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[Publisher] Immortal Works

popmuze

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Never heard of these guys, but just got a request on Pit Mad.
 

Thedrellum

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Adding link: Immortal Works

They look to be a Mormon-based company with relatively strict guidelines for content:

We are a full-service small press that specializes is genre fiction for those looking for an enthralling tale, but don’t want to have to worry about graphic violence, obscene language, or pornographic content. That doesn’t mean our titles don’t have dark villains, irreverent humor, or thrilling romance. It just means that you don’t have to hide our books from your mom, wife, and bishop.

They seem to be just starting, with no books for sale and the only samples written by the Managing Editor, Jason King. No one seems to have any experience in publishing. They say nothing about what they offer any prospective authors except in-house audio book production and cinematic book trailers. The same audio book sounds fine to me, but the book trailer is...not good.
 

mrsmig

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Weirdly, though, that book trailer states at the beginning that it's by Curiosity Quills. Seems odd to feature another publisher's work on your site.

(And yeah - it is, indeed, cringe-worthy.)
 
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Thedrellum

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I thought the same thing about the book trailer, i.e. Why Curiosity Quills? But the book it's for is written by Jason King, and I guess he produced the book trailer himself for his book?
 

AJ Flowers

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New publishers are a risk but can be golden opportunities. What I don't like is that they're not open about their newbie status, and call themselves a publishing "service." Does that mean they charge? Maybe not but I'm just not confident in the way they present themselves. (I also got a request from them for Pitmad.)
 

battlecat

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Jason King plus everyone I've seen listing themselves as acquisitions editors for Immortal Works appear to be current or former Curiosity Quills authors or editors. King was (is?) an acquisitions editor there. I submitted to CQ and was hoping to get pubbed by them, so I'll be following IW closely. Definitely interested to see the quality of work they end up putting out and if it's better/worse than CQ, which seemed to have great covers, decent marketing/exposure, but not always super fantastic editing.
 

Zombie Fraggle

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Weird juxtaposition between the super-cool kind of darkity-dark logo for the publisher name with the ragged infinity symbol, the splash page with that symbol on a blood-red book, and the strict call for submissions to be for general audiences. It's confusing.
 

WriterRoo

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Also here because of a request on #PitMad -- I'm considering the sub (was traveling during the actual #PitMad event, so subbing tonight/tomorrow) but am a little nervous that they're new and there isn't much out there.
 

Filigree

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Okay, I know Old Hack and some others are probably going to jump in on this. But here's my take: back away slowly and do your research first, on any publisher or agency!

Twitter pitch events have had some shining successes, but I've noticed in the last couple of years they are also infested with problematic, predatory, or just plain new companies requesting everything like crazy. This is only speed-dating, and it's your call to decide if any of the prospective companies are worth your time.

If someone is new and there isn't much out there about them - look harder, or give them a couple of years to sink or swim in the harsh reality of the marketplace.
 

Marissa D

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For some odd reason I'm getting #pit2pub Twitter favorites today for tweets from last September (I'm no longer doing Twitter pitch events), and was favorited by someone from these folks. Just out of curiosity, is there any further word on them? I like to keep an eye on what small publishers are up to. Their website is reasonably well written, but covers don't impress me, alas.
 

DrCarter2001

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Followup on Immortal Works

For some odd reason I'm getting #pit2pub Twitter favorites today for tweets from last September (I'm no longer doing Twitter pitch events), and was favorited by someone from these folks. Just out of curiosity, is there any further word on them? I like to keep an eye on what small publishers are up to. Their website is reasonably well written, but covers don't impress me, alas.

Marissa, what happened with your request by them? Did you find anything out or end up submitting?
I just got a request from #Adpit and trying to research them as well. Their published books don't have many reviews on GoodReads, and a few don't even have links.
 

zmethos

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Received a PitMad like from one of their editors, but it doesn't look like a good fit. (My book has some swears. An easy change, but still.) Anyway, I don't love their covers, and there's a lot of overlap between their staff and authors--that is, a lot of their staff appears to also be the writers of the books they publish. That always puts me off for some reason.

