MX Publishing Ltd.

[JANE007]

MX Publishing out of the UK?

They have about a dozen or so authors at the moment, so they're not huge. Their books can be found on Amazon (.uk, com, and .ca) as well as in Borders and other good bookstores.

They claim to be in between a self publishing house and a full publishing house, somewhere in the middle, however they choose the titles they publish and have a few books that are doing quite well. They do charge a fee of 150 Pounds to launch the book to the US and UK markets, and they also pay 10% royalties. I have checked stock availability on a couple of titles, and Borders does seem to stock them.

Would love your comments / thoughts / opinions, as I am considering entering into a contract with them.

Thanks,

 

[edgyllama]

They claim to be in between a self publishing house and a full publishing house, somewhere in the middle, however they choose the titles they publish and have a few books that are doing quite well. They do charge a fee of 150 Pounds to launch the book to the US and UK markets, and they also pay 10% royalties. I have checked stock availability on a couple of titles, and Borders does seem to stock them.

Odd but personally I would stay away from them. Money flows towards the author, always.

Why do they charge a fee for bookstore placement? That's what a publisher is supposed to do.

I see many red flags.

 

[brianm]

Site link:

http://www.mxpublishing.co.uk/

Owner link:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/emecz

Looks like they specialize in non-fiction with sales through their own online bookstore and dot com sites such as Amazon. The owner appears to have marketing experience, but no book publishing experience except self-publishing through Xlibris back in 2004. Charging a "launching" fee is a red flag.

 

[veinglory]

The fee makes it a vanity deal but they wouldn't be the first press to get away with a small fee without quite losing all their 'pub cred'. But being available on Amazon online doesnl;t mean much, what are their sales ranks?

 

[JANE007]

Thanks for your feedback. Really appreciate it. This is an important decision and I am thankful to have people to help.

Their sales on Amazon (.com) are okay... Nothing spectacular, however rankings on Amazon UK are much higher (15,000 for one in particular). A lot of their books are niche non-fiction. I know getting on Amazon is about as easy as getting Britney Spears pregnant, but I was comforted to know that their books are also stocked and sold in store. Borders UK & USA and others.

The fee is something I absolutely question, but it seems so nominal, I don't understand how the business model would work to be lucrative for them in that manner, as they only represent a handful of authors. Nevertheless, it is weird that they want money.

If anyone has any questions that they suggest I ask, that would be great. I haven't actually seen the contract yet, I just wanted to see if anyone here at AW has had any experience working with them.

I am proceeding with extreme caution and if I do decide to enter into a contract, it will not be without the advice of a lawyer.

Thanks,
Selina

 

[James D. Macdonald]

Are they actually "stocked in" or merely "available through" brick-and-mortar bookstores? You might want to use the Search Inventory function at http://www.bordersstores.com//index.jsp to look for a half-dozen of their most recent releases actually on the shelves at, say, all the Borders Stores within 50 miles of New York City.

 

[JerseyGirl1962]

I decided to look up a few titles (the non-fiction ones), and they all came back as "Order" (as in, the store has to order them).

The 2 novels I couldn't find at all, which may just be for that particular store.

So Jim is correct - they're "available through" brick-and-mortar bookstores.

~Nancy

 

[waylander]

Did you look at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk?

Amazon.co.uk certainly lists them as 'in stock'

The "Search Inventory" function certainly sounds useful, but in this case it is not going to tell you much more than that MX do not have US distribution - not too surprising for a small UK publisher

 

[James D. Macdonald]

MX Publishing says, on their own homepage:

Our books are available through all good bookstores across the UK and USA.

There's that word "through."

Being listed as "in stock" at Amazon isn't much of a trick.

 

[batgirl]

I am proceeding with extreme caution and if I do decide to enter into a contract, it will not be without the advice of a lawyer.

If you're offered a contract, you might want to check the terms with Victoria or Jim. If you get a lawyer's advice, make sure it's a lawyer with experience in publishing law, which is strange and confusing in some special ways.
-Barbara

 

[CaoPaux]

Updating URL: http://mxpublishing.com/