Vantage Press

They will, however, cash your check. Gladly, and with haste.

I used to get stuff from them all the time (and XLibris as well) as long as I had my subscription to Writer's Digest - when I let it lapse, funnily enough, the junk mail stopped.

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I received a large package from Vantage Press the other day. It contained several books along with a letter from an in-house publicist indicating that these books were from their new season and they were hoping BiblioBuffet would consider them for review.

I should note here that BiblioBuffet does not review vanity- or self-published books. Our submission page is specific about that. It also seemed, though, that some work had been done in researching us because the genres of the four books they sent are regularly reviewed.

I didn't see the publicist's letter until after I had seen the books, but I knew immediately that there was something "off" about the books' covers. Cheesy, perhaps. Certainly not professionally done.

At any rate, I notified the publicist that our policies precluded any consideration of their books and wished her the best in her marketing efforts. But the package struck me as odd. Perhaps these authors paid for their "marketing" as did the authors with Strategic whose publicist had previously sent a press release and some books to us. (I notified Victoria Strauss about that and forwarded their letter to her.)

Just FYI.

As part of my blogging as the Boulder Writing Examiner, I've been forwarded info about a book signing tonight by a Vantage Point author at the local B&N. Which sent me looking for Vantage Point's website.

I have found the original Vantage Press vanity outfit at the link CaoPaux provides here, but supposedly they launched a "traditional" commercial line, Vantage Point? About which Writer Beware talked about here? (Also PW.) But I can't find a link to that branch of them at all. Maybe it's under their Vantage Press vanity press website, but that website is so awful, I can't even use the drop-down menus. I hover over them and they scroll up and down, up and down, such that I can't click on them.

In any case, I'm not sure which Vantage line the book/author appearance tonight (Carter Wilson's FINAL CROSSING) is connected with; the B&N page says Vantage Press and the press release says Vantage Point. I'm beginning to wonder if Vantage Point in fact still exists. Anyone know?

Vantage Press 'suspended' operations in November and owner David Lamb is examining one of three options: reorganisation, sale or liquidation of the business. Some authors have reported to TIPM of non-payment of October royalties and many are entirely unaware that the business has closed, only discovering that Ingram is no longer fulfilling orders for some Vantage titles.

The company has pulled their website and social media presence. As of December, TIPM is not aware of any media or public declaration by the company as to its status, nor has it made any widescale effort to communicate its current circumstances to contracted authors.

All attempts by TIPM to contact Vantage Press directly by phone, email and social media interaction over the past 10 days were unresponsive.

TIPM has been in contact with several Vantage Press authors who have posted/inquiried/alerted and complained to two separate Police Departments in New Yory City and Massachusetts, and several online watchdog sites, including Ripoff Report and BBB.

http://www.theindependentpublishingmagazine.com/2012/12/vantage-press-confirm-suspension-of.html

http://www.theindependentpublishingmagazine.com/2012/12/ad-vantage-press-maybe-not.html