Tate Publishing

Spare some popcorn for me, Dreamweaver. This is getting interesting. And all you fine, bored folks with access to Google and Bing, don't forget to keep those search results pipin' hot.

I am curious if anyone has ever received a rejection from Tate Publishing?

Probably if someone submitted an anti-Christian screed or some graphic erotica.

Only when they demanded an advance against royalties be in the contract.

Remember back in 2012, when Ryan Tate fired 25 employees for spreading rumors that Tate was outsourcing jobs to the Phillippines?

Well, here's Tate's Facebook page for its Phillippine division, where Tate is currently recruiting for a large number of positions.

Some job descriptions. I especially love this, from the Project Manager description:

"Appease the agitated author/artists especially when there are unavoidable delays and problems."

And for the Associate Marketing Representative, who of course must not appear to be from a foreign country, this qualification requirement:

"Awesome communication skills that could flip from casual to formal to casual-formal to SWAG . . . Like, fo' shizzle forrealz."

Word.

- Victoria

He seems to have changed the text already, to be a bit less unprofessional.

I'm having a pleasant mental picture of a sinkhole opening up under Ryan Tate's feet, sucking him toward the center of the earth where he's flattened to mush by sheer pressure, then the mush is consumed by the hot mantle.

Just a passing thought. I would not really want that to happen. No. Not...really.

Gillhoughly said:

I'm having a pleasant mental picture of a sinkhole opening up under Ryan Tate's feet, sucking him toward the center of the earth where he's flattened to mush by sheer pressure, then the mush is consumed by the hot mantle.

Just a passing thought. I would not really want that to happen. No. Not...really.

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Yeah. Think of the environmental damage.

Sigh.

Not much more can be added. Just *Sigh*.

By now, with everything written about Tate online, and this thread alone, you would really think most people would realize and err on the side of caution.

But no. Just heard of an author going back with them for a second children's book because this time it will be the real traditional way. What she doesn't realize is that the minute she says her publisher is Tate, most people will write her book off--whether "traditionally" published or not.

I had someone ask me for an endorsement of a book a few months ago. I said I'd be happy to look at it for them, and that's when I found out it was with Tate. Still, I went into it with the hope that my past experiences with Tate published books would be wiped away with this one. Unfortunately, it was bad, and the author didn't want to hear about it (even when done very nicely and at her request).

I'm so tired of the whole subsidy press industry, and it's even worse now that big traditional publishers are jumping on the bandwagon. Why not? It's a license to make money at the expense of naive author dreams.

Again ... *sigh*

Deb

Breath of Fresh Air said:

I'm so tired of the whole subsidy press industry, and it's even worse now that big traditional publishers are jumping on the bandwagon. Why not? It's a license to make money at the expense of naive author dreams.

Again ... *sigh*

Deb

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Bolding mine.

This is what truly bothers me about what is beginning to happen in the publishing industry. In a sense, it can make vanity publishers like Tate feel validated.

The difference is that the pay-to-play services associated with traditional publishers may be sleazy, but they at least don't pretend to be anything other than pay-to-play. Tate, by contrast, presents itself as a "mainline" publisher and does not disclose its fees until authors are already into the submission process. IMO, there's a qualitative difference between vanity that's upfront about its fees (though you might want to avoid it for lots of other reasons) and vanity that pretends it isn't fee-charging.

- Victoria

Victoria is right.

As usual.

Me? I have a recurrent vision of Ryan Tate, whatever he may or may not look like, struggling in a tsunami of swill.

victoriastrauss said:

Well, here's Tate's Facebook page for its Phillippine division, where Tate is currently recruiting for a large number of positions.

Some job descriptions. I especially love this, from the Project Manager description:

"Appease the agitated author/artists especially when there are unavoidable delays and problems."

Click to expand...

Marketing Representative
Duties and Responsibilities

• Communicating with authors and selling books at author discount to authors

victoriastrauss said:

The difference is that the pay-to-play services associated with traditional publishers may be sleazy, but they at least don't pretend to be anything other than pay-to-play. Tate, by contrast, presents itself as a "mainline" publisher and does not disclose its fees until authors are already into the submission process. IMO, there's a qualitative difference between vanity that's upfront about its fees (though you might want to avoid it for lots of other reasons) and vanity that pretends it isn't fee-charging.- Victoria

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And I completely agree. Tate is particularly odious because they do exactly what you said. The author submits their manuscript and is over the moon to be accepted (very quickly). Then comes the sales pitch.

