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Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers, Ltd.

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One cannot hide anything on the Internet. Your publishing scam is there for all to see!

Here is how its done. You take anything that is sent to you, send out a message that you are interested... hold on to the manuscript as if it were being read... send out a FORM LETTER as if it were read... and then... and only then offer a vanity press deal. Well your tactics are being uncovered and made known. Of course your web site would be littered with contented cow authors but the rest of your "marks" can eat vanity pie.


See you on the Internet!

Email to Richard Wilmot [[email protected]]


2 February 2010


Dear Dr Wilmot


Your vitriolic email has been passed to me by the Editorial Section.

This is due to the fact that your communication did not state what you wish to have done with the work you have sent to us for consideration. It is clear that you have been corresponding with other authors who have also submitted their work to us, and, of course, it is entirely your own decision regarding how you respond to the publishing offer we have sent you.

Our present authors are all in a harmonious relationship with us as their publishers and are pleased with the progress of their work. Many authors return to us several times to us to have further books published, thus showing their satisfaction. This can be verified by viewing our website www.pegasuspublishers.com.

The Publishing Board of Pegasus have now been shown your message and have stated that they are unable to comprehend what you wish to achieve by writing to us in this manner since a short, courteous email to us would have sufficed. We suggest that you submit to US publishers from now on.

Kathleen Nicholls, Publishing Adviser

On Behalf of Pegasus Publishing Board
 

monti

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I can, from a very recent experience agree with this;

Here is how its done. You take anything that is sent to you, send out a message that you are interested... hold on to the manuscript as if it were being read... send out a FORM LETTER as if it were read... and then... and only then offer a vanity press deal.
And this:

Seems like a nice little bait-n-switch routine going on there.
 

WerbyG

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I sent a query to Pegasus just last year. There was a wait of about a few weeks, then I got a request for a full. Excitement, yes? Well, I sent off the full (they wanted hard copy: cost me 80 bucks to get it over there!! :Soapbox: ) and another few weeks later, I got the email.

It said:


"We have now had the opportunity to read your work. After discussions with colleagues in marketing and promotion we feel that your work would merit publication under our Vanguard Press Publishing contract."

Of course, I'm all :hooray: and :banana: and 'drinks all round!!'

Then I read on.

"This type of contract would include a contribution from the author towards costs."

:e2steer: Wait, what? But . . . but . . . I thought . . . tradi- . . . oh, never mind. The rest was as follows:

"Vanguard Press will carry out all editorial work which includes the production of a minimum of two sets of proofs for your inspection and approval, cover design, registration of the title, printing, binding and extensive promotion and marketing.

The contribution requested from you would be calculated by our accounts department and can be paid over a period of ten months.
We do believe that with our combined efforts, your book could achieve the success that it deserves, and will be favourably received by the reading public and the media.

Please let us know if you would like us to prepare a non-obligatory contract for your perusal.
We look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Suzanne Mulvey
Commissioning Editor
Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers Ltd"


I sent them a (quite polite) 'no thank-you' that stated I was willing to wait until I found a publisher who could stand behind my work IN EVERY WAY. That was after about two days cooling down and NOT telling them what I really wanted to tell them. Nowadays I check every publisher on P&E and Absolute Write BEFORE I waste time subbing to said publisher.



So thanks guys :e2arms:
 

WerbyG

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You kept your cool and didn't get emotional over an 'acceptance' that was really a sales pitch. I wish more authors did that.

Well, I had a previous experience with PublishAmerica when I was young in the ways of internet + 'publisher' (aka, two years ago). I sent a sub to them, and scanned the email they sent back (as you do) for the words 'regret', 'however', or 'unable to publish'. Instead, I saw 'publish'! So I got very excited, and re-read the email, properly this time. It read just like a 'but wait! there's more!' commercial, and my conman sense began to tingle.

So I did a little research on the internets, and found to my shock and horror that not all 'publishers' really were publishers, and that there were (shock!) conmen hiding among the legit publishers.

I didn't even bother to reply to them: it was so palpably an attempted con that it seemed the best way to deal with it. Pegasus' attempt was a lot smoother, but in the end, one con prepares you for another.

Eh, what can you do? Pick yourself up and sub on!
 

AlexBeecroft

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This has just happened to me. I submitted the first three chapters of a Fantasy novel through Pegasus' online submissions form, got a 'please send the rest of the manuscript' and did so. Today I got a contract from Vanguard Press with a covering letter from Pegasus saying "I am pleased to be able to inform you that we are able to offer you a publishing contract."

That sounded fantastic, but my heart sank at the words "We therefore have attached a contribution-based contract for your perusal."

Then I got to the page where it says:
Advances
It is agreed that the AUTHOR shall, in consideration of the undertakings, services and expenditures made on the part of the PUBLISHER... pay to the PUBLISHER the sum of £2800 for the publication of the work."

And suddenly I'm thinking not bloody likely mate.
They don't even guarantee they'll put the books in bookshops. So, um, thanks but no thanks, Pegasus.
 

AlexBeecroft

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Well, I just about know my way around the gay romance/LGBT fiction landscape, but I'm a complete newby when it comes to fantasy. I just made a list of all the (apparently reputable) publishers that said they were accepting unagented submissions and started at the top. I was aiming for Pegasus' Chimera imprint but clearly they didn't like it enough for that and this is their equivalent of a rejection letter.
 

Filigree

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Hon, PM me or email me and we'll talk. I owe you, for talking me down about a certain agent a couple of years ago. You probably know some of the reputable houses to query - but Pegasus has been vanity since forever. At least since 2008?

