[Publisher] Pulse, LLC

[RosalieStanton]

I'm on the board of a local writing group. We received this invitation from PulsePub.

Hi,

My name is Ashley Jellison, and I'm the senior editor for Enrapture, the romance imprint of Pulse, a thriving independent publishing firm. Since first opening our doors in 2012, we've helped launch the careers of many talented writers and published numerous bestselling, award-winning titles by authors worldwide.

I'm contacting you today to invite your members to submit your works to us for publishing consideration. We're currently accepting submissions of romance titles across all subgenres (e.g. paranormal, historical, contemporary, etc.) for our 2017 publishing cycle. As an independent press, we don't charge our authors for any of the services we provide (editing & formatting, cover design, worldwide distribution, book trailer & teaser production, etc.), and we offer higher than industry standard royalties. We also provide comprehensive marketing support for all our authors, including assigning them personal author assistants to help enhance their literary efforts.

To learn more about our firm, please visit our website at www.pulsepub.net. In the meantime, to submit your work for consideration, please forward the first 3 chapters, as well as a brief synopsis/outline and bio, to me at this email address. I'll also gladly address any questions or concerns you may have.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

I haven't heard of them until today. Their website looks a little wonky (there's a lot of white space at the bottom). The submission guidelines page is sparse (just a list of editors to contact) and they do not consider agented manuscripts, which struck me as a red flag.

I'm likely to use this as a cautionary example for some of the members of the group, but I wanted to see if anyone here has any experience with this outfit.

 

[zmethos]

The site appears completely geared toward authors, not even a prominent link to their books. Nor do I find any information on who actually runs the place. And though their covers aren't the worst I've ever seen, I'm not impressed by them either.

 

[ctripp]

All 4 of the Authors shown on the pubs home page have their books listed on Amazon, with the accredited publisher listed as Createspace. Does that mean self pub or does it mean Pulse uses createspace as it's pub platform???

As an independent press, we don't charge our authors for any of the services we provide

I hate when you read things like this, Publishers do NOT offer SERVICES, so of course there is no charge, there is no service.

we offer higher than industry standard royalties

Means there is no advance. Which isn't uncommon any more (though I don't like it)

We also provide comprehensive marketing support for all our authors, including assigning them personal author assistants to help enhance their literary efforts.

Authors don't market (they promote) so there is no need for market support. A publisher markets, they should be assigning those assistants to themselves

 

[horrorchix89]

I received an invitation to submit saying they heard about my book from a colleague. Thing is, they called it Welcome to Caara Island. I dropped that name months ago. There's a chance a beta reader may have said something about it but I'm not sure. Seems quite odd

 

[Jamills08]

Publisher reached out [merged into pub's BR&BC thread]

I was just sent a message from a senior editor from a publishing firm asking me to send in a synopsis and first three chapters. She said she thinks my writing may be a good fit. It was a message on Booksie and I took my work down so I'm not sure where she read it. The firm seems legit but I haven't heard of any of the authors. My book is still in the beta and critique phase also, sooo there's that. How would y'all approach this. I have no idea if her message was a generic sent to hundreds. I'm betting it was.

 

[pschmehl]

What's the name of the publisher? If it's one of the SP companies, they will usually take anything so long as you're willing to pay the thousands they're asking for.

 

[Jamills08]

Enrapture Pulse

 

[Unimportant]

It looks like they've been around for several years and are an e-pub with (probably) POD trade papebacks. The blurbs for their books seem fine.

Oddly, they do not accept submissions from agented authors.

They've got a lot of imprints that cover everything from YA to "toe-curling erotica" to "inspiring, biblically-based Christian fiction tales", which is kind of a weird combination. (If I wrote conservative Christian fiction, I'd probably not want my books to be lap-dancing with toe-curling erotica!)

 

[Jamills08]

That is weird!

 

[Night_Writer]

Oddly, they do not accept submissions from agented authors.

I've seen other publishers say that, too. It's usually small, indie publishers. The reason they don't take subs from agents is because there just isn't enough money in the picture to make it worthwhile for an agent. No one makes much with these publishers.

