Hello, I want to add my two cents. I'm one of the Anchor Group authors. Since Karen beat me here, it's obvious that we've heard about this thread and are stopping in. I'm taking it all as constructive criticism. Pinguicha said the book blurbs are cliched and riddled with typos. Each author wrote their own. I, for one, will be looking mine over and polishing it up.
I'm a long time lurker here and things I picked up from this website helped me steer clear of the various bad publishers. I realize that by posting I am opening myself and Anchor Group up to more criticism, but here goes nothing.
I also just want to add, that I'm going out of town this evening and won't be back until Sunday. If someone replies to me and I do not respond, I'm not trying to hide or avoid you. I will be checking back.
First, I'm not going to "defend" Anchor Group or anything like that. I'm just going to give you what I know and my experience with them. Many of your comments are good things and I hope that in the long run they serve to help Anchor Group.
Going down the thread:
As Amergina pointed out: Poking about on Amazon, it looks like several of the books were published before Anchor Group published them
After doing lots of research on publishers, I decided to go the indie route. I self-published on Smashwords and Amazon on August 5, 2011. I did the social media thing and worked on my own for quite some time. Melissa, in addition to being an editor, reviews books as well. I found her in the indie circles on Facebook and asked if she would review my book. This was last November or so, I believe. Melissa read it and loved it. A couple of months later Anchor Group was started and Melissa became their editor. She came up with the idea for an anthology and told me that if I submitted a short story, she'd put in a good word for me. I did and Stacey loved it.
As a side note, in my experience, Stacey has been nothing but honest. She is (as someone speculated) both the owner of Anchor Group and one of the authors. If this wasn't expressed on the website, I don’t think it was meant to mislead anyone. Again, this is just my own personal experience with her, but she has always been very upfront about the fact that those are her books.
Back on track, Stacey enjoyed my short story and told me that if I was ever looking for a publisher, she'd love to have me. I know that that probably sounds a bit sketchy. Who gets approached by a publisher, right? But, the indie movement and the surge of ebooks is changing the face of publishing. I debated for a while, researched Anchor Group, couldn’t find anything bad, and decided to go for it.
I learned the dangers of paying a publisher/agent back when Lulu.com was born. A publisher is there to market you. Your book sales are their success. You shouldn't have to pay them. I started the publishing process with AG and was ready to back out the moment any sort of up-front cost was mentioned. It never happened.
I'm sorry, this is getting quite a bit longer than I had planned.
Anyway, I transferred the rights on Smashwords and Amazon to Anchor Group Publishing in May 2012. I can't speak for other authors, but that's why the publication dates of Semester Aboard predates when Anchor Group picked it up.
I'll also pause here to mention to Unimportant, that the books are available on more than just Amazon. They're also on Smashwords and everywhere that they distribute: iTunes, Kobo, B&N, etc. Mine is listed in Ingrams and Barnes & Noble has started stocking them in paperback.
I also want to address his next comment, I'm not seeing anything they could do for an author that the author couldn't do for himself.
I'll be honest, Anchor Group is still a small company. Maybe the Wait Two Years adage is a good one. I think your comments on the website are evidence to the fact that Stacey is still learning as well. The Amazon sales ranks are low, but they're higher than I was getting on my own. I think Anchor Group has helped me come a lot further than I could have as an indie. I didn't even know how to go about getting listed in Ingrams, or even what it was. Stacey goes to conventions with our books and does advertising that I couldn't do on my own. Sure, she has limited resources too, but I think she's doing great things. It was pointed out by aliceshortcake that Stacey has no prior experience as a publisher. This is true. But, she's trying. She's learning and, the part that is important to me, she's not taking advantage of her authors or charging them for things. I knew that I was getting in on Anchor Group on the ground floor and I knew there were going to be bumps and learning curves along the way. It was my choice to throw in my hat with a new publisher and I'll accept that risk.
Again, I think that ebooks and indie authors are changing the way the publishing world works. Maybe that's a bad thing, maybe not. I have no delusions about becoming the next J.K. Rowling. I don't think Stacey is aspiring to be one of the Big Six either. That might not be what some of the authors here are looking for. I, personally, am happy with my experience with Anchor Group.
If this "However, many of us really don't care at all if a publisher is friendly or has a good atmosphere. We are looking for a professional with whom we might enter into a business relationship," holds true for you, then yeah, maybe you are better off with a bigger publishing house. As I said, I started off indie. I got a taste of that freedom and Anchor Group allows me that freedom, with the added bonus of more visibility and support. I do care about the atmosphere. Maybe, in the end, that will bite me. For now though, I'm enjoying working with Anchor Group and have yet to feel as though they are taking advantage of me. It's a baby publishing company and instead of waiting to see where they go, I'm going to jump in and see where it takes me.
I'll see you in two years.