It's a good data point for anyone else considering Pegasus/Chimera: if your mms is rejected by Chimera, you may, in fact, be subject to a bait-n-switch offer for vanity publishing. This is not kosher. This is the sort of thing that alert writers are watching the Big 5 vanity imprints for: hints of kickbacks and crosstalk between the Big 5 'real' imprints and the associated vanity pubs looking to make bank on rejected manuscripts.

I have *not* seen or heard direct evidence of this happening yet. Both the Big 5 pubs and their vanity associates are still too savvy to commit that stupidity.
 

AlexBeecroft

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Thank you :) I'm certainly finding the Fantasy genre a hard nut to crack, and making a bundle of newby mistakes on the way. But even I know that money always flows to the author, and any contract that states otherwise is a firm 'run away.' So I've not lost anything other than time, (and a moment's wild hope.)
 

Becky Black

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A friend of mine has just gone through the same thing as Alex and WerbyG - checked the site out, looked legit, submitted, got a request for the full and then the offer of a contract - which asked for £2500 from her. She says the royalty rates were pretty derisory too. Obviously she backed off immediately.

I've just been looking around their site and I can't find anything saying that they'll ask you for a fee if they accept your book. It's definitely bait and switch. They look entirely legit, especially to inexperienced people, then ask for money later.
 

mayqueen

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Just curious if this group is related to Pegasus Books. I was doing some research on small presses for historical fiction and came across them. The website had a couple of red flags for me (stating they will refer you to their "you pay for it" editing imprint if they like your book but not enough to fund it themselves), so I did not put them on my list.
 

victoriastrauss

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mayqueen--there's no connection as far as I know, but this Pegasus has an associated fee-based service, Parnassus Press, and there is crossover, with books rejected by Pegasus being passed on to Parnassus and Pegasus authors encouraged to use Pegasus's "editorial services contractor".

Pegasus looks to me like one of the many, many less-than-professional small presses out there, many of which are unintentionally author-unfriendly simply because they don't know any better. As a fun exercise, count the red flags in this long justification of "the new traditional publisher."

- Victoria
 

Dr. Johnson

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mayqueen--there's no connection as far as I know, but this Pegasus has an associated fee-based service, Parnassus Press, and there is crossover, with books rejected by Pegasus being passed on to Parnassus and Pegasus authors encouraged to use Pegasus's "editorial services contractor".

Pegasus looks to me like one of the many, many less-than-professional small presses out there, many of which are unintentionally author-unfriendly simply because they don't know any better. As a fun exercise, count the red flags in this long justification of "the new traditional publisher."

- Victoria

Victoria,

To avoid confusion, you might want to open a new thread to make a distinction between this "Pegasus" and Claiborne Hancock's "Pegasus Books," a very reputable traditional publisher with offices at 80 Broad Street, NYC. I noticed this distinction has already been made on P&E. Among other things, the "legit" Pegasus is on the MWA approved list and takes submissions from some A list agents.

Doc
 

victoriastrauss

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Doc--I'm no longer a moderator here, so I can't port posts into new threads, but hopefully a mod will stop by soon and follow up on your suggestion.

So it seems there are at least three publishers with "Pegasus" in their names: Pegasus Elliott Mackenzie (UK vanity publisher), Pegasus Books (semi-vanity amateur press, at pegasusbooks.net), and Pegasus Books (reputable small press, at pegasusbooks.com). To confuse matters further, there are at least two bookstores called Pegasus Books.

- Victoria
 

Dr. Johnson

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Doc--I'm no longer a moderator here, so I can't port posts into new threads, but hopefully a mod will stop by soon and follow up on your suggestion.

So it seems there are at least three publishers with "Pegasus" in their names: Pegasus Elliott Mackenzie (UK vanity publisher), Pegasus Books (semi-vanity amateur press, at pegasusbooks.net), and Pegasus Books (reputable small press, at pegasusbooks.com). To confuse matters further, there are at least two bookstores called Pegasus Books.

- Victoria

Victoria--Sorry, I didn't realize you were no longer a moderator. Anyway, thanks for helping to clarify a confusing situation with three similarly named, but quite different, publishers--not to mention the bookstores!

Doc
 

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Hi,


I'm new to the community -- I too have some questions regarding Pegasus and I just wanted to bump this thread to see if anyone had signed with them? I'd be interested to know if anyone thought they got their money's worth (or not?)
 

waylander

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At £2500 investment you are never going to see anything that resembles a return on your money. Pegasus do not distribute into UK book shops so no-one is ever going to see your book and, as they are a known pay-to-play publisher, very few reputable reviewers will review your book.
 
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Any publisher which asks you to contribute anything to the cost of publishing--whether it's to cover editing, publishing, marketing, sales, or anything else--is to be avoided. They won't publish you well, they won't market or promote your book effectively, and your book won't sell in any reasonable number.

You'd be better off investing your money in self-publishing. Which means doing everything yourself, not using the services of one of the many self publishing service providers which proliferate.
 

Hutching

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Yes, I almost got caught by this outfit last July.

Euphoria at initial interest followed by anxious wait for next steps. In the meantime I had stumbled upon the fact that they were a Vanity operation and how they went about their business. When the 'offer' finally came through I explained that I write as a hobby, I don't need the money book sales may generate, and I have no intention of putting money into the project.
It suddenly went quiet and that's the way it has stayed. Meantime I thought 'to hell with it' and self-published via Amazon.
Then I found this site which has restored my faith in the fact that there must be some integrity out there, somewhere.