Has anyone submitted to or been published by or heard of Plump Press? They sound like a possible query candidate for my novel but I was unable to find more than a couple of published books on their Web site.
-
Guest please check The Index before starting a thread.
Plump Press
- Thread starter ehorwitt
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2013
- Messages
- 11,876
- Reaction score
- 11,325
- Location
- In my head
- Website
- thewanderingquille.blogspot.com
Looks like the link didn't take. I think this is it?
Plump Press
I'm not exactly enamored with their website. There's no "About Us" to tell you who's running the joint. There's no "Our Authors" to tell you who they represent, just a single Featured Author. There's no way to find or purchase their people's books. The cover for the one that they're showcasing all over the site is a fine design, but they certainly don't make it look like they have any books besides that one. If you're not their featured author, then you basically don't exist on their site.
If you look up their featured book they want $15 for a paperback on Amazon, which seems a little high. Published in 2020 and only has 22 reviews and 3.5 stars which says something about their marketing.
Read the back cover blurb and was not impressed.
Personally, I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand, but they wouldn't be on my short list. A "wait and see" list.
Read the back cover blurb and was not impressed.
Personally, I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand, but they wouldn't be on my short list. A "wait and see" list.
Crap, sorry. Thanks for fixing that, Maggie!
They seem to have put out exactly one book, in 2020, the same year that the press's website was created. As Maggie said, there's zero information about them on their website, and ditto for the entire internet. That one book has mixed reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, apparently all from people who got it as a free copy in exchange for agreeing to write a review. It has no Amazon sales ranking available, suggesting that it's sold zero copies. The reviews note that it's slow and meandering, which means it probably could use a developmental editor, and that it's 600+ pages.
My guess is that the author of that book is Plump Press.
They seem to have put out exactly one book, in 2020, the same year that the press's website was created. As Maggie said, there's zero information about them on their website, and ditto for the entire internet. That one book has mixed reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, apparently all from people who got it as a free copy in exchange for agreeing to write a review. It has no Amazon sales ranking available, suggesting that it's sold zero copies. The reviews note that it's slow and meandering, which means it probably could use a developmental editor, and that it's 600+ pages.
My guess is that the author of that book is Plump Press.
Seems likely. There's no contact info for Plump Press other than email. No address. No telephone number. And very odd and for a publisher.
And there is a difference between 'retched' and 'wretched'.
According to the entry in the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, the director is Darcy Hughes.
Also I'm not convinced that Darcy Hughes and August Hill are different people.
So, basically, there are about thirteen and a half bazillion other small presses, large presses, literary agents, and other options that you should probably put onto your "to-do" list ahead of this press, which looks to be clueless at best and predatory-scammy at worst.
Give your story the positive opportunity it deserves. Don't bury it with a nobody.
Yes, he’s the same man. The drawing of Darcy Hughes on his Twitter page matches the drawing of August Hill on his author Amazon page.
Well, there you have it.
This is not a trade press. This is an author who self published -- apparently rather badly -- and is trying to pretend he didn't. And he's willing to potentially destroy other authors' careers to further that pretense.
I had to go back to the site now, because they had a second author on there. I noticed 2 things:
1. The guy's book is on "pre-order" for 2020
2. Hannah Dash (the second author) doesn't exist. The only place Hannah Dash exists is on Plump Press's web site.
I am changing my answer from "wait and see" to "run away and don't look back." That's my final answer.
1. The guy's book is on "pre-order" for 2020
2. Hannah Dash (the second author) doesn't exist. The only place Hannah Dash exists is on Plump Press's web site.
I am changing my answer from "wait and see" to "run away and don't look back." That's my final answer.
Assuming that Hannah Dash is the author's invention (if not the author-as-a-child, or the author's child) then shouldn't a writer be able to come up with a better fake name than: Anna - ?
Agreed, the popular/common names work well (I have one of them myself). The trouble comes if someone is doubting you to start with.
I don't know how much I'd trust someone named John Smith, especially over the Internet.
Thanks for all the research and info. It's depressing how many cons there are in the publishing world.
There's a sucker born every minute, but crooks and cons are multiple births.