Curiosity Quills Press

Thank you for your candid response, Anthony! I'm sure that will be useful information for other writers here.

CQP

Hi Everyone. I actually joined today in response to this thread. I will preface my statements here with the fact that I am a brand new, fresh out of the box, reeking of 'new writer smell' kind of author. I have somehow (and I do mean that, as I have NO CLUE where they came from) written four novels in the past year and finally submitted my first query to CQP this past April. I am not a published author in any form (unless you count Molecular and Cellular Neurosciences, but that is a far cry from the YA/NA genre I am going for) nor am I employed or connected to anyone at CQP. I simply found their website, did some reading and followed instructions. Within two weeks I had a request for more chapters and now, eight weeks later, I am being offered a set of edits along with a revise and resubmit. The feedback I have received from my contact has been brief but all of it has been honest, supportive and most importantly, genuine. I can't say much else as I JUST got the e-mail this past Friday and am waiting on the editorial notes, but so far my experience with CQ has been nothing short of everything I hoped it would be. I have no idea where this may end but I do know that even the few comments I have gotten back have helped me push through those days when I questioned what I was doing and what gave me the right to think that I could.

Welcome to AW!

Please keep us updated. The more data points, the better.

Okay, so it appears some authors with CQP have posted here and read this thread. One thing I haven't noted yet is anyone saying anything about whether or not they are getting PAID. Can any of the authors from CQP address this? I've noted a lot of very passionate defenses of this company...but no one has mentioned if they've received a royalty check. I think that alone would settle a lot of the questions about CQP. From a strictly neutral POV, I've also noted that no one has dropped any complaints about being charged large amounts of money for services that weren't provided, or many of the other shenanigans we've seen orchestrated by other less than stellar actors in the field. So, at the moment, we're seeing a company without much in the way of a proven record that has not presented itself as professionally as it could in a perfect world, nor has it been represented as well as it might by outside parties, none of which make it a scam press but neither have they completely dispersed these concerns.

So...has anyone been paid by CQP? Can anyone step in and say yes?

They've requested chapters from me during Pitcharama, run by the Aussie owned and Read blog. One or more of the blog authors are published by them, I know Katie Teller is, she has books at other small presses too.

So far they're nice, but I have nothing to offer beyond that at this point. If I do, I will post more.

There are those associated with this company who don't want to poke their heads above the parapets, for fear of having it shot off.

All I can say is this company has a high staff turn over for a variety of reasons. They have also just had some of their authors break their contracts and walk.

I would suggest anyone thinking about signing with this company do their research. Look how their titles sell. Look at the reviews. For example, the ARC reviews on this CQ book are an eye opener:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18174503-demon-s-veil

Speak to several of their authors, ask if they are happy with communication, book sales and payments - ask if anyone has received money yet! Plus make sure you ask for direct access to authors, don't let the company censor author emails.

Their acquisition editor has just started a vanity press service, sanctioned by Curiosity Quills, which opens a whole 'nother can of worms...

In regards to the uncalled for, and badly-researched accusation, regarding the Acquisitions Manager at CQ and some sort of nonsense about a 'vanity press'…

My name is Andrew Buckley, I am a published author with CQ with one book released and a second coming out this Fall (and yes, I've been paid). In January of this year I accepted the part time contract position of Acquisitions Manager for CQ which I still hold today. I manage the acquisitions department and work with upper management to ensure quality control and brand consistency.

In July of this year, utilizing my 7 year background in marketing and promotions, I launched my own company; Scribe Publicity. Scribe is first and foremost a publicity agency that is not connected to CQ in any way nor does it conflict with anything they do. CQ very kindly allowed me to post a promotional blog post on their main site when we launched but Scribe operates independently and already has a growing number of clients.

Scribe Publicity also employs a number of contractors ranging from editors, to cover artists, to filmmakers to whom we refer clients, if they are in need of such services. I can't state anymore clearly: we are not a publisher, we do not publish any work. We promote work for people. Scribe is a Literary Publicity company, as clearly stated on all our documentation and website (www.scribepublicity.com).

Now, kindly close your can of worms and do something constructive. Maybe write a book? And then when you're ready to promote it, please feel free to drop us a line

Scribe Publicity said:

In regards to the uncalled for, and badly-researched accusation, regarding the Acquisitions Manager at CQ and some sort of nonsense about a 'vanity press'…

My name is Andrew Buckley, I am a published author with CQ with one book released and a second coming out this Fall (and yes, I've been paid). In January of this year I accepted the part time contract position of Acquisitions Manager for CQ which I still hold today. I manage the acquisitions department and work with upper management to ensure quality control and brand consistency.

