One of the largest difficulties in being a new author is getting someone to actually publish your work. I BEGAN by submitting my manuscript to 1st Books and getting soaked for $696 to "start the publication process". Funny thing, the first thing that 1st book did was print off my manuscript for Hidden Sanctuary and mail off a very poor copy that looked like it had run off on an old style mimeograph machine.
I was supposed to review it, make corrections and send it back. Which I did. I got a bill for an hour and a half of labor for a "manuscript editing" fee at $85.00 per hour. Oh yes, no further work would proceed until it was paid, regardless of the original $696 that I had ALREADY paid! I was forced to pay this ridiculous fee which I do not feel was earned because I had sent the updated manuscript WITH the correction and all they really needed to do was delete one file and put the new one in. Which they did not do because when I received my copies, they had printed the original manuscript with all of the errors still there.
When I complained about this, my "personal representative", Lucy Davis, suddenly refused to take my calls and I was transferred off to someone else. I had given the book title and publisher's name to a lot of my friends in hopes of sales. I later received a check for $1.45 for "royalties", the rate for a single book. Our church has several members who publish books so we had a book signing party. I didn't expect my mother to show up with her copy since she was halfway across the country at the time. But when sixteen other people showed up with books, I knew something was wrong.
Repeated request to 1st Books have gone ignored. I wrote and spoke to Brian Maddox at Author House and he also ducked my questions.in the original contract 1st Books agreed to take active promotional actions to promote the book. They have done nothing. Not one place theyu claim they sent press releases admit receiving them. Conveniently, for them, they altered the contracts shoretly after my book had been "published" and now refuse to honor the contract.
Thier loophole is that as 1st Books they might have been required to honor the contract, but as Author House, they now evidently feel that they don't have to honor the contract. But then they never did before. It's up to you, but under any name be it 1st Books or Author House, these people are unscrupulous, disreputable, unreliable and dishonest. I won't do anymore business with them and you shouldn't either!
Anybody out there know an HONEST publisher? I'm still looking because I have three manuscripts ready to go and nowhere to send them.By the way I contacted our local and state prosecutors and they refused assistance. I guess fraud and deception aren't worthy of their efforts unless it grabs big headlines. Funny thing, I thought I lived in America. Is THIS how Americans are supposed to treat other Americans? Decide for yourself!
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