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Flame Lily Books
- Thread starter LordMark
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Hi LordMark,
What do you think of this press? Even if you haven't had any experience with them, you made a list of red flags on another thread. Do you see any of those flags on this publisher's website? How do you like their covers or blurbs or books?
People in this forum are happy to help when someone has questions. But I think it will also help you if you learn how to evaluate the presses you're interested in. So, what do you think?
What do you think of this press? Even if you haven't had any experience with them, you made a list of red flags on another thread. Do you see any of those flags on this publisher's website? How do you like their covers or blurbs or books?
People in this forum are happy to help when someone has questions. But I think it will also help you if you learn how to evaluate the presses you're interested in. So, what do you think?
[FONT="]Judging publsiher’s websites is very difficult for me. Unless a publisher actually comes out and says they charge fees or will refer you to an editor, I can’t tell if it’s good or not. I can’t often see the book covers very well (and I’m colorblind) and I’m just not good at telling of they’re done well. And since I have to blow up the font on a webpage just to read the text, it goes all out of whack and that makes it difficult for me to judge if a website is good. The only thing I picked up on with regard to this publisher is that they have three books displayed, but I don’t know if that’s good or bad. That’s why I like to ask if anyone has had experience with them, because that’ll tell me if it’s legit or not. [/FONT]
[FONT="]It's a skill that, like writing, gets better the more you work at it.
Did you read the blurbs provided?
Even if the font on a publisher's website is difficult for you to read, have you tried going to Amazon, going to the Books page, selecting Advanced Search and putting the name of a publisher in to the relevant box? That way, you can not only read the blurbs but see if the books are available on Amazon and what the prices are like.
[/FONT]OK, they have three books displayed.
Do you think well-regarded, reputable publishers might have this number of books displayed on their websites?
Or to put it another way. If your car needed repairs, and if you knew a certain mechanic had worked on three cars before in his life, would you think that was a good or a bad thing?
It would be easy for me to say "Yeah, they're a great publisher" or "Run like the wind", but I think that if you're considering micropresses for your first book, it's good to learn ways to evaluate those for yourself as well as consulting this forum.
ETA : Even if you have to blow up the font on a webpage to read it, that doesn't affect mistakes in spelling, grammar and punctuation. It doesn't change the order of the words or what they're saying. If you find it difficult to read the words on a website like that of Flame Lily because of the background color, try copying and pasting the text into Word (use Paste Special, Unformatted Text) and then enlarging it to the point where you can read it.
After all, once you find a good publisher, you'll have to read their contract. You'll have to read multiple emails from your editor. There's a lot of reading in this business, period.
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I'm with the Queen here. It's easy to spot that this is a publisher to avoid, even if you don't look at the book covers. Here are a few more red flags for your list.
1) If a company's business is publishing books, their website should be well-written. Read Flame Lily's. Is the writing polished and free of punctuation, grammar and sentence construction errors? Or is it clunky and amateurish?
2) If a company doesn't want to deal with agents, it's usually because they don't want to negotiate or because they don't know how.
3) If a company doesn't list any of its principals, how do you know if they have any experience in publishing at all? *
4) When a company has books listed on its website which it did NOT publish (for example, George R.R. Martin's books), you have to wonder why.
* A little Google-fu reveals that Flame Lily's editor is one Tim Pagden. Tim Pagden's LinkedIn bio shows no editorial experience or training. (And incidentally, Bill Pagden, writing as Michael Gascoigne, wrote one of Flame Lily's three books. Perhaps that's coincidental, perhaps not.)
1) If a company's business is publishing books, their website should be well-written. Read Flame Lily's. Is the writing polished and free of punctuation, grammar and sentence construction errors? Or is it clunky and amateurish?
2) If a company doesn't want to deal with agents, it's usually because they don't want to negotiate or because they don't know how.
3) If a company doesn't list any of its principals, how do you know if they have any experience in publishing at all? *
4) When a company has books listed on its website which it did NOT publish (for example, George R.R. Martin's books), you have to wonder why.
* A little Google-fu reveals that Flame Lily's editor is one Tim Pagden. Tim Pagden's LinkedIn bio shows no editorial experience or training. (And incidentally, Bill Pagden, writing as Michael Gascoigne, wrote one of Flame Lily's three books. Perhaps that's coincidental, perhaps not.)
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Yep. One of the things a good, savvy agent (like mine) possesses is a finely tuned Bullshit-O-Meter. Sketchy houses know this, and that's one reason they refuse to work with them.
Anytime--anytime--a house puts something on their website about agents being a hindrance to a writer's career, they're wrong. Such verbiage should not only be ignored, it should send said writer running away like billy hell.
Anytime--anytime--a house puts something on their website about agents being a hindrance to a writer's career, they're wrong. Such verbiage should not only be ignored, it should send said writer running away like billy hell.
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Their own intro text did it for me:
"We are a small publisher and bring out only a few books every year. We want all our books to make very good reads, therefore we spend a lot of our own time, money and effort into bringing a book to life and we would like to enjoy what we do. For this reason we only publish books that we really like."
It is awkward, vapid, and seems to suggest that most publishers don't contribute time/money/effort to their books.
"We are a small publisher and bring out only a few books every year. We want all our books to make very good reads, therefore we spend a lot of our own time, money and effort into bringing a book to life and we would like to enjoy what we do. For this reason we only publish books that we really like."
It is awkward, vapid, and seems to suggest that most publishers don't contribute time/money/effort to their books.
Owner self-published a couple books last year, but site's been wiped and last non-owner/relative book was in '12 (also when FB ceased).