As to the appearance of the website and how things are presented, great observations. I came to SBP as an author through a personal contact, and never bothered to look at their website until just this last Summer. But in looking at it with a critical eye, you are spot on. I'll make note of this in my first status report to the founder, which will come later this month as I evaluate what I'm seeing and hearing from this site as well as from other authors.
I'm not going to ask you again straight out. I can't remember which thread it was, but recently an author came to this board to explain how marvellous their publisher was and how we should all definitely submit there because they were absolutely brilliant. Ten minutes of Google-fu revealed them to be the brother of the owner/editor/another author. It doesn't look good when this kind of thing happens. You see:
Related? I most assuredly am not the publisher, and am connected as an author under contract, and as of yesterday as a consultant.
There's three hours between your telling us you were going to accept the job and you coming here to tell us you'd accepted it. I'll trust what you've told us, but it feels like there is something you aren't mentioning - whether it's that you're also good friends, that you've been neighbours for twenty years, whatever - I don't know why you'd speak for this publisher in the way you have been doing, but I also know that could just be who you are.
I don't want something to be mentioned later you had the opportunity to mention here.
You misread me as badly as I did you, Theo81. I am too old to care about points or games. I simply tell it like it is, and THAT is a definite part of my "code". The consulting I'm doing is an evaluation of what needs fixed and/or improved, including the submission and review process.
I don't know that I've misread you, but I know you've misread me. For a start you think I'm male. Don't worry about it, it happens.
MY website is just the way I want it, but I'll recommend that the publisher make what we both consider necessary changes to HIS website. Fair enough?
Your website doesn't have anything to do with anything. This is a thread about Sarah Book Publishing - not you, your books (except as far as comments about the quality of the editing goes), not your website, not your photography skills (which are fine, but I - speaking as a person who occasionally manages to get paid for doing that kind of thing - would say they aren't great images for book covers). Unless SBP created it for you, and then I would have some comments.
Now, I don't know how enormous you are, but I'm pretty good sized myself.
I'm nobody.
As for Theo81's complaint about not seeing book titles, apparently he didn't really look around the site very much. Each of the sister sites are designed in the same manner to create a flow from one to the next. There is a shopping cart in the upper corner, as well as a "carousel" with 10 titles featured and a link to the "shopping area" of the site. Just scroll down the home page a bit and there it is.
I found the separate shop site. That should be the main SBP page, not all the gubbins about achieving my publishing goals. A publisher sells books to people.
Those still concerned with the "No Up-Front" statements, a simple look at the sample contract should put your minds at ease.
I'm glad everybody else went over it. I didn't like that contract but I don't know enough about them to put an opinion on a message board.
The structure of this group is unlike any other in the publishing business that I've seen, and it works. What more can I say?
You can say why SBP is a good choice over another publisher. Here's a reason for you:
"SBP is a Texas based publisher with strong local links for book promotion. If you are writing novels set in Texas, we are a great choice!"
Now, I don't know if that's true, I'm going on what I'd say about publishers like Seren or Y Llolfa (but I'd substitute Wales for Texas, obviously).
Criticizing the business model is also a questionable act. The same model has been used effectively in his medical practice, his real estate ventures, and every other area of interest he has. So why would someone who can make money at so many other things invest so much in a publishing company, especially when the track record for new publishing companies is so dismal?
No, it isn't. I am very familiar with a variety of real estate business models - I can't think how they would transfer to publishing, let alone medicine, except in the most general of ways.
Passion. Pure and simple. He loves promoting all the arts, and as a fellow author who has been beaten to shreds by the unseemly in the industry, he decided to invest his money in a place where the author can get a fair shake and be treated with respect. The growing family of authors and literary agents is testimony to the fact that it's working. End of story.
There are hundreds of publishers where the author gets a fair shake and gets treated with respect. If an author doesn't feel enough respect, they are free to go elsewhere.