 

[Old Hack]

I've seen other publishers say that, too. It's usually small, indie publishers. The reason they don't take subs from agents is because there just isn't enough money in the picture to make it worthwhile for an agent. No one makes much with these publishers.

Another reason some don't take submissions from agents is that their contracts are so terrible they know anyone with any publishing knowhow would recoil in horror when they saw them. They don't want writers they make offers to being told how awful their terms are.

Not that that's necessarily the case here, but it's a possibility.

 

[aliceshortcake]

The company's CEO is Marcus Harris, who according to LinkedIn is "a bestselling poet and author, playwright, filmmaker, community volunteer and philanthropist":

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusjharris/

The best-selling poetry book in question is Songs in Search of a Voice, which sold "more than 20,000 copies in less than six months" - quite an achievement. It was published by Harris' own company Urban Echoes Entertainment.

 

[pschmehl]

So the possibility exists that the company was founded because they have a soft spot for unknown authors. That still begs the question, are they any good at publishing? Marketing? I don't have any problem with them using Createspace. Anyone who's used it knows it's an acceptable way to professionally publish a book. If they have a decent editing staff and contact with good cover artists, they might be able to produce good books. The real question is, do they have the ability to market their products.

I found it interesting that the two books I checked had a handful of reviews, and most of them were not verified purchase reviews. The sales don't seem to be that great either.

 

[pschmehl]

I contacted their Exalt imprint (the Christian arm of the business) and asked them whether they would consider an already-self-published novella of 23K. To my surprise, they said yes and asked for a copy of my book (docx). I'll post here again, if anything comes of it.

 

[C Alberts]

So the possibility exists that the company was founded because they have a soft spot for unknown authors. That still begs the question, are they any good at publishing? Marketing? I don't have any problem with them using Createspace. Anyone who's used it knows it's an acceptable way to professionally publish a book. If they have a decent editing staff and contact with good cover artists, they might be able to produce good books. The real question is, do they have the ability to market their products.

I found it interesting that the two books I checked had a handful of reviews, and most of them were not verified purchase reviews. The sales don't seem to be that great either.

It isn't unusual for small pubs to use CreateSpace services for POD and ebook creation, however it is *very* unusual for CreateSpace to be listed in the publisher field when there is an actual publishing company behind the book. It certainly doesn't speak to great marketing if they aren't even putting their brand on their books.

 

[pschmehl]

These are ones they feature on their site. I checked them now on Amazon.

Liberation by Wanda Campbell - Publisher: Exalt (Pulse) (December 20, 2012)
Mil-town's Finest by Charae Lewis - Publisher: PulseBlaze (April 29, 2012)
Chasing Shadows by Nikki Stafinski - Publisher: Propel (Pulse) (November 15, 2016)
33 Days to Live by Mari Branson - Publisher: Propel (Pulse) (April 16, 2017)
A Long Way To Go by Ashley Summers - Publisher: Enrapture (Pulse) (March 25, 2017)

So they appear to be using their imprints as the publisher, at least on these that I checked.

 

[C Alberts]

These are ones they feature on their site. I checked them now on Amazon.

...

So they appear to be using their imprints as the publisher, at least on these that I checked.

Oh, I see, on the e-books they list the imprints. On the print books, however, it does say CreateSpace. I think this may have to do with not paying for ISBNs. I'm under the impression that CreateSpace will give you a free ISBN, but if you want your own name listed as publisher you have to buy the ISBNs which most publishers do (Someone who knows more about CreateSpace publishing can correct me if I'm wrong).

I also looked up a couple of their titles on Ingram to see if they have wholesale availability for print books. I did find them listed but they, too, say CreateSpace is the publisher. I don't know if this is of interest, but the terms they offer through Ingram are not good and I see no sign of real distribution. I can explain this in more detail if it matters to you, but, in short, it basically means that their books will not likely make it to bookstore shelves.

