Beacon Publishing Group

Clicking "Books" takes you to Barnes & Noble's main page; clicking "Authors" takes you to Amazon's main page. Very strange. . . . ETA: From their News tab (a link to their blog), apparently they've been doing audiobooks since 2014. http://beaconpublishing.blogspot.com/2014/07/publishing-house-charles-river-editors.html

You're better off self-publishing than trying these clowns. Run away. Most new ones go belly up in less than a year.

But to AW. Members here can help you find a legitimate publisher!

I've been lurking here quite awhile, and learned a ton. I am fairly confident what your answers/advice will be, but I'm wondering if I am better off moving ahead with this publisher anyway.

I have received an offer from Beacon Publishing Group. Their contract has a clause which retains the right to recoup marketing and promotional costs before author royalties (on net) are paid. This allows them to keep an unspecified (at this time) amount of book profits, which is I guess a take on charging the author for services. There are no other up-front costs in the contract language. I have gained some experience on vanity publishers, but this particular publisher isn't so black and white to me.

My dilemma is this: It is my first novel (I have since finished another one which I think is much improved, and currently am peddling). After months of rejection and silence, I had shelved this one and focused on the new project. Now, many months later, I get an offer from a query l had sent in my last batch, last autumn. So from my point of view, even with a publisher who is straddling the blurry lines, what do I have to lose, if there are no costs out of my pocket? If I self-publish, I retain the rights, but must rely on my own reluctant method of marketing and distributing, which this publisher is contractually obliged to do.

On one hand, I can sign with a shady publisher, at no cost, and gain a publishing credit, and hopefully take a step in a writing career, and perhaps even profit if sales are good. On the other hand I can pay for self-publishing and slog through marketing/selling/promoting alone.

So, what am I missing? If I assume the novel is just not good enough to garner commercial attention in today's environment, what do I have to lose? Or do you say keep the faith, don't give in, keep it in a drawer and try again on some brighter tomorrow?

Superfluke said:

On one hand, I can sign with a shady publisher, at no cost, and gain a publishing credit, and hopefully take a step in a writing career, and perhaps even profit if sales are good. On the other hand I can pay for self-publishing and slog through marketing/selling/promoting alone.

So, what am I missing? If I assume the novel is just not good enough to garner commercial attention in today's environment, what do I have to lose? Or do you say keep the faith, don't give in, keep it in a drawer and try again on some brighter tomorrow?

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The first thing I'd say is this -- having your novel published by a "shady publisher" is not actually a publishing credit. In fact, it can be detrimental to your career. Debut novels are enticing to publishers. They're an opportunity to introduce the world to a new author (a nice hook to get attention with media and retailers). Once you publish a book, even if it only sells five copies, you no longer have the debut writer card in your pocket.

Real talk -- it isn't a step in a writing career and the odds of you making any money (especially with the way that clause is written) are somewhere between 0 and 0.01.

If you're a better writer now, then focus on the new material and forget about earlier, less good books. I know that might be tough on the ego, but that's the way it works. Having written a novel, even if nobody else reads it, is fine practice towards mastering the craft.

I also received a response to my inquiry from Beacon, and I wanted to find out if they were a good publisher. In response to the following concern ...

"Guarded" is probably a good approach. This is a relatively new publisher which is still doing some shady things on its website (such as displaying photos of Clive Barker and Matthew Modine on their "featured authors" page, as if those two publish with Beacon).

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I can verify that Beacon actually does represent these big-name authors (in audio books):

https://www.horrorsociety.com/2014/08/14/clive-barker-signs-beacon-audio-books/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R2D7510/?tag=absowrit-20

I spoke with one of their editors today, and he assured me that the authors receive gross, not net.

Excellent publisher! They do a great job! Fingers are crossed for you!

americanknight said:

I spoke with one of their editors today, and he assured me that the authors receive gross, not net.

Click to expand...

And yet an earlier poster said:

I have received an offer from Beacon Publishing Group. Their contract has a clause which retains the right to recoup marketing and promotional costs before author royalties (on net) are paid.

Click to expand...

Have they changed their contract? Or do they offer different contracts to different authors?

Superfluke said:

I've been lurking here quite awhile, and learned a ton. I am fairly confident what your answers/advice will be, but I'm wondering if I am better off moving ahead with this publisher anyway.

I have received an offer from Beacon Publishing Group. Their contract has a clause which retains the right to recoup marketing and promotional costs before author royalties (on net) are paid. This allows them to keep an unspecified (at this time) amount of book profits, which is I guess a take on charging the author for services. There are no other up-front costs in the contract language. I have gained some experience on vanity publishers, but this particular publisher isn't so black and white to me.

My dilemma is this: It is my first novel (I have since finished another one which I think is much improved, and currently am peddling). After months of rejection and silence, I had shelved this one and focused on the new project. Now, many months later, I get an offer from a query l had sent in my last batch, last autumn. So from my point of view, even with a publisher who is straddling the blurry lines, what do I have to lose, if there are no costs out of my pocket? If I self-publish, I retain the rights, but must rely on my own reluctant method of marketing and distributing, which this publisher is contractually obliged to do.

On one hand, I can sign with a shady publisher, at no cost, and gain a publishing credit, and hopefully take a step in a writing career, and perhaps even profit if sales are good. On the other hand I can pay for self-publishing and slog through marketing/selling/promoting alone.

So, what am I missing? If I assume the novel is just not good enough to garner commercial attention in today's environment, what do I have to lose? Or do you say keep the faith, don't give in, keep it in a drawer and try again on some brighter tomorrow?

Click to expand...

Missing quite a lot, I'm afraid, through no fault of your own. Here are a few items:

I haven't read the contract, obviously, but the clause you quote is a big red flag. The publisher can bundle anything into the vague category of "marketing and promotion" and confiscate most of your royalties for a very long time. The same applies to paying royalties based on net. Net is a slippery number; who's to say what they get to claim as expenses to be deducted from gross sales?

Saying the publisher is "contractually obliged to do marketing and distribution" means nothing except that they have to make the books available online or on demand (distribution) and send out a tweet once in a blue moon or include the title on their website ("marketing.")Unless they specify what exactly they're going to do for the book and put a dollar figure on it, you've got nothing. And it's hard to get such a commitment even from established publishers, unless you are already a bestselling writer.

You don't gain a publishing credit unless the publisher is legit and established. There are so many "assisted publishing" companies out there that agents and editors will assume yours is one of them. The publishing credit that matters most is impressive sales numbers that are verifiable, and that doesn't include give-aways.

Finally--let's assume your new book is much better. Agents evaluating the book won't have a first novel to sell---and publishable first novels are valuable commodities, because everyone loves "discovering" a great new voice. On the other hand, second novels by writers whose first books tanked are really tough sells. This is likely to play into agents' decisions about whether or not to offer representation, and editors' decisions about whether or not to buy.

Finally: Do you really want your first novel out there for anyone to pick up? You're learning as you write, as we all do. My advice would be to put that "training novel" aside for now, go on with your new book, and someday in the future, pull out the first ms. and see if you think it's salvageable. In such a case, I'll bet you end up thanking yourself for not letting it go out in the world in its original incarnation.

My 2 cents worth, anyway.

Does anyone know any more recent information about this company. I am interested in their young adult imprint, University Press.

I was curious about the formatting and what you thought was poor about it--MrsMig--and I went to look at a few of the YA titles.

Unless I'm reading the webpage wrong they've got five altogether but the first three (that's as far as I got) are all published prior to 2006.

I doubt they're actively publishing YA... ?

I agree.

For anyone wondering their books still read like trash.