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Firefly & Wisp Publishing
- Thread starter Springs
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Their reputation as being vultures speaks volumes. I would not submit a thing to them. The fact that their website is continuously changing domains, author's dropping from their lists, and the sheer arrogance of their 'SEO' tells me this is just another soon to fold company, whose main purpose is to rip of the very person they are meant to value and protect: the writer.
Hmmmmm....they sound fraudulent to me. Constantly changing to keep from getting caught, perhaps??
It's almost a year since I drew attention to the apparently unedited (indeed un-spellchecked) state of Brenda Hastings' novel Our Forbidden Love. Any reputable publisher would have gone through the file with a fine tooth comb and ensured that the errors - I counted well over 100 in the brief Amazon sample - were corrected. You will not be surprised to hear that the link to the Amazon Kindle version of the novel on the F&W website leads potential buyers to a text identical to the one I quoted in post 234.
run...don't walk!
Good Morning,
I am new to the water cooler. I saw Amberly's post, and I agree...this is a company to avoid at all costs. Frankly speaking, you would be better off continuing a dream of publishing your book than to ally yourself with this "company".
I actually have quite a bit of information regarding the joke that is Firefly & Wisp.
As I am posting under another name, I did reach out to a fairly regular poster on this thread. My hope is that they will double check the brief information I provided them to validate that I am who I say I am prior to a more detailed post about this "company". I am only posting under a different name in order to protect both friends, family, and fellow authors.
When I get a confirmation for the regular poster that they have validated who I am and that I in fact possess certain knowledge, I will be more than happy to expand on my warning about this company.
Good Morning,
I am new to the water cooler. I saw Amberly's post, and I agree...this is a company to avoid at all costs. Frankly speaking, you would be better off continuing a dream of publishing your book than to ally yourself with this "company".
I actually have quite a bit of information regarding the joke that is Firefly & Wisp.
As I am posting under another name, I did reach out to a fairly regular poster on this thread. My hope is that they will double check the brief information I provided them to validate that I am who I say I am prior to a more detailed post about this "company". I am only posting under a different name in order to protect both friends, family, and fellow authors.
When I get a confirmation for the regular poster that they have validated who I am and that I in fact possess certain knowledge, I will be more than happy to expand on my warning about this company.
I can confirm that UndercoverAuthor was published by F&W, and I look forward to hearing what she has to say.
Thank you Aliceshortcake. I appreciate the favor.
I spent over a year and a half with Firefly & Wisp...call me the eternal optimist as I waited for things to improve. Needless to say, they only devolved.
In July of 2012, this thread had posts regarding FF&W. And rightfully so, offering warnings based on red flags that others had seen. I can tell you with 100% certainty, that those red flags were only the tip of the iceberg.
After the posts on this thread were discovered by the person in charge at this "company", she posted on social media that they would be "closing their doors" and going out of business. Yes- because any reputable publishing company would closed own because, as it was stated, she was being "picked on." It was stated that Xchyler Publishing (see another thread here on the water cooler) would take over the contracts of any author wanting to pursue their career. Authors actually coddled her and she decided to stay open, saying that her company was "like family", and she opted to continue on with a caveat: NO AUTHOR AT FF&W WAS TO POST ON THIS THREAD OR ANY OTHER WITH DISPARAGING REMARKS.
However, my contract stated I was not permitted to say anything disparaging WHILE under contract. I am not under contract now.
You may be curious as to how I know the exact date of this supposed closing? Well, it was one of the FF&W authors RELEASE DAYS of their DEBUT NOVEL! July 19th, 2012.
Let's address the editing, shall we? The authors had been told repeatedly about someone named "Kinsey" who was an editor. However, at no time during my stint was a "Kinsey" ever credited on the edits as having done the work. However, both the owner and her husband were. There is NO editor within the company, merely the owner and her husband going over the books. Neither of these people are professional editors. In fact, one could look at the books they have "edited" and find countless basic mistakes in the texts. Take, as an example, Ms. Hastings' book. In no way was justice served to her book. If there were plot inconsistencies or egregious spelling errors, these should have been addressed to Ms. Hastings, and not just left during publishing. This technique reflect poorly on the company, and worse on the author.
