Spangaloo Publishing

[aliceshortcake]

According to Twitter, Spangaloo is based in Brisbane.

Here at Spangaloo, we make it easy to publish your Books.

We are a small company, and that makes us easy to deal with, fast response to your inquiries and direct help.
There are many steps to publishing, and we can provide as much help as you need. Whether or not you choose to use us as a distributor our level of service is what makes us shine.
http://author.spangaloo.com/publishing.php/

If Spangaloo's website is anything to go by, the company's level of service doesn't include the most basic proofreading.

When you choose us to distribute your eBook on our site, you will earn higher royalties.
When you publish with us, we take your finished book, format it as well as design a cover if needed, all as part of the service, at no cost(**) to you. (editing is a separate issue, but we have low prices for that)…

Promoting your book is a difficult task, but we help with that too.
Your cut of the profits are higher because we only take a minor percentage for our services.

Please note: we only accept books that will have a price of 0.99cents USD and higher.
We also accept books that will be distributed free of charge.

We also do Paperback and Hardcover publishing through Createspace and Ingram(*)

Since when has Ingram been a publisher?

*please note that Ingram has over 39000 book stores that it distributes to. Royalty payments for books going to bookstores is low and there is a 60.00USD fee for doing a listing
** as per our current offer for new authors. Subject to change.

What the hell?!

Editing with Spangaloo

Editing is what makes the reader come back and buy more. It is IMPORTANT!!

Full Editing Services

We over low cost , quality editing at affordable prices.
Less than a dollar per page (page is defined as double spaced in a word document.)
approx. $0.0033 cents a word.
Editing includes grammar , spelling as well as suggestions on how to improve various areas of your book

Spangaloo's roster of authors includes the company's founder James Blanchett, writing as James Bryron Love, and the incredibly prolific Therese A Kraemer. Every one of the Spangaloo books I looked inside, including those in which an editor was credited, were riddled with errors. There appears to be no quality control whatsoever. The covers are hilariously awful - my favourite is that of Defiant Heart, a novel set in the early nineteenth century ("it was the year eighteen hundred and eleven") which depicts the hero in modern dress.

Avoid like the plague.

 

[mrsmig]

Those covers...

 

[Helix]

omg

Those covers. That editing.

To echo one of the characters in Defiant Heart, "Blimey! Wot da 'ell d' Oi care?"

 

[aliceshortcake]

It's 4.31 in the morning and I'm in agony with neuralgia, yet thanks to those covers I've spent twenty minutes crying with laughter. They look like the results of an explosion in a stock images library. I particularly like the cover of Her Perfect Hero, in which a Native American and a Debbie Harry lookalike are photobombed by a Texas Longhorn steer.



Thanks, Spangaloo!

 

[BenPanced]

Sweet mother of macrame: Keeper of her Love.

A photo of a sexy nurse costume mashed into a lot of US Civil War imagery.

I can't even.

 

[Helix]

Looks like I got fixed broadband just in time.

ETA: I just saw the cover for Ruthless.

 

[BenPanced]

They claim to have the Queen of the Romance Novels catalog, but you don't have to look very far to see they aren't talking about Barbara Cartland.

 

[VeryBigBeard]

And they offer cover design services, of course.

The thing that gets me is you read through the posts here, and you see a name like Spangaloo Publishing... now maybe it's a place, I really don't know, but one just assumes the worst. And then the worst is confirmed.

 

[Helix]

About those covers...there seems to be some controversy on Spangaloo's FB page.

 

[aliceshortcake]

About those covers...there seems to be some controversy on Spangaloo's FB page.

That's interesting. The cover for In the Genes is credited to, and can be found in the portfolio of, Classy Designs:

https://m.facebook.com/classydesignsbycoly

Dawn Schoeppy Bloodworth (K B Bloodworth) posted her cover photo on 23rd July; Lori Kay's Stiletto was published on 31st March.

'Coly' is Anca-Melinda Coliolu, who also writes as Melinda de Ross. I don't know what happened here but we can't blame Spangaloo if one of their authors unwittingly used a stolen cover image.

And for some reason the name Spangaloo conjures up the image of a rhinestone-encrusted toilet.

ETA: some words of publishing wisdom from James Blanchett:

It would be nice to be paid a lot of money for your efforts. That’s not likely to happen unless you’re an already famous writer. When big publishing houses seek you out instead of you trying to entice them into accepting your novel, that’s when the big money begins.

Publishing houses do not take risks of any sort. Most authors do not realize this. They focus on what they feel is their market and what already is working. They will decide the pricing structures. We will discuss publishing at the brick and mortars in a future article.http://books.spangaloo.com/e-book-pricing-the-basics/

I can't wait to read what he has to say about publishing at the bricks and mortars!

 

[Eltondiva]

Someone, anyone, please help me, I have been laying on the floor for hours! I can't breathe, move or see from the tears of laughter! Aliceshortcake!!! Oh bless your heart , now I have comic relief while agent querying!

 

[Maggie Maxwell]

Welp, that explains why I thought that specific cover was so different in quality from the others on the site.

 

[aliceshortcake]

But wait...there's more!

Mr Blanchett (or is it Blanchette? He uses both spellings) is also the head honcho at literary magazine Liphar. It's pronouned 'lifer' and features the same kind of retina-destroying cover art we've come to know and love at Spangaloo:

Liphar Magazine we have moved the magazine to a new server

WE have Moved the magazine itself to the new server.

