Helm Publishing

[inkkognito]

Sad to say, it seems to be pretty common for vanities to present at conferences without any warnings. A friend of mine in my local writers' group almost got taken in by a vanity (not Helm) that was at a statewide conference last year. She trusted them because they were at the conference, so surely they must be okay...

 

[minissa2003]

Dragon Moon

A friend of mine has a good working relationship with Dragon Moon Press. http://www.dragonmoonpress.com is their web site. Don't know if they're in P&E or not, but the authors I have met who've been published through them seem pretty pleased with the relationship.

Just another thing to consider.

Just noticing this note from 6 years ago, at which point I think they were small and growing at a cautious but good rate. They published in hardcover. Tee Morris, a writer who loved them so much he did their website, told me when I was offered a contract how great they were because the pub, Gwen, "solves problems." I would say this is not true today. I may have just gotten unlucky, but I think the two editors I had were picked by throwing darts at a random phone book. Everyone I know who had a good editorial experience I think is from pre-2005, and those editors *were* good --- stuck with the books till the end and beyond, got their authors' books placed so they were considered for important awards, etc. Mine never even finished the book (1st book) and an appendix added to my second book (and that I didn't proof) cut off in the middle of a word, truncating the last few sentences. When I pointed this out, mentioning that if this was the printer's fault, they owed DMP a new print run, I heard nothing. My promo copies all had this error, and I could get no guidance on whether I could expect a new, correct shipment. So I had the choice of sending out or selling defective copies or waiting till the problem got solved. It never did. I would have been delighted to supply and "errata" sheet at my expense. I was very cautious with marketing with these copies because an inferior product looks bad for the author and the publishing house, so of course this book didn't sell as well as the first. The error was never corrected (there were a number of others, but this was the worst) and I've heard from fans who mentioned this omission (yet paid full price for the book). Errors aside, they knew what they were getting because the publisher told me what a great read the second book was before she offered the contract for the series. Which just got yanked with no warning. Phrasing was not quite "You need an African American publisher" (fill in race, color or creed of choice), but it was close. Was this legal? I'm checking with the ACLU.

 

[Gondomir]

Seeking Update on Helm Publishing

Vanity publishers that present themselves as "traditional"...regularly fool authors.....A simple websearch on Helm turns up more than enough info to at least raise a question.

- Victoria

Before I knew about or joined AW.com, I queried Helm, and they requested my manuscript (a career first). Has Helm changed its ways since the last post of this thread from almost three years ago? Should I still be wary?

 

[IceCreamEmpress]

Before I knew about or joined AW.com, I queried Helm, and they requested my manuscript (a career first). Has Helm changed its ways since the last post of this thread from almost three years ago? Should I still be wary?

Wait, do you mean the Helm Publishing at HelmPublishing.com? They don't seem to be a publisher, but a provider of continuing education courses.

If you mean Helm Publishing at PublishersDrive.com, run like the wind from a clearly unprofessional organization.

If you mean Helm, Inc., at HelmInc.com, they are a solid publisher of specific technical automotive titles.

 

[Gondomir]

Well, that is disappointing! Based on your advice and the comments on this thread, I'll cease doing business with Helm. Thank you--that was close!

 

[IceCreamEmpress]

So with this Helm Publishing, here are the specific red flags for me:

A) Past record--I have never heard of a pay-to-play publisher turning into a royalty-paying publisher.

B) Spectacularly unprofessional website. Look at the "New Books" sidebar on the front page, for instance; the books are listed from oldest to newest, rather than newest first. Who's going to scroll down to find the newest books?

Also, it looks like an explosion in a font factory.

C) Grammar and syntax errors in the book descriptions. Do you really want to have these folks editing your work?

D) Amateurish cover design. Lots of very small presses have great-looking covers.

E) Saying "See Helm Ebooks for sale" without giving any links to same is not effective promotion of those ebooks.

F) Speaking of ineffective promotion, note that the "Events" page hasn't been updated since 2009.

I haven't read your book, Gondomir, but I don't need to in order to know that it deserves better.

 

[JL_Benet]

Notice the following from their Contact page:

Contact Information: ​

Helm Publishing
P.O. BOX 9691
Treasure Island, FL 33706
815-621-3336

General Information: [email protected]


Unfortunately, when submissions are made to Helm Publishing, not all are accepted. When writers are passed over for publication or charged a fee, they become angry and bad mouth through blogging and eventually it ends up on such sites as Preditors and Editors. Those people are under the impression that independent publishing house services are able to carry authors while they just sit back and collect royalties. Small, independent houses constantly have to re-invent themselves to stay in business because we take the hit for endless returns from bookstores, use POD (which BTW, saves trees and overhead by not charging you for excessive inventory storage) and subrogation to monopolistic distributors. Before you judge, we invite you to submit to find out what is included and what Helm Publishing can do for you besides just publishing your manuscript.
For those who want to know, YES Helm charges fees to publish, however, each query is unique and some books we've published have NOT been charged fees due to authors who are actively involved publicizing, promoting, and selling their books.

 

[twm]

Is it like the lottery? The few who win get free publishing?

 

[priceless1]

If their missive on their Contact page is any indication, this company appears to know very little about publishing, or is happy to be a bit loose with the truth.

 

[JulieB]

For those who want to know, YES Helm charges fees to publish, however, each query is unique and some books we've published have NOT been charged fees due to authors who are actively involved publicizing, promoting, and selling their books.

But what does Helm do to get books into the hands of readers? I can work until I'm blue in the face, but if my publisher can't deliver on books or make it easy for readers to buy my book, I'm screwed, even if I didn't pay a fee to publish.

 

[CaoPaux]

Updating URL: http://www.helmbookpublishing.com/welcome.php

ETA: Site gone by end of '17. Last book pubbed '15.