ShieldCrest Publishing

[aliceshortcake]

Welcome to Shieldcrest
The first and last site an author will ever need

The UK's independently acclaimed Number 1 book publisher for quality and service.
http://www.shieldcrest.co.uk/

Number one, eh? I can't understand why I've never heard of them.

*looks more closely at the home page*

Probably because that ranking is based on Freeindex reviews by Shieldcrest authors - not exactly independent acclamation!

ShieldCrest provides a complete range of services including e-books, book illustration, reviews, proof reading, editing and press releases. Global distribution is provided through Amazon and other major online retailers and our books are available through all bookshops.

The page on which details of 'global distribution' are given features a rather unfortunate graphic of a massive shipping container being lowered onto planet Earth. What the author gets are the usual POD basics -ISBN/barcode, copyright, placement on Amazon and the major book retailer websites.

If we share this cost with you, under our joint venture scheme the cost for this service can be as little as £175.

NB. The only additional cost is for 12 copies of your book for the legal deposit libraries and to ensure key retailers and distributors have stock copies to aid sales.
http://www.shieldcrest.co.uk/writing-step-2.html

There are five legal deposit libraries in the UK. How exactly will the other seven copies be used to aid sales?

Shieldcrest seems determined to cram as many misconceptions about publishing as possible onto its website:

Many, if not all of the mainstream publishing houses now only publish works from established authors and celebrities. Although they might claim to create demand for talented new writers, few, if any do. Why?...

Quite simply, it’s easier for them, as they have less marketing to do by capitalising on the individual’s following. Not unreasonable but it stifles new talent

Not this again.

A mainstream publisher should also protect the author by guaranteeing a minimum up-front royalty, which should be non-refundable but often they don’t. This is the reason they pay royalties every 6 months so they can reduce the amount owed by the number of returns.

What?

Everyone in the business recognises there are thousands of excellent manuscripts sitting in desk drawers or agents waste baskets. The problem seems insurmountable.
http://www.shieldcrest.co.uk/book-publishing-services.html

The solution to this problem is, of course, to pay for publication. Something tells me that Mark Twain is poised to make a guest appearance:

No-one is denying there are advantages getting your work published through a large publishing house. However, for the reasons outlined earlier they can keep themselves busy by simply leaping on the celebrity bandwagon and if you could get yourself on Big Brother or other fly-on-the-wall TV programmes, they would be contacting you for a book.

What they also conveniently forget to tell you is that if they were able to detect talent when they see it, why did well known authors such as J. K. Rowling, Steven King, Lord Byron, T.S. Eliot, Edgar Allen Poe, Leo Tolstoi, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf and many others, all start by self publishing.

They were all rejected by main stream publishers so the self-proclaimed experts aren’t necessarily able to recognise talent when they see it. However, they were very quick to jump on the bandwagon after their talent was discovered by others.
http://www.shieldcrest.co.uk/self-publishing.html

I'm so tired of this nonsense. Byron, Poe and Tolstoi lived in an age when the publishing industry was completely different to what it is today; STEPHEN King, Mark Twain, J K Rowling and - to the best of my knowledge - T S Eliot didn't start out by self-publishing; and Virginia Woolf was self-published insofar as she founded the highly-regarded Hogarth Press with her husband Leonard Woolf.

The strangest thing about the site is that there is no bookshop and no direct link to the author pages. All I could find were three sample author pages that could have been designed in the late 90s.

A search for Shieldcrest Books on Amazon.uk turned up quite a few publications with no Look Inside feature...and a whole series of detective novels bearing no trace of proofreading, let alone real editing.

 

[Tan12]

Hi Alice

I am a previous Author of Shieldcrest publishers and due to the bad experience I've had with that publishing company after I found out they were listed on Writers Beware in 2019 I removed my books from their publishing company. I agree with your views Shieldcrest publishers rely on their free index reviews to achieve success. The bad experience I've had I have lost complete trust of Shieldcrest publishers. I had to re-type all my manuscripts again and publish my books because Shieldcrest wouldn't give me my manuscripts at the end I had to do a solicitor. My books were important to me but Shieldcrest have no remorse or guilt of their wrongful actions. I now self publish my books which I am better off in doing so than going to a publishing company I can't trust .
Tan.

 

[Maryn]

Tan12, I'm so sorry this happened to you. Thank you for sharing your unfortunate experience with ShieldCrest.

Alas, aliceshortcake hasn't stopped by in a few years, although she could be reading without logging in. Nevertheless, our members' posts about publishers are evergreen, with fresh input always welcome.

As are you, of course. I hope you'll make time to stop by our New Members board to introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you write. We'd like to get to know you better.

 

[Tan12]

Tan12, I'm so sorry this happened to you. Thank you for sharing your unfortunate experience with ShieldCrest.

Alas, aliceshortcake hasn't stopped by in a few years, although she could be reading without logging in. Nevertheless, our members' posts about publishers are evergreen, with fresh input always welcome.

As are you, of course. I hope you'll make time to stop by our New Members board to introduce yourself and tell us a little about what you write. We'd like to get to know you better.

