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TM Publishing

HapiSofi

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Looks to me like they're an e-vanity publishing operation with little or no real expertise. Their section on what's been happening in the industry is entirely composed of stuff that's visible to consumers, but fails to mention various humongous recent changes known to people in the industry. Their "market tracking" section is so vague that it's arguably meaningless, but my guess is that they mean they're going to track their own sales. If so, it's a clueless claim, since everyone does that.

They say their authors get to choose which rights to reserve. This translates as "they aren't planning to lift a finger to help sell your books," because if they were, they'd care more about rights.

Another one of their talking points is that they righteously exclude sex and violence from their product line. While there are undoubtedly readers for whom this is a major consideration, there aren't very many of them. If they print that claim on their covers (I wouldn't know), it'll cost them more readers than it gains.

TM is also starting a magazine, which is way too ambitious and optimistic of them. I don't think they understand how different the magazine business is from electronic book publishing. Anyway, this magazine "will contain great fiction, nonfiction, illustration and artwork from our four imprints: Emerald Sky, Crimson Fog, Burgundy Grove, and Azure Valley." If those are book imprints, "too ambitious and optimistic" doesn't begin to cover the extent of their folly.

Summary: even if you like their business model, which I don't, they aren't offering any particular benefits you can't get from scores of other clueless e-publishing startups. If you want, you can keep an eye on them and see whether they're acquiring clues as they go along, but I'll frankly be surprised if they survive long enough for tracking them to yield meaningful results.
 
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EASchechter

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I'm not sure about the sex and violence costing them customers. We were just discussing this past weekend that one of the only Harlequin lines that is being expanded is their Inspirational line -- no sex and violence.
 

veinglory

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And yet they do not limit themselves to those genres by any means.

"Unfortunately, many books—even best sellers—are littered with graphic descriptions of sex and violence. In a busy world, a reader might spend a good portion of their reading time just looking for a good book to read!"

This is the point where I walk away from them. The blithe assumption that books including sex and or violence are bad.
 

NicoleJLeBoeuf

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I just stumbled across them via Duotrope's "What's New" section; Duotrope lists them as paying pro-rates.

What confused me -- knowing nothing about them yet -- was their short story submission guidelines page. The bit where they specify submitting a document that starts with a 500-word pitch of the manuscript, then an excerpt from the manuscript, THEN a basic overview of the piece, and only THEN the actual manuscript -- this sounds a lot like instructions borrowed from their book submissions page. It might be a quirky way to run their short fiction slush pile, OK, but no note excepting flash fiction from this process? Really?

My next step, of course, was to visit AW BR&BC to find out what else was known about them that mightn't show up on Duotrope. Sounds like my concerns are the least of the potential concerns.

*adopts wait-n-see policy regarding TM*
 

CaoPaux

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As of August 1:
TM Publishing is proud to release the first issue of its magazines! This first issue is somewhat shorter than normal, and has stories from Burgundy Grove and Emerald Sky magazines. Want to take a look? Sign into the website and then go to tmpublishing.com/current-issue.
 

CaoPaux

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Site's gone. Last FB activity coincides with last issue published in June '13.