Northerly Beast Publishing

[SophieM2401]

They're advertising for writers of "tales", with a special interest in dialect writing, on People Per Hour, a site I sometimes use for copywriting work.

http://www.northerlybeastpublishing.com/

It's got "dodgy as ****" written all over it as far as I can see. Any experiences? If they have a bad rep, I'd like to report to PPH.

 

[LindaJeanne]

1. Their "Home & Who We Are" page doesn't actually tell one who they are (or what experience they have).
2. They seem to be trying to both be a commercial press AND sell self-publishing packages.
3. They accept any type of work (don't specialize). If it turns out they are only a self-publishing place, that doesn't matter much; but if they are trying to be a commercial press, it would be much more effective for them to focus.
4. They were looking for fiction authors on a site called "people per hour" that's focused on copywriting work?

I'm getting a vibe of "means well, but zero experience".

 

[SophieM2401]

LindaJeanne, I hope you're right. I suspect, though, that they're using the pool of wannabe writers on PPH to tout for self-publishing business, and aren't genuinely proposing to pay anything (still less £20 per hour) for "tales", dialect or not. If someone paid me £20ph for my novel I'd be a tres happy bunny. Especially if they included in the procrastination time. lol.

 

[aliceshortcake]

Oh, this is gloriously surreal.

Northerly Beast hasn't actually published anything yet, but books are forthcoming from Shetland dialect poet Toorie Black and 'American author' Tronda Westing. A 'toorie' is a pompom attached to a traditional Scottish bonnet, and both Tronda and Westing are Shetland place-names. Toorie Black appears to be a real person with a Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/toorie.black; not surprisingly I could find nothing about an American author called Tronda Westing.

A company check reveals that NBP is registered in Plymouth, the home town of director Darren William Silver, but the company's Facebook page gives an address in Sumburgh, Shetland. Mr Silver is also the director of Drekly Delights ("Toys for adult fun and joy"), which is registered in Shetland and seems to be an online shop with a sideline in sex toy parties. Rather oddly,

Currently Parties are only available in Cornwall, UK.

http://dreklydelights.co.uk/page8.htm

According to Silver's profile on People Per Hour, he's a man of many talents:

Publisher, Author, Poet, Editor
http://www.peopleperhour.com/people/darren/publisher-author-poet-editor/362063

He also claims to have been published under several pen-names. Is anyone else beginning to wonder if Mr Silver and the enigmatic Toorie Black are one and the same person? If so, Northerly Beast is basically yet another self-publisher's attempt to look a bit more legit. I wouldn't put much faith in Silver's editing skills either:

We cover all genres and all submissions of synopsis, with either a first chapter or example of poet work.

Just how many people work for Mr Silver, and how does he see NBP's role in the publishing world?

I have a wide array of copy editors and proof readers that work with us. This combined with my small in house team, give any synopsis and submitted text a real going over both as experts in their own individual areas but just as important as far as I am concerned, as keen readers as well. I am trying to remove a little of the stigma attached to what I would consider a much snobbier publishing society as I don't believe you have to have been an upper class MP who has been to prison or engaged in other activities before good people will want to read your work.
http://www.peopleperhour.com/job/looking-for-tales-both-long-and-short-180847

Yes, because mainstream publishers are only interested in books by celebrities. Presumably this is a dig at Jeffrey Archer.

Anyway, back to the point. What can Northerly Beast Publishing offer?

We have a team of independant copy editors who will check, double check and if you request it triple check your manuscript prior to proof being issued to you the author.

I hope these 'independant' copy editors didn't work on the NBP website.

...we do have experience in unique and often obscure market places.

http://www.northerlybeastpublishing.com/our-self-publishing-package/

I'll bet you do!

 

[Daveh]

Their website is made using an "instant website" company so probably cost a few pounds to set up. The email is a gmail address - that should always raise a red flag as any serious company has an email address on their own domain.

Virtually everything on their website is long on a customised service and short on details... and very short on costs.

When a user on PPH asked for clarification of payment terms, the reply was a long paragraph which did not address the question but had lots of "good words" in it.

And lastly, Mr Silver is registered on castingnow.co.uk... as an actor/extra. A man of many parts it seems... if he's lucky :/

I may be being overly suspicious and perhaps the intentions are good but personally I would steer clear of this.

 

[mirandashell]

That site is full of grammatical errors and typos. Including the bit about the copy editors who will be 'assesing' your baby for publication.

Wouldn't touch them with a shitty stick.

 

[shaldna]

Their website is made using an "instant website" company so probably cost a few pounds to set up. The email is a gmail address - that should always raise a red flag as any serious company has an email address on their own domain.

Actually, that doesn't necessarily bother me - mainly because those @publishername.com addresses are, in all probability, forwarding on to a gmail (or similar) account anyway. That said, I feel more confident about a gmail address than I would about a hotmail or yahoo one - I guess it's all about perception.

However, if the address is something stupid such as [email protected] I'm not going to feel it's terrbily professional compared to [email protected] for example.

 

[CaoPaux]

Site gone by Jun '13; no sign of anything published.

 

[aliceshortcake]

Damn! I was looking forward to Toorie Black's Shetland dialect verse. Evidently there's more money in sex toys.

 

[CaoPaux]

Oh, but he published it through Blurb. You're welcome.