In July of this year, utilizing my 7 year background in marketing and promotions, I launched my own company; Scribe Publicity. Scribe is first and foremost a publicity agency that is not connected to CQ in any way nor does it conflict with anything they do. CQ very kindly allowed me to post a promotional blog post on their main site when we launched but Scribe operates independently and already has a growing number of clients.

Scribe Publicity also employs a number of contractors ranging from editors, to cover artists, to filmmakers to whom we refer clients, if they are in need of such services. I can't state anymore clearly: we are not a publisher, we do not publish any work. We promote work for people. Scribe is a Literary Publicity company, as clearly stated on all our documentation and website (www.scribepublicity.com).

Now, kindly close your can of worms and do something constructive. Maybe write a book? And then when you're ready to promote it, please feel free to drop us a line

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Can you give a little more information about Scribe? What sort of media placements have you been able to secure? You mention NetGalley in the review section, do you currently have an account there or are you expecting authors to pick up the cost? What do you mean when you say you're going to send review copies to online bookstores for reviews? You've got a typo-- it should be "Publishers" Weekly. You didn't include Booklist in the list of publications you were sending to, what was the rationale behind the decision to exclude the fourth of the Big Four publishing trade reviewers?

Round Two said:

Can you give a little more information about Scribe? What sort of media placements have you been able to secure? You mention NetGalley in the review section, do you currently have an account there or are you expecting authors to pick up the cost? What do you mean when you say you're going to send review copies to online bookstores for reviews? You've got a typo-- it should be "Publishers" Weekly. You didn't include Booklist in the list of publications you were sending to, what was the rationale behind the decision to exclude the fourth of the Big Four publishing trade reviewers?

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In answer to your questions:
As we're a month old we haven't yet had a call from current clients for specific media placements. Due to my background in marketing and promotions I'm well versed in media placement, processes, and avenues. I look forward to working on media placements for our clients in the future. The cost of posting to a site like Netgalley is factored into the overall publicity cost. We don't send review copies to bookstores. We send them to reviewers who we then ask to post their reviews to online bookstores. Thanks, I've fixed the typo. The list is an example and not to be taken as an absolute. Booklist is also a site we take under consideration.

Hope this helps clarify things. I joined Absolute Write only to settle any false claims or accusations of conflicts of interest with CQ. I do find this site to be a little pretentious and I've noticed a number of trolls living under various bridges. I encourage and welcome all questions about Scribe and the services we offer. If there are any other questions please feel free to email me directly at [email protected]

Scribe Publicity said:

I do find this site to be a little pretentious and I've noticed a number of trolls living under various bridges.

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Out of curiosity, is this how you do publicity for your clients?

I have never seen someone come onto an online community, call it names, and have it come out well. It doesn't lend the name-caller credibility, or win them points with community members. It's rather like coming to someone's house and making slighting comments about the drapes.

Now, perhaps you do better by your clients than you've done by yourself thus far. I do hope so.

Update

One step closer...

I have an update to the post I made in June.

I received the notes from CQ and they were amazing! The editor made four clear and concise suggestions that made my novel that much stronger. Along with the notes came more praise for my work, which is something that I am willing to bet few of us hear very often, along with a willingness and desire to keep working with it (yet another rarity, based on the research I have done). This is my first novel and my first publisher, so I can't compare my experience with CQ to any other publishing house, but I can say that I have never felt anything but support for my work. That alone makes me sit with baited breath every morning when I check my email for CQ's decision.

GAdler said:

One step closer...

I have an update to the post I made in June.

I received the notes from CQ and they were amazing! The editor made four clear and concise suggestions that made my novel that much stronger. Along with the notes came more praise for my work, which is something that I am willing to bet few of us hear very often, along with a willingness and desire to keep working with it (yet another rarity, based on the research I have done). This is my first novel and my first publisher, so I can't compare my experience with CQ to any other publishing house, but I can say that I have never felt anything but support for my work. That alone makes me sit with baited breath every morning when I check my email for CQ's decision.

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Hi, GAdler! I have no connection to Curiosity Quills--in fact, I've never even submitted to them--so take this as one observer's possibly unfounded opinion. I just noticed you were new, to Absolute Write and to writing, so I thought I'd throw my two cents in and urge caution. It's wonderful that CQ has been supportive of you and your work; that's encouraging. But just remember to keep your wits about you.

