Stepping Stones Publishing

[Harlequin]

Seen this press advertised in a group I'm in (the group owner publishes with them).

https://www.steppingstonespub.com


The $20 price tag for paperback seems excessive? In addition to a host of other red flags.

 

[Clairels]

You must be in the same group I'm in. This guy (Brian Tedesco) hypes his company all over the place so I came here hoping to check him out.

From what I can see, the site is heavily geared toward authors, complete with testimonials. The site is extremely sketchy on the owner of the company or his background. Apparently his background is as a freelance editor, and he may have worked for a division of MacMillan at some point (although the book descriptions on the site are extremely poorly edited). Cover designs are mediocre at best. There's no mention of what kind of marketing, if any, he does.

This is what he recently posted, in response to someone who posted about a recent offer from a vanity pub who asked for $2,500:

I have a hybrid publishing house, with traditional publishing options based on the quality of the manuscript. I would not come close to charging 2,500 unless you had a 500,000 word manuscript. I offer 70% royalties as well. If you want other options, feel free to message me. The publishing house website is www.steppingstonespub.com and I am always looking for new authors to work with.

To me, this implies he charges money to at least some of his authors, who are essentially giving up control of their book to get not much more than what they'd get from self-publishing with CreateSpace.

Thoughts?

 

[Harlequin]

Well gosh, isn't that kind of him -_- I bet he spends his nights hoping to get a 500k word MS in that case.

I've had concerns since I saw people signing on with him, but the authors appeared genuinely enamoured and nobody wants to sound like a party pooper, sigh.

One of the authors who works with him was talking in a group awhile back about having to come up with their own blurb and do their own cover, and also their own marketing (although they seemed to feel this was good example of authorial control, rather than anything problematic).


Very possibly I'm in the same group--or perhaps he's just in loads.

 

[mrsmig]

I looked at a few of Stepping Stones' books on Amazon and I'm not impressed, either by the books themselves (which are only available in Kindle format on Amazon), nor by their numbers. For example, an SF book released just two months ago has already dropped into the 3 million ranking territory overall. I tried looking for a few titles at Barnes & Noble, but they're not listed. Seems like the major outlet for sales is the Stepping Stones website. The paperbacks are fairly steeply priced, and when you add on $7.50 in shipping - well.

Stepping Stones only appears to have eleven books in their catalog, and it looks like most (if not all) of them were published in the last few months.

With no staff listed, that iffy "hybrid" option and a full page of "testimonials" from their authors, this looks like one to avoid.

 

[Harlequin]

Brian Tedesco I've heard that name before.

EDIT Oh, it's pubsolvers dude! http://www.pubsolvers.com

He used to advertise editorial services in writer groups, perhaps still does? He promised to publish any MS he edited.

 

[Clairels]

He promised to publish any MS he edited.

I believe he's still offering that "perk." Oh, by the way, he's another gem he posted in response to my questions about whether his books are available in stores:

[FONT=&quot]Book stores are more of a scam than vanity publishing. They return nothing in profit to authors unless a book sales a ton. After shipping, stocking, and boo[/FONT][FONT=&quot]k return costs, most authors will make more royalty online, whether selling an ebook or hard copy. That said, yes I do submit my sales catalogue to all bookstores, because that is what authors want. Yeah, it's romantic having your book in a bookstore, but I find it more productive to utilize avenues that return more profit to authors.

[/FONT] Considering how poor his sales seem to be, profit margin should be the last thing he or his authors should be concerned about.

 

[veinglory]

Stores are terrible, unless you want to sell to customers.... sigh

 

[lonestarlibrarian]

I was going to say, "I thought Stepping Stones was awesome. They would send a rep by my library and everything and they were so reliable for beginner chapter books!" But then I realized it wasn't the Random House Stepping Stones that was being discussed here. But since the name was the same, I thought I'd mention it.

 

[Clairels]

More lowlights from my ongoing "discussion" with Mr. Tedesco:

Amazon/CS is a vanity press. Anyone can publish, and they make billions from authors. Lulu selling packages for thousands is vanity.

Well, I guess if the two of the largest self-publishing companies are nothing more than vanity presses now, we all might as well throw in the towel and give our books to Brian Tedesco.[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

[Harlequin]

How on earth is amazon a vanity?

and isn't he publishing on amazon?!

 

[BenPanced]

I'm guessing because you can publish with Amazon and/or Lulu for little or no money, they're vanity presses.