The "editing process" itself is a joke. During my time, I had to request my edited work several times, only receiving the edited manuscript DAYS prior to the posted release date. When I asked for additional time (as I think we all can agree, release dates can be fluid) I was given a run around, told I could find a different publisher. This, I thought at the time, couldn't happen. Marketing had been done for the books (at my own expense...but I'll get to that) as well as growing a potential fan base of readers. A mistake I will not duplicate.
After spending a week plus on the edits and sending it back, the book was published a few days later. HOWEVER, it has recently come to my attention that changes were made AFTER my edits.p Arts of the story were changed or removed entirely WITHOUT my consent. These changes compromised the story.
Release parties fort his company are held on Facebook. However, the games they post are typically not suited for the novel genre. One author, Lisa Morgan, during the release party for her first book (a young adult fantasy romance) the company posted a "caption this" contest. The picture used was "furniture porn". While in another context, this could have been amusing, when marketing a book that is targeting a read audience of young adult, these captions are unacceptable. One caption (supplied by the owner's husband) was meant to be funny and used Lisa's mother int he caption. The "family like company" should have considered that Lisa's mother had passed away 5 months prior. the cation was not humorous.
prizes awarded during the parties (both ebooks and paperbacks) were NEVER sent out. This has been a common theme with FF&W. Authors have resorted to using their own money to right the wrongs this company has promised.
There is NO marketing division at FF&W. Marketing is done by the authors. While this is expected to a degree, when I say nothing is done to assist authors, I mean NOTHING. The owner would post suggested blog tour hosts and asking particular authors to check them out and see if they wanted to use them. However, no research was done to these tour hosts. There were suggestion for YA authors to use erotica blog tours, romance authors to use horror blogs, etc etc...you get the point. Blog tours are paid for by the author. There is no contribution made by FF&W. In fact, FF&W stated that they would "pay for tours when the books started to sell." It seems to me that marketing 101 says if no one knows about the book, how do you expect folks to buy them?
There is no training or education regarding marketing. Another example: during a recent outing to a convention, YA books were arranged on the table beside Erotica. While Erotica and YA have their respected places, how to you expect a parent to purchase a novel for their teen when placed beside suggestive covers of scantily clad women? It send the wrong message and will never generate decent sales figures.
During my stint. the only authors who had decent sales were Lisa Morgan and Lee Taylor. Mr. Rubas, who had commented previous on this thread regarding sales, actually stated in a conference call one day, referring to both Morgan and Taylor as "the cash cows of Firefly and Wisp."
Royalties: for all the editing "hard work", authors were paid 50% per ebook, $1.50 per paperback. While the 50% may in fact be above the industry standard (per my research) it seems high, given the lack of anything done by the company to market the author's work.
As far as the $1.50 goes? pfft...and that's answering it mildly. Paperbacks range between $7.00 (estimate) and as high as $12.99 each. The COST, however to create the books (via CreateSpace) is typically near the $5 mark. That's a sweet profit FF&W is making of their authors hard work.
And here's a kicker for you- I was part of a rather large, multi-author giveaway near the holidays. I contacted the owner, asking to get a few copies in paperback of MY OWN books. The owner was more than willing to do that- I just had to cover the cost of shipping (nearly $12.00...bo problem), the cost of the books 9let's say it was 2 books @ $5 each) but I was also charged a MARKUP! ON MY OWN BOOKS! Yes...the company made money off of me, the author, in spite of the fact that 1) I wrote the book, and 2) the company was going to be getting free publicity out of the deal. I was charged an addition $2.50 per book for my own work. talk about supporting your authors.
Royalty "reports" are copy/paste documents, sent in word or excel. Never, in all of my time with this company, did I ever see an actual sales report, though I requested them, stating I would be more than happy to get a redacted report to preserve the privacy of my fellow authors.
Royalties were never paid when they were contractually supposed to. They averaged months late, and often times were only paid after hounding the owner. She often spoke of her own financial issues, but when royalties were being paid to other authors outside of the company (who I maintain friendships with) somehow FF&W was the only one NOT getting paid (yet she was able to post photos of the neat things she'd just bought to support her own books, like 8 foot tall banners, or cool stuff she got for her campsite...)
To this point, I have never received a copy of my contract signed by the owner or anyone else with FF&W.
I have more, but I've made this particular post incredibly long already. I am more than happy to continue, however.
My hope in sharing this is to enlighten others out there with the dream of having a publishing career to avoid companies like this, lest their dreams be quashed. This was a lesson I learned the hard way, and am determined to help others avoid my mistakes.
