First things, first,
I completely respect where any writer is coming from regarding what publishers do and don't do. I get that this forum is a lovely place for writers to vent, complain, and point out the general garbage practices that publishers who aren't reputable adopt in order to scam authors out of their hard work. And certainly by all means people are allowed to have their opinions, good or bad, about any publisher. So I'm going to express mine here, and hopefully that's okay.
For starters, I've addressed everything involving Chicago poety and CJ Laity in my very first post. Sakura Publishing charged fees up until recently for services rendered. We often explained to authors up front what those costs were, but that didn't mean we would accept their manuscripts. CJ left that huge part out with our conversation, the part where I told him he would have to work with us a great deal to get his work up to par to even be accepted for publication, not just by our publishing house, but any publishing house. I was being a nice guy, thinking he was an actual author needing help. He instead just wanted to dive bomb us and paint us to look like money grubbers. Again, not going to go over this one anymore, it's a past issue for our company and a moot point overall. Why QOS on here is bringing this all up again after I've already discussed it, especially when it doesn't even apply to what we do anyhow currently, is just trying to drudge up anything negative about us that can be said at this point. Or at least, that is how I feel about it being brought up after I explained what happened there.
Regarding reading fees, yes, there are cases for and against it, some good, some bad. I had given QOS on here a few very highly reputable presses that charge reading fees. Sorry QOS, I don't have time to list the hundreds of presses that charge reading fees. And I have explained why we do this, simply that we are too small a press to do otherwise. And I am sure we will reach a point in a year or two where we are not going to have to charge a reading fee. But for now, we are, and that is the ONLY fee involved with our publishing house. It's a point of endless debate and one that I am not going to justify any further to anyone on here. It takes hours and hours to read every manuscript and give a response, and unlike the major pubs, we simply don't have the staff to do it at this time. I know as a whole the writing community doesn't accept this, but I would venture to say that most writers have never been on the other side of the publishing process either.
As for asking authors to buy books, you know, I did listen to QOS on that one. I took that verbiage out of our website. I don't want to give the wrong impression of why we wrote that and it's a hard one to get through to a lot of writers for some reason. Put it to you another way, as a writer, I am currently seeking out publication with various presses and have even been offered a few contracts for my writing. So far, I'm weighing options. But one thing I would have no problem doing no matter WHERE I end up, is buying copies of my book to spread around to everyone I could. I think that's a smart approach, especially when I have been building my author platform and want to reward those who have been helping me achieve my dream for some time now. I simply can't understand why this would makes our house a vanity press because we've suggested to writers that this would be a good idea marketing wise for themselves to consider. If a writer has sent me a great manuscript but tells me they are poorer than crap and can't afford to buy a single book, if the manuscript is amazing, I'm still going to publish it. But from a publisher's standpoint, especially a SMALL press like ours, it's really encouraging to know that the author has a marketing plan that will compliment what we do for them. Publishing is a business that has changed radically over the past ten years and this is one of those points that so many people who write hold onto an old way of thinking, i.e, that the author is supposed to just send in their manuscript, watch it get accepted, sit back and relax, and do nothing else to support their writing endeavor. I firmly believe that this would be a mistake for any author to really think this kind of thinking translates into selling their books. It rarely does.
Still, with the buying books issue, we don't profit off it one bit, as I've already explained on this thread. The money goes to us and we in turn give it to our printer and that's that. How we make a penny off that is beyond me. So encouraging our authors to help themselves isn't something I can see as being a negative.
Again, all interesting points on this thread and board. I can sense so much frustration with so many people on here and that is why I suppose absolute write is on page one of Google now for every publisher you google, perhaps as it should be. I just hope I've cleared up some things about our publishing house. And in case any of you were not keeping score here, Sakura Publishing WAS a vanity press, although one that didn't adhere to the shady pond scum practices of 98% of all vanities out there, but now Sakura Publishing has switched over to being a small indie press that doesn't charge any fees ONCE your manuscript has been accepted for publication. We do charge a reading fee, and a small one at that. We are encouraging any author to submit to us their best work, and we hope that said authors will have some kind of a marketing plan in place, whether that is to buy books, have a decent author platform in place, or anything else they can think of that makes sense in promoting their book. AND their marketing plan will not be the ONLY plan in place, as we will have one for them too.
Hopefully that works for some of you on here.