If you’re submitting a concept, we’ll enroll you in one of our programs with a published author to help you through getting your work completed. With weekly check-ins and opportunities to have your work read by other authors, you’ll feel the creative vibe and put out your best work.
If you’re submitting a completed work, we’ll walk you through the editing and proofing process. Our editors and proofreaders will provide extensive feedback on your work, plus you’ll have the opportunity to have your project read by other published authors before moving on to the next phase!
We’ll publish your work on all major print and digital platforms, distribute to bookstores and libraries, record your audio book, and continue to market your book for years to come. All you have to do is sit back, relax, and collect your paychecks!
Royalty checks are sent to authors monthly as long as the sales threshold, usually around $100, is met.
Entrants will retain copyright in their submitted entries, however, by entering, all entrants license City Limits Publishing, LLC a worldwide royalty-free perpetual license to publish and use each entry in any and all media (including print and online) for publicity and news purposes. For novels and short plays, royalty agreements will be made with individual authors before publication. For short story, poetry, and short play entries, works will be included in anthology series and no royalties will be paid out to authors.
Our marketing team will meet with you to put together your marketing strategy, identify your target audience, and develop your publicity plans. We’ll handle everything in your launch, including helping you put together a lunch party and book signing!
Yeah, the "Independently Published" thing makes me think Amazon sees this as a self-publishing service, and not a publisher. But I am willing to hold off that conclusion until someone with more knowledge than I can confirm or clarify.
Interestingly enough, I assign an ISBN to all of my digital books and list in Amazon even though Amazon doesn't require it and they don't list that number. But for print, you can use your own or use theirs which is an actual ISBN assigned to that book but lists Independently Published. I just looked at one of City Limits and the 979 start on the ISBN for print is Amazon. Sorry, I know this is far afield of the publishing house.
I am wondering if publishing is free but other things they offer are not free? Like the mentoring by a published author etc. Without a profit center I am very skeptical about them soliciting people who just have a book "idea".
Were not just launching a platform to sell books. Anyone can do that. Were launching an organization with the tools and resources authors of all levels need to bring their work to the masses, including publishing, design, and writing workshops to help develop ideas and turn them into long-term income opportunities. Our one goal and mission is to help our writers find their voice.
The contest language isn't the only thing suspicious. One of their author photos is a stock photo, another is tied to an author with a different name and bio, and all the books published so far are by the same two people, either individually or as co-authors.
That is extremely odd. In checking out the bios once again, I noticed that "Cameron Jackson" is referred to as Clayton twice in his bio and once in his photo caption. "Clayton St. Andrews" is the name of the author with the stock photo.I gave Victoria Strauss a heads-up about this press, specifically about the rights grab language in their contest terms, and she had this to add to the conversation:
The contest language isn't the only thing suspicious. One of their author photos is a stock photo, another is tied to an author with a different name and bio, and all the books published so far are by the same two people, either individually or as co-authors.
That is extremely odd. In checking out the bios once again, I noticed that "Cameron Jackson" is referred to as Clayton twice in his bio and once in his photo caption. "Clayton St. Andrews" is the name of the author with the stock photo.
I wonder if it's actually one person with two pen names, or maybe just two completely made-up personas.
We do require you to have a work in progress before submitting your piece, and we expect it to be reasonably close to finished before submitting. However, if you’re just stuck on that last little piece of the puzzle, we’re happy to review your work and offer feedback and advice prior to entering into a publishing agreement. Again, this is at no cost to you.
We certainly hope this never happens, but it’s written into our contract that if City Limits Publishing were to ever close, publishing rights immediately terminate back to the author. Since we do not hold the copyright to any part of the piece, we don’t retain that if we close, either.
The only instance we would publish a piece without paying royalties is in the circumstance of short story and poetry contests and the anthologies produced with submissions. And even then, we require your permission to include it, so the choice is yours. Novels and theatrical pieces are exempt from this and always require a publishing agreement with a royalty payment contract in place. We would never publish without approval from any author.
If your monthly sales dips below $100, we wait to send your royalties until it’s reached $100. We do have a caveat to this in our contract that states we will never hold your royalties for more than six months regardless of the dollar amount below $100.
- Entrants will retain copyright in their submitted entries, however, by entering, all entrants grant City Limits Publishing, LLC the license to publish the title and/or quotes or excerpts from entries in any and all media (including print and online) for publicity and news purposes only.
There's still no staff list/bios in their "About Us" section.
Wow...it sure does look like a vanity press, although they state that "Fun Fact! There's no cost to publish your work!"
They appear to publish just about everything: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, plays, photography books, etc. So that's one red flag. There's no staff listed on the site, although the website emphasizes "teams" in their "Publishing Process" section ("our dedicated team of designers," "our marketing team"). Another red flag. I looked them up on LinkedIn and could find only one employee, who's listed as their Digital Marketing Director, but graduated in 2018 from Pampanga State Agricultural University with a BA in English, and has only held three jobs since then, none in trade publishing. In an article on the website's blog, she states that she and Janet McMahan started the press only a few months ago. Janet McMahan is one of the four authors listed on the site. She is a composer/lyricist of children's musicals. So no trade publishing experience there, either. A HUGE red flag.
The "publishing process" section of the website is troubling. Apparently they'll accept authors whose work is complete OR at the conceptual stage. From the website:
I find the whole thing curious. And then there's this (bolding mine):
I had a look at one of their titles, and it's available on Amazon, B&N, Books-A-Million and IndieBound, as well as via their website. Regardless of what their website says, I doubt they're able to get their books onto brick-and-mortar shelves. I expect those books are available to order from certain stores, which is a whole difference ballgame.
They also have some contests going - one of which is for novels, with the first, second and third place winners getting a cash prize ($500, $200, $100) plus a publishing contract, free copies of their book and an "author branding package." The rules for submission are strange, since there's talk of inclusion in an anthology (an anthology? of novels?) and the dates are off, but given the sloppiness of that particular section, I think they just did a cut-and-paste from their short-story contest and didn't proof the results. All their contests have entry fees, ranging from $10-$20. And - oh boy - in their terms and conditions for the contests, there's this language (again, bolding mine):
So - anyone who enters their contests has basically paid this press to publish their work, in perpetuity. (Think I'll drop a little note to Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware about this angle.)
My takeaway: signing with a brand-new publisher is sketchy enough, but all those red flags make me very, very nervous about the venture.
Yes, if you look at the more recent posts in the thread, you'll see commentary about CLP's collapse. I'm so sorry you were one of the victims.FYI to anyone wondering. City Limits (which is now closed) was not a vanity press, BUT the publisher was a crook. He stopped paying his staff in February, and many of his authors haven't seen a dime in royalties. My book published June 15th, and three weeks later, the publisher announced its closure. There are investigations going on, lawyers involved, and we're even trying to get the Nashville police involved so this crook can't get away with this crap. I now have to figure out what to do with my book. It's a mess. Oh, and Victoria Strauss did post about it, just as the excrement was starting to hit the fan.