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Fiery Seas Publishing

elindsen

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A new publisher (ebook only) that opened May 1, 2014.

Fiery Seas Publishing

There are some things I want to point out about these guys. First, the...everything on their site is very copy and paste from other publishers. That's a red flag to me.

The bigger thing? It seems that the owners are the ones behind Entranced Publishing's saga (Tricia and Misty as said on FB). This is a major red flag because either they popped up this publisher over night, or they knew that Entranced was a scam and had their hands in it. If someone can find where the owners are not Tricia or Misty, I would love to be wrong on this. It seems they have authors already, too.

Their first book comes out in August.
 
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mrsmig

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I signed the first two books in my fantasy series with them back in July and thus far have been very happy with the experience. My first book isn't due out until August so I can't report on sales yet.
 

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I signed the first two books in my fantasy series with them back in July and thus far have been very happy with the experience. My first book isn't due out until August so I can't report on sales yet.


Thank you! Glad to hear! :)
 

writera

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Any updates on this publisher? And do they offer advances?
 

mrsmig

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Update: after announcing a romance imprint several months ago (their "Everlasting" line), the company now offers only ebook publishing contracts for new authors, with an option for paperbacks once a threshold of ebook sales is met.

Plans are in the works to initiate an erotica line.

They are currently closed to submissions.
 
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AW Admin

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Writer Beware on Fiery Seas Publishing

Inexperienced publishers are one of the pitfalls of the small press world. They are far more likely to have nonstandard business practices, issue poor contracts, get into financial and/or logistical trouble, and go out of business after just a few years--sometimes without canceling contracts and reverting rights, or paying money owed to authors and staff. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll be very familiar with such stories. If you're an author, you may well have personal experience.

So I wasn't terribly surprised when, in mid-2017, I began getting complaints about late royalty payments and poor communication at Fiery Seas. Just a trickle...but enough, and similar enough in the details, to spur concern.

The whole post is worth reading.
 

mrsmig

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I am a Fiery Seas author who was generally happy with my first two releases, but my third release in February 2018 did not go smoothly, and my most recent release (just last month) was an utter disaster.

While I am one of the few FSP authors who has received royalties (albeit incomplete and on an erratic schedule), I decided to part ways with the press earlier this month. My agency sent an official request for reversion on September 10th. It took a week before publisher Misty Williams responded, and while she made noises about understanding the decision and her willingness to work with us, she has not signed and returned the agreement my agency sent. In fact, there has been no further communication from her since her September 18th response.

I'm in contact with a number of other FSP authors, nearly all of whom have requested reversion of their rights and gotten wishy-washy responses from Ms. Williams - if they get any response at all.
 
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mrsmig

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An update: Ms. Williams has signed and returned the rights reversion agreement my agency sent, so my series will revert to me as scheduled on December 5th. As part of the agreement, she will give me my cover designs and formatting files, which will be a help if I end up self-publishing the books.

We'll see what actually happens come 12/5/18.
 

mrsmig

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I've heard from several sources that FSP announced its closure yesterday, via email. There's been no official statement yet, on their website or any of their social media platforms.

My rights officially reverted yesterday, and while I have a couple of outstanding issues still to be resolved, I feel very much like a dog that just missed getting its tail slammed in the door.
 
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mrsmig

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Their website is gone, as well as their Facebook and Twitter accounts. They're still listed at LinkedIn, but I expect that's just an oversight.
 

triceretops

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Wow, this closing was very much like the Entranced blowup. It came suddenly. I remember the Entranced contest--it was first place, $250, $100 second and $50 for third. Shockingly, I took the first place with my YA SF, but my agent and I declined the offer and went with a higher paying competitor. I swear, a short time after my contact with them, Entranced vanished without a trace. I don't think or remember them ever publishing a book, not even the runner-up winners. I was sad for them. Yet I would have sacrificed a book had I gone with them.
 
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mrsmig

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Coda to the Fiery Seas Publishing story: publisher Misty Williams has not paid out final quarter 2018 royalties to any of her authors, and may, indeed, owe many authors more than that. She has not responded to any emails or texts requesting those payments. I guess she's decided that because she closed the company at the beginning of the year, she's not obligated to pay her outstanding debts.

I sincerely hope that Ms. Williams never tries to start another business even remotely connected with publishing. If she does, there are a number of angry authors who will be happy to enlighten the naive about her shady practices.
 
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PandaMan

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Coda to the Fiery Seas Publishing story: publisher Misty Williams has not paid out final quarter 2018 royalties to any of her authors, and may, indeed, owe many authors more than that. She has not responded to any emails or texts requesting those payments. I guess she's decided that because she closed the company at the beginning of the year, she's not obligated to pay her outstanding debts.

I sincerely hope that Ms. Williams never tries to start another business even remotely connected with publishing. If she does, there are a number of angry authors who will be happy to enlighten the naive about her shady practices.

I'm so sorry to hear about this. That's heart breaking.
 

mrsmig

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Thanks, PandaMan.

Coincidentally, my agency informed me that after a couple of weeks of no response to their emails, last night Misty suddenly produced both a final royalty statement and payment of the royalties (we made her start paying via PayPal back in 2018, when late/missing royalty payments were being blamed on the USPS). It's a minuscule amount - maybe $35 - but it's in keeping with the minuscule amount of promo FSP did for my final release. Some other authors received final payments as well (in even smaller amounts) but some are still complaining of not being paid, and none of us can figure out her royalty statements. At least among the half-dozen authors I'm in contact with, opinion is that Misty has obfuscated the actual sales figures. Whether that was deliberate or simply ineptitude (my money's on the latter), I'm glad to be out of that mess. I'm thinking of writing a blog about my FSP experience, just as a cautionary tale.