I can also share about the intimidation tactics used, the lies told to authors,a s well as one little ace up my sleeve that I've been saving for a rainy day...
and hey! Look! Grey clouds!
UndercoverAuthor, that was simultaneously mind-boggling and totally unsurprising. Congratulations on escaping from the clutches of F&W, and good luck with your future career!
May I ask how Danielle Lee Zwissler explained away the exposure of her bogus publishing credits with Tor, Scholastic, Harlequin etc? Had I been an otherwise reasonably satisfied F&W author this alone would have been enough to destroy my confidence in the company.
May I ask how Danielle Lee Zwissler explained away the exposure of her bogus publishing credits with Tor, Scholastic, Harlequin etc? Had I been an otherwise reasonably satisfied F&W author this alone would have been enough to destroy my confidence in the company.
She never did. When those issues were brought up, she did the "duck and run" routine, stating that she didn't have to justify nor prove herself, and that it was her company.
Bare in mind- there is NOTHING off limits in her file folder of excuses. Just during the time I was with them, here is a "brief" collection of reasons why edits were not finished, royalties weren't paid, or why she hadn't responded to emails, messages, voice mails, or phone calls. And this list is sickening:
She was pregnant, she had a miscarriage, she broke her wrist (actually used several times,) she had cancer (pancreas once, kidney another, cervical another time,) her house was broken into (but all they stole was the laptop that had everyone's books on it and nothing else,) no less than 4 friends died...
And those are the off the top of my head excuses!
authors were never give 1099 forms, either. She had claimed that "she was taking care of it" but upon further research, firefly and wisp is not even a registered business in her state. No incarnation of her name, her husband's, or any variation of firefly and wisp are an official company (per the Secretary of state in Ohio, verified by 3 people, myself included, and easily verified by anyone wanting to contact the Secretary of States office.) No sales taxes were filed during any oft he conventions attended in Kenturcky (verified again) and it leads one to wonder if this has anything to do with potential financial gain and a one time pending foreclosure (also verifiable via her state and a matter of public record for anyone wanting to check)
Threats, of which I have copies of, were also made to an author who opted to leave the company. Intimidation tactics once again used to what I can only assume was an effort to retain that author, including but not limited to, threatening to contact the author's employer, statement of a supposed conversation that was (illegally) recorded, statements that authors had captured screen shots of supposed private company conversations (which is in direct violation to the owner's demand that nothing be spoken about outside of "the lounge", violating her own rule)
and she never filed copyrights with the Library of Congress for a single book she published, leading a few authors to be stuck in a piracy web that they're having trouble saving themselves from. (Luckily something I did on my own.)
just thought I would clarify an earlier post on the thread...
Lisa Morgan did not pay for press releases for her local papers.
I have spoken with her and per her information, she followed directions via an author's help website (like the one's who teach an author how to write query letters or offer advice to new authors) for how to write a press release. She then sent it to her local newspapers and media, one of which opted to set up an interview with her. As she grew up in a small town in New York State and her book was dedicated to one of her former teachers, that local paper did an over the phone interview with her that was then posted on the front page of the local paper.
One of those sort of small town things. Lisa was horrified to hear that someone thought she may have paid for publicity.
One would have thought her publisher would have written that sort of thing and then distributed it
Hmmmm....I wonder. If Firefly and Wisp really doesn't exist, does that mean all the authors and former authors are entitled all the money for the sales of their books?
UndercoverAuthor, you are amazing for coming forth and sharing your experience with that God awful company.
I know of a few author's who were signed to that company and I am also aware of the incredible tactics used to slander, discredit and sabotage one other author who had signed to them in early 2011. What Zwissler did to that author was disgusting and it hasn't gone unnoticed, not by a long shot.
And I can tell you another thing, that woman was never pregnant, or had cancer, or suffered deaths of close friends; if she did, she is one unlucky gal.
All in all, I do believe that she is indeed very seriously mentally ill.
I agree, maybe the IRS needs to be made aware of their actions.
I know of a few author's who were signed to that company and I am also aware of the incredible tactics used to slander, discredit and sabotage one other author who had signed to them in early 2011. What Zwissler did to that author was disgusting and it hasn't gone unnoticed, not by a long shot.
