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The Zharmae Publishing Press

veinglory

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The only presses I see doing this are probably under-paying their editors severely, but in a way that gets them to edit a dozen books before they realize that and quit.

YMMV. I can be judgmental and I think people should be properly paid for their labors.
 

Old Hack

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I don't think it's judgemental to explain how it works, veinglory. I agree with you that this happens, and people should be paid better for their efforts.
 

sdbrown

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Just to update my experiences: I have received an official offer from TZPP after a request for a full ms. I have accepted their offer.
 

mrsmig

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Congratulations, sdbrown. I hope you'll check back in here and let us know how things go.
 

LaneHeymont

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So, I'm 8 days past the 90 day "average wait period" on a submission. Thinking I'll nudge at the two week period.
 
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ironmikezero

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Contract offered 9/13/13; due diligence ensued.

Communication candid and cordial.

Contract declined 10/10/13.
 

vickid59

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I was recently contacted by their romance imprint to see one of my manuscripts. Since I didn't know anything about this press, I did a little research. By day, I'm a paralegal, so I know how to check the status of companies by going to the state corporation sites.

Their website states they are The Zharmae Publishing Press, LLC registered in the state of Washington. When you go to the state of WA, they come up as inactive since April of 2013, which basically means the LLC was dissolved. Red flag for me. The owner may still be operating, but as a sole proprietor and not under a registered company. I won't be submitting my manuscript until they can confirm their legal status or what state they have registered. I've checked Delaware (which is common) and Oregon, too. Nothing comes up.

CategoryLLC
Inactive
State Of Incorporation
WA Filing Date12/10/2010
Expiration Date12/31/2012
Inactive Date04/01/2013

I would make sure if you are going to sign a contract with this company to have them prove their entity status before you do so. It's public information anyway and you can double check on just about any state corporation website. It's possible they could have registered elsewhere.
 
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Old Hack

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I won't be submitting my manuscript until they can confirm their legal status or what state they have registered.

I don't care about their legal status: the lack of publishing experience behind this publisher, and its non-standard ways of working, make it a no-no to me.
 

Undercover

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I think authors are picking up on it too. Especially if they have to put calls on Craigslist? OMG...
 

LaneHeymont

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I think authors are picking up on it too. Especially if they have to put calls on Craigslist? OMG...

I've submitted to them twice, once when they offered professional advances (haven't heard back despite the fact the book's already be published) and a while back when I THOUGHT they still offered the advance.

I used Duotrope, so it says the last response they gave was for mss submitted in April. This time, for my own kicks, I'm not going to withdraw my ms just so I can see how long it'll take (if ever) for me to get a response.

Right now, I'm at 155 days out ... 65 days beyond their noted time. :Shrug:
 

Filigree

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I'm putting this info in here for posterity, just so that new writers won't get confused. Here's the text of the Craigslist ad:

Jabari & Jaser Books is looking for Action/Adventure books and screen plays! Currently Signing Authors for 2014. Get on board now and be published in less than a year!

More information on Action/Adventure Submission Guidelines and How to Submit your work at http://jabarijaser.com/

***

In their favor, J&J are up front about being an imprint of Zharmae right on their homepage. OTOH, there's all the rest of the Zharmae stuff to worry about.
 

triceretops

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My agent and I were excited by the initial advance offer and an R & R request from the original female CEO. Then after a length of about six months of no response, we suddenly discovered the CEO dropped out and it was taken over by two other parties. After much prodding, the R & R was was dissolved and the advance offer vaporized into thin air.

I don't know if you would call this a deliberate bait-and-switch, whether is was an unfortunate occurrence due to health reasons or a necessary re-structuring. I think their intentions are/were good, but the overall experience left my agent and I very frustrated and confused. We pulled out.

I really loved the artwork on their first anthology, one of the main reasons that tipped me off to their existence. Although when I followed the sales ranking of that title for months, I saw very, very low interest and below average sales rankings. It just never seemed to gain any traction at all, such is typical with a new or relatively unknown small press.

I wish them well. Truly. Some really wonderful communication went back and forth with the new managers/owners, owed to an obvious drive and enthusiasm. But I shudder to think what kind of changes were made or changed from the earliest contract to the newest draft, which I suspect had to implemented because of the management/ownership transfer.

Proceed with caution.
 

