Schiffer Publishing Question

I debated on responding to this rant, but I will briefly. I am also an attorney and they did allow me to negotiate the contracts/royalty percentages for my second and third books. Did you even ask or try????? There is a way to go about such things in a non-ranting manner. I am sorry you are unhappy but they are far from scammers, never charged me a dime, and appear at all the major book fairs. My royalty statements do not reflect what you have claimed. But if anyone expects to get rich on art and craft books, that will not happen. My books are also sold on sites from Target to Walmart, etc. There is no publisher in the world that has not been sued many times over royalties, etc. Lawsuits happen. And I have no interest in political rants.

By the way, BBB accreditation/paid membership is optional and many businesses do not bother with it. The BBB wants to do social media postings, etc. on your behalf etc. Yet Schiffer is still ranked an A based on 11 factors. Paid BBB membership meant way more in pre-internet days.

Dear MsArtwriter...I have read through this thread and are apprehensive about Schiffer. I am in process of sending a Schiffer rep a sample Chapters pkg of my m-script per their instructions. I am a pretty pragmatic person and take a skeptics view of social media. I am unsure whether a Schiffer project is worth investing time in, even besides the money.

The content of the social media I place on the shelf for any later consideration. It is the quantity of posts only that raises some of this apprehension. Being an attorney you can understand what a reasoned way of thinking can represent. In your book ventures with Schiffer what service(s) did they offer and provide you with? A self-publisher can maneuver around a lot of the mechanical aspects such as printing, binding, cover graphics, etc. Marketing seems to be at the top of the vital categories for most any author. From my initial survey of the landscape of the publishing industry there seems to be no algorithm possible for making all the decisions to ensure success. That said what did Schiffer do in the marketing department for you?

I prefer POD

APH73 said:

Should I go with getting 1000 pre-orders? or go the POD route?

Thanks again

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I have published with traditional publishers but prefer POD. More efficient and is the wave of future. Good Luck!

Listen Here @MSArtwriter. via@RHertz

This is the first time I have checked back on my original Water Cooler post since i wrote it and was surprised to see your response??? I am Super busy working on my own new literary projects and securing author book rights on the cheap that if worthy can be developed into short films and movies. I represent and advise dozens of authors 11 of who have had the misfortune as first time authors to get their book published thru peter stiffer publishing. All of them are extremely disappointed and dismayed. Some are to the point whereas they would never write another book again. You obviously did not read my post or are sadly Confused, I am not a schiffer author or would ever be. I didn’t publish a book thru these Predatory Crooks much-less God Forbid a 2nd or a 3rd book. I am not sure what you being a “Lawyer” has to do with this topic at all? Lets be very clear about something Pete Schifter publishing company pays the Absolute Lowest royalties in the Book Industry period!! An author would be much better off doing POD Publish on Demand and selling and marketing their book one their own. They would make more profit on the sale of one privately sold copy than they will thru royalties from Stiffer publishing in a 6 month period. Schiffer is Hands down the Cheapest company in America when it comes to paying their authors for their titles. This is becoming a industry wide known Fact!!.

I don’t know what your royalty statements reflect I’m sure you like most of their authors have received no more than $10 to 100$ total in any 6 month royalty period. Look closely and you will see that your only making .25% - 3% on a Bogus made up sliding scale wholesale’s sold number that isn’t available to anyone and fluctuates from day to day, month to month. That is book sale accounting Price Fixing. It is also Highly illegal what they are doing. No one at stiffer publishing is receiving their contractually pre agreed upon 10% royalty rate and no one is receiving any full retail 10% payments. Authors have told me that when they have called their accounting department to ask about this they get the standard “Yes we pay full Retail royalty on all sales but No One has ever bought one from us” Simply Put the phone never rings here and we don’t know why?? This is an Author Accounting Scam and Simply put one Hell of a Story. They are all in house Liars trying to keep their little family jobs. This includes all of accounting department to pete himself.