Like you, I can tolerate the subsidy press publishing packages (just) as long as they are upfront about what they are.

Having said that, I've come across an Australian company that makes Tate sound squeaky clean. An author submitted her manuscript to this company and received a four page letter back (in email) saying they had a meeting with the CEO of that company and wanted to publish her book, BUT ......

Bottom line, it was going to cost $28,000 to publish her book, and they would need her to partner with them for half the cost. And she was actually considering it.

Thankfully, she gave me the letter to read and asked my opinion. I told her to run the other direction (with clear reasons why).

So although that is a little off the topic of Tate, I just thought I'd mention that there are even worse.

And that's something I never thought I would say.

Deb

Breath of Fresh Air said:

Having said that, I've come across an Australian company that makes Tate sound squeaky clean. An author submitted her manuscript to this company and received a four page letter back (in email) saying they had a meeting with the CEO of that company and wanted to publish her book, BUT ......

Bottom line, it was going to cost $28,000 to publish her book, and they would need her to partner with them for half the cost. And she was actually considering it.

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We need a new thread about this company!

$14,000 is high, but Cambridge House (which may not be in business any longer) used to charge $15K and above, with this reasoning:

Author's costs range from $15,000 and upward, depending on the amount of work involved. However, that investment is repaid from first-proceeds and the royalties are 4-5 times what the standard publishers pay. With some financial risk comes increased financial reward- it's only fair.

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The Writers' Collective charges $18,000, justifying it with the claim that all the money is paid to printers and publicists, rather than to the press directly.

And finally, Thomas Nelson's vanity arm, Westbow Press, has a Premier Publicist Package going for $19,999. But this includes "[FONT=&quot]3[/FONT][FONT=&quot]20 Free Paperback Copies*" and "20 Free Hardcover Copies*". [/FONT]I'm glad they're free. Imagine how much they would cost if you didn't pay $20K for them.

*Shipping and handling not included.

aliceshortcake said:

We need a new thread about this company!

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Agreed! I'd love to know who it is.

- Victoria

victoriastrauss said:

Agreed! I'd love to know who it is.

- Victoria

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It's Jo Jo Publishing, based in Victoria, Australia. From what I can gather, they blur the lines by having some traditional and some "partner" publishing. So it makes things a little confusing.

What was revolting (apart from the price) was the fact that they weren't even including any "free" books for her in that price. She was offered the opportunity to buy up to the first 500 books at 70% discount (provided they were all bought at the same time). After that, I think it was a 55% or 60% discount (but don't quote me on that bit).

Their children's books look quite nicely done, but I had a quick look at some of their titles on Amazon. Apart from the fact that most of the books I saw had no reviews at all (so much for all that publicity and marketing), but the covers are for the most part fairly ordinary, if not awful, and in one e-book they hadn't even bothered to turn a map around (so it was vertical when it should have been horizontal, with all the writing running vertically).

Anyway, sorry for detouring the Tate thread. But seriously, I thought this lot seemed so much worse. The only difference is that they aren't targeting Christians, who tend to be a little more susceptible when they see something labeled as "Christian." (I'm a Christian, but I'm long past taking things at face value when it comes to publishing.)

Deb

Ah, Jo Jo Publishing. I've gotten several reports of fee-charging by them.

- Victoria

victoriastrauss said:

Ah, Jo Jo Publishing. I've gotten several reports of fee-charging by them.

- Victoria

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That's interesting. I hadn't heard of them at all before this lady approached me about them (and I'm an Aussie). Glad you're aware of it.

Looks like the Tates are in some well-deserved hot water! Judging from the companies and some other details listed, I can verify that this is most likely accurate.

http://www.complaintslist.com/2015/to-all-disgruntled-tate-publishing-authors/

Yes. I have to frame my words very carefully here, but let me be the first to hope the Tates get what they deserve. If you believe in this stuff, the Prosperity Gospel goes both ways! May the same fate fall upon the several other vanity publishers who modeled their businesses on Tate's methods.

The times are changing. Self-publishing is getting easy and attractive enough that these vanity/subsidy presses are taking a serious hit. Something had to do it.

I found this consumer complaint site link to be worthwhile, in regards to researching Tate Publishing. While the recent complaints run the usual sad gamut of claims, Tate representatives' answers are even more interesting.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/misc/tate_publishing.html