Bicyclefish

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They're advertising for a copyeditor on the San Francisco craigslist

I'm putting this info in here for posterity, just so that new writers won't get confused. Here's the text of the Craigslist ad:

Jabari & Jaser Books is looking for Action/Adventure books and screen plays! ...

Before your post, I searched for the ad, and discovered in the past couple of months they've also been advertising for their other imprints.

Love, Sex & Merlot, an imprint of The Zharmae Publishing Press, is actively seeking Romance and Erotica submissions. LSM readers tear at the pages, yearning to feel desire and passion. We are seeking authors who can inspire these emotions in our readers.
LSM is dedicated to developing quality romance novels and is looking to work with its authors for the long haul.
Shannon & Elm Books, a new imprint of the traditional publisher, the Zharmae Publishing Press, is actively seeking submissions in the literary fiction, memoir, and nonfiction genres. We are especially looking for new, previously unpublished writers, but we welcome more established writers as well. We seek to develop lasting relationships with our authors over the course of many books and many years. This is a chance to get in on the ground floor of something great and help shape our ideal of excellence.
F.W. Fife, science fiction publisher, is now seeking submissions. We are looking for high-quality, literary science fiction that embodies innovative storytelling, imaginative plots, and exceptional writing.
They're also seeking an associate editor for their scifi imprint. From last month:

F.W. Fife (fwfife.com), science fiction publisher, is looking for an associate editor to handle its acquisitions. We are a small imprint of Zharmae Publishing Press. [...]

Job Duties
• Part-time commitment: 10 to 15 hours per week.
• Solicit submissions, monitor submissions, respond to queries, read full manuscripts when interested.
• Handle major aspects of acquisitions: Select works for publication, work with authors to revise MSs, guide cover design process with cover artist, meet all publication deadlines.
• Help keep imprint's social media sites updated.
• Provide content for fwfife.com.
• Respond to general inquiries to the imprint.

Compensation
• Associate Editors receive royalties: 20% of all books published by F.W. Fife. Because compensation is royalty based, candidate *MUST* be able to financially sustain him- or herself outside of this work.
• As we are looking for a candidate to grow with the company, we ask for a 3-year commitment.
 

LindaJeanne

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Asking a three year commitment to a for-profit job that doesn't commit to actually paying you? Yowza.
 
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kaitie

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Okay, I'm unclear on something. Associate editors (plural) receive 20% of all the books published by that imprint.

Which has two elements that strike me as odd. 1) You receive royalties even on books you didn't have anything to do with? and 2) So the 20% is divvied up between multiple people? Which would mean it's not like one person makes 20%. More like you make 20% divided by however many people there are? So if there are five of you, you're really only getting 4%, right?

Working for royalties is sucktastic in the first place, but this seems kind of ridiculous, unless I'm misunderstanding something.
 

LindaJeanne

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A more effective way of dealing with high attrition would be addressing the issues that are causing your associate editors to leave.
 

traveo2343

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Hello Lane, I would like to apologize for the delayed response unfortunately when Suzanne retired and the transition between various editors over the last several months has settled, I did report that all work submitted prior to Labor Day which had now received a response due to lack of resources to respond was released back to the author. If you had submitted to us in April of 2013 it is now safe to say that one of my Editors either rejected your work, or as of Labor day it has been released back to you. I do wish you well in your continued publication of work.

+++

I will be clear that there has never been a change in ownership, I have always owned the lion's share of TZPP and continue to do so to this day. Suzanne (my mother) had come out of early retirement to aid me, at my request, as she is much more widely read than anyone I know. She did however, due to health reasons, retire completely earlier this year. She still serves on the Board of Advisors and regularly receives updates as with all other TZPP investors.

My decision to discontinue offering advances was an economic decision to allow TZPP to continue operations, without which we would have ceased operations. This was quite a long discussion earlier this year when I announced the decision on this thread, I really don't think that we need to rehash it, though I understand that some of you may be a tad bitter on the subject.

+++

Our contracts are private, though I will say that our editors are credited either solely or in partnership with a second editor. I have made no effort to hide the fact that we operate on a partnership at all levels, from the Authors to Artists, to Editors, to the Support staff that help us get work into the proper form for publication, to the Marketing staff that help to promote the books.

To all those who are interested in learning more about our actual business operations, please feel free to go to www.trgmholdings.com as we regularly make public our corporate efforts.

