priceless1
Banned
The thing that bothers me most of all about this whole scenario is that Tate has the option of charging whenever they want to. "No policy" means that everything is open to debate and, dare I say it? Need? Let's say the cash flow is getting a bit low. Is this the time when a number of manuscripts are suddenly not "good enough" and get socked with a four grand "publishing" bill?“THERE IS NO INFO ABOUT YOUR FEES”.
Tate has indicated that they don’t have a set policy, until they read your manuscript. Then there is full disclosure, because your manuscript may be offered a different contract. And you DO NOT have to sign the contract if you do not want to.
When you go to the car lot there isn’t anything listed that tells one exactly what the final price is? It depends on what you have and want. But never the less the sign on the car says it yours for??? Then comes the details.
Not having pricing information pasted on the first page isn’t “Omitting “.
And since there is no policy, you're basically telling authors, "Okay, kiddies, this is a lottery. Some pay, some don't." Sorry, but I don't buy this for one minute because who always assumes all the risk? The author. Every. Single. Time.
In your car scenario, anyone with firing synapses knows this is an exchange of goods - money for a car. There are guarantees that accompany that sale. If the car craps out in X amount of time, the warranty kicks in. Where does Tate offer this guarantee? The best comparison I can equate with your scenario is that of a used car salesman where there are no guarantees that car won't blow up the minute the buyer drives it off the lot. And two guesses as to who keeps the money? Shared risk? Don't insult me.
With twelve award winning books and a great lineup of successful authors, I'd like to consider myself an expert. I have received emails from four Tate authors, and every one of them were far from poor or desperate. However, they were very upset at the lack of Tate's promise to spend thousands on book promotion. Each of these authors told me stories about how Tate's "marketing" person ignored their requests for information as to what Tate was doing to get their book into the marketplace.Please don’t catalog Tate authors as poor or desperate. Have you published anything? If you haven’t what makes you the expert here.
I assume you mean "complain." And I believe this thread is doing exactly what you suggest - educating. But I do have a complaint; I find it unseemly for Mr. Tate to basically run out on this thread and make others defend his company. It's cheap. I'm a publisher and know how busy our lives get, but if a publisher can't handle having his feet put to the fire and has others clean up his dirty work, then that person takes a serious nosedive in the credibility department.Educate don’t complaint.
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