The point is,All good points, but my main issue is that people are expressing an "unwarranted negativity" that is frankly vicious and unhelpful.
We don't have a bad
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The point is,All good points, but my main issue is that people are expressing an "unwarranted negativity" that is frankly vicious and unhelpful.
highborn
I'm the Admin of this server. I approved your membership. That meant Googling you.
I think you need to come clean here.
I also think you need to step back and consider how you're coming across.
You're not reading well; you're implying things that simply aren't true. And you're attacking a mod whose publishing credentials as an editor and an author are impeccable; I know because I've seen her work, and I know people she's worked with.
What are your editing credentials? What specifically is your connection with AEC Stellar Publishing?
Ahem. Highborn? Can we gather from your not answering this question that you actually are not, as you repeatedly claimed earlier, unaffiliated with this press?
WHY in the Sam Scratch do people pull this kind of stuff? Don't they know how easy it is to check? Do they really think they won't be found out? Incrediburgable.
Sigh. I'm not shocked, just annoyed. Here we go again. This sort of thing does not help the press. Here's a feather. Please knock me down with it.Ahem. Highborn? Can we gather from your not answering this question that you actually are not, as you repeatedly claimed earlier, unaffiliated with this press?
What's more, we've got Writer Beware Blogs! - The Index. (I'm a little behind in updating, but it's next on the To Do list.We have, in no particular order:
Why Publishers Fail
How Real Publishing Works
General tips about avoiding/dealing with scammers
And I think there are articles about this very subject at Writer Beware.
And I think there are articles about this very subject at Writer Beware.
Hi, I'm new to this forum. My urban fantasy novel, "The Obsidian Mirror," is slated to be released June 27 by AEC Stellar Publishing. They are not a vanity publisher, nor do they "just publish anything." They are trying to create a new kind of relationship with authors, more supportive and advisory than most, and they give the authors 50% royalties on book sales--unheard-of in convnetional publishing. The majority of their titles are SF/F, but they do have some thrillers and non-fiction. And they are trying to find new authors that they think have promise. (When submissions are open, anyway.)
They are new and still small, and few of the staff work full time. They do not have distribution other than online. They are very helpful with marketing, but they can't do the whole job, so authors (and here it's very much like working with a larger firm) have to do a lot of their own marketing. AEC Stellar provides guidance and help in self-marketing--especially in social media promotion. They do edit the manuscripts, but my advice would be to hire a professional editor before submitting, as they are not nearly as critical as I would be in performing that task.
I knew all this before signing with them. They are quite open about their policies and how they work. They accepted my manuscript for publication, and as a first-time author with no track record, this was a very big deal for me. Especially after all the casual rejections from other publishers--no surprise there, but not fun, nonetheless. I worked directly with the owner of AEC Stellar and I've been networking with the other authors, which they encourage.
I think I was incredibly lucky to find these guys. I hope they grow so they can take on even more promising new authors.
Hi, I'm new to this forum. My urban fantasy novel, "The Obsidian Mirror," is slated to be released June 27 by AEC Stellar Publishing.
They are not a vanity publisher, nor do they "just publish anything."
They are trying to create a new kind of relationship with authors, more supportive and advisory than most,
and they give the authors 50% royalties on book sales--unheard-of in convnetional publishing.
They are new and still small, and few of the staff work full time. They do not have distribution other than online. They are very helpful with marketing, but they can't do the whole job, so authors (and here it's very much like working with a larger firm) have to do a lot of their own marketing.
AEC Stellar provides guidance and help in self-marketing--especially in social media promotion. They do edit the manuscripts, but my advice would be to hire a professional editor before submitting, as they are not nearly as critical as I would be in performing that task.
I knew all this before signing with them. They are quite open about their policies and how they work. They accepted my manuscript for publication, and as a first-time author with no track record, this was a very big deal for me.
Especially after all the casual rejections from other publishers--no surprise there, but not fun, nonetheless. I worked directly with the owner of AEC Stellar and I've been networking with the other authors, which they encourage.
I think I was incredibly lucky to find these guys. I hope they grow so they can take on even more promising new authors.
I hope it does very well for you. Good luck!
I can't find it now but I recall seeing that they charge for marketing advice, and for editing. If I've got that correct then they are a vanity publisher.
How do they provide this support and advice? And how does their support and advice exceed that which a good trade publisher provides?
It is not true that a 50% royalty is unheard of in trade publishing. Be aware also that a 50% royalty can work out to no money in your hand at all if it's based on a dubious definition of net.
It's not true that authors with good publishers have to do their own marketing. If it were true, how would foreign and translation editions ever sell?
So they don't market or promote your book for you, and they don't edit books very well either. Nor do they have full distribution.
Are you sure that they are "more supportive and advisory than most"? Because at the moment they're looking pretty ropey to me.
New writers with no track records get picked up by big trade publishers all the time. All you need is a good book.
Networking with other authors is fun but it won't sell books. Why do they not encourage you to reach out to your potential readers instead?
I wish them the best too, but I see a lot of problems here.
They don't charge anything.
While sales have been decent for my book, I'm not happy with them anymore, simply because the founder stepped away. Content edits for When Stars Die's sequel were great, but copy edits, and this is probably my fault for not really looking since there weren't a whole lot of comments, were horrendous. In fact, the proofreader had to undo a lot of errors the copy editor made--and so did I! I know my way around the grammar-go-round, so I know there are no rules that exists that say you should put a comma in bizarre places where she put commas. I know I didn't put those commas there, either.
They don't charge for marketing advice or editing.
You're right. We shouldn't do our own marketing. There is a big difference between marketing and promoting, though, and even big-time authors like John Green, Anne Rice, and what not still have to promote. This is why a lot of authors, even traditional ones, end up paying for a publicist.
When I was researching publicists, I found a lot of bestsellers with traditional houses were with some publicists I was considering--until I found out the prices they charged. So I have a publicist who takes care of interviews, guest posts, reaching out to libraries/bookstores, and all of that stuff for me, which I wish AEC would do, but they gave up on the idea of putting our books in bookstores and libraries, which is infuriating, because I was promised that in the beginning.
As for the not editing books well, I'm not quite sure where you're getting your opinion of this from.
but books are meant more for readers and not editors after the book's been published, so it's the reader's opinion at the end of the day that matters. *shrugs* If a book is selling, a book is selling.
Some reviewers with self-published books will say, "The editing wasn't that great, but the story was, so no complaints there!" Haven't had that. May not mean much, but books are meant more for readers and not editors after the book's been published, so it's the reader's opinion at the end of the day that matters. *shrugs* If a book is selling, a book is selling.