I was offered a contract with CMP and will likely sign with them. It appears a few terms have been changed. The royalties are now 40% digital and 8% print with contract period of 4 yrs rather than the seven that was making people nervous. Another thing I really like is the tight author loop. And yes, they do go through Ingraham for printing. Also, they are managing to get print copies into some gift shops & indie bookstores. The staff I've corresponded with so far have been kind, helpful & enthusiastic about my work.
That's the contract I signed with them back in July. So far everyone has been super great, I'm in the editing stages and I love my Editor, she is super nice and very easy to work with.
The only thing I don't like, but isn't really an issue is they don't give Release dates. Basically the book comes out when you, and they have finished everything. So, though I'm editing, I have no idea if my book will be out this year or next. They do that because they feel each stage of the process can take each individual author a different amount of time. Sure you get deadlines but they seem to work with the authors, so if you take longer with edits, well, your book will take longer to come out... However a general idea of when the book would be released would be nice.
The other thing, so far that I've noticed, is that they books are not readily available through Chapters.com, they are listed on the website, but are sold through another vendor, and the price is quite escalated. I've been back and forth with my marketing and promotions gal who seems to do a lot of other things, and we are trying to sort this out, but it seems Chapters just doesn't like the little guys. So, because I'm Canadian, this is a bit of a disappointment, but I'm sure with CMP's increased success things will change.
Will come back and let you know more as I deal with them further, and yes we are quite a tight group, everyone is super nice and helpful, the authors are great to work with and I've had a few of them over on my blog aswell.
