[Publishing svcs] Pow-Wow Digital / Scrolla

My ... God ...

[...] a freelance, home-based career in publishing without having to go and intern in London for a year.

Click to expand...

I know things are different in the UK and the US, but is he talking about publishing fiction? Interning in order to be a successful writer?

I'm confused. It sounds more like he's talking about some sort of multi-level marketing situation.

That's the language I got from it.

I think they genuinely mean well. But I'm saddened by the phrase 'portfolio career'. That smacks too much of work-for-exposure, about which we've had many discussions on AW.

'Portfolio' and 'exposure' only help if 1. potential buyers know you exist, and 2. they want your product. That means usually means artists and writers look for publishers, galleries, etc. with good market visibility, promotional strategies, and good reputations in their industries. Something that 'brand new ventures' like this one can't claim yet. Teaching and workshopping up and down the Midlands is fine, but I'm not sure it lends the market support they'll need.

I'm over in the US, so I wouldn't be likely to join up anyway. I am interested in seeing how they progress with their 'beta' period, and how they plan to fund and grow the organization.

Why? Because there are enough slippery-dick "publishers" and "agents" and "author services" out there to gull the desperate. And the folks here at AW are doing yeoman's work sounding the alarms.

IMHO "don't expect much money immediately on release" generally translates to... "at all".

Give the number of options where authors can if fact earn money immediately on release, what exactly is the selling point here?

Precisely. And until I see a genuinely effective strategy from companies similar to Pow Wow (and we've already seen many of them, alas), I'm skeptical of the end goals.

I can email five friends today and start our own publishing company, for our own work, and using our own capital and talents. Nothing wrong with that, though it might be slightly crazy. It crosses into irresponsibility when we start coaxing other, even less experienced writers to join us. To commit their work on vague promises of new kinds of marketing and future profits.

In Pow Wow's case, it's simply too early to tell. We don't have enough information to make a positive judgment, and what little we've seen so far appears close to the pitches from some less-than-effective companies we've already dicussed.

To be as helpful as possible, I'd urge the principals to re-think accepting beta authors until they have more details worked out, to try for some major (and respected) UK literary professional endorsements, and get three to five years worth of operating capital in the bank first.