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Page Publishing

Chiefmudslide

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Page Publishing Inc: Legit?

Hello...I am a brand new novelist, just getting my first manuscript out there. Wow! What a learning curve...Just reading the threads on this site has been invaluable.
Page Publishing, Inc, is advertising on national television. Their website is www.freewriterskit.com/. Their package is impressive and a representative contacted me right away, which, sadly, made me suspicious. They advertise everything from "soup to nuts" on publishing. If they decide to accept your manuscript, they will tell you what your personal investment will be (again, this concerned me...but I don't know the business).
Anyone heard of them, good or bad?
I would love to hear from you!
 

aliceshortcake

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There's already a thread about Page Publishing: <snipped>

It's a vanity press - don't give them your money.
 
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James D. Macdonald

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They advertise everything from "soup to nuts" on publishing.

They want you to buy their soup. If you take the deal you're nuts.


If they decide to accept your manuscript, they will tell you what your personal investment will be (again, this concerned me...but I don't know the business).

I'm going to look into my Magic Eight-ball.... They will decide to accept your manuscript! That's because all the writing they're interested in is your ability to write a check.

Seriously: Go to a real physical doors-and-windows bookstore. Find books already on the shelves that resemble yours. Find out who published those books (it's on the copyright page). Get those publishers guidelines. Submit your work to those publishers, following their guidelines to the letter. Meanwhile, write another book.

This will cost you nothing. If things go well it will bring $5-20K from the publisher to you.
 

Chiefmudslide

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Thank God for you all. I just joined Absolutewrite for the singular purpose of checking out Page Publishing. Like Aurora, I'm new to this, but for everything good, I also felt suspicious. Reading this thread validates my concerns...Aurora... I hope you listened to these folks! If you took the leap and had an unexpected outcome (positive), please let us know!
 

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I'm an unpublished writer like many here. I have had songs that I wrote the lyrics to, played on national radio and have had an offer from Golden Books for some children stories if I could get an illustrator for them, never could.
Now I'm 13 stories into a fiction series about a female Texas Ranger.
I've had 6 offers from these vanity presses to publish but like many of you it seems fishy as you dig deeper into the agreements.
I'm looking for a book editor, someone in the fictional suspense type of stories I write, to hire to read them and give me some real honest feedback plus a price to do the editing and formatting into the approved layout, paperback books use these days. Someone to get rid of windows, orphans, correct my grammar and punctuation and so on, so that I can then decide if I want to self publish or use a vanity publisher or possibly have some printed and send to real publishers to review.
Anyone out there have any idea where I can go? Been lots of places and yet to have anyone even respond.
Doc
 

James D. Macdonald

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so that I can then decide if I want to self publish or use a vanity publisher or possibly have some printed and send to real publishers to review.

Either self-publish or seek commercial publication. Cross vanity presses right off your list. They're a bad idea for anyone.

The good news is that you don't have to do all that typesetting if you're submitting your manuscript to a commercial publisher, nor do you print up copies to send to them. Just print the text out in standard manuscript format.

The bad news is that collections of previously-unpublished short stories are very hard to sell to commercial houses.

Please look around the boards, particularly in the short-fiction room, the self-publishing room, and the ask-the-editor room. When you've been around a while and gotten to know folks, check out Share Your Work. You might get the feedback there that you're looking for.
 
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PVish

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and have had an offer from Golden Books for some children stories if I could get an illustrator for them

Random House, publisher for Golden Books, provides the illustrator. Unlike vanity publishers, such as Page, RH is a commercial publisher that takes care of all publishing details—such as editing, finding an illustrator, etc.
 

Gillhoughly

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They now have TV ads. They claim they'll get books into stores. They make no mention of how much it will cost, but they WILL get back to the author with a report on the book in a mere week.

What a pile of poo. Pricy, pricy poo.
 

Gillhoughly

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I got this in reply to a query mail concerning a previously published book and that I needed a low to high ballpark figure for reprinting.

The reply came from no less than the head of the company, Jonathon Breen:

A simple re-publication would cost nothing other than the fees our printer charges us to upload your electronic file to the server ($125). In addition, we would be entitled to only 20 cents per book out of your royalties. We would distribute print versions of the book through Ingram to all retail stores and eBook versions on Apple, Amazon and B&N. This is assuming that we approve the work after evaluating it, as you feel we surely will.