I am an Author Advocate who wants to put potential authors on High Alert Not to Do Business with these Scheister’s because once you sign their Lame terms contract you are signing away all of your book rights to them and in the future, Pete Scheister publishing won’t tell you the real number of how many copies of your title they have printed or how many they have sold and finally will tell you that they are under No obligation to inform you if they have sold thru your books first run and reprinted a second run. They are Total Predatory Crooks who will only tell you to rely on their extremely suspect simplistic royalty statements that are fictional from the real sales numbers. Upon doing more research i have learned they have a NDA non disclosure agreement with their employees Never to reveal any accurate book sales sold info to their authors or face termination!! Your comment that they appear at all major book fairs means nothing to me because of course, A First Time Author Predatory book company would be at many book fairs looking for more newbie author victims. My question to you is…How would you know where or how often they appear at book fairs?? Thru that remark alone MSArtwriter I really suspect that you are a paid to troll schiffer employee. Its Not surprising that you would stoop that low!

Your comment about your books being sold at Walmart and Target is very misleading because on none of my contacts author royalty statements I have reviewed does it indicate any breakdown of any kind where copies that you have actually been paid for have been sold. That is a lie. At best you can Google and see what vendors may being trying to sell your book but will be totally kept in the dark if its actually happened. You also will Never be able to contact any vendor directly and get any book sales sold info because they have a direct binding agreement with the publisher and won’t reveal anything to you because you are only a 3rd or 4th party to the agreement entitled to Nothing, Zero information. Which is what your royalty checks will look like next to $$$Nothing. The publisher will not reveal their true relationships with their vendors especially the overseas ones rather they will say they have “No idea how those vendors come to have your book available or how they get them”. Thats Not True! Authors I know have asked these same questions to management and are told simply that “They have no idea how the Publishing and Book business operates”?? Then like a dirty politician they will skillfully Pivot off of that topic to something else.

I’m sure there are many authors who have wanted to sue Pete Schiffer publishing but can’t because as a literary agent myself i know that you have to be able to show a lawyer that you have at least $75,000 worth of non-royalty not paid damages and with them using bogus very low pre-fabricated royalty statements you really can’t. Plus you would have to pay very expensive upfront legal fees to a Pennsylvania publishing lawyer even for them to entertain the thought of suing schiffer starting out costing at least $5000 as a retainer. The biggest problem facing an author who wants to sue shiifter is that most publishing lawyers (95%) work for the publishing companies and you would have to sue them in Pennsylvania Federal Supreme trial court. Also the biggest deterrent schifter knows they have on their sides is the fact that if you sue them and Lose your responsible to pay their legal fees. So it a Lose Lose situation fraught with financial downside risk. As a schtiffter author you and your lawyer Will Never have Access to the your titles real book sales sold numbers, its Totally Scandalous how they operate!!

And lastly MSArtwriter only you as a schtiffter employee would know and promote what their A based on 11 factors rating is? Ranked A where?? Oh please you as well as anyone know best that the reason that they are not a member of the Better Business Bureau in PA or anywhere else in the world is because they are Very Deceptive Crooks and Author complaints can’t be posted against a publisher that is not a member. I hope this helps clear the air and helps let prospective authors know to spend the maximum amount of time researching how they plan on getting a book published as their first order of business. Trust in my third party author research on these folks, you will Thank me. Only the Facts here. Have a Great Holidays and Good luck. Take the POD route. Avoid Pete Schiffer Predatory Publishing company practices at all costs!!

Richard Hurts 730 said:

...I am Super busy working on my own new literary projects and securing author book rights on the cheap that if worthy can be developed into short films and movies...

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My emphasis.

What does this mean?

APH73 said:

Now I have a list of bussinesses that want to carry my book for thier stores. They have request samples to see which I dont have. Schiffer will publish with 1000 pre-order which I can get book need the samples what to do?

Can anyone lend some advice?

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Self publish. You already have the sales avenue, why sign over a chunk of your money to a publisher?

By the way, collectibles books simply don't sell well enough that most publishers will take them on. These books generally need higher cost printing, color, decent paper, etc. and mainstream book stores don't sell these and usually they end up as returns or remainders. There are exceptions, such as if you're the top curator of a Hulk Hogan memorabilia museum that's a world travel destination, but there are very few truly profitable and extremely few blockbuster sellers in this category.

Keep in mind that you will have significant costs in self publishing, producing images, proper layout, decent editing, impeccable indexing and cross references and so on. I deal with collecting and appraising firearms and, even though it's part of my profession, there are very few collectible firearms books I will buy. Especially since much of the information is now so freely available on the internet.

Jeff