I've been hanging around these forums for somewhere around four years, and I've seen a lot of writers burned by publishing start-ups, even the ones that had only the best of intentions. (If you want to see just how badly things can turn out, check out Iconic Publishing's thread.) CQ may be doing everything right, may be offering their authors the very best they can, but if you want to play the numbers, they likely won't survive the next few years. This is just an exceptionally hard industry for EVERYONE to break into: writers, agents, and even publishers.

There is no shame in not publishing your first manuscript--very few writers do--so don't feel like you have to jump at the first opportunity that presents itself. You'll have other chances. If you're like most of us, you write because you can't NOT write, because it's your way to make sense of the world around you. In other words, even if this story doesn't sell, you'll make plenty more.

I know you didn't solicit this advice, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt. Sometimes, I just can't help myself. The very best of luck to you and your manuscripts. I look forward to seeing them on the shelves someday.

Whoa...

Quite apart from the uncalled for attack from the CQ acquisitions editor/Scribe owner (isn't that great press for a business?) I still haven't seen anyone involved with the company address:

High staff turnover

Writers who have walked, and

Is anyone actually getting paid?

Scribe Publicity said:

I do find this site to be a little pretentious and I've noticed a number of trolls living under various bridges.

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Um, yeah. Nice to meet you, too?

GAdler said:

Along with the notes came more praise for my work, which is something that I am willing to bet few of us hear very often, along with a willingness and desire to keep working with it (yet another rarity, based on the research I have done).

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The rarity of acceptances is based largely on where you submit. If I only submit to places that accept less than 1% of what they receive, I wouldn't expect to hear good news nearly as often as if I only submitted to places that accepted more than half of all submissions.

The big question is, where in that spectrum is CQP? I don't know.

Proceeding with Optimistic Caution

I participated in the Twitter #pitchmas in July, and received a request for first a partial, then a full, from an editor at Curiosity Quills.

Doing my own research, I contacted one of their authors, who is a friend of a friend. She released her first book with CQ in January and has been happy working with them, and has been paid. I also read her book, which I gave 4 of 5 stars. She is releasing a second book with them within the next 6 months.

CQ is listed with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators as a PAL publisher, not that it is a stamp of approval, but CQ has proven to at least SCBWI they are not a vanity press. They have only been around for two years, and have released approximately 60 books, according to Amazon, which, to me, seems reasonable for a new, small press.

I agree with calls to proceed with caution, and I would like to hear from more authors, but if I got an offer from Curiosity Quills, I would certainly entertain it.

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and advice. Yes, even for your words of caution and patience. I sometimes laugh when I read my few posts here, as they smell faintly reminiscent of the youthful exuberance I felt the night before my first day of university (ouch, I just realised that was a quarter century ago!). Your words of caution remind me how I felt the day after I got my first set of mid-term grades.

I literally began waking up in the middle of the night a year and a half ago and just started vomiting out a couple of thousand word a day. To date, I am three-quarters of the way through my fifth full novel and there seems to be no end in sight! I keep trying to convince myself of the advice I give my daughters when they do me the honour of asking for it, namely, that everyone has different opinions of a situation based on their prior experiences. You can ask people for what they think, but that only goes so far. Each situation is unique. Ultimately you do your research so you can be as informed as possible, but life is about taking chances and you can never really know anything for certain. The best thing to do is buckle up and enjoy the ride!

As I write this post a question comes to mind that might help clear the pixie dust and sense of anxiety that I feel. I have read hundreds of websites, Facebook posts and Twitter feeds. I now dream in hash-tags and have yet to figure out why I find the term itself so funny, but so help me, I laugh each time I hear it! A common comment that I have noticed from many authors, both the new recruits and the veterans, is that having your manuscript accepted by a publishing house is like receiving mana from heaven! I have received one rejection from an agent and a half dozen or so no-replies from other publishing houses. I know that this is common and that, at times, patience for an author only comes with the tilt of a wine glass. The blogosphere then goes on to talk about the elation you feel at that first acceptance letter and how rare it is to receive it. As a newbie, if I am so graced as to get a publisher's attention, let alone acceptance, how do I question that in any way? To me, it is analogous to when newly drafted pro-athletes refuse to play for their draft team, for whatever reason. Shouldn't a rookie be honoured to play at all? Who is s/he to question if it is a large market franchise or a small one?

