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[Publisher] Ether Books Ltd.

jerry phoenix

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heard about this new iphone app today. ether books will make available shortstories, articles and essays.

cant see how to submit to this 'publisher'

sir lord beatle Paul of mcCartney is number one in thier chart with an essay.
 

jerry phoenix

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nice rimshot.

i emailed etherbooks and asked about submissions. aparently you do not need to be dead. they work with agents, publishers and short story competitions to find their writers.
i was advised to use the writersworkshop http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/index.asp
to get professional help with my writing. they are a critiquing service and will critique for a fee, quite a large one it seems, almost 500quid for a 90k novel.

i dont know what writers workshop can offer me that my AW colleagues cant.
 
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brainstorm77

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nice rimshot.

i emailed etherbooks and asked about submissions. aparently you do not need to be dead. they work with agents, publishers and short story competitions to find their writers.
i was advised to use the writersworkshop http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/index.asp
to get professional help with my writing. they are a critiquing service and will critique for a fee, quite a large one it seems, almost 500quid for a 90k novel.

i dont know what writers workshop can offer me that my AW colleagues cant.


They referred you to a pay service? That seems kinda sketchy to me. I wonder what they get out of it?
 

jerry phoenix

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They referred you to a pay service? That seems kinda sketchy to me. I wonder what they get out of it?

makes me wonder too.

if i did pay someone to get my novel into shape and make it fit for publication could i call myself a writer?

i think i would rather succeed, or fail, due to my own efforts.
 

Terie

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They referred you to a pay service? That seems kinda sketchy to me. I wonder what they get out of it?

Just to clarify, the referral to an editing service isn't an automatic red flag in the UK as it is in the US. While I agree with Jerry's conclusion, and while I don't use the UK services and therefore don't know which ones are reputable and which ones aren't, it's important not to apply US practice outside the US. Including the automatic dismissal of editing services.

(Let me stress, this is in no way either an endorsement or a condemnation of a referral to this particular service. It is merely a comment on practices and how they differ from country to country.)
 

brainstorm77

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Just to clarify, the referral to an editing service isn't an automatic red flag in the UK as it is in the US. While I agree with Jerry's conclusion, and while I don't use the UK services and therefore don't know which ones are reputable and which ones aren't, it's important not to apply US practice outside the US. Including the automatic dismissal of editing services.

(Let me stress, this is in no way either an endorsement or a condemnation of a referral to this particular service. It is merely a comment on practices and how they differ from country to country.)

I guess it's the same in Canada as the USA. The only places i've ever heard do it are the vanity pubs who have some claim in it.
 

JulieB

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Terie popped in while I was composing a reply. What she said.

However, if the publisher recommends a service without even looking at the manuscript, that may be cause to be wary.
 

jerry phoenix

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i am sure they were trying to be helpful but i found it ever so slightly insulting. i am an aspiring writer with courage, a belief in my abilities and a desire to produce the best work i can. (cant spell though, and i dont use fullcaps when i dont have to.)

if i won the lottery i could hire the best editor in the land, take a wheel barrow full of notes, dump in on their doorstep and say, 'there is a novel in there. get it out for me'. would that make me a writer? would i be satisfied if i then sold several thousand books?

i think i made this point earlier.

anyway, rugby tonight and i will forget about my current draft, my submissions and lack of response to my query and watch fifteen a side batter seven bells out of each other.

life can be so simple.
 

Old Hack

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Ether now requires writers to join its community before submitting.

There is a £25 membership fee for this, which allows the writer to submit up to six pieces for publication--but there's no guarantee that any of those six pieces will be published.

From its website:

Use the submission form below to submit your short content to us. Our definition of short is 5,000 words or less and we welcome short stories, essays, poetry and flash fiction of any genre. We have also been known to publish stories longer than 5,000 words and serialised chapters of books, so if you have something brilliant you want to submit go ahead!
To submit work to us you must be an Ether Community member. Our membership fee is only £25, for up to 6 pieces of content, and this is our promise to you:

  1. We will let you know within three months of your submission being received by Ether if we are going to publish your content. We are going to try to publish a lot faster than that, but 3 months is our promise.
  2. If we don't think your content works for mobile we will tell you. We also have great links with editors who can be resourced via our writer community.
  3. We are working really hard to build our audience of mobile readers who love your content. It’s a new market and by working with Ether you are joining our Digital Revolution!

This is one revolution I will not be participating in.
 

nkkingston

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Essentially, it's a reading fee that doesn't guarentee acceptance. The community may have perks worth paying for, but it ideally shouldn't be linked with the submission process.
 

Buffysquirrel

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Back in November last year, Ether were looking for people to review their short stories. They called this role being an Ether iPhone App Evangelist. Yeah, okay. I was interested so I filled in an online form giving my personal email address. When they contacted me, they expressed interest in GUD, the magazine I edit for. I'm assuming I mentioned it on the form I filled in, as I do write reviews there, so it would have been part of my experience.

"Your WEB site looks fascinating. Can you tell me more about your company? Looks like Ether could be a channel to market for your writers."

I mulled over the possibility of replying pointing out that I had contacted them in my personal, not GUD editor, capacity, but then decided it wasn't worth the effort. They also have the only iPhone app I've ever installed that fundamentally did not work.
 
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emilycross

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They've changed their terms slightly

SPEED! We operate a 90 day feedback policy for free submissions but we can have your work published in 2 weeks with our new Silver Membership (see below for details).

Yeah, very suspicious of this so I'm passing.
 

Momento Mori

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Checked on Companies House and Ether Books Limited was incorporated in 2009. Two directors - Dr Michael Jones and Maureen Scott, who are each the owners of the company. Share capital is £40,000 according to the latest annual return.

No accounts have yet been filed for the company (which isn't unusual if it's not been trading for long and they did change their accounting reference date a couple of months ago). They are due to file accounts by 22 July however and I'd be interested to take a look at them to see how the company's been doing.

I see that there are a number of famous authors on their lists - including Toby Litt, Louis de Berniere and Hilary Mantel, which suggests they've got some kind of licensing arrangement in place.

However I don't like their 'silver track' method for consideration, mainly because it seems to be intended to make money from the impatient.

MM
 

CaoPaux

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Updating link: http://www.etherbooks.co.uk/

SPEED! We operate a 90 day feedback policy for free submissions but we can have your work published in 2 weeks with our new Silver Membership (see below for details).
Feedback, publishing, it's all the same ... :rolleyes:
 

CaoPaux

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Company put up for sale Oct '16 (Bookseller article). No word on it being bought, and site's gone. App to strike company off register filed last week.