The Wild Wood Press

[Astyanax]

Hi AW watchdogs

www.wildwoodpress.com/wildwood.htm

Would like some opinions on this publisher. They operate out of the UK, and
publish both books and a magazine. I heard about them via a group email sent by my department at university. I sent (the magazine) two short stories and received an email within 24 hours, accepting both.

I was suspicious. The stories were "just what we are looking for" etc, but publication date could not be determined as yet, due to being overwhelmed with material and so forth. I would be advised.

I was told that, at that point, I should please email my postal address, and a contributor copy and cheque would be posted to me (I live in Australia). What is interesting is that I have not been asked to sign any contract, and it seems like a fairly standard and above-board arrangement ...

What has made me a bit more suspicious is that I decided to reply to that email, expressing joy etc, and supplying my postal address in advance. And in addition to this I politely asked "what would the amount of cheque payment be" as I thought this a reasonable thing to ask, considering that it had already been decided, by them, to publish me.

I have not recieved a reply ... That was almost a month ago.

Hence my suspicion - at the mere mention of a monetary amount I am to receive, nothing happens.

Ok, perhaps I am wrong in being suspicious. They may be legit, and taking their time to get back to me (with a firm publication date etc), but they might be clueless, or scammers too, dropping communication the moment I ask a question about the amount I will be getting paid.

Considering the very quick response to my submission, and their immediate acceptance and enthusiasm, I find it a little odd that a short reply can't be provided to a simple question about a small amount of money.

Any advice ???

 

[Unimportant]

It's a little suspicious that their website is entirely geared to selling editing and design services to authors; there's no mention of even trying to sell the magazine.

 

[Carmy]

I took a look out of curiosity.

Funny thing - I've seen that site before, but I don't think it was under that name. They don't tell you much about themselves, and that would make me hesitate to contact them or to submit.

 

[Momento Mori]

It seems to be one of those all things to all people type publications. The fact that they accept any kind of genre sets off alarm bells (and will take photos, cartoons and art work), as does the fact that there's no postal address provided on the site and the only phone number is for a mobile.

It's suss that they don't set out the rates paid to authors. I live in the south east of the UK and I've never seen the magazine in any shop or seen it delivered to any of my friends' houses and I note that there's no way to order a copy via the site itself (which is frankly bizarre). I also love the fact that whilst they say:

You are writing for ordinary people, not a literature exam!

But at the same time tell you to:

Think Maeve Binchy * Seamus Heaney * Carol Shields * Wilbur Smith * Larry McMurtry* Anita Desai

I wonder what some of those authors think about being described as non-literary ...

Personally, I'd email them to say that you're withdrawing your story.

 

[CaoPaux]

This looks to be the person behind it. Ever heard of her or seen her other work? http://www.lynnparr.co.uk/

 

[Astyanax]

Thanks for your comments. Sorry it's been a while since I've been in to AW. To update, I emailed them a few weeks before Christmas and advised that I was withdrawing my manuscript - I did not give a reason.

I heard absolutely nothing back from them.

And I reported back to my university (whom had originally circulated a call for submissions from the "magazine" to the CW dept) and they, in turn, recirculated a warning.

What I have learned from this is the importance in being alert, and in not being afraid to act decisively with scammers (or incompetents etc, whatever the case may be). A writer's ms and their reasonable career aspirations are valuable, and need to be protected as one would protect a child.

 

[victoriastrauss]

Their website seems to be dead.

I think it's more likely they weren't very competent than that they were scammers. Either way, though, it's a good idea NEVER to deal with any kind of publisher that doesn't offer a contract.

- Victoria