WordTech Communications / CW Books / Word Press

[mdin]

http://www.wordtechcommunications.com

I haven't had any dealings with this company personally, and I've never heard of them until a couple days ago. They're a small poetry publisher who have published a few people I've seen before in my Poets and Writers magazine. I have every reason to believe they're perfectly upfront and honest with all their authors about everything.

But I think they're notable now, and I do think a warning is warranted because of what the co-owner of the publishing house pulled.

From http://www.wordtechcommunications.com/faq.html

[font=Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif]WordTech is composed of two individuals: Lori Jareo and Kevin Walzer. Lori manages the daily business and production operations, while Kevin manages the editorial selection process and book/web design.[/font]

If you haven't heard about it already, Lori Jareo is the author responsible for Another Hope, a fanfiction novel set in the Star Wars universe. She printed the book using the name of her publishing company. We discuss that here. Making Light talks about it as does Lee Goldberg.

They're aware of the controversy as they've changed around the urls of their website's internal pages to delink the traffic from all the blogs talking about it. (In fact, the publisher's website was down for a couple days. It just came back up. Her personal site is still down.)

As I said, for all I know WordTech is the greatest poetry publisher in the world. But I would definitely want to be aware of the controversy before I allowed them to publish something of mine the future.

 

[Tilly]

One of the weirdest aspects of all this is that, given her bio, Lori Jareo must have known what she was doing was horribly wrong. It would definitely make me scrutinize very closely any publisher with whom she was so heavily involved.

 

[JerseyGirl1962]

One of the weirdest aspects of all this is that, given her bio, Lori Jareo must have known what she was doing was horribly wrong. It would definitely make me scrutinize very closely any publisher with whom she was so heavily involved.

You'd think she did. If she truly wanted only friends and family to pick up the book, why didn't she just set up a Lulu account to do that? Heck, I'm not an editor, and even I knew about that. Doesn't take a degree, either, to figure that out - just reading the AW boards.

~Nancy

 

[CaoPaux]

Oh. My. God.

Yeah, "weapons-grade stupidity" sums it up nicely.

 

[Popeyesays]

You'd think she did. If she truly wanted only friends and family to pick up the book, why didn't she just set up a Lulu account to do that? Heck, I'm not an editor, and even I knew about that. Doesn't take a degree, either, to figure that out - just reading the AW boards.

~Nancy

The book is still up on Barnes and Noble as of this time, today.

Regards,
Scott

 

[HapiSofi]

Yeah. I read about her on Making Light, where there's a big discussion going on. CaoPaux is right on the button again; "weapons-grade stupidity" is the top-of-the-pops summary line for this incident.

 

[Euan H.]

Lori Jareo must have known what she was doing was horribly wrong.

Yes, but it's different when she's doing it. She means well, whereas those others are just doing it for the money.

 

[CaoPaux]

*snort* WordTech is a riot in and of itself. From their FAQ page:

Author Compensation and Support

What will I receive if I am published?

Published authors receive a 10% royalty on the net profits of their sales, payable annually, as well as five copies of their book. Finally, we provide each author with 10 review copies of the book to send to journals where you have published. We find that authors are generally better at placing their books for review in literary journals because they have already developed relationships with the journal editor.

Is there an author discount on the book?

Authors receive a 40% discount on their titles.

Will I receive royalties?

All WordTech authors receive a 10% royalty on the net profits of their book, paid annually. This figure excludes author sales (copies purchased by the author at the author discount). To calculate net profits, we determine the total revenue the book received in the past year; then we subtract costs incurred by the book, such as advertising, direct mail, and printing; and then we subtract any author sales. The final number is the basis for calculating the net profit. If the number shows a profit instead of a loss, the author will receive a check for 10 percent of that amount.

Do you nominate your books for literary prizes?

WordTech will support the author in any award nomination they pursue. Authors are responsible for identifying the awards, completing initial paperwork, and covering any required costs (submission fees, printing costs for submitted copies of title, postage).

 

[CaoPaux]

Imprint CustomWords is now CW Books. http://www.readcwbooks.com/

Other imprints: http://www.cherry-grove.com/, http://www.davidrobertbooks.com/, http://www.turningpointbooks.com/, http://www.word-press.com/, http://www.wordtechweb.com/.

 

[chuckbuk12345]

WordTech Communications

Hey all, I received an acceptance from this publisher for a book of poetry I read the brief thread about this company and didn't get a sense of what people who have published books or have experience in this think about them. It seems odd to me that 125 copies (approximately $1,500) would have to be purchased ahead of time. That said, poetry books I'm sure don't sell all that well in the first place so I can kind of understand this "partnership" with poets.

Anyone have anymore insight?

 

[Richard White]

No, no, no.

That's what we like to call a stealth vanity press. They lure you in acting like a real publisher, but then they start dropping things like "pre-sales" or "guaranteed sales" before your book comes out. In other words, YOU are their customer, not readers. Once they get your money, your usefulness to them is done (at least until they try to get you to let them "publish" (aka print) another book for you.

This is why researching agents and publishers before you submit anything to them is so important.

Run, do not walk, to the nearest exit.


Edit #1 - Welcome to Absolute Write, btw. I apologize for being remiss there.

Edit #2 - Be sure to check out Writer Beware and our blog

 

[chuckbuk12345]

Thank you so much for this. I'm new to this publishing thing but it did seem odd to me. I appreciate your help.

 

[Maryn]

Whew! You totally dodged a bullet there, chuckbuk12345. Glad you knew to ask.

Also, nice to meet you!

 

[Thedrellum]

No. Don't do it. Poetry doesn't usually make money, but most responsible poetry presses know that and have other means for getting support. They do not expect the author to buy copies or to do marketing or whatever.