Trafford Publishing

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MickRooney

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A posting that took some effort and scores a direct hit. Thank you Hastingspress.

Trafford do what they do and advertise widely. They are good at what they do, they sussed out the in-house print deal long ago. Cut out the middle men as much as possible, charge as much as you can for as little as you offer, greater margin-greater profit. They sell the dream, not the book.

This is the rose-tinted-razor end of POD publishing. Scarey, and yet, exhillerating...somehow!
 
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hastingspress

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Cheers Mickey.

"They sell the dream, not the book."

Never a truer word spoken!

Their brochure is so captivating that they almost had me thinking "Why am I doing it myself when for just a few pounds they will take all the hard work off my hands ...." - and that was when I was researching just to criticise them!

Beguiling and dangerous, that's Trafford!

Helena
 

MickRooney

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Their brochure is so captivating

I got hold of their brochure when I was researching POD publishers. It plays very heavily on testimonials and glowing, smiling faces. Their service costs also come in at the high end, like their brochure! I would imagine that 90% of those who pay the fee are very green when it comes to the book publishing world.

Mick.
 

hastingspress

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Did you agree with my analysis that they suck you in on the £495 deal, then somewhere down the line you realise you need more services ... and more, and hey presto you have parted with £1,400?
 

hastingspress

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I cannot see how any novice author can get by on the £495 deal, because that requires them to have done all the typesetting etc themselves. If you are capable of doing that, you might as well buy some ISBNs and do the thing yourself. Helena
 

MickRooney

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I cannot see how any novice author can get by on the £495 deal, because that requires them to have done all the typesetting etc themselves. If you are capable of doing that, you might as well buy some ISBNs and do the thing yourself. Helena

I think this is the real difference with POD publishers as opposed to self-pub. That is the point. Look at UK POD's like Arima, they expect a fully finished PDF file polished and ready for publication. It's a case of 'what you see is what you get'. You do all the editing, the layout and deliver the polished file to go direct to print. Most of the basic packages for uk pod's, at the 400str mark, do little else but maybe provide a basic cover template and 'your pdf' file to their printer for publication. Thats when the marketing/distribution add-ons kick in, which takes the cost from 400str to 1000+str.

The reality is that even a copy edit on your ms is going to cost as much from a decent qualified editor free-lancing.

That perhaps is what Traditional Publishers will always hold over the heads of the self-pub or POD publishing market.

"We might publish some sh1t, but at least its well copy-written sh1t, and we'll market it really well, and if you don't buy it 'cos it's going to sell like hot cakes everywhere, then, then...well, you'll die or something!"

Think I'll stick with the rough and tumble of POD or self-pub, and unearth a gem.

Mick
 
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ALLWritety

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Not showing royalties

Hi Guys,

I have some proof that Trafford IS NOT Honest about their dealings with the royalties. The email below was sent to me today. I too am sure there are many more. If you are one of them or you suspect something please email me.

Thanks
Kev

The Email:

Hi Kevin,

Excuse the interruption, however, I was given your e-mail address from a gentleman in Seattle, Washington
who I have been in contact with regarding issues with Trafford Publishing. I found a "blog" that you had written
which expressed a sentiment that I think many are feeling but to unaware to address. Your blog related to the
lack of royalty reporting by Trafford and I am deep in the middle of trying to get them to address the same issue
with me. I have published two books with Trafford in the past 1 1/2 years and have yet to receive any royalties
or even reported sales from online booksellers like amazon and barnes and noble. As a marketing person by
profession, I purchased copies of my own books from these sites so that I could track sales, as well as
document orders not only for myself, but for my customers as well. Trafford has consistently given me the
"run around" about these orders and claims that they have not received the necessary information from the
book distributors in order for these sales to record. First they told me it takes 3 months, then 5 months and
now they will not respond to either my e-mails or my telephone voicemails. It was when I offered to give
them order numbers and documented proof of the sales that they stopped communicating altogether.

I do not feel that they are specifically targeting me...I believe this practice of not reporting online sales has been
going on for quite some time and either authors are not aware and just believe that their books are not selling
or are willing to play the game and just keep waiting for their royalties to magically appear. Anyway, that is
what is happening to me and I would be very interested in hearing your story as well. While it may feel like
we are alone in dealing with this obvious deception, I am confident that there are many others like us that need
to sound their voices loud and clear and hold Trafford accountable for their actions.
 

ALLWritety

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Did you agree with my analysis that they suck you in on the £495 deal, then somewhere down the line you realise you need more services ... and more, and hey presto you have parted with £1,400?

Hi Hastings,

If only i had known that BEFORE I signed with Trafford. I did some research but I guess it wasn't enough!

I want to Reiterate that PEOPLE SHOULD AVOID TRAFFORDS COMPLETELY.

KEV
 

Jill

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Does anyone have any experience of this company, please?
 

Jill

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Sorry, I don't see the connection here. Perhaps you can explain?
 

Jill

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Thanks Briann!
BTW I don't want the information for myself - a friend asked me if I knew of this company. I said, no, but I know where to find out!
 

robertmblevins

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Stop.

Stop NOW!

Pay a service like Trafford to 'publish' your book?

Seven hundred dollars? Ridiculous. The only one who makes any money is Trafford. If you want to self-publish your book, let's try a better example.

How about Lightning Source? Set up a bank account in the name of a publisher (you), even if it's 'Joe Citizen Books'. Then buy 10 isbns with your own prefix for $250. Drop another $120 or so on the upload fee for your book, assign that sucker one of the ISBN's, and then upload your cover and text files to them. They charge you 12 dollars a year to keep that book in the database.

Then...you can obtain say, a six-by-nine novel at around 170 pages for something like 3.25 a copy for single copies. Set a wholesale price for the book at LSI. Make it 50-55% (and no more) of what is referred to as 'normal retail' for that size/type book. Make sure you also upload your book info and thumbnails to google, barnes, amazon, booksurge, etc.

Book jobbers at Amazon and elsewhere will add your book to their lists because they can get it wholesale. LSI's 'New Release' newsletter reaches more than 10,000 outlets a month.

Since you can now obtain your book at less than wholesale from LSI, you can also market that book legitimately to bookstores.

I kind of speeded through this post, so I may have missed on a couple of things, but this process is much better than just forking over money to folks who are going to charge YOU more than wholesale just to get a copy of your own book. And bookstore sales? Forget it. Bookstores won't touch anything they can't get wholesale. Or very little.

I speak from experience here. Adventure Books of Seattle went through Lulu.com for three and a half years. Our books were all less than ten dollars, which made them cheaper than 90% of the other books at Lulu. Ours are pro-edited and formatted. Still...we sold not that many copies.

We are dumping Lulu and moving over to LSI. One book is there. The rest will follow soon, as well as our magazine. Our upcoming release isn't even being uploaded to Lulu this time. The only thing they are good for is ordering proof copies, IMHO. That's because they charge zero dollars to make changes, and LSI charges a bundle. Your files to LSI must be LETTER PERFECT. So...use Lulu to check proofs. You do this by selecting the 'Available Only To Me' option when publishing at Lulu, and then you order a copy to check for errors or image problems. If there are errors, fix them and reload and order another copy. When you get it right, contact your LSI rep (they assign someone to you) and get ready to upload your cover and text.

If you have a problem with Trafford, the best route to go, believe it or not...is to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. It's one of the few organizations dishonest publishers fear. The form is on their website.
 

Jill

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Stop.Pay a service like Trafford to 'publish' your book?

Thanks Robertm but I've no intention of paying anyone to publish my books - I expect them to pay me.

I'll pass on your comments to my friend who may just want to go down that route.
 
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