Victoria, every author has the OPTION to purchase as many books as they wish, at 40% off retail for paperbacks and 30% off retail for hardcovers, and are given a 60 day line of credit in which to pay for those books. One gentleman recently purchased 250 in groups of 100, 100 and 50 along with his stipend, free invitations, flyers and banner and held his own book signings since he lives some distance from the SBP headquarters and decided not to have SBP staff make the trips to sponsor those events (very considerate of him). In a 3 week period, he sold all 250 and pocketed well over $1600, and just ordered another 200. All this is on top of the royalties he's earned on a nearly identical number of books sold by SBP and on Amazon. The book was released just over a month ago, and shows signs of gaining even more momentum. That's just one example of someone who isn't depending on SBP to do all the marketing and sales, and why that option is available. I've even used it successfully myself.
So sales of 250 in three weeks is, I assume as you're using him as an example, considered very successful for SBP. Useful to know.
Seriously, people, I have to retire myself from this post. I've got 3 MSS working I need to complete, including the next in a series along with a storyline for the following MS in that series and concepts for another dozen or so I need to get started on. "Plan your work and work your plan - as long as you're right and tight with your muse you'd better take advantage of it."
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Thant's okay. This thread will still be here after Christmas.
A dear old friend called me just a few moments ago to tell me I really should make one more trip back to this post, in spite of have several grandchildren to handle tonight along wit a sick wife. So I'll make this very short.
I'm sorry your wife is ill - it's always difficult to be ill over Christmas.
You aren't obliged to post in this thread. If you think it's necessary that SBP answer questions and represent their position, I suggest you ring Dr Sanusi and tell him that - as his consultant - you think he should come and do it. Either that or leave us to it. Questions can stand unanswered and people will make up their own minds.
Editing is done by a highly qualified member of the editing team. Not everyone who writes has the ability to do so with proper grammar, punctuation or spelling, or the ability to keep characters or scenarios straight. Yet among those people are what will become some pretty special authors, given a bit of coaching. EVERY author gets their ms sent back with edits, or with suggestions to make what they've written even better, to accept or reject as they see fit. EVERY author is entitled to two complete edits, critical if they decide to change a part of their story because they aren't happy with what they once were thrilled about.
That's like saying not every doctor has the ability to not faint at the sight of blood. There are certain skills one needs to learn in order to do a particular job - spelling, grammar, plot structure, and character development are all things a writer has to learn.
Also, you shouldn't need to emphasise the EVERY author part - there is no MS which is flawless. They should be editing everybody.
What made me decide to sign with SBP? I had never seen their website, nor did I care to. I'm old school. After getting smacked around early in my writing career by slicksters and hustlers, I became far less trusting of anyone in the industry. I learned my lessons well, and paid a dear price as well. A manuscript was stolen from me by one of those shysters, and ended up selling nearly 300k copies, out of which I received zilch. From that point on, I was determined to never allow that to happen again. And I learned to read people through their eyes and movements. I had a little assistance along the way, as our government taught me how to profile, and I've put it to good use over the years.
Sanusi passed my profiling with flying colors. But I didn't stop there. I called in a few favors and had him thoroughly checked out, then visited a number of people who had experiences with him. When we met the second time, he answered every question I had just as I would have if the shoe had been on the other foot. Yes, that's not something most in here will ever have the chance to do. But that's what happened, why I signed, and why I will again.
My Dad did behavioural science at University (a very well respected one). His class were given a task in the third year - they all had to mock interview the university porter and find out everything they could about him. Not a single one of them managed to find out he'd been in prison 20 years earlier.
Even if profiling wasn't capable of being misdirected, or effected by things like people having a male name rather than a female one, it's not going to tell you if Dr Sanusi is any good at publishing. At best it can tell you he thinks he is.
For now, I don't see a single tangible reason why a writer with no Texas connections should send work to this publisher. Even with a Texas connection, I think there are better choices out there.