EMSA Publishing

[aliceshortcake]

EMSA Publishing

is a small, independent online publisher who’s goal it is to facilitate new and established authors with an online presence. Like you, the author, EMSA Publishing’s main goal is to sell books, but its founders know there is more to selling books than simply uploading them to a web site. Compelling stories, attractive covers and effective editing is a start, but that’s not how books are sold. Building an author platform is key, especially for new authors. EMSA Publishing also offers web page set up services and blog tour planning to help new authors establish an online author platform.EMSA Publishing‘s overall mandate is to get you read and to help you establish a foothold in the continually evolving world of ePublishing.
http://emsapublishing.com/about/

"Who's"? Oh dear. Not a good start, especially when you dig a little deeper and discover that EMSA's owner and sole author, Elise Abram, also provides the company's paid editing service (this isn't made clear on the website). And don't they mean ePublisher, not online publisher? It doesn't boost your confidence in the company to read this either:

A shout out to maligned authors everywhere.


I don’t do this…ever. In fact, most places online will tell you not to do what I’m about to do, but I feel the need to do it anyway.

I’m talking about responding to negative reviews.

As I’m revamping my Phase Shift cover and reposting it for sale. Now that I’ve registered EMSA Publishing as an honest-to-goodness hybrid publishing company, this is important, as Phase Shift will be the flagship book of the company.

I went to Phase Shift’s Amazon page and saw reviewer Awesome’s post (which falls more than short of awesome):

Started out with an intriguing premise, but man that ending was both boring and rushed. A whole lot of build up: you expect planets colliding, dimensions intersecting, etc. Instead there is a friggin symposium?!? And when you rush something that boring, the anti-climax was almost too much.
​

Obviously, Mr. Awesome (who is anything but) missed the point. The futility he feels with the anti-climactic ending is exactly what I hoped to achieve...

I am frustrated. I bend over backward to do everything I can, to first educate my parents and then my children, and one day my grandchildren, about minimizing our footprints while on God’s green earth, but the truth of the matter is, none of it matters.

And so, Mr. Awesome who thinks that the $1.99 he paid for his copy of Phase Shift gives him the right to so eloquently trash my work: you got my message; too bad you were too closed-minded to realize it.
p.s., In the vein of always looking for the silver lining, he did say my book had an intriguing premise!http://eliseabram.com/

One can only hope that Ms Abram won't respond to negative reviews in her capacity as a publisher. And I really don't think one negative review makes you 'maligned'!

EMSA describes itself as a hybrid publisher. I couldn't find any prices on the website, but there is a 'Royalty Breakdown':

EMSA Publishing’s royalty breakdown is industry compatible and is as follows:

• Author: 50%
• Company: 25%
• Editor:10%
• Cover Artist: 10%
• Special Made-to-order Marketing Materials (banners, blog tour, etc.): 5%

Finally, I was amused by this admission from Ms Abram:

I remember, in middle school, having to parse sentences to pick out the subject, object, predicate, etc. I was never very good at it because I was never formally taught any of the rules. My knowledge of grammar is more intuitive than practical—if it sounds good, it’s probably grammatically correct. When in doubt, I can always look it up online, a luxury I didn’t have in middle school.
http://emsapublishing.com/

This really isn't what I want to hear from an editor!

 

[PVish]

"Who's"? Oh dear. Not a good start, especially when you dig a little deeper and discover that EMSA's owner and sole author, Elise Abram, also provides the company's paid editing service (this isn't made clear on the website).

. . . and, according to her Amazon page, she's an English teacher.

 

[JetFueledCar]

This really isn't what I want to hear from an editor!

Yeah, "if it sounds right" is why native English speakers can't tell the difference between "loose" and "lose," "its" and "it's," or (my favorite) "defiantly" and "definitely."

Also, why are they paying for marketing materials with royalties? That means a book has to sell before it gets marketed. (Also those numbers mean they're calculating royalties based on net, not cover price, which Madame Strauss says means it's not nearly as generous as it looks.)