Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Publishing

[Jakobkraft]

They've requested my full manuscript and I just wanted to know if anyone here had any dealings with them? Thanks in advance!

 

[triceretops]

Link?

ETA: Well, Duotrope says: Submission Openings and Closings
Fiction: Temporarily closed to fiction submissions. Opens to fiction submissions on Wednesday, August 01, 2012 (79.5 days from now).

Looks like short fiction with no payment.

 

[Jakobkraft]

Link?

ETA: Well, Duotrope says: Submission Openings and Closings
Fiction: Temporarily closed to fiction submissions. Opens to fiction submissions on Wednesday, August 01, 2012 (79.5 days from now).

Looks like short fiction with no payment.

Here is the link: http://www.strangeweirdandwonderful.com/
Apparently they're open to some fiction submissions, so I guess the site is wrong about that...?

 

[HoneyBadger]

This concerns me:

All submissions should be professionally edited before submitting. We are not English majors and will not spend a lot of time rewriting a submission which obviously hasn't been read for typo and grammatical errors.

 

[Jakobkraft]

This concerns me:

Yeah, I was a little taken aback by that as well.

 

[Unimportant]

SWW Publishing considers itself a small press dedicated to helping talented writers who are in the earlier stages of their writing careers. We are not a top tier publisher and we do not pretend to be.

For published pieces we take First Print and First Electronic Publishing Rights. Most publications will not publish pieces that have been published in print, eBook, or on the web, so for all intents and purposes after your work is published by us it can only be marketed as a reprint, which severely limits the number of markets that will accept it, and drastically reduces the pay rate it can receive.

For Novels and Short Story Collections we offer a percentage of royalties varying from 25% to 40%, depending on where the sale was made and if it was an electronic or hard copy sale.

For Anthologies, we pay a flat rate and contributor copies to each author.​

I couldn't find the flat rate they pay for anthos, though.​

 

[Gillhoughly]

All submissions should be professionally edited before submitting

This concerns me as well. It's perfectly DAFT.

It's best to only submit material that's been edited, proofed and polished within an inch of your life, but no editor expects a writer to pay for a pro edit prior to submission.

For one thing, at 30-40 bucks a page, the writer will lose money. Paying $600-800.00 to get an edit on 20-page story that may or may not be accepted is ridiculous.

The royalty payment of 25%-40% (I assume 25% for POD and 40% for e-sales) is about par for that course, but they've just over 4K visitors to their site and blog. Assuming that 10% buy a book (which is rather a LOT to expect) that's only 400 sales. Better than nothing, but not something to get excited about.

We are not English majors and will not spend a lot of time rewriting a submission which obviously hasn't been read for typo and grammatical errors.

Certainly editors don't have time to rewrite a submission, but doing a basic copy edit and proofreading is part of the job. They should know that.

If a story is too much of a mess you simply reject it, perhaps with a short note to the author to acquire Elements of Style and turn on the spell check option. I've done that more times than I can count.

Their blog's last entry is more than a month old. The one previous to that was from January 1st, and the one previous to THAT was from 2008. Four years. Really??

I would suggest backing away slowly and sub to a less weird venue, like Buzzy Mag.

They're new, but they have far more experience, a large market base from other sales, and an up-to-date website with stuff on it to inspire confidence, not caution. Payment is .05 a word, which I understand is pretty good for an emagazine.

http://buzzymag.com/

http://buzzymag.com/submissions/

FWIW, I did freelance work for them last year for their first issue and they pay promptly, have a pro attitude, and get the job done. Those who know me know just how hard it is to get a complement out of this grumpy gus.

I've done no work for them this year, as I'm just too danged busy, but will apply again when my time gets freed up.

 

[Jakobkraft]

This concerns me as well. It's perfectly DAFT.

It's best to only submit material that's been edited, proofed and polished within an inch of your life, but no editor expects a writer to pay for a pro edit prior to submission.

For one thing, at 30-40 bucks a page, the writer will lose money. Paying $600-800.00 to get an edit on 20-page story that may or may not be accepted is ridiculous.

