Otherworld Publications

[Izz]

Here's the thread they've started in the Paying Markets subforum: Otherworld Publications--call for submissions.

Here is the website: Otherworld Publications

They appear to have little to no publishing experience and the sample contract sends alarm bells (the author has to pay for copyright, royalties are paid on net, etc).

In the Paying Markets thread they also make the erroneous claim that most publishers force authors to pay for copyright out of their royalties and also pay for marketing out of the author's royalties.

As far as the criticism of author paying the copyright, there is not any difference in the author paying that up front as opposed to paying them out of their royalties like most publishers force them to do...Other publishers also take out any and all marketing and other costs out of the royalties that we do not.

However, they do say they have channels set up with 12,000 bookstores and libraries.

As far as the distribution channels, we are set up for distribution through Amazon.com, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Espresso Book Machine, Ingram, NACSCORP in the US and Amazon.co.uk, Aprohead, Argosy Ireland, Bertrams, Blackwall, Book Depository, Coutts, Eden Interactive LTD., Eleftheroudakis, Gardners, IBS-STL UK, Libreria Ledi, Mallory International, and Paperback Bookshop in the UK.

Now on to the contacts, I have direct mail and email contacts to the buyers for over 12,000 bookstores and libraries that we will market to through various means, including but not limited to sell sheets.

(have started this thread so the discussion happening over in the Paying Markets thread can move here)

 

[KimJo]

The e-publishers I've published with require the author to pay to *register* the copyright. However, the copyright doesn't have to be registered. IANAL, but I believe the copyright is in effect as soon as the work is created. In my contracts, it states that if the author wants the copyright registered, they can pay to do so and then send the documentation to the publisher. They don't take it out of my royalties. (I have contracts currently with 4 e-publishers; all of them have the same wording on this subject.)

As for marketing, I'm expected to do some on my own, which I pay for because I choose to do some marketing that costs money. Again, not an expert here, but I suppose one could very loosely interpret things to mean that a publisher takes marketing costs out of an author's royalties; the percentage of the book's cost that a publisher keeps covers the publisher's expenses, doesn't it? (Someone correct me if I'm wrong or if I'm not making sense, please.) However, that would come out of the, for example, 90% of the book's cover cost that the publisher keeps, not out of the 10% royalties paid to the author.

Don't know anything about Otherworld, just wanted to comment on their claims.

 

[CaoPaux]

As far as the distribution channels, we are set up for distribution through Amazon.com, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Espresso Book Machine, Ingram, NACSCORP in the US and Amazon.co.uk, Aprohead, Argosy Ireland, Bertrams, Blackwall, Book Depository, Coutts, Eden Interactive LTD., Eleftheroudakis, Gardners, IBS-STL UK, Libreria Ledi, Mallory International, and Paperback Bookshop in the UK.

Making available to order is not distribution.

Now on to the contacts, I have direct mail and email contacts to the buyers for over 12,000 bookstores and libraries that we will market to through various means, including but not limited to sell sheets.

And it will differ from 1,000s of other POD spam campaigns how?

 

[victoriastrauss]

Other problems:

- The contract doesn't state a grant term (the precise grant term is, or should be, a really basic component of any publishing contract).

- The contract claims all rights and subsidiary rights, despite there being no evidence that Otherworld is capable of selling or licensing subsidiary rights.

- There's a $1,500 kill fee if the author wants to terminate the contract early. As we've seen here, kill fees can be used by publishers to browbeat or even blackmail dissatisfied authors into compliance.

- Victoria

 

[Buffysquirrel]

I came across this small press because someone on a board I frequent is being published by them. I particularly like this clause in their sample contract:

"While this Agreement is in effect the Author shall not, without the prior written consent of the Publisher, write, edit, print, or publish any material that competes with the Work."

The what now? You can't even write a work that might compete with it, aka your next book, without their say-so? Quite how they'll then get first refusal on it is beyond me.

Seriously, what?

I so do not want to go back to that board and play Banquo's ghost.

 

[batgirl]

Damn, yeah, I'm having the exact same problem of buttoning my lip because it's too late.
And what, the contract says you can't EDIT? Are they going to demand that you can't buy and read books not published by them? It makes as much sense.

I also noticed that the (another publisher's) dieselpunk anthology doesn't pay and doesn't provide copies to the authors. Am I just being an elitist snob?

-Barbara

 

[Buffysquirrel]

FWIW, I asked the person being published by Otherworld, and they said that clause is not in their contract.

No pay and no contrib copies? I had a piece published under those terms once. Eventually I bought a copy of the antho for my boast shelf. Well, it's a pretty empty shelf.... XD

 

[Nattering Nabob]

Anything new with these guys? Has the contract been revised? Why isn't Cover Art shown as an expense by the publisher?

Anything more from existing authors about their experience with the publishers?

Let's hear from you!

Natt

 

[wickerkat]

I published my first book, Transubstantiate, with OWP. I didn't pay for copyright, got 12 free copies, and they did get me into all of the online stores. I did not pay for cover art. If anybody wants to talk to me privately about them, drop me a note. As a new press they definitely did drop the ball a lot. I can't really recommend them at this point in time, and will not be doing my second book with them. I hope that OWP does evolve and get better. I know they mean well. But overall I was disappointed with the results.

 

[CaoPaux]

Site's gone, FB's gone, and blog/Tw haven't been updated since '12. Smashwords page remains active, but only books are by owner.

 

[wickerkat]

As far as I know they went under. I published with them, but took my rights back in June of 2013. The owner/published was sick, something serious, and they are dead now. They did an okay job when I was with them, dropped the ball a few times, didn't promote much. But hey, they got me in print and that was the start of many other things. So I'll always be grateful.