PoD presses and quality-control...

NOTE: This is an opinion piece. Names have been left out to protect the (allegedly) guilty.

In the last few years, an amazing number of Print-on-Demand (PoD) small-presses have sprung up in the publishing world.

Some of these presses are run by very professional people who have an amazing level of talent when it comes to editing, layout and cover design. Some have a great deal of talent when it comes to sourcing other professionals with an amazing level of talent in editing, layout and cover design.
These presses run a very tight ship, they put out high quality perfect-bound paperbacks, eBooks and, sometimes, hardcovers. I have many of these books in my collection, and they are quality books, written by quality authors and edited by quality editors.
These presses pay their authors, give advances (admittedly, not as high as the bigger publishers, but still advances), and pay royalties for all sales. Sometimes, they put out 'for the love' anthologies (not very often), or publish free pdf downloads of selected short stories to get their name (and their authors' names) out there. There is nothing wrong with this. It's great exposure for all involved.
I have the highest respect for these people and the publishing houses they run. This new paradigm of PoD is giving authors a chance to get their names out there.
The publishing world is changing, and this is one of the biggest changes.

And then you have the other PoD presses. The ones that are run by authors who believe that they have an amazing level of talent when it comes to editing, layout and cover design. It's a shame they don't.
They're not editors, they're not cover artists and they're not layout artists. They're nothing but authors that have received too many rejections (that they feel aren't warranted) and have decided to self-publish. At the same time, they decided they'd do more than just self-publish: they decided they'd put out a submission call for other authors.
They put out 'for the love' anthologies all the time (and sometimes novels, if authors submit them); they don't pay authors, they don't give advances or even contributors' copies. Not often, anyway. The only ones who make money from their books are themselves.
The authors who trustingly submit to them, hoping for some exposure and to see their name in print, and the authors' families and friends, are the only real customers. These anthologies and novels are as close to vanity-publications as you can get without being vanity publications.
I don't think they do it with any real desire to deceive anyone. I don't think they realise that the books they release are sub-standard. Here is the problem. They really think they are putting out quality stuff.

I don't understand why they don't give royalties, nor why they don't give contributors' copies.
I do think they don't sell many books at all; only to the authors themselves, and the friends and families of the authors. If they did pay royalties, it wouldn't be much, but it'd be something.
Something is better than nothing. Something is something.

Sometimes, these presses move into the realm of more professional releases, and they start paying. More often than not, they don't. They keep on releasing 'for the love' anthologies until they run out of authors who want to submit.
Sadly, that never happens...

So, all you budding writers out there... have faith in your work, have faith in its strength and have faith in its ability to sell (yes, sell)  to someone who values it enough to at least pay you for it.
Your time is valuable, and if you don't value it enough to want something in return, then who will?

OzWriting Plus: A great post on self-publishing...

OzWriting Plus: A great post on self-publishing...

A great post on publishing vs self-publishing...

New post up at Hammered blog: Film shoot photos...

All the photos are up now at the link below. The film-shoot went, well, so keep an eye out for the finished trailer in a month or so...

http://beenhammered.blogspot.com/2011/07/book-trailer-video-shoot.html

Private Midnight by Kris Saknussemm

Private Midnight by Kris Saknussemm

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Detective Birch Ritter. Man, cop, Noir protagonist of Private Midnight.

Once started, this novel feels like a police-procedural, but it’s so much more than that. Multi-layered to begin with, it quickly takes on a dreamlike quality. Loaded with psychosexual tension and noir-metaphors, it’s very easy to read, and even easier to get lost in. Then, towards the end, it takes an even darker turn (if that’s possible); a turn no-one can see coming, yet seems a natural direction when it arrives.

The writing is very fluid, with a unique style that is pure Saknussemm. It’s filled with darkness and light, but the darkness seems darker than it ever is in real life... or is it? That’s for the reader to decide. More like a waking nightmare than anything else, it explores the darkness inherent in everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I recommend it highly.



Synopsis:

Detective Birch Ritter is a man on the edge of himself. His past is filled with secrets, shadows, guilt, and ghosts. Then a dubious police buddy he hasn't seen in a year introduces him to a mysterious woman who says her business is shadows. What she knows about what lies between the darkness and the light inside men is more than Ritter may want to find out, and much more than he can resist learning. It's said that to try to forget is to try to conceal, and concealing evidence is a crime. But maybe revelation is another kind of crime-against nature.

Kris Saknussemm, the widely acclaimed author of the sci-fi smash Zanesville, now delves into another genre, and another world-a world where even the sunlight is shadowy and where deviancy is the norm. Private Midnight is a journey into the seedy, sexy, underbelly of life-crime noir for a new generation.

BUY IT HERE FROM AMAZON!



View all my reviews

Ban Live Exports...

Not the usual sort of post, but important!

If we banned live exports, we could then organise a new industry here in Australia that slaughtered the animals to different culture's religious requirements.
The end result would be twofold: more Aussie jobs and no immoral practises performed on animals that WE are responsible for...
Think it over...
It's a win/win solution...