And I can tell you another thing, that woman was never pregnant, or had cancer, or suffered deaths of close friends; if she did, she is one unlucky gal.
All in all, I do believe that she is indeed very seriously mentally ill.
I agree, maybe the IRS needs to be made aware of their actions.
Another thing, Lee Taylor is no longer signed to them. It seems he and another of their 'signed' author's have formed their own publishing company.
Interesting...
Interesting...
I'm still shaking my head over the fact that Ms. Zwissler has her latest book, The Cowboy's Bride, marked as best selling author. What book was a best seller? The fake Harlequin book? Or may be she wrote a book called, How to con your authors. That woman has no class or morales what so ever!!!!!!
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One thing I do want to clarify is net on POD books, which would be good for anyone working with a publisher who handles paperbacks as POD.
The net via CreateSpace is not high. While cost is usually in the $5 range or so for a 300-pg book, Amazon takes a percentage of the list price as well. For a $7 book to net $1.50 for the author, I'd probably assume the publisher was taking a loss on the book.
The net via CreateSpace is not high. While cost is usually in the $5 range or so for a 300-pg book, Amazon takes a percentage of the list price as well. For a $7 book to net $1.50 for the author, I'd probably assume the publisher was taking a loss on the book.
I suppose it's just possible that by orchestrating a book-buying campaign amongst her friends Zwissler may have been able to propel one of her books to the top of an Amazon list for a while, a popular trick with self-pubbed authors (which is basically what she is). There's nothing wrong with referring to your book as an "Amazon bestseller", but giving the impression that it was featured in the New York Times/Sunday Times list - which is my definition of a bestseller - is more than a little dishonest.
Zwissler removed quite a bit of biographical info (including that she wrote as Emily Rodda, the pen name of a genuinely bestselling Australian author) soon after this thread began, but I remember her claiming that one of her books sold 2000 copies in a single month. We never found out which one it was and I doubt if we ever will.
I've just had a look at some of F&W's book trailers:
Undercoverauthor, have any of these trailers been shown on TV? And do the words "big screen" imply that these films have been shown in cinemas?
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I'm not sure if I've ever seen any of the trailers on TV, but that picture on the page you linked to made me giggle because I couldn't believe they're actually using something I KNEW didn't belong to them. (I took a screenshot in case they changed it after I post this.) This picture on their header is a Charr which if you play Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2 you'll know very well. It took me exactly 15 seconds to google the exact wallpaper. I'm sure the Guild Wars team didn't allow them to use their property for their business & wouldn't be too happy to learn of it either. Just another thing to add to the list for F&W.
Aha! I wondered if that artwork was stolen from a game or comic. It isn't the first time F&W have pulled this stunt, either - last year they used an image from the Diablo III game on their blog as a mock-up book cover.
Ah, yes. I remember the Diablo III cover. It just made me giggle because not only were they using something from a game again, but it was one that I know very well due to playing it with my hubby. (The charr's are one of my favorite characters btw.) Honesly if a publisher can't afford original artwork for their site & borrow *cough*steal*cough* from someone who worked hard to make something, it's not a publisher I'd feel comfortable going with. But I'd never go with F&W after seeing everything from this thread anyway. Yikes!
Why the hell do people do this? Thanks to Google Image Search and TinEye it takes seconds to discover the origin of stolen artwork. Perhaps a Guild Wars player could report this shameless plagiarism.
Back to blog tours:
Compare and contrast with F&W's website:
I was also amused by this:
It's telling that this comment appears in the marketing section of the website and doesn't refer to F&W's error-ridden books and misspelled cover blurbs!
Back to blog tours:
Compare and contrast with F&W's website:
I was also amused by this:
It's telling that this comment appears in the marketing section of the website and doesn't refer to F&W's error-ridden books and misspelled cover blurbs!
Tweet sent to the Guild Wars 2 team already. Not sure if they'll do anything, but at least I let them know about it.
As for the above quote that you quoted, it bugs me because there seems to be a word missing & it's not reading smoothly to me. Maybe it's because I'm tired, but shouldn't it be, "to do that we need to pay attention..." or am I needing more coffee?
And don't even get me started on the we pay/setup the blog tours when it's actually the authors who do that. That's just completely shady & a big red flag among a field full of red flags for F&W.
Well spotted! So much for paying attention, F&W...Mind you, I didn't notice the missing word either. Perhaps I need more coffee.