This site will act as the submission engine as well as authors being able to Track thier submiissions

Track thier submiissions. These people offer their services as editors.

Onwards and upwards will be our motto. We will strive to provide the absolute best magazine for the outstanding price of free. We encourage you to tell your friends, annoy your neighbours and gently have a good time with it.
http://liphar.com/issue4/editorial.php

Gently? Something tells me that 'Deuce Wylde', the writer of that little gem, was aiming for 'generally' but didn't quite make it.

 

[Marian Perera]

Mr Blanchett (or is it Blanchette? He uses both spellings) is also the head honcho at literary magazine Liphar. It's pronouned 'lifer' and features the same kind of retina-destroying cover art we've come to know and love at Spangaloo

I read Liphar's article on Terminator, but rolled my eyes at the part about this being a perfect date movie because it offers action for him and romance for her.

 

[Filigree]

I was howling at the bad writing and terrible Poser figure covers. But really, 'Spangaloo' kinda says it all. Rhinestone-encrusted toilets, indeed.

But yanno, Filigree's Rule. This company looks so awful I am not lifting a finger to warn anyone directly about it. If writers can't do basic research, oh well.

 

[Thedrellum]

So, they're offering to edit a 60K word novel for $200. Bejeezus.

Worst covers ever, which makes this one for Indian Summer stand out all the more. Did they actually sucker in someone who had professional artists working for them?

No, with more research I've just discovered that they only way to look at Spangaloo's books (as far as I can tell) is through Amazon, which means that books that aren't by Spangaloo will, of course, be advertised below the book you're actually looking at.

 

[Polenth]

So, they're offering to edit a 60K word novel for $200. Bejeezus.

Worst covers ever, which makes this one for Indian Summer stand out all the more. Did they actually sucker in someone who had professional artists working for them?

No, with more research I've just discovered that they only way to look at Spangaloo's books (as far as I can tell) is through Amazon, which means that books that aren't by Spangaloo will, of course, be advertised below the book you're actually looking at.

I'd guess some authors hire Spangaloo for some services and not others. Though how you can realise you need to hire a better cover artist, but assume the editing and formatting must be great, is a mystery. The covers are the sort of thing I'd expect on a parody site making fun of self-published authors, but they're for real.

 

[K. Q. Watson]

Their cover for the 4th issue of Liphar is a badly photoshopped image of Summer Glau originally used in promotion for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
http://www.tomrichmond.com/2008/01/14/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-a-review/

 

[BenPanced]

And for some reason the name Spangaloo conjures up the image of a rhinestone-encrusted toilet.

GARDYLOO!

No, with more research I've just discovered that they only way to look at Spangaloo's books (as far as I can tell) is through Amazon, which means that books that aren't by Spangaloo will, of course, be advertised below the book you're actually looking at.

I'd noticed that, too. Even when the front page of the authors section clearly states there are buy links in the profiles, I don't remember finding any that kept you on Spangaloo's site; they all went to Amazon. I wonder what factors keep the owners from having direct sales links on their own space.

 

[aliceshortcake]

Their cover for the 4th issue of Liphar is a badly photoshopped image of Summer Glau originally used in promotion for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
http://www.tomrichmond.com/2008/01/14/terminator-the-sarah-connor-chronicles-a-review/

I knew I'd seen that image somewhere else!

And I'm still trying to work out what Spangaloo means by "please note that Ingram has over 39000 book stores that it distributes to. Royalty payments for books going to bookstores is low and there is a 60.00USD fee for doing a listing". The claim that bookstore placement=low royalties is new to me.

 

[Helix]

Call me an over-suspicious cynic, but I don't think that Spangaloo Publishing is actually in Australia.

 

[aliceshortcake]

Call me an over-suspicious cynic, but I don't think that Spangaloo Publishing is actually in Australia.

Oh, ye of little faith! From a Spangaloo press release:

171 Jones RD
Carina Heights, QLD 4152
Australia

A snippet from that press release:

Rock Hill, SC, OCT 26, 2014 – Imagine the moment has finally arrived. After living with a man that one trusted with their very life and then having to undergo the shame, the embarrassment of finding out one’s husband has been cheating on them. Imagine taking back one’s power in a moment of angry passion when lives are changed forever. Now after years in prison, the moment has arrived and the last meal has been eaten. The execution for a crime of passion has just taken place and In the Arms of An Angel has only just opened into Zandria Adams’ story.
http://books.spangaloo.com/press-release-in-the-arms-of-an-angel/

The cover is another Spangaloo classic: against a lurid purple backdrop, a Poser angel prepares to shove a girl wearing a Sexy Devil fancy-dress costume off a cliff.

 

[EMaree]

....Wow.
Just. WOW.

 

[aliceshortcake]

....Wow.
Just. WOW.

I know! Spangaloo is the perfect example of why being published badly is worse than not being published at all. Although the company claims that Therese Kraemer, Queen of 99¢ Romance, has sold 10,000 copies.

Criticizing Spangaloo's editing is uncomfortably like kicking a lame puppy, so I'll confine myself to one example:

Unexpectedly, the door opened and an old man armed with a riffle appeared.
"How in tarnation did y'all get into my house? Are you a spy for the Blue Belly's?"

 

[BenPanced]

A riffle.

No further comment, Yer Honner.