[Publisher] WritersWorld

[Old Hack]

On another forum I sometimes frequent, I've participated in a discussion about WritersWorld, a company which provides services in return for a fee.

Their website is here.

http://www.writersworld.co.uk/publish.asp

I've been unable to find out what they charge for their services, and what they offer: there are various PDFs available on their site which won't download for me (I suspect a problem with my connection, rather than with their site) in which I suspect their prices are contained; but over on the other forum where I first heard mention of them, one member mentions that they've quoted him a figure in excess of £4,000 to publish his book.

They have a speedy approach to publication.

We guarantee, with the full support of the author, to produce a book from start to finish within 60 days of proper submission, unlike some of our competitors who have a clause in their contracts which permits them up to six months to produce a book.

They quote some very interesting statistics, but don't cite a source for them.

Our composite range of services include a description of the book at Nielsen Book Data paid for by WRITERSWORLD, which will make the book easier to find by search terms at the very numerous book retailers' websites, and boost the opportunity for the book's sales. We are not aware of any other print-on-demand book publisher providing this invaluable service which has been demonstrated can increase offline sales by 35% and online sales by 178%.

(My bold.)

So. What do you all think about this one?

 

[Momento Mori]

It's too expensive and the claims are dubious.

Stay away, there are better options out there.

MM

 

[James D. Macdonald]

The prose on their page(s) is barely literate.

I have seen their PDF. It includes the bogus "authors who have self-published in the past" list. The PDF is a farrago of incomplete, misleading, poorly organized, self-serving information.

Bottom line: This is a POD vanity press.

 

[Old Hack]

I've now seen that PDF.

Blimey.

It's full of false claims and misleading information. I could get a whole year of blog posts out of that.

 

[frimble3]

I've now seen that PDF.

Blimey.

It's full of false claims and misleading information. I could get a whole year of blog posts out of that.

Don't admit that. You'll end up on one of their lists as 'Another writer we have helped'.

 

[Momento Mori]

Company's registered address seems to be the personal residence of Graham Cook who also seems to be director (possibly the sole director - it's not clear from the filing history) and the company secretary. Share capital is only £1,000 - that means that if you have a problem with the company and have to sue it, there's not a huge amount of money within the company.

He's charging £250 just to have a 2 - 3 hour consultation with Cook, which is an obscene amount of money from someone who has so much misinformation within his so-called guide.

The section on defamation/privacy law is completely bizarre. Bits of it appear to have been cribbed from the Carter-Ruck website and they seem to justify the POD model as some way of mitigating damages in a libel/breach of privacy claim by being able to immediately cease distribution. That is not a reason to use POD IMHO.

The royalties section left me very confused, to the extent that I ended up not being completely sure what the royalty rate is. Seems to be about 60% of cover but they also deduct print costs so I dunno what type of percentage you could expect (and deducting print costs when you're using POD just seems daft).

The £2,500 Phd publishing service made me choke. That is an obscene amount of money.

I'd be interested in knowing whether they have permission from Katherine Rosman for the reproduction of her article in the Wall Street Journey set out in Appendix 3 of the PDF. And also whether they have permission from Nigel Adams from Goodman Derrick LLP for the copyright law article reproduced in full in Appendix 4. There would be a certain irony to a vanity publisher breaching copyright by reproducing in full a copyrighted article about how copyright operates without the permission of the copyright holder. In fact, I think I'll drop an email to Goodman Derrick LLP to see if they know about this and whether they'd like to do something about it. Especially because it seems that Nigel Adams is a litigation specialist.

MM

 

[shaldna]

So. What do you all think about this one?

I think 178% of nothing is still nothing.

It;s a huge amount of money for something that will sell, at best, in double figures.

 

[CaoPaux]

The '13 edition of the PDF dropped the WSJ article. Mr. Adams' article remained until the current (April '16) edition. Also missing from the current edition is pages 33 thru 38, which includes:

OUR INTRODUCTION PLAN

If you are a bona fide literary agent or are directly involved in the publishing industry, we will pay you a 10% introduction fee on all the books we publish as a result of that introduction, with the proviso that the author must be made aware of this and that the introduction must come before the contract is sent in. This offer is subject to withdrawal if any special offers are on at the time of sending in the contract.