But if their primary focus is e-books, perhaps this doesn't matter. I'm a bricks-and-mortar gal, so I always default to the print editions.

 

[pschmehl]

Oh, I see, on the e-books they list the imprints. On the print books, however, it does say CreateSpace. I think this may have to do with not paying for ISBNs. I'm under the impression that CreateSpace will give you a free ISBN, but if you want your own name listed as publisher you have to buy the ISBNs which most publishers do (Someone who knows more about CreateSpace publishing can correct me if I'm wrong).

I also looked up a couple of their titles on Ingram to see if they have wholesale availability for print books. I did find them listed but they, too, say CreateSpace is the publisher. I don't know if this is of interest, but the terms they offer through Ingram are not good and I see no sign of real distribution. I can explain this in more detail if it matters to you, but, in short, it basically means that their books will not likely make it to bookstore shelves.

But if their primary focus is e-books, perhaps this doesn't matter. I'm a bricks-and-mortar gal, so I always default to the print editions.

Well, that's interesting. ISBN's are not that expensive. Especially in the batches that publishers would buy.

If they make an offer on my book, I'll have to ask them about that.

 

[Cassie Knight]

As a publisher, I have to ask, what do you consider inexpensive for ISBNs? I consider $25.00 a pop expensive given I need two - one for digital and one for print, or, as I've heard recommended, one for each version of the book I produce, ie Kindle, epub and so on. That is quite expensive. I bought 100 recently and paid a little over $500. Better but depending on how many books are released in a year, print and digital (and I'm moving a lot of backlist into print), I'm thinking I'll be buying more early next year. The other thing to consider, right or wrong, is that while I intend to get to mass market, right now POD is my option and for Createspace, to get the extended distribution and books made available to retailers, I have to use their ISBN. For sure, I'd rather them not be listed as publisher but right now, I'll take it to get that distribution.

Anyway, when I saw that ISBNs aren't that expensive, I had to chime in. I'll buy them because my goal is bookstore placement but I definitely don't consider them inexpensive.

 

[pschmehl]

They're inexpensive when bought in bulk. If you consider that one $5 ISBN (using your figure) is for a book that sells 1000 copies, the cost is minimal. Yes, it's a large out-of-pocket expense for an individual or a small publisher, but it's recouped easily if the book sells.

 

[JLinz]

I was just sent a message from a senior editor from a publishing firm asking me to send in a synopsis and first three chapters. She said she thinks my writing may be a good fit. It was a message on Booksie and I took my work down so I'm not sure where she read it. The firm seems legit but I haven't heard of any of the authors. My book is still in the beta and critique phase also, sooo there's that. How would y'all approach this. I have no idea if her message was a generic sent to hundreds. I'm betting it was.

That is almost exactly what happened to me. They contacted me through Booksie with the exact generic message. My problem is that they stated they were the senior editor for Enrapture but when I went to the site, there was someone else listed as senior editor. It makes me suspicious as well because my book is also in the first drafting stages and not even finished! The profile of said editor was made not too long ago. I want to jump at this but I don't want to be fooled into paying money I don't have or losing my rights to the book for a set amount of years.

 

[pschmehl]

You can always hire a lawyer to read the contract and explain what it says. Never sign your rights away unknowingly.

 

[Old Hack]

Lawyers can tell you whether or not a contract is legally enforceable but they can't necessarily tell you if it's exploitative or even reasonable. Even IP lawyers struggle with these things. Only good literary agents can tell you if a contract is ok to sign.

 

[romancechic]

WRITERS BEWARE!!!!!
I am a self-publishing author that was lured into this small publishing company (Pulse) and it ended up being a yearlong nightmare. After the editing stage, they were unethical, unreliable and unprofessional. It was a very stressful year that finally ended when I threatened to take legal action against them. Please don’t make the same mistake I did!

 

[RosalieStanton]

I was contacted by an author with Pulse who found my contact info here.

They report they aren’t receiving royalties and the CEO (Marcus Harris) isn’t responding to emails, phone calls, or certified mail.