You know, I thought it was strange that they accepted mine because they looked like primarily romance. I mean, I do have romance in mine, but they said they were looking for YA too.

I looked them up on rip off report, but I'll definitely check out preditors and editors too! I already told myself I'm not signing anything until I have someone look over the contract (thankfully my husband did that for a living for a while and he knows some attorneys lol)

Posted: 16/04/2012 14:46:57

good luck but here is a link that you might find useful.

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233418

I don't want to be a kill joy but I do believe in taking precautions.

Posted: 16/04/2012 15:22:36

Don't worry, my husband was my kill joy lol. I'm slowly leaning toward not going with them, but I'm awfully worried that I'll pass this up and no one else will want it

Posted: 16/04/2012 17:24:19

Don't worry, my husband was my kill joy lol. I'm slowly leaning toward not going with them, but I'm awfully worried that I'll pass this up and no one else will want it

I'm with Dave. When something is too good to be true then it usually is. And never worry, there is no point. You either make the right decision in that moment or not. Either way, you deal with the consequences. You have to sift through many an ore to find your diamond. But seek carefully, for that diamond may not always be a flawless as it appears.

Never give up. One day, you will find the right agent, the right publisher and never look back.

Posted: 16/04/2012 17:31:40

Good news indeed. Congrats

Posted: 16/04/2012 17:34:42

Well done!!!

Posted: 16/04/2012 17:52:46

Sounds like good news it's just happened too quick.

Makes me wonder about the royalty figures. Standard is 15-20%.

My publisher gives 30% but no money up front. The thought that they offer 8% on paperback (which is the one that makes the most money) is a bit worrying. Paperback sales on my book 'The Cyclist' are crap. On Kindle I'm selling about 1500 a month, so a deal like they offered sounds not too bad. If they are POD (it costs very little for them to set it up) then each book would make them money and you get very little:
Book price £9.99
Amazon discount 40%
Cost of printing 25%
profit margin: 35% = £3.50
You get £0.28p for each copy sold.
Doesn't sound great to me. If the book really took off and was in all the Waterstones and sold 100,000 copies you would get: £28000. They make 12x what you do.

Kindle price: £3
Amazon take 30-70% (lets say £1).
Leaves £2 of which you get £.80.

That is good if you are selling a book like mine that's doing about 1500 a month = £1200 per month.

Sounds good but only if you sell big numbers on Kindle.

Like you say, get hubby to check out the small print.

Do they market your book? How will they do that?

There's a rat in there somewhere, but damned if I can figure it out!

Posted: 16/04/2012 17:57:34
Last Edit: 16/04/2012 17:59:18 by Fred Le Grand

Thanks Fred! I think I've decided I want to try some big names first. There's a division of penguin that accepts mail submissions without an agent, I just hate the idea of sending it in the mail haha.

@dave: I totally wish you were a publisher

@JD: you always know just what to say

Posted: 17/04/2012 11:55:00