CPN Publishers

[HZW]

I was wondering if anyone here knows anything about CPN Publishers out of England. Any and all information would be appreciated.

 

[CaoPaux]

Looks to be Christian-oriented POD. Can you find their books in stores? http://www.cpnpublishers.com

 

[CaoPaux]

http://www.cpnpublishers.com/publishing.html

Does any of this strike y’all as odd? For me, these passages jump out scary-like:

Assuming that the editorial reports are favourable and that any rewriting required is satisfactorily carried out, the book will probably be discussed again and the go a head given for the preparation of an estimate.

Has nothing to do with the price of tea in China...unless they're hinting about subsidy.

The copyright in the work shall remain the property of the Author who shall grant to the Publisher the sole and exclusive right for a period of 5 years from the date of first publication to print, publish and sell the work in volume form in the English language (or in such other language as the case may be) in territories specified in the contract and to sub-licences as may be agreed in the contract.

Seems to me that they are mixing terminology, as well as asking for a particularly long period.

A copyright notice in the form © followed by the Author’s name and year of first publication shall be printed on all copies of the work and the Author’s name shall appear prominently on the jacket, binding and title page of the work and in all publicity material. The Publisher shall ensure that an identical copyright appears in all sub-licensed editions of the work.

IIRC, registry is in the publisher's name, yes?

The Publisher shall pay to the Author on home sales 8% of the price received on the first 5,000 copies sold and 12% 15,000 and 14% in excess of 20,000. If the work is published abroad in a separate local edition, royalties will be at a rate to be agreed based on the local published price. No royalties shall be paid on copies given away free to the Author or others, review or return copies, or those destroyed by fire, water, in transit or otherwise, or copies bought by the Author.

"price received" = net

Am I paranoid, or are they really out to get me?

 

[Aconite]

"given the go a head"? That's when I'd normally stop reading.

"8% of the price received on the first 5,000 copies sold and 12% 15,000 and 14% in excess of 20,000"? So..what exactly happens from 5,000 to 15,000 and 15,000 to 20,000? They've managed not to say.

 

[HZW]

RE;

I have become friends with a soon to be published author and she is as happy as can be with the company. She never paid a dime and she has never felt any reason to question their motives. I'm sorry that you feel that way, as not all companies of Christian faith are as untrustworthy as you seem to think.

 

[James D. Macdonald]

It isn't the "of Christian faith" part that has folks worried, HZW. Please let us know how happy your friend is a year after her book comes out.

 

[DaveKuzminski]

I have become friends with a soon to be published author and she is as happy as can be with the company. She never paid a dime and she has never felt any reason to question their motives. I'm sorry that you feel that way, as not all companies of Christian faith are as untrustworthy as you seem to think.

Now if we could only get the authors at other vanity publishers where they claim they didn't pay a dime to look at how it sounds here.

 

[CaoPaux]

'zactly, Dave.

Here's what Amazon has for them: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/ref=s_sf_b_as/104-1480517-5259934 My first call was POD because of the prices. Would the odd sizes support that presumption?

 

[James D. Macdonald]

The sizes aren't all that odd -- well within the range of what a Docutech could turn out.

The prices are better than PA's, but that's not saying much. Amazon sales numbers are dire.

 

[Aconite]

HZW, you asked for "any and all information" about the company. Published authors, author advocates, and other people with experience in publishing are pointing out areas of concern. Their website and contract policies have some red flags for authors. Just because a company claims to be Christian doesn't mean they are, or that their policies are good for authors. There are perfectly reputable Christian publishers out there; there's no need to go with a bad publisher just because it claims to be Christian.

 

[JennaGlatzer]

Just got this by e-mail:

"We have noticed that a number of your members are asking questions about us. To learn about us they can send specific questions to [email protected] or meet us at Frankfurt International Book fair, in Germany between 18-23 October 2005, in Hall 8.0 stand 0957"

 

[KnowHow2Write]

Check out GOOGLE

From what I find when I do a google search. www.google.com plug in CPN PUBLISHERS. The blog writers scare me.
I would run fast from this company or get in contact with the writers. Something fishy floating in the waters. I emailed one and nothing is pleasing on the inside. Check out the site and the authors. Sounds like POD with high prices.

 

[HapiSofi]

There may be something fishy about the company, but it isn't the request for an exclusive five-year license. That's a fairly short license.

 

[CaoPaux]

Interesting. HZW's own book from CPN supposedly came out in January 2006, but I can't find any trace of it on Amazon, etc. I hope her friend's fared better.

http://www.cpnpublishers.com/book25.html

 

[CaoPaux]

Even more interesting….

Of the 31 titles listed in their catalog, only 23 can be found on U.S. Amazon, and one other can be found only on UK, Japan, etc. The pub dates are generally six months to a year after the date listed on CPN. (Note: the two listed on CPN as Dec ’07 are on Amazon as Dec ’06. Also, author and title info is inconsistent between the two sites.)

Of the 24 books found, 11 are listed as unavailable, and only 8 have any sales rank at all (best being 500k).

Of the 7 missing books, only two exist outside of CPN’s site: one issued through iUniverse several months after the date listed on CPN, and another mentioned on a blog as to be self-published "Spring 2007”, over a year after the pub date on CPN.

There is one book on Amazon listed as being published by CPN that is not on their site: Jan 2007 pub date, not available to order.

Of the few books that have reviews, most are raves by other CPN authors. Other reviews mention problems with editing.

Frankly, I can’t find anything to recommend this “publisher”, and many reasons to avoid them.

 

[victoriastrauss]

Great research, Cao. I'd say there's plenty of reason to avoid this publisher.

- Victoria

 

[Gillhoughly]

"price received" = net

net = profit

Many projects do not make a profit.

Like Forest Gump grossed $270 million, making it the fifth highest-grossing domestic release in history.

But after the bean counters got done with the books it still did not show a profit!

 

[CaoPaux]

Aaaaaand they're gone.

 

[M.R.J. Le Blanc]

No great loss, though I wouldn't be surprised if they popped up under a different name.