Welcome JohnAtWordHustler.
I acknowledge that I'm frequently close-minded, mean-spirited, and uninformed. (Just ask the moderator here, Cathy C. She's met me and lived to tell the tale.) I also yell a lot and my taste is in my mouth, and that's when I'm sober. You hit the nail on the head about my character, guilty as charged; I am a tool.
But the fact is that writing neos get sucked in daily by the less-than-honest businesses, thinking their services will give them an edge on getting published. Granted, I approached your website with a clearly biased eye, but I've not changed my mind about it being useful to Rizzo here.
For an established, money-making, high-output, glued to the keyboard pro whose time is better spent writing than printing/mailing, you're the cat's pajamas, no argument.
Ditto for the writer who has to send the same document in hard copy to several different destinations. You were made for each other.
Ditto for any keyboard jockey who doesn't want to bother with that side of things and has the money to spend.
Ditto for someone living outside the US who has no agent and wants to submit to US publishers--you're perfect for them.
For the US-based neo who needs to learn to navigate the market and learn the scut work on her own, the writer who has a single submission and little money to spare, I can't recommend you.
Rizzo wanted an opinion and got it from the pros who lurk on this board. I've been at this for 20 years, and it's still less costly for me to go to a local printer and ship it myself. For me it's also a good-luck, bon voyage ritual when I put that book in the mail and leap into a (mercifully short) victory jig.
I stand corrected on the "hidden fees" like shipping costs, but it's not clear on your site that they're not part of the deal. Many scammers trade on leaving out information, counting on the fact that most people don't know enough to ask the right questions. A refurb on your site to distance yourself from the bad-uns is something to consider.
The catch-phrases I cited, like "One Click to Destiny" etc. have been employed by scammers to rope in the gullible, so my alarms went off. To me it implied that using your service will get a writer into print. Perhaps that wasn't your intent, but suspicious minds will conclude the worst, so I did.
Nor can I find information on how returns from publishers are handled. Are returned MS--possibly with important editorial comments scribbled across the top--sent to the writer or do you request the editor recycle the pages? Is return postage included in the price?
Your Reply Cards are 1.29.
My SASPostcards are .27.
even if you are able to find a service that allows you to print high-quality copies for $.05 cents a page, you'd still have to cover shipping costs and stand in line at the Post Office.
As stated in my other posts, I have a high-speed service, picking the MS up as part of my usual errand to the office supply. I bought a flat-rate shipping label online from the USPS, had a free USPS-supplied box (I snagged up several on my last trip to the Post Office, but you can order them delivered for free), and free carrier pickup from my home.
The cost for my 400p. MS was about 30.00 with postage, tax, and gas. Your cost would have been about 40.00.
(My cost for 30 pages--which I can and do print at home--is always going to be less than yours. If there are numbers to be crunched on this issue I've gone over them with a steamroller 'til the screaming stopped.)
I do not begrudge your right to turn a profit, and your prices are
wholly reasonable to someone who makes more than I do and has no time to do this work, but the 10 bucks I saved found a home elsewhere in my budget.
I stand by my opinion that your example of the jet-setting writer sending in copy through a third party is decidedly out-of-date. More and more editors are relying on email; it's just faster.
I'm busy editing yet another anthology, and all the writers--several are NYT bestsellers--are emailing their stuff to me at my request.
If a client insists on sending something to a house that does not accept unsolicited MS do you still send it or explain that they're off-target? A client might think your service acts like a literary agent, bypassing the screening process. I've seen newbies making all kinds of assumptions in their hope to get into print.
That stated, I've raised some reasonable questions that should be addressed on the website so that snarling, suspicious curmudgeons like myself have no cause to raise a skeptical eyebrow.
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