GAdler said:

A common comment that I have noticed from many authors, both the new recruits and the veterans, is that having your manuscript accepted by a publishing house is like receiving mana from heaven! I have received one rejection from an agent and a half dozen or so no-replies from other publishing houses. I know that this is common and that, at times, patience for an author only comes with the tilt of a wine glass. The blogosphere then goes on to talk about the elation you feel at that first acceptance letter and how rare it is to receive it. As a newbie, if I am so graced as to get a publisher's attention, let alone acceptance, how do I question that in any way? To me, it is analogous to when newly drafted pro-athletes refuse to play for their draft team, for whatever reason. Shouldn't a rookie be honoured to play at all? Who is s/he to question if it is a large market franchise or a small one?

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The thing is, anyone can call themselves a publisher. It's not a title conferred from on high. There's no vetting mechanism. Just hang out your shingle and you're a publisher. That doesn't make everyone who takes the title a good publisher. It doesn't even make them competent. So you should question, and investigate, and exercise judgment, just as you would when you enter any business relationship. Do you buy the first house you see? The first car, even if it's making funny noises and smoking when you test drive it?

Let's go with your athlete analogy. Suppose you're a fairly good baseball player. Led the varsity team in high school, good stats. A minor-league coach offers you a chance to be on his team. Do you take it?

You look deeper and ask around, right? So what if it turns out this coach isn't doing a very good job? He's recruiting way too many athletes to pay good attention to them. His players get injured a lot more than other players. They're not winning games an awful lot. Actually, seat sales are down so much that players are having to buy their own equipment and chip in on his salary. And he's making players post flyers for upcoming games and hustle radio spots as well.

One of the people you're talking to says, "Kid, here's the thing. If you go with this guy, this is all you're going to be. He's not going to teach you how to hit the ball further, because that's going to take time he doesn't have. He can't teach you base tactics because he doesn't know them. You might improve some on your own, but you won't have much time for that because you're going to need a day job to pay him. And all that flyer-posting eats time too."

"Now maybe you're not the next Jose Canseco. But maybe you are, or maybe if you worked at it, aimed high, and risked a few rejections, you could be. Or maybe, if you're not, you could still do better than this guy. Maybe you'll find a team that plays to your home audience, and you'll take the smaller salary for that. Or you don't mind posting your own flyers. But you'll never know if you take the first offer that comes to you. You should give yourself the chance to be better than that."

The minor-league coach I've described is pretty much every questionable publisher rolled into one person: imprints where the editors don't have time or skill enough to improve the books they work with, vanity presses, places that demand so much publicity from authors that it eats into writing time. I'm not saying Curiosity Quills is all of these things, but there are red flags about their "coaching" and their ability to sell "seats" for their games. If you read some of the other threads in Bewares, Recommendations & Background Checks, you can see how often people come in excited and leave heartbroken when their presses let them down.

Just because you receive an offer doesn't mean it's a good one. You're already doing the first thing we advise people to do while they seek publication: you're writing more books. But you should also be aiming higher than "anyone who'll take me", working on your craft, and believing in yourself.

Give yourself a chance to be better than someone who has to be humbly grateful for any acceptance they can get.

GAdler said:

Shouldn't a rookie be honoured to play at all?

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Even if a publisher is a rookie press that someone just started yesterday, should they publish every manuscript they were sent, reasoning that they should be honored just to receive these manuscripts?

Or, if they were hoping for success, should they carefully choose and evaluate manuscripts - maybe even more carefully than the major publishers do, since they have even less of a margin for error?

Likewise, I think new writers should carefully choose and evaluate publishers, rather than feeling they were honored to get a publisher's attention. I could set up a website today, calling myself a publisher and accepting people's manuscripts. That might make those people happy for a short period of time, but unless that temporary happiness was all they wanted in return for their hard work, they would be disappointed in the long run, because I wouldn't be able to provide anything more than an illusory feeling of validation.

In other words, not everyone who calls themselves a publisher is a good publisher. That's why all writers, whether they're newbies or have been around the block a few times, should be careful.

Getting a book accepted by a publisher is not 'mana from heaven'. Nor is getting it published.This is the start of a process and (hopefully) a long journey.

Yes, we celebrate every chance we get. Because this is a hard and uncertain business. That is why *who* the publisher is matters.

