Your Manuscript, Your Money... Beware!  

An article pending publication written by Richard Paul Tanos

     First, I would like to get one thing straight for those of you who want to read this article. The following is my experience, therefore the words and comments are written from my first-hand point of view.

     I believe that everyone has a story to tell. For those of you who take the time to write your story and then for those of you who take your manuscripts to the next level, this article is for you, as I hope that I will be able to shed a little light on the process of publishing.  This is a story of one publishing company and I'm sure that there are more out who are all eager and willing to take your money and giving back to you headaches, disappointments, and misleading hopes.  

     When I started my journey over five years ago, I was told... "it would be incredible." They were too the letter and, completely on the money. However, the deceptions, accusations, and misrepresentations started from the beginning and continued throughout my so-called incredible journey.

     I would first like to share that I’m almost positive not all journeys are this way, but in the competitive world of publishing, you as an author, for what it’s worth, should be aware of the traps and scams that sit out there waiting for you – being the prey. It is my opinion that having your manuscript published for some publishers has nothing to do with quality, innovativeness, marketability, presentation, or even creativity – It directly relates to your vulnerability, ego, desires, and more importantly, the depth of your pocketbook.

     Here is my story and I, like most, do not have deep pockets.

     I first met them on the Internet, a couple of months after I sent my manuscript to a few traditional publishers including the return SASE. Their website words were not only welcomed and soothing but craftily engineered to represent themselves in a professional, worldly, cutting edge, and well-established fashion. I liked what I saw, which forced me to continue digging deeper and deeper until I fell into those strategic manufactured words and phrases that suddenly satisfied my new found dream of visualizing my book in final form. Marketing words like, editors, designers, copyeditors, and publicists, were used to lure my imagination into thinking that all these people within this publishing company were going to help me bring my book to completion and then to market. After reading the words, to me it seemed that this publishing company must be a major player to have all these people with titles and department headings working for them, not to mention the several editors and copyeditors listed. Phrases such as ‘unsolicited manuscripts’, ‘book publicity’, and my favorite ‘publishing houses’ were also used to entice my mind into a state that I had no choice of feeling that I simply could not live without them. I naively felt that this company was indeed the right one for me, and my dream. The $750 dollars plus I was asked to send did not seem out of the ordinary since it was described as a one-time deposit with the funds being returned after the book was in print for the first calendar quarter and that the reason for the deposit money was to simply have me commit my talents to this publisher. I then realized that I was in fact an unknown, making the deposit seem somewhat justified. Before I mailed my check let me explain. I gladly and without reservation sent my first manuscript to a person my publisher called, ‘the acquisitions editor’. The illusion I formulated mentally was one of a larger than life person titled, ‘Acquisitions Editor’, who would receive and assign my novel to one of several studious looking, glasses bearing, bookworm staff members, who would read the manuscript and then at a meeting, Monday morning, over coffee and pastries, present their conclusions of my manuscript, positive or negative, to the other staff members, either for acceptance or rejection. Not only was I ready for this but, I was just thrilled that I had gotten this far in such a relative short period of time—much shorter than the experts had written about when dealing with traditional publishers using snail mail.

     The multi-page contract arrived via email attachment. The word ‘Congratulations’ on the email title line was the only word I was able to focus on. I suddenly felt unique and excitingly special knowing that I had passed the first test, being that the acquisitions staff had approved my manuscript. The second test that I passed was evident in the correspondence indicating that my manuscript had met or surpassed the publisher’s high standards, even though my story had sailor’s language and tons of graphic sex scenes (to my count at least 15,000 words.) Wow, I thought, they must really like my manuscript not to mention in only four weeks; besides, I still had two other snail-mail submissions that I had still not heard back from. I was enamored and possibly a little star-struck of being approved and accepted so quickly. At this point, after reading the accepting words more than once, I would have sent these people my first born as well as the $750 plus dollars -- the one-time refundable deposit. I couldn’t write the check fast enough, but I did in fact read, obviously with a tainted view, the multi-page contract. The commission structure seemed fine, as this certainly was the most important section to me, yet after reading the contract again I missed the word -- ‘net’. Nevertheless, the overwhelming secondary rights about TV, movies, interviews, other related works at fifty percent filled my head with a million scenarios of success; besides, I had a great story of historical significance. I did find lots of legal words that I did not understand and really because those words did not jump out at me, I did not take a closer look. I was emotionally okay with my deal; besides, I was here, like the website stated -- to have my book published and brought to market around the world. That is what they had promised. The illusions escalated making my head grow even larger.

