I don't take it as a good sign that back in 2007, Carmy wrote:
So -- what do others feel about the publisher? http://www.twentyfirstcenturypublishers.com/
I see no reference to royalties, but there is a fee of 10 pounds for the author to find out what personal information they are holding on file. Huh?
Is this a new scam?
I don't know how new it is, but it's a scam. In fact, it's a scam just to ask people to register for your site in order to find out what personal information you have about them. Demanding a ten-pound fee for it is definitely over the line, and it's not the kind of scam that honest-but-clueless naifs stumble into. That's generally one for the professionals.
Moving on to the present day:
1. Their books have amateurish covers and editorial copy. I don't know who's responsible.
2. I've randomly sampled the first chapters of their novels. It was a lot like reading slush after the interns have removed the manuscripts written by semi-literates and schizophrenics: none of the books struck me as commercially publishable, but at least they were bad on their own terms.
One book had an opening sentence that was an unintentional oxymoron. Another book's opening line contained eleven exclamation points and one question mark. Another book had the line, "I can hear its plaintiff squeaks," on its first page. Another book was titled
Sincere male seeks love and someone to wash his underpants. I assume these books were not professionally edited. I not only assume but assert that they weren't professionally copyedited.
(Note: I chose to cite the foregoing examples because they're short. They don't adequately convey the breadth and depth of the bad writing Twenty First Century Publishers has made available to the public.)
3. The site seems to be exceptionally fond of author Saif Rahman. I have no idea why.
4. I went over to Amazon and had a look at the interior pages of some of their titles. They've got some strange wording on their copyright pages. To me, it looked like the fruit of conscientious hard work by an amateur.
5. Their typesetting and interior book design are not of professional quality.
Conclusion: I don't care whether they're scammers. The significant point is that they're inept.
