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Mundania Press / PhazE / New Classics Press

LMILLER111

New kid, be gentle!
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Which is a general point that I can really rebut without driving this thread off course. But I disagree and my experience with epublishing is not limited to reading threads in this forum.

Nor is mine. If someone starts a new thread, I'll gladly engage, but I think you're right that we'd be driving this thread off course. I've had some recent experience with a number of ePresses and it's impacted my opinion.
 

DisenchantedDoc

Give me believable dialogue
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I think it's time to revive this thread and put out a big DO NOT GO THERE warning to writers. I published 2 short stories with them in 2009. My contract expires this year (3y contract), and so I tried to contact them multiple times to get my rights back to these stories, citing both poor sales (1 copy in the last quarter) and the end of the 3 year limit. They haven't answered my emails. When I tried to send them a certified letter to the address listed on my last 1099, it got sent back "Return to Sender", stating the address didn't exist. I've been talking to other authors, and I'm not the only one who has experienced this treatment from Phaze.

So writers, BEWARE!
 

michael_b

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I think it's time to revive this thread and put out a big DO NOT GO THERE warning to writers. I published 2 short stories with them in 2009. My contract expires this year (3y contract), and so I tried to contact them multiple times to get my rights back to these stories, citing both poor sales (1 copy in the last quarter) and the end of the 3 year limit. They haven't answered my emails. When I tried to send them a certified letter to the address listed on my last 1099, it got sent back "Return to Sender", stating the address didn't exist. I've been talking to other authors, and I'm not the only one who has experienced this treatment from Phaze.

So writers, BEWARE!

Your treatment is, unfortunately, typical of their entire outfit.

I wish you all the best of luck getting your stories returned.
 

K. Q. Watson

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I just read through this entire thread and felt like adding my two cents.

I picked up a Mundania title at a convention and I enjoyed the story, so good for the author.

However, I saw some editing problems and after less than a month of gentle use two of the pages are slipping out of the binding.
 

StarWombat

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Has anything changed in the past two years? Does anyone have more recent experience with Mundania Press? (Someone on IRC said it would be better to post to this old thread than start a new one.)
 

TuckerMcCallahan

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Phaze/Mundania - Beware!

I've been shopping a M/M erotic fantasy around, and while I've gotten a few offers , I haven't been able to come to terms regarding contracts anywhere yet. A friend suggested I try submitting to Mundania. After visiting their website And doing some research I realized I'd be subbing to Phaze, and following their posted guidelines at the time, I submitted my full manuscript on June 8, 2014. I got an auto-response the same day verifying receipt.

The website stated their turnaround time for subs was 60-120 days. I thought that was lengthy, but figured they were covering their behinds. I checked back at the 30 and 60 day marks. Not a peep from them. On 09/04 - three months after I sent the sub in - I saw that they'd changed their submission process. So I sent an inquiry asking for a status report on my submission, and inquired to make sure it was actually in the review process since they'd changed things. I again got an auto-response verifying my email was received.

Nobody, however, ever replied to my email.

Now, I understand publishers get busy. And they did state it could take 120 days (4 months) to get an answer back from their editorial staff. But here's my opinion on this.

It is absolutely unprofessional in the extreme to not respond to an author who has requested a status report. A simple, "Your work is in process," or "Your work has been assigned to a reader and is awaiting a final decision," would've taken all of three minutes to send. That nobody at either Mundania or Phaze has ANYBODY on staff reading their emails and handling simple requests like this sends up a big red flag for me. If they can't decision my work expediently, how will they edit it or galley it or do anything expediently?

On 10/13/14, 128 days after I submitted and over 30 days after I requested a status report, I sent an email to both Mundania and Phaze withdrawing my submission. I have no faith in a publisher who cannot even read subs in a timely manner. I don't care what the excuse is - lack of editors, staff changeovers, the new submission system, they "misplaced" my sub, whatever - to this day I've not gotten a single email from anyone at Mundania or Phaze. So not only did I pull my sub, I've also put them on my "Wall of Shame" alongside Entranced and Ellora's Cave.

Waiting to hear now from the next publisher I've subbed to... Keep your fingers crossed!

~ Tux
 

DreamWeaver

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Not specifically about Mundania or Phaze, but more general thoughts:

Unfortunately, a lot of publishers have adopted the "No reply means no" method. It's not at all uncommon anymore. It's a pain for submitting authors, but on some level it's their prerogative. It's also your prerogative to not like that. Four months is not a terribly long wait as publishing goes, but it's up to you where you want to draw your line in the sand for each publisher.

Good luck!
 
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Torill

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I checked an author I was interested in on amazon, and found their books listed as 'currently not available'. So I googled their publisher and found this message at their website

MUNDANIA PRESS LLC HAS CLOSED

PUBLIC NOTICE:

ALL PUBLICATION CONTRACTS MADE WITH MUNDANIA PRESS LLC, PHAZE BOOKS, HARD SHELL WORD FACTORY, AWE-STRUCK BOOKS, AND CELERITAS LIMITED LLC FOR EBOOKS, PRINT, AND AUDIO BOOKS ARE IMMEDIATELY CANCELLED AND FULL PUBLICATION RIGHTS ARE RETURNED FOR ALL BOOKS TO ALL AUTHORS AS OF MARCH 27, 2019.
 
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