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Whimsical Publications
- Thread starter Bushdoctor
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It's rarely a good sign when a POD house is founded as a self-publishing operation. Although the covers and editing are enough to warn me away, regardless.
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Whimsical Publishing
http://whimsicalpublications.com/
Does anyone have any dealings with this publishing company. It looks like a traditional company although I found this odd:
We require print on demand (paperback) and/or e-book publishing rights for a term of one year
if we accept your submission. Do not query if you cannot agree with this term.
http://whimsicalpublications.com/
Does anyone have any dealings with this publishing company. It looks like a traditional company although I found this odd:
We require print on demand (paperback) and/or e-book publishing rights for a term of one year
if we accept your submission. Do not query if you cannot agree with this term.
Several genres including poetry, the covers are average, no specifying who is behind the press, publish through Smashwords (though I'm not sure if that's good or bad), having to state that they're not a subsidy publisher...I don't know, at best I'd say wait and see.
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Looks just as amateurish as ever. Note that they haven't even bothered to edit the link to Borders out of their sidebar.
This August, 2011 post on G+ led me to Janet Durbin's LinkedIn.
Here's an interview from December of last year in which Janet talks about Whimsical and its beginnings: http://destinybooze.wordpress.com/2...nes-of-book-publisher-whimsical-publications/
[edit] Link fixed.
I didn't find the link on their website, but I stumbled upon their blogspot and Yahoo Group. No particularly insightful or useful information in either though.
Here's an interview from December of last year in which Janet talks about Whimsical and its beginnings: http://destinybooze.wordpress.com/2...nes-of-book-publisher-whimsical-publications/
[edit] Link fixed.
I didn't find the link on their website, but I stumbled upon their blogspot and Yahoo Group. No particularly insightful or useful information in either though.
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They Published an author with a name-or-pseudonym, Destiny Booze...
That's all I have to offer to this topic.
EDIT: I lied, I have more to add.
I looked at one of the repeat authors that they "published", Janet Durbin. Look on Amazon.com, I found one review for each book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/AKXS8P584T/?tag=absowrit-20
Whoa, February 8, 2007 J. England "Hard To Please Reader" (Florida)
Publisher: Whimsical Publications, LLC (January 5, 2007)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/A262GNMNIG/?tag=absowrit-20
December 25, 2005 By Mousey "Mouse" (Port St John, Fl. USA)
Publisher: Whimsical Publications, LLC (March 29, 2007)
You will notice that they were published four years ago and have not had much press... I've seen books vanity published 1 year ago with more press and reviews. Also you will note that one of the reviews was written in 2005, yet the book was published in 2007.
Disregarding how little sense that makes and how suspicious it may be, the reviews don't show jack that they understood what was written in the book. They look like placement reviews by an employee of the publishing company or the author herself to "promote" the book.
Hardly bodes well for the overall potential your book has being published by this company.
That's all I have to offer to this topic.
EDIT: I lied, I have more to add.
I looked at one of the repeat authors that they "published", Janet Durbin. Look on Amazon.com, I found one review for each book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/AKXS8P584T/?tag=absowrit-20
Whoa, February 8, 2007 J. England "Hard To Please Reader" (Florida)
Publisher: Whimsical Publications, LLC (January 5, 2007)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/A262GNMNIG/?tag=absowrit-20
December 25, 2005 By Mousey "Mouse" (Port St John, Fl. USA)
Publisher: Whimsical Publications, LLC (March 29, 2007)
You will notice that they were published four years ago and have not had much press... I've seen books vanity published 1 year ago with more press and reviews. Also you will note that one of the reviews was written in 2005, yet the book was published in 2007.
Disregarding how little sense that makes and how suspicious it may be, the reviews don't show jack that they understood what was written in the book. They look like placement reviews by an employee of the publishing company or the author herself to "promote" the book.
Hardly bodes well for the overall potential your book has being published by this company.
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That link doesn't work for me.
The LinkedIn is another example of spectacular unprofessionalism. Saying your very small small press "specializes in" pretty much every genre just makes you look silly.
The design looks horrible, the distribution nonexistent (I'd be interested to see how long it actually takes to get one of their books through Amazon or Barnes and Noble), the marketing nonexistent...
Why? Why would anyone query this press? Go to a bookstore or a library and query all the presses whose books (in the relevant genres) you see there first.
Anybody know if they have improved at all? A friend seems to be getting published with them and I wondered...
I've got a book out with them....
http://www.whimsicalpublications.com/Anthony_Miller/Seaweed.html
...wrote it for the crack really and then wondered if it was possible to sell it to anyone.
It's sold a couple of copies so far and that was as high as my sights were set.
Really, it's comedy and the thing with comedy is if you don't monetise it upfront
and just "put it out there" in some form then ... people can claim they are offended.
If they have to pay to read it people can still claim they are offended
but if they've paid to offend themselves it's more their own stupid fault.
As to marketing... I can do some of that myself ...what I really needed was someone to edit it, do a cover,
help remove the mechanical errors and that sort of thing. I tried self publishing my old poems
which had previously been published in 90s magazines as an exercise in seeing what's possible in createspace
and it was PAINFUL! ...so I thought if I'm going to do this I should find a publisher who wants to work with me
no matter how good or bad ...
I tried the bottom of the market - Damnation Books ... they said yes and I thought no and then they went bust.
I tried the top of the market - Samhain ... they said no and I said nothing and then they went bust.
I know it's not exactly Harper Collins but this is literary experimentation not genre fiction
and even if they only sell half a dozen copies it's more than I'd sell on my own.
I know this because I've tried self publishing in the past.
If you don't want to fail set the bar low - I did.
I mean I doubt a commercial publisher would be interested in such a crude bit of satire anyway...
...so what did I have to lose? And it's only 30,000 words ...not like I've written War and Peace
and then not made my money back on it.
I've found them fairly straightforward to deal with so far.
They don't pretend to be what they're not ...
http://www.whimsicalpublications.com/Anthony_Miller/Seaweed.html
...wrote it for the crack really and then wondered if it was possible to sell it to anyone.
It's sold a couple of copies so far and that was as high as my sights were set.
Really, it's comedy and the thing with comedy is if you don't monetise it upfront
and just "put it out there" in some form then ... people can claim they are offended.
If they have to pay to read it people can still claim they are offended
but if they've paid to offend themselves it's more their own stupid fault.
As to marketing... I can do some of that myself ...what I really needed was someone to edit it, do a cover,
help remove the mechanical errors and that sort of thing. I tried self publishing my old poems
which had previously been published in 90s magazines as an exercise in seeing what's possible in createspace
and it was PAINFUL! ...so I thought if I'm going to do this I should find a publisher who wants to work with me
no matter how good or bad ...
I tried the bottom of the market - Damnation Books ... they said yes and I thought no and then they went bust.
I tried the top of the market - Samhain ... they said no and I said nothing and then they went bust.
I know it's not exactly Harper Collins but this is literary experimentation not genre fiction
and even if they only sell half a dozen copies it's more than I'd sell on my own.
I know this because I've tried self publishing in the past.
If you don't want to fail set the bar low - I did.
I mean I doubt a commercial publisher would be interested in such a crude bit of satire anyway...
...so what did I have to lose? And it's only 30,000 words ...not like I've written War and Peace
and then not made my money back on it.
I've found them fairly straightforward to deal with so far.
They don't pretend to be what they're not ...
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