[Publishing service] Publish Me Instantly

[michael_b]

Just received a twit-spam from these people at Publish Me Instantly.

Copied from their website (bolding is theirs):

• No Crazy Upfront Fees (which with many companies can cost $10,000 plus)
• No holding of inventory. The cost of printing your book is deducted at the point of sale. The price you pay upfront for this service is all you will pay. Simply submit and watch the royalty checks roll in.
• Solid commission structure. 30-70 % royalties!
• Being recognized and promoted on the #1 marketplace in the world for purchasing books. Who doesn't shop on Amazon for books?
• Get marketed to 300,000 avid twitter followers (get exposure fast to your product).

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Yeah, great marketing, they are sending twit-spam to every author they can find to friend.

They offer editing services:

Basic Editing: This service is editing for grammatical errors, tense issues, subject-verb agreement, typographical errors, spelling and capitalization.
Books under 100 pages $199
Books up to 200 pages $399
Books up to 300 pages $599

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There is no listing of who is doing these edits but if they're doing it themselves... Well read some of their website, you'll get the idea.

Publishing services offered (italics mine):

You will not find an easier solution to your publishing needs. Publish Me Instantly is simple to use, with personal service and enjoy our affordable hassle free service. Simply follow our straight forward check list and let us take care of the rest!
Kindle Edition (electronic version only) $199
Paperback Version $299
Premium Kindle and Paperback Amazon version $399. Save $99 by having them published electronically and on paper at the same time.
With this package we will also promote your book to our 300,000 twitter followers at no cost for 5 days!

Their costs are way out of line since Amazon actually creates the ebook for you from a file you can format yourself. They only offer the Kindle for this cost, I know of places that do ALL formats for less than their base fee. Printing is done--from the way they word things on this site--via CreateSpace is my guess. If so, you can do this yourself too without using them as a costly middleman.

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Custom Cover Design $99:

I've seen freelancers who do reasonably good cover art who only charge $25, you can also get premade covers for romance novels through Jimmy Thomas' site for less than their fee.

Their about us page summed up: We couldn't get our work published anywhere so we did it ourselves and now we're going to help you get published too.

As far as I can see this is another 'gouge the unsuspecting author for as much money as we can' pay to play publisher.

 

[thothguard51]

Run...very fast, and very far away...

 

[michael_b]

Run...very fast, and very far away...

No kidding.

 

[everythinginblak]

This is why I would rather self pub or query. sad thing is someone is going to empty their pockets for these pirahnas thinking 'this is just the way it is'.

 

[aliceshortcake]

We have experience and success in this field and we believe that everyone deserves this for themselves...

Ah, entitlement. Where would outfits like this be without the widespread belief that "I wrote something, therefore I deserve to have it published"?

Their experience and success comes from The Letters of Gratitude, a book for which they couldn't find a publisher and is about...writing.

*Caution: New Age waffle alert!*

In 30 Days, I found what I never

knew I lost—myself

The Letters of Gratitude is not only an extraordinary writing tool that will enable you to transform the individual who stands before you in the mirror today, it will transform your way of life. This writing program is about healing and inspiring your soul through the written word. It is a comittment to your personal history and way of seeing the world around you. It is about creating a positive vision, and having the courage to listen to voice within. We all have someone within us waiting to heal, to inspire, seeking the opportunity to come through the silence. When you have the courage to listen to what presides within you, The Letters of Gratitude awaits you.

Recent statistics denote that 81% of people would like to write a book at some point in their life. That equates to over 250,000,000 people in the U.S. alone. The sad reality is that only a small number actually follow through.

Yes, the world really needs 250,000,000 books written by people who in many cases probably don't even read books.

 

[Eriador117]

So basically they're taking a fee for something an author can do at smashwords and kindle for free, and at createspace and lulu for a lot less than these prices. I don't think I'll be using them any time soon

 

[aliceshortcake]

Printing is done--from the way they word things on this site--via CreateSpace is my guess. If so, you can do this yourself too without using them as a costly middleman.

I think you're right. A quick Google reveals that The Letters of Gratitude was published in March this year through CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, and according to PMI's website:

Q. Are we affiliated with your site in any way after our book is published?
A. No. Our company name does not appear on the finished product and you are not affiliated with us in any way.
http://publishmeinstantly.com/frequently-asked-questions/

 

[michael_b]

As I said in my initial post, they're twit-spamming every author they can find over there, playing 'follow the friends' across twitter. I expect they will be doing this on facebook and other social networking sites. I suspect their main reason is to get that 'advertising' they're pitching to their clients and also to find more pockets to take money from since they will find a lot of unpubbed newbies this way.

Another potential is to sell their 'writing self help book' to people who also don't know any better.

I'd say more about this 'helpful' outfit, but I'm afraid pre-coffee it might descend into a string of four letter words about people who are out to scam unsuspecting newbies.

 

[Jess Haines]

As an aside, please report their tweets for spam. If Twitter gets enough complaints, they'll ban 'em.

 

[chekzchevov]

I just barfed on my lap.

 

[jaksen]

This is the second thread today I've found to be highly entertaining - in a sort of pseudo-comical, semi-tragic way.

But there are many well-educated persons who do think one must pay in order to be published. I've been asked this myself from friends (teachers and other fairly intelligent folk), 'How much did it cost you to get published/have your first story published?'

Ummm, the cost of postage to mail the ms. Everything else was gravy.

 

[EMaree]

Their name alone puts a sour taste in my mouth.

 

[aliceshortcake]

Their name alone puts a sour taste in my mouth.

I know. All it needs is an exclamation point at the end!

 

[Stacia Kane]

As I said in my initial post, they're twit-spamming every author they can find over there, playing 'follow the friends' across twitter. I expect they will be doing this on facebook and other social networking sites. I suspect their main reason is to get that 'advertising' they're pitching to their clients and also to find more pockets to take money from since they will find a lot of unpubbed newbies this way.

Another potential is to sell their 'writing self help book' to people who also don't know any better.

I'd say more about this 'helpful' outfit, but I'm afraid pre-coffee it might descend into a string of four letter words about people who are out to scam unsuspecting newbies.

To be fair...this honestly seems to me to be a case of the blind leading the blind/unsuspecting newbies trying to sell something to other unsuspecting newbies, rather than an attempt to scam anyone. I don't see any evidence that they're not actually providing the service they claim to provide, just that their service is wildly overpriced and they have no real experience in or knowledge of publishing.

It looks to me like they had a lot of fun formatting their book--which obviously means something to them--and decided to try to make some money off of it.

In other words, they don't know enough about what they're doing to be deliberately scamming people. Doesn't mean using their service is a good idea, at all, just that there's no evil intent. IMO, anyway. I could certainly be wrong.

 

[CaoPaux]

Site gone mid-'17. TW suspended. FB mostly reposts from Letters of Gratitude accounts.