Regards,
Jon
It's the same wording that PublishAmerica relies on, which really means if a person orders a book through their local store, then the book will be printed and sent out. He doesn't say what price will be on the book or if the author chooses the price, which is what you get with a service like Createpace or Lulu.

An inexperienced writer may think her book will get a mass printing and be shipped around the country. Such books can only be POD, and we all know stores won't stock and shelve vanity pubbed books.

He made no mention of any other prices. I chose not to reply, as I have better things to do than toss a parting shot at a vanity operation.

I wonder how many elderly folk fell for the TV sales pitch last night. They'll wind up paying for even more of them.
 
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Iamfenian

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Page Publishing with a captial S

SCAM!!!!!
I did a search on this agency in these threads but came up with over 500 results..probably because of the words 'Page' and 'Publishing'. Anyway, I must of sent my info (bad memory) as an agent contacted me. My very first question was: "Do I need to invest any of my own money?" His reply and I can quote. "No. Absolutely not." So I finished my manuscript and let it sit for a bit. He called me every month to check on my progress. Finally, I decided to go back to the manuscript, reread it, realized it was junk and ditched it, writing a new story. I did a search on the company but came up with nothing. After my first draft, I called him and lo and behold, he told me I had to invest almost 8k and then about 1k for a few months. I confronted him and said he baldfaced lied to me and go **** himself! Really? Do people actually fall for this? I guess they do after checking out their published works...real bad. I feel sorry for the authors that they are that desperate to get published.
 

Round Two

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Already a thread on them here <snipped>
 
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twbookmiss

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page Publishing

I have been contacted by Page Publishing. I don't know what the end result will be but here is what I was told:
They aren't a vanity publishing. Yes there is a down payment but I don't know what for. He said it was around $800.00 dollars, but they would do all the publishing and promotions. It sounded good and I got their packet.
My manuscript has been accepted by insomnia publishing with no upfront cost to me, I've been told.
If I wanted to self publish and IP doesn't work out I will look at Page Pub. Of the "self Pubs' and Vanity pubs they sound the most credible.
 

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The very widely agreed definition of "vanity publishing" is "the author pays a fee prior to being published". Ergo what you have described is in fact vanity publishing.

Of the fee-charging self-publishing companies, I probably would not put them in the top ten based on value for money. So if you go that way I encourage you to do some comparison shopping.
 
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The very widely agreed definition of "vanity publishing" is "the author pays a fee prior to being published". ...

Pays before and/or after, and is fooled into thinking he or she is being legitimately, competitively, comercially published. The element of deception is a key. The costs might be extracted before, after, or both.

A world of difference from commercial publishing and from genuine SELF-publishing.

--Ken
 

gingerwoman

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I have been contacted by Page Publishing. I don't know what the end result will be but here is what I was told:
They aren't a vanity publishing. Yes there is a down payment but I don't know what for. He said it was around $800.00 dollars, but they would do all the publishing and promotions. It sounded good and I got their packet.
My manuscript has been accepted by insomnia publishing with no upfront cost to me, I've been told.
If I wanted to self publish and IP doesn't work out I will look at Page Pub. Of the "self Pubs' and Vanity pubs they sound the most credible.
If you are still around, there are self publishing companies that let you do most of this stuff for free....ie get your book in all the online stores. You don't need to pay $800 for that.

I also feel I need to correct the person in this thread who said that bookstores do not stock POD books period. I know of a number of large successful digital first publishers that do definitely get their most popular POD books in brick and mortar stores, but those publishers are a very different kettle of fish from vanity publishers.The publishers with reputations that can get books into physical stores never charge authors for anything.

I came across someone else asking about this press today.
 
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aliceshortcake

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From the PP website:

We Have Published Books for Thousands of Authors

Literally thousands of authors? Or indeed Thousands of Authors? They might as well drop the facade and admit that they're an author mill.

I chose one title at random from the list of recent publications:

Rickie, Your Wings


Soaring like a hawk, Rick, a handsome sixteen-year-old farm boy, watches a sailplane fly across the sky and disappears into into the mountains and forests surrounding his hometown.

