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Planettopia Publishing LLC / Big Bang Book Services

Torgo

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Offering publishing and also paid publishing services, and pitched rather squarely at authors. As a publisher, they say they pay royalties but no advance. What are you getting if they publish you? Well:

Planettopia Publishing will provide the following services to authors:

Cover reveal and one Blog tour per year.
Help with marketing (we will have packages available for authors to purchase for more advanced marketing)
We have a marketing specialist that works with each author.
Internet radio ad (worldwide advertising)
ISBN for your book/s

That strikes me as being next to nothing, so I'm sure it can't be an exhaustive list... can it? There's also a page of effusive praise from authors for one Wendy Chartier, who appears to be the principal.

Just going by the website, I don't think it'd be on my list of places to submit.
 

Marian Perera

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They offer "book services" and "literary management services" for authors who need agents. Their Facebook page has questions from people asking how much they charge for covers and editing.

Also from their Facebook page:

So, I've had to take a deep look at myself and everything... and, it is with deep sadness, that I must announce that this page-starting on November 1st (unless we've previously chatted)- will be shut down... A lot of personal troubles have arisen recently that prevent me from continuing my services. I hate that it has come to this, and I appreciate everyone who has used my services and such in the past. Like I said, if we have previously chatted and scheduled a date for editing or formatting, that still stands, but I will not be scheduling any others. I'm sorry, but it is what is for the best.
 
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kaitie

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Well, first glance it looks like an amateur group trying to take advantage of self-published authors.

Geared toward writers, not readers. The first line is that they're taking "indie" authors and turning them into published writers. Either they're intentionally using the lingo to appeal to that group, or they don't know enough about publishing to know that "indie" actually has a meaning, and it's not what they think it is.

Whose fee is based on a percentage of sales–truly earning your business.

On one hand, it sounds like what they might be saying is they only take money from sales, but what I'm hearing is "we charge you on the back end."
We have a marketing specialist that will help guide you along with us promoting you the best, most efficient ways possible.

Boy that is some funky wording.

Holy crap.
If you need an agent this service is also available.

Yeah. In spite of everything else, this would be one damned good reason to never submit here. They have no idea how publishing works. They're saying agents are "managers" whose job is to "maintain their social media networks and promote their novel."

They have a section for "publishing services," which implies that they don't do these things themselves. To their credit, it doesn't sound like they're offering package deals, but why would a publisher want to promote publishing services for other people? This sounds again too much like a major conflict of interest.

They also have a section called "reviews of our services." There's nothing there, so it's hard to know if it's just very poor title choice or if it's another sign that they're charging authors instead of acting as an actual publisher.

Looks like they take just about every genre, which is not a good thing. Publishers do better focusing on a few specific genres at first.

On their main page they say they do editing, but on their submissions page, they leave out editing and cover art. They say they do a "cover reveal," but not that they actual provide the art. Again, my guess is they're not providing these services and authors are expected to do it.

No information on royalties. They say they don't pay an advance and that they pay royalties, but it doesn't give amounts or even whether it's on net or cover. The way it's worded sounds to me like it could be either.

In the end, this doesn't sound like a good choice. The people running it are clearly amateur (no information given on that at all as far as I can see), just based on the misinformation, lack of information, and so on. I would never recommend an author go with anyone who has this little awareness of how publishing actually works.

It looks like their main selling point is that they're going to market for self-published authors. They then say they do this by doing things like having internet radio ads. I'm not really sure that's what I'd be looking for in terms of great marketing.

Oooh, here's what I was looking for. I knew I'd find it somewhere:

Help with marketing (we will have packages available for authors to purchase for more advanced marketing)

So right now they don't have packages, but they're going to start having them.

My take? It's someone who either being run by a self-published author who decided they now know about publishing so they're going to start a company (false assumption) or by yet another person who sees the increase in self-publishing as a good way to get money from authors.

So much about this one not only screams amateur hour, but also "looking to help you part with your money."

Never go with a publisher that requires payment, offers recommendations for editing services, claims to have literary agents working with them, or who even offers a package for a fee that is "optional" (as Tate has taken to doing lately). This publisher manages to hit pretty much every single bad idea mark there is.
 

triceretops

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They're saying agents are "managers" whose job is to "maintain their social media networks and promote their novel."

Now this is the last thing an agent would do. Preferably, not at all. They are in the business to sell client's books and that is just about it. I've heard this crap before--that's it's an agent's job to promo their authors and their work. Dear God, as if they haven't got enough to do, why would they even shoulder any type of work that was meant for a PR dept or publicity manager?

Just not happening. I've seen some agent's mention their client's books on Twitter and FB, but that's even a far stretch.

tri
 

Marian Perera

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Now I've had time to browse a little more around Planettopia's blog, there's some clunky writing:

We pride ourselves for giving the author more control.
Well, they realized a prevalent myth is that publishers don't allow authors any control over their work and so they're tapping into this. But it's "pride ourselves on", not "for".

And the testimonials are just sad to read. One author says,

Wendy is my friend first and my manager, publisher second, and that means the world to me.
That's a recipe for disaster. You only have to look at the Norilana Books thread to see what could happen when people treat their publisher as their close friend first and a business entity second.
 

CaoPaux

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