The royalty payment of 25%-40% (I assume 25% for POD and 40% for e-sales) is about par for that course, but they've just over 4K visitors to their site and blog. Assuming that 10% buy a book (which is rather a LOT to expect) that's only 400 sales. Better than nothing, but not something to get excited about.

Certainly editors don't have time to rewrite a submission, but doing a basic copy edit and proofreading is part of the job. They should know that.

If a story is too much of a mess you simply reject it, perhaps with a short note to the author to acquire Elements of Style and turn on the spell check option. I've done that more times than I can count.

Their blog's last entry is more than a month old. The one previous to that was from January 1st, and the one previous to THAT was from 2008. Four years. Really??

I would suggest backing away slowly and sub to a less weird venue, like Buzzy Mag.

They're new, but they have far more experience, a large market base from other sales, and an up-to-date website with stuff on it to inspire confidence, not caution. Payment is .05 a word, which I understand is pretty good for an emagazine.

http://buzzymag.com/

http://buzzymag.com/submissions/

FWIW, I did freelance work for them last year for their first issue and they pay promptly, have a pro attitude, and get the job done. Those who know me know just how hard it is to get a complement out of this grumpy gus.

I've done no work for them this year, as I'm just too danged busy, but will apply again when my time gets freed up.

Thank you very much for all that -- I will back away very slowly then...

 

[James D. Macdonald]

Looks like amateur hour. There are hundreds of better markets.

 

[Gillhoughly]

Jakobfraft--You made my week! And welcome to AW!

 

[Todd Young]

If they're not offering editing, I don't see what benefit you'd gain from publishing with them. A cover, hopefully, and promotion? I doubt it.

 

[SWW Publishing]

SWW Publishing Facts...

Wow, it’s really amazing how negative people can get about you, from one word, but reading it over, I can see how some of you would feel the “professionally edited,” statement to be a little excessive.
Since publishing our first book, “A Big Book of Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Vol. I,” we have received dozens of short story and novel submissions and not one has been rejected for not being professionally edited.
In my experience, editing is one factor separating the big boys from the small shops like ourselves. Sharon Black and I are building this company from the ground up and as we start to publish material, we want to be viewed as a quality small press publisher. Each writer should want to feel this way also, I would think.
I will change our guidelines to read “edited as thoroughly as possible,” or something to that effect.
As for being open for submissions, Novels, and each anthology has its own open submission period. Some are closed now, others are open. Writing info sites like Ralans and Duotrope list us this way also.
And as for flat rates for anthology stories, the exact rate isn’t listed because we hope to raise this rate over time. Currently, we pay $25 for each story in an anthology. This is the minimum amount required by the Horror Writers of America to be considered a sale.
If anyone has a specific question, feel free to email me at any time [email protected].

Thanks!

D. L. Russell
Editor
Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Publishing

 

[HapiSofi]

Well, best of luck to you. Come back later and tell us how you're doing.

Quick question: is that A. K. Sykora you're publishing any relation to Will Sykora?

 

[SWW Publishing]

I'm not sure. She has never talked about him.

DLR

 

[G. Applejack]

I went back and forth about posting about this, but in the interest of giving people as much info as possible...

I received spam message from Sharon Black through a password locked critiquing site in late September. It was generic, with one line at the end saying that she liked my writing (though she gave no specifics) and rest telling me about her company and the anthologies coming up.

Not cool.

I can provide a copy of the message on request, but as it was through a private, password-locked site I didn't want to post it straight off. Nevertheless, it felt spammy and unprofessional.

I am not ashamed to say that the story of mine they liked so much (referenced in the title of the PM, not in the body, making me think they probably sent a lot of these messages) was not up to publishing standards. That was why I was getting it critiqued in the first place.

 

[CaoPaux]

Domain now reads:

As of 11/10/2014 Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Publishing will cease all operations. All rights to printed material will return to their original creators. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected]

Base site still up at: http://strangeweirdandwonderful.bravehost.com/3Site/BooksPage1.htm Last book published in '13, and all were issued through CreateSpace.

Mr. Russell's current venture is Black Books Publishing: http://www.blackbookspublishing.com/ (also CS).