Hi Maryn

Thank you for welcoming me as a member and for your kind words. I am an Established Author and a Crime Investigator . The books I have written are based on true facts about my life and what I've experienced, the pain, the suffering, the tragedy but yet I have always stayed a strong person because I have strong faith in God. Many who have experienced similar tragedies in their lives will understand what my family went through, but there are many out there that take advantage of my bad experience and use it against me when I investigate them and find evidence against their wrongful actions . They show no remorse or guilt of their wrongful actions. But I was raised to love God's creation and to help the innocent people. That's my goal in life.

Tan.

 

[Tan12]

Hi Maryn

Thank you for welcoming me as a member and for your kind words. I am an Established Author and a Crime Investigator . The books I have written are based on true facts about my life and what I've experienced, the pain, the suffering, the tragedy but yet I have always stayed a strong person because I have strong faith in God. Many who have experienced similar tragedies in their lives will understand what my family went through, but there are many out there that take advantage of my bad experience and use it against me when I investigate them and find evidence against their wrongful actions . They show no remorse or guilt of their wrongful actions. But I was raised to love God's creation and to help the innocent people. That's my goal in life.

Tan.

Alice you were right about all the information you have put on your website about shieldcrest publishers. I put my honest review of my experience on shieldcrest free index and free index removed my review on the request of shieldcrest publishers without asking me first whether I have evidence of what I had mentioned in my review, which I do. This just shows that free index have supported a publishing company who have committed wrongful actions, and by doing so it questions their credibility. When authors who have had bad experience with shieldcrest and they have evidence yet their reviews are being removed by shieldcrest then it is a concerning issue that should be investigated because shieldcrest were on Writers beware on 28 Feb 2019 for mistreating their previous author. This is why I am thankful that I removed my books from this publishing company it's the best thing I've ever done in my life. Self publishing is the best option and I wish I had known about self publishing before I would never have given my books to two publishing company's and had so much money loss. Paying a publishing company in advance is risky because if you've paid for your manuscript and it's ruined by the publisher, and you don't get your manuscripts back from publishers then your money is gone too. And earning just a pound for each book sold is injustice to an author when you can earn more by self publishing. I've learnt from my experience of which publishing company's to avoid . Loyalty and trust is everything.

 

[frimble3]

Paying a publishing company in advance is risky because if you've paid for your manuscript and it's ruined by the publisher, and you don't get your manuscripts back from publishers then your money is gone too.

Paying a publishing company in advance is just a plain bad idea. Paying for anything in advance is a bad idea (unless it's an actual product, you've seen it, or good photos of it). A deposit, maybe, if it's a custom job.

 

[Tan12]

Paying a publishing company in advance is just a plain bad idea. Paying for anything in advance is a bad idea (unless it's an actual product, you've seen it, or good photos of it). A deposit, maybe, if it's a custom job.

One publishing company which was called memoirs in Cirencester Gloucestershire, I was told by a debt collector who looked into the matter that their business closed down. That publishing company owes me £2,770 for a book they didn't publish. I paid for the cover design they didn't do either. Now that publishing company changed their name to mereo books and same editor and publishing manager work there. The debt collector said it's too late to recover my money back from the publishing company and he said he'd hate to see me lose more money to another criminal. I have had bad experience with both publishing company's, shieldcrest and memoirs books .

 

[Brigid Barry]

The Bewares section of this board is a wonderful service. I always, ALWAYS check it as part of my due diligence.

 

[Tan12]

The Bewares section of this board is a wonderful service. I always, ALWAYS check it as part of my due diligence.

Hi Brigid

Yes you are right . I found out from writers beware about shieldcrest publishing company when it was listed on writers beware. Shieldcrest Manager mistreated the previous author and kept her refund of £125 and ruined her manuscript and kept a hold of it. That's why shieldcrest were listed on writers beware. My honest review on shieldcrest free index was removed unjustly since I have evidence. No wonder with the help of a company who looked into the matter in 2020 and told me that shieldcrest only had 151 books on their website and they had not much sales between 2018 and 2019 , this explains why shieldcrest only had 79 free index reviews for a long time, and since I removed my books in 2020 and I had to do a solicitor because shieldcrest Manager wasn't giving my manuscripts that I paid for. When I confronted shieldcrest Manager I noticed shieldcrest free index reviews popping up which was odd to me. Shieldcrest Manager also took advantage of my past tragic bad experience in my life that I wrote a book about and used it against me to cover up their wrongful actions, and they even used the publishing company who.owrs me £2,770 for a book they didn't publish or finish where i was a victim they used that publishing company against me. That publishing company breached their contract agreement that they signed and didn't owe me my book sake royalty's either the publishing company is memoirs books . Shieldcrest Manager was not happy with Alice Shortcakes review about their publishing company on Absolute Write it was bothering him a lot . If you read Alice Shortcakes views about shieldcrest you will see what Alice has mentioned makes more sense to me . So yes, I have had bad experience with both publishing company's and it's injustice I had to retype all my books again that were based on true fact and important to me because I'm fighting for justice for my ill son. But most injustice done to me is my honest reviews that have been removed on social media for justice for my son and the bad experience I've had with both publishing company's. I'm devastated.