I hear your words of caution and appreciate them. I guess it never occurred to me that an author would actually consider refusing an acceptance. To borrow my sports analogy again (since writing is still a complete black-box mystery to me). I understand the caution for those who have gone through the minor leagues and have been given that validation all along. I'm sure Jose was given all kinds of praise and accolades as he went through the process. He had some idea as to his 'net value' before he went on the auction block. Here is where my analogy starts to lose its applicability. It is possible to write without going through the process of formally studying and being coached in literacy (at least I hope it is, otherwise I am in trouble!). I doubt that Jose would have been able to just walk in to the stadium at the age of twenty and start smacking out dingers having never touched a bat. Does it ultimately come down to the Billy Beane? I have never written a word outside of scientific journals until now. I have no idea what my 'net worth' in the literary world would be. Am I a Jose or a nobody is anyone's guess. Would I rather be drafted eight-ninth overall, even if I should have gone first, than risk not having the chance to play? Much tougher to answer given my draft ranking.

The usual advice is to aim high: submit to your dream markets (or the agents who can represent you to your dream markets) first. That can take a while, and you may very well collect a bunch of rejections. But you won't know if you don't try. If you get rejected, say "drat" (or, you know, something stronger ) and send it to the next market/agent on your list. And in the meantime, keep writing.

You'll find your worth in the market, but not if you undervalue yourself. Another analogy: if I have something that people would pay $20 for, but I never even try to charge more than $10 for, I've left a tenner on the table. Likewise, if you start with a less-established press, one with less distribution and less experienced editors, you'll never know what a bigger place could have done for you.

And keep writing. Because that's how you get better at writing: practice.

Stick around Absolute Write. Read other areas, like the ones about getting an agent (query letters and how to write them), and the ones about whatever kind of books you write. Maybe crit other people's work in the Share Your Work area. Reading others' prose and seeing what works and what doesn't is a fantastic way to improve your own work, because you have enough distance to think about it objectively. When you've made 50 posts, put some of your own work up and people will give you honest feedback. (Be brave. It stings, sometimes. But it's a valuable learning experience.)

All of this stuff will help you figure out if you're Jose. If you are, they'll help you bring that out. And if you're not, they'll help you bring out whoever you are, and make you a better and better writer.

Also, remember that you don't age out of this draft. You can publish your first novel at 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80... if you don't make it this year, you're right back in the draft again next year. Take the time to do it right.

GAdler said:

I hear your words of caution and appreciate them. I guess it never occurred to me that an author would actually consider refusing an acceptance.

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Why not, if the author finds out that there's something less than acceptable about the press?

I love Samhain for my romantic fantasies, because they have a nice piece of the e-romance pie, but that doesn't mean I'll stick with them for every manuscript I'll ever write. I'd like my straight fantasies to be agented instead. And that's a purely business decision, just like the decision to refuse an acceptance from a press that may not be the best possible home for a manuscript.

Here are questions you should be asking yourself about any potential publisher—

What are my goals as a writer?
• money
• critical acclaim (in media that people actually consume)
• readers
• steppingstone to a larger publisher

If money is your goal, you should figure out how much the average author being published by the company is making from book sales. If you can also get the information for outliers, especially their best-selling authors, that can give you an idea of your ceiling in a best case scenario. If you can’t get anybody to tell you actual dollar amounts, you should be able to figure out, roughly, by looking at your contract to see how royalties are paid and applying that to the number of units those other authors are selling.

If your hope is to see your name in a big magazine or newspaper or to be on tv, find out if any of the company’s other authors have done that. It’s important to look at the media placements, if that’s your goal. A weekly county newspaper in Idaho is not the New York Times. A small blog is not Publishers Weekly. Don’t get caught up in the number of placements. It’s about the quality of them. One good review in Library Journal sells more books than one hundred great reviews on blogs nobody reads.

If your hope is to have readers, you’ll want to consult the sales number I referenced above. What’s going to make you happy? 50 readers? 500 readers? 5,000 readers? What is the number and has the publisher showed any ability to make that happen? A case can be made for getting a lot of readers with little money to show for it in the case of heavily discounted ebooks.

Do you want this experience to be a steppingstone to a larger publisher for your next book? If it is, here’s what you absolutely must keep in mind. When your next project ends up on the desk of a larger publisher they are going to see that you are previously published and they’re going to want to know what sort of sales you had before and what sort of attention you got for your work. If you’ve only sold 250 copies of a book and didn’t get coverage anywhere significant, you’re going to have two strikes against you. There is now baseline data associated with you and your books, and it is available for all interested parties to see when considering your next work. Be mindful of that.

Round Two said:

If money is your goal, you should figure out how much the average author being published by the company is making from book sales.

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This is what worries me - I have heard rumours of authors not seeing a dime from their sales, because they owe Curiosity Quills money