We are a registered LLC in the State of Washington, inactive does not mean that we have dissolved the LLC, simply that I have refused to pay the annual Secretary of State re-filing fee here in Washington which I feel is a ridiculous waste of money that could be better used toward economic progress.

+++

I would like to point to the recent series of publications which we are making progress in promoting. I would like to suggest that instead of bashing us for the many things that you dislike about us, which I have no control over, might I suggest that you take a gander at some of the books that we have published and report on the quality the books we are publishing and your thoughts on them. I think that many or you would enjoy The Wolf of Descarta, Shrouded, Dominance, or Factions.

Here is the direct link to the Amazon listing of ALL Zharmae titles: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...aps&field-keywords=Zharmae&rh=i:aps,k:Zharmae

+++

You all have been going back and forth with me for some two years now, and in all that time you should realize that I'm just as stubborn and determined as you are to succeed. Though sometimes I wonder if you would rather prefer that an upstart like TZPP simply close up shop.

As much as you may dislike some of our practices, we're still here. Still expanding. Still moving forward.
 
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Old Hack

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I would like to point to the recent series of publications which we are making progress in promoting. I would like to suggest that instead of bashing us for the many things that you dislike about us, which I have no control over,

My bold.

It's your business, Travis. Of course you have control over how you run it. And there's been no "bashing" (how I hate that term) in this thread: just reasonable concern and questioning. Please don't imply otherwise.

might I suggest that you take a gander at some of the books that we have published and report on the quality the books we are publishing and your thoughts on them.

I'll tell you what. Send me a selection of your books. I'll take a look at them and report back, in this thread, how well-published they are, any problems I see in their production and quality, and of course all the positive things I see about them too.
 

kaitie

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I've looked at a couple of the books on Amazon. The covers are decent, some even quite good, and I read the first page or two on the sample and thought the writing was pretty good and I didn't see an obvious error, which puts you ahead of the vast majority of epublishers I've checked out.

What concerns me, though, is what looks like financial problems. The fact that books aren't bringing in enough money to cover advances anymore is worrisome. I understand that you did it for financial reasons, but to me it says that you aren't as financially sound as I would want a company to be if I went with them.

Similarly, it also concerns me that editors aren't being paid up front and might be spending hours on a book that they're never paid for. This worries me for two reasons. One, it's unfair to editors and essentially asking them to work for nothing, which in turn leads to higher turnover rates and a lack of professional level editing, as most professionals wouldn't work for nothing. Two, it also says to me that you literally can't afford to pay them a fixed amount and you're saving money by only paying everyone after the money from the book comes in. That makes it seem that you are pretty much working paycheck to paycheck, so to speak, and again doesn't speak well to financial stability in my mind.

I'm actually a little concerned with all the new imprints as well. With so many imprints taking on more books, you're going to have that many more production costs, etc. to take care of. I guess it makes me wonder if the logic is "we're not doing as well as I'd like financially so I'll just buy more books," because I don't see how it can be because you are doing so well that you are expanding when you aren't able to pay editors or offer advances.

For me, a company being financially sound is very important. I've seen what happens to people when companies go under, and it's not pretty. If that means that I would be particularly cautious, then so be it.
 

traveo2343

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I will be happy to send Review PDF's to you Old Hack, please email me directly at [email protected], I can also provide MOBI or EPUB versions if they are easier, simply detail your preferred review format in the email. I'm sorry to say that I'm not sure what your direct email is.

I did not mean to use the "B" word, but I've noticed that some of the thread on Absolute can sometimes deteriorate quite quickly.

+++

In terms of financial stability, as far as the human talent aspect we work diligently to source quality editors who are dedicated to growing with us. Which is an aspect of start-up culture that you will find with many new start-up companies. For all that we are, we are still a small business and we are very much a start-up business. I understand that many of our practices (including our operational model) are different from many of our peers, however most are fairly common aspects of working with a young start-up company. The realities of financing an operation as TZPP are incredible, and unfortunately sourcing capital for investment beyond my own assets and those of my family, is difficult as we are not a hi-tech company.

But my intent is to do whatever is necessary to build a sustainable company from the ground up. We have made significant progress in this front. It is my hope that we can reinstate advances in the future but I'm not placing any emphasis on that for the time being.