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Guerrilla Independent

FluffBunny

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My God, this site is educational. After Googling 'Kopi Luwak' I'm more than ever convinced that some people have more money than sense. Cat crap coffee? :crazy:

No, no, no! Viverrid crap coffee. No cats involved, whomsoever. Personally, I prefer Raven's Brew's "Deadman's Reach" coffee. Much more reasonably priced. No viverrids or cats or iguanas and/or their crap involved, as far as I know.

And, yes, many thanks to Curiouserncuriouser for trying to find answers and for his general good humor. My advice to you, CnC, would be to not think of any work experience you get with GI as publishing experience. It's really not.
 

Marian Perera

starting over
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And, yes, many thanks to Curiouserncuriouser for trying to find answers and for his general good humor. My advice to you, CnC, would be to not think of any work experience you get with GI as publishing experience. It's really not.

Yes. "Everyone needs to start somewhere" doesn't necessarily mean "start deep below the bottom of the pile and try to dig your way up".
 

aliceshortcake

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Why didn't GI do some discreet market research before they launched their website? I've just re-read this thread from the beginning and it's terribly damaging to the company's credibility.
 

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.
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Why didn't GI do some discreet market research before they launched their website? I've just re-read this thread from the beginning and it's terribly damaging to the company's credibility.

This was a point I made many posts back. This thread is the third thing that comes up when you google the company.
 

Curiouserncuriouser

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So I finally got around to that meeting.

Hey guys! I've brought up all of your points with the floor, and after many a shouting match I've convinced them that we do need a change.
Seriously, I'm listening to you. The whole point is to make a service that you lovely chaps and chapettes would actually find worthwhile. So I hope the changes we're implementing are ones you'll deem favourable.

Now I apologise for not knowing my stuff earlier, but after a few meetings I've attained some modicum of clarity.

First off!
You're right. We're a self-publishing service, not a publishing house. The site's in the process of being reworded to reflect this more accurately.
I'm very sorry for any prior misinformation.

Next - price point.
While $349 does sound steep, I followed the leads you guys pointed out and checked out the competitors. Lulu offers typesetting for the same price (although I think they're offering 10% off it right now).
We're not trying to compete with free ebook publishing sites - we're offering a service that people can use if they want a professionally presented final product.

Fluffbunny pointed out that the free ISBN isn't something that everyone wants, as an ebook doesn't have to have one. So we'll remove it from the package, cut down the price and offer it as an option. Does that sound like a better idea?

The services.
Since we're not a publisher, we're not doing the editing. We're not affecting the content of your work, but we're here to make sure that the presentation is immaculate and professional.
Granted, we're considering hiring some experienced editors (like you mentioned, not just some intern with a lit minor) for the service later down the track if that's what folks want.

There are a handful of cover options - you can use your own, use our cover creator for $49 (which will feature templates and customisation options, currently in progress), or get one of our designers to create what you have in mind (which will cost more).

We'll push the epubs onto Apple and Amazon for a royalty fee - 7.5% is still much more reasonable than Lulu's 20%. We were tossing up the idea of a flat rate for putting it up instead of a royalty.
What do you reckon? Also, if you find these costs unfavourable, there's also the option to get the epub off us and go through the hoops of uploading it yourself. We're trying to be completely transparent with all the costs here, so you'll hopefully see it as a justified price point.

The rights.
We're just printing and helping writers self-publish, so the rights stick to the author entirely. We're not a publishing house, so this point is kind of moot anyway and I should shut up about it now.

I hope that covers most of the main issues brought up in this thread. If not, please feel free to ask me more. I really appreciate you guys so much for helping us clear out the kinks so far, and truly do hope that we can evolve it into a valuable service for writers everywhere.

Also, side note - for those who took the time to follow the breadcrumbs back to our house: What prompted you to do so? There's a debate that we can't settle at the moment.
Would putting a face on the site and writing staff bios make a difference to you? Does the fact that we're modern Melburnians make us more reputable or trustworthy than a Bangladeshi sweatshop - or is where we're from/who we are not really something you find important?

Thanks again!
 

Bond & King

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Curiousercuriouser, the bit I don't get is how a self-confessed novice like you is able to 'convince them (the company) that we do need change'. This suggests to me that your bosses are complete amateurs.

I certainly won't be using your services, as I'm sure no one who has read this thread will do.
 
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aliceshortcake

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The only books on GI's site are a 90-page novella and two short stories. If their lack of Amazon rankings and reviews are anything to go by they all sank without trace.
 

CaoPaux

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Yep. Was briefly at guerrillapublishingservices.com, but that's gone, too.