first place I'd send my work.
This line makes my teeth squeaky.
So, no physical store presence.
I hate it when a publisher tries to sound legit by pointing out how legit they are.
So, going ebook only. Hardly surprising - I looked some of their books up on Amazon and they list CreateSpace as the publisher - such as this book: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1475198825/?tag=absowrit-20
Also, author having the same name as the press - and an unusual name at that, suggests that author is owner - this doesn't usually work out well.
A 'wide range' is never a good statement for a small press to make. It suggests that they don't have a focus or niche - not a good sign, usually means the owners don't really know what they are doing and are trying to cover all the possible bases rather than focus on what they know.
Fair enough. But what are the royalty rates?
Holy shit that's a lot of genres for a small press. I would be very wary at this stage - I just don't see how the same small press can handle westerns and erotica - not to mention the other genres they publish. It's too much.
Still seems a bit vague to me.
Marketing plan? Hmmm. I know that it's become more common in small presses, but it always makes me wary - it suggests that the publisher doesn't really know what they are doing. And the vast range of genres would back this up.
Fair enough I suppose. I've seen similar guidelines elsewhere.
40% for ebook is common enough. 25% for print is very high, but they seem to be working with a POD model, and so the books will be priced higher too, but believe me, that 25% is going to be a pretty small amount - the book I listed above is published by CreateSpace, so there's going to be a very small profit on it as it is.
So the author is formatting the book for them? That's never going to be a good idea.
No store presence.
Fair enough I suppose.
And what experience do their editors have?
Soooo, basically this comes across as a veiled threat - if you don't agree with us then we'll not publish your book.
No word either on whether Ms Itoh has any editing experience. It also doesn't list her on the author page - although her book is listed in the catalog. That smells a bit funny to me - it's like they don't want to be open about it.
Bolding mine. Suggests that no one will even look at your book once you hand it in. Doesn't sound good.
This is an easy problem to fix, it takes two buttons to do it in Word and gives you a plain, unformatted piece of text to work from. I'm surprised their 'graphics designer' doesn't know how to do this.
Make of that what you will.
Very much geared towards the writer and not the reader.
It also says on it's 'policies' page that they aren't responsible for any errors which appear on their website. Hmmmm.
Edited to add: they have a list of folks who work for them on the 'contact' page - http://www.itohpress.com/contact-us.html
Honestly, I had a look at the books they publish and there doesn't seem to be any sort of consistancy. The covers vary, but most are pretty dire to be honest.
There is absolutely NO information about the owners, and although I now have a name, I can't really be bothered to go out hunting for info on her - because an author shouldn't have to do that, the info should be available on the site.
It also says on it's 'policies' page that they aren't responsible for any errors which appear on their website. Hmmmm.
Edited to add: they have a list of folks who work for them on the 'contact' page - http://www.itohpress.com/contact-us.html
But no info or bios at all.
As of Dec '15, front page reads:
From her bio at Babylon Press/Believe Publications (http://www.babylonbelievepress.com/):
From her bio at Babylon Press/Believe Publications (http://www.babylonbelievepress.com/):