In case you were wondering the sailplane is soaring like a hawk, not Rick. Blurbfail! And the title on the book cover is Rickie Your Wings - perhaps the comma blew away.

There are no extracts on PP's site so I had to use Amazon's Look Inside feature. What I found made my blood boil:

I wrote this novel in the end of the 80s. I wrote it because I needed money for doctors for my wife. Since then it has been shelved.

I thought of rewriting my story. But I needed to buy a good typewriter.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JOXT4W4/?tag=absowrit-20

How much did this poor man pay PP to do what looks like a PublishAmerica editing job, ie no real editing? The book has 150 pages and retails for $10.46 (Kindle) or $12.29 (paperback). Most of PP's books look like the type of thing that only the writer's family and friends would want to buy.

Page Publishing must be laughing all the way to the bank.
 

VexedInSpace

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Page Publishing has 5 complaints with the BBB so far

You can read the Better Business Bureau complaints against Page Publishing here:
http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/bu...ok/page-publishing-inc-in-new-york-ny-140703/

They're all pretty much identical:
(1) They shipped their manuscript to Page Publishing.
(2) Hooray! My book was accepted by a publisher!
(3) Surprise! It costs thousands of dollars.

Fortunately for these complainants, when they saw how much it would cost, they said "hell no" and demanded their shipping charges reimbursed. To their credit, Page Publishing did so.

There's a British comedy on Netflix where a main character gets swindled by a vanity publisher. It's called "Peep Show" (I like the show, but I'm ambivalent about the title. When the show was first being created, the working title was P.O.V. [Point of View]). It's called "Business Secrets of the Pharohs," the title of Mark's book. (series 8, episode 2).

If you think "Page Publishing" gives vague search results, Mark's vanity publisher was called "British London."

For those not wanting to invest time in a new show, here's a relevant excerpt of dialogue.

MARK: I'm killing these guys! Greg really liked the draft. He had no notes at all, which was pretty sweet. He was even fine about me missing the deadline!
JEZ: Right But how much are they paying you upfront?
MARK: Publishing isn't an upfront situation these days. You've got to put in seed money for the first run.
JEZ: They're asking you to pay?
MARK: It's a totally standard deal for first-time authors. But the poor guys, I'm absolutely killing them on the big-unit deals!
JEZ: Does JK Rowling pay to have Harry Potter books published?
MARK: That's different. Harry Potter books are about wizards, for children. My book is about pharaohs, for adults.
JEZ: Right. OK.
MARK: In fact, it was the unluckiest day of JK Rowling's life when she got picked up by a publishing house. Greg from British London was saying, "Imagine if she'd self-published!"
JEZ: "British London?" Doesn't that sound a bit...
MARK (interrupting): ...too patriotic for your liking? .
JEZ (continuing): made-up?
MARK: So what if it's made up? Do you think Penguin was founded by a penguin? In a sense, everything's made up.
SUPER-HANS: (examining contract): I don't like the way these percentiles are looking at me.
MARK: Right, well, thanks for that, Hans, but I really wouldn't worry. It's a gentleman's agreement.
SUPER-HANS: Well, it looks like you've agreed these gentlemen can arse-fuck you.
 
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NancyB16

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Red Flags for me as well

I am glad I found this thread. Page Publishing contacted me after I requested an "authors submission kit" last week out of curiosity. A rep called me yesterday and asked me the genre, the length, and if I had received any feedback from people that have read it. Then he said he was interested in my book, keep in mind he never asked what it was about, he sent me an email with a link to submit it and told me they would get back to me a week later with a decision. A week? That sounded suspicious to me and then he very quickly mentioned if the book was accepted, they would set a price of how much it would be to have it published and let me know my investment price. He quickly change the subject to something else after saying that. Saying they only get 20 cents a book was also a red flag. I will be emailing them and telling them no thanks. I luckily didn't submit my book.
 

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Page Publishing address (1 Penn Plaza, NY, NY) is a UPS store
 

ResearchGuy

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Page Publishing address (1 Penn Plaza, NY, NY) is a UPS store
I would not read too much into that fact per se. I use a UPS store box as my mailing address, even though my business license is issued for my home address and I have an office elsewhere. (Not that it takes more than two or three seconds to find my home address anyway.)

FWIW.

--Ken