On the up side, they put their books on Audible.
 

victoriastrauss

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I just reviewed an Immortal Works contract, and it's pretty bad. Among other problems: an agent-of-record clause that empowers the agent in ways that may exceed the actual author-agent relationship; editing clauses that empower the publisher to edit and make abridgements without the author's consent (the author's only recourse is to walk away); vague language that makes it hard to figure out the meaning of some of the clauses, including the actual term of the contract; and language that empowers the publisher to bill the author for unspecified editing and production costs if the publisher decides the author is in breach or has missed a deadline. There's also language that suggests that they compensate "referral agents" for sending authors their way.

Immortal Works appears to have published just 10 books since its 2016 startup. This is a really, really slow publication schedule--kind of hard to understand, given that there's a pretty big staff for such a small press. The publishing schedule is also troublingly irregular, with several months' gap between releases in some cases. For instance, they released a book in November 2016, then nothing until March 2017, and then nothing until August. It's just not very professional.

The books' Amazon sales rankings are dire, especially the Kindle rankings. Doesn't look to me like a publisher that's putting a lot of effort into marketing and promotion.

- Victoria
 

Samsquanch

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Received a like from PitDark from them. Sent out a query after giving their website a quick glance, figuring what the hell. Received a request for a full, although after reading this I'm thinking I should back away now. My book also doesn't seem like it would be a good fit for them (darker themes not suitable for young teens) so I'm wondering why they would even request a full from me. Maybe they're very trigger-happy asking for fulls? Has anyone else had this expirence?
 

RDHoward

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Bad, bad editing, and even worse covers. Exclusive, LDS, and discriminatory. They treat their authors horribly, and are very dismissive. Run as far and as fast as you can, that's my advice.
 

RachelDacus

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RDHoward and Victoria Strauss, thanks for the reports. I just sent a full to editor Staci Olsen after a #PitDark request. Having had a horrible experience with Fiery Seas Publishing, which seems to be scamming authors out of their royalties, I'm going to stay away from these people too. Covers aren't good, and if contracts aren't and they're discriminatory, that's reason enough.
 

WendyN

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It may also be worth noting that there is quite a bit of overlap (6/20) between the listed authors and staff members, which often makes me wonder about potential conflicts of interest.
 

pseudowriter

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Received two likes from two different editors with this publisher for this past PitDark, but just scanning their website at the time, it seemed rather suspect. After reading Victoria's blurb above, I think I'll go with my gut on this one.

As always, thank you very much to everyone for their input. Appreciated.
 

Tom from UK

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I put something. on ASAWL and got a request for a partial from Immortal Works. Trouble is that it's a novella, it features Black Magic and (though this isn't explicit in the ASAWL pitch, which just refers to death) it's very gory. So that seems to break three of their submission guidelines. Just seems a very odd approach.
 

Normalman

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Got a pitmad like from them today. My book seems in line with their all ages goal so maybe not a bad fit. They seem to have quite a few more books out then the 10 Ms. Strauss mentioned last year. Has anyone had any direct experiences with them?
 

mafiaking1936

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I put something. on ASAWL and got a request for a partial from Immortal Works. Trouble is that it's a novella, it features Black Magic and (though this isn't explicit in the ASAWL pitch, which just refers to death) it's very gory. So that seems to break three of their submission guidelines. Just seems a very odd approach.

Yeah they also requested the full on my grimdark revenge fantasy during last year's PitMad. I laughed pretty hard when I found out what they were. Casting a very wide net I guess...
 

airandarkness

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Got a pitmad request from them today too, won't be following up. It's weird they're requesting so many dark reads, when supposedly that's not really their thing? My book isn't "dark" per se, but it's a zombie book and gets pretty gory.
 

laptopped

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I wish there had been more posts here when I was researching them so here goes. Royalties are always late and responses are so slow to emails. I didn't get my arc copy in time to do anything with it. It has just been frustration after frustration. I think the problem is nobody there works there full time and once a book is published it isn't a priority. Bottom line I won't be publishing my next book with them.