     After four weeks I finally received an email from my assigned editor and I was very impressed not to mention totally intimated beyond expectations. His professionalism jumped from the computer screen when I scanned his first email, which forced me to write my response and a follow-up question with a great deal of care making sure I had words spelt correctly and within proper structure. His response to my first email was slow in coming and after a while I grew accustomed to my editor’s slow turn around, thinking that this highly qualified person, who was now applying his talents to my story, must be extremely busy and in demand. The next five weeks of sitting idle and waiting for my first edit was more than nerve wracking. I thought that my story was being torn apart, pasted back together, and that my words were certainly being changed everywhere, possibly making my publisher leery of their recent choice. I would not be surprised if they cancelled this contract outright only because this was in fact my first manuscript submission, or perhaps my editor felt that I was not ready to write a novel. Those feelings quickly disappeared when the email attachment arrived.

     Humble was the word of that day, especially when I viewed the scattered red lines, words, and punctuation, obviously edit alterations, not to mention the many words that were highlighted yellow that eventually led me into another whole dialogue with my editor about the story. At this point in my journey, I felt he was God. He performed his task brilliantly and actually, after further examination of the story, he wasn’t too hard on me. I quickly made the suggested changes, re-read the story, and then I noticed that the story structure had been left intact, but to my surprise, he had professionally made my story come alive. He is good!

     The second edit was like the first, except it took a longer, much longer than I was briefed from the author’s guide (my publisher’s bible.) This authors guide had been sent to me months earlier, since I was now was on the road to becoming a published author and the material that I was now reading was forbidden to share, which made the document seem biblical. I paid a lot of attention to the estimated time frames and after conservatively doing the math I figured that my book should take almost a year to complete. This was my first disappointment and would not be my last in this journey. The words jumped from the written page and into my head; delays are common and should be expected and when you do ask questions and raise concerns, remember, you can get more from being sweet and nice rather than being a grump or hateful. The other trend that I missed or simply did not want to concentrate on was that email was the suggested form of communication with my publisher and that I, as a new author should examine the authors guide before asking my question.

     I had so many questions now being knee-deep in this journey and I had no one to ask, feeling intimidated about asking the publisher since the guide frown on that. Also, I had no friends that had previously written a novel. I looked in my author’s guide for the answers to my questions and like most of what I needed to know, it was not there. My second disappointment showed up one afternoon when I was flatly told ‘NO’ to my first question that I sent to a department called, ‘Operations.’ After reading the guide again there were certain things I did not understand and really I wanted to find out, being normally and justifiably anxious, remember, this is my first exposure in this field. I thought that if there was an Author’s forum, you know the kind of place that questions from first-timers could be posted and then have experienced authors, at least the ones that wanted to help, promptly answer. I knew that this forum would be the remedy not only to my questions but many others who I was sure were experiencing the same concerns of being a first-time author. I didn’t think my question was unreasonable, but the response was to the point. It would not be productive to have authors talk to other authors, instead that time should be used to concentrate on finding an endorsement for your novel – you know a famous person with a name that could write a foreword. I got totally confused about reviews, blurbs, endorsements and forewords for my novel. ‘Why did my publisher not want me talking to other authors?’ was the question that leaped to the top of my already growing pile.

     Even though the answers I received sat me back on my heels a bit, I still had that feeling of being special, which not only made my head larger, but also made me write like a person possessed thinking that I was good and that I could in fact write stories. I wrote two other manuscripts and like the first, once completed and formatted, I submitted them to my publisher. To back track a bit, before I started writing, I did a little research and decided well before I began this late in life mission to write, I needed to keep my words to the point, refrain from embellishing visual things, and not to make my stories clouded with descriptive non-meaningful phrases. My mission was to be true to my stories, keep my dialogue crisp, timely, and draw my readers into a world of the present day demands for quick-flowing content. I knew that I would not rock the world with literacy genius, but I also knew I could plan and write a good story.

     Contracts were issued for both of my new stories and I was confident that I was now accepted as a writer. The acquisitions staff must have loved my contemporary stories. Editors were assigned and the process repeated itself. It was at this point that I realized that my editors must have had a guide as well with bold print stating ‘not to get personal with the authors.’ I asked a few simple questions, such as where are you located, east or west coast, and what their professional accomplishments were. I received no responses almost like my email had gotten lost in the information highway – maybe an abrupt wreck – I got the point. I had no choice but to keep professional in nature and continued with my quest to get my three manuscripts published and to market.

     My first novel, suddenly after six months, went to copyedit, as I was informed via email from my editor. I was thrilled and waited patiently for another three months until I decided to inquire about the status of my first novel. A problem surfaced, as it seems that my assigned editor could not be located and actually I lost eight weeks. I became agitated since the scheduled time frame from my authors guide was now way out of whack forcing my novel into a delay that I personally, had no control of. I felt for the first time, ignored.

     Excuse me for back tracking a little but, before my first novel went to copyedit, I suddenly on a Tuesday morning, received my cover, which was prepared by my publishers design department, and was presented as being the best cover, approved by the marketing department, for the best sales. Not what I had designed in my head and for that matter conveyed to them earlier, yet still a nice looking attractive cover. To my recent knowledge, I quickly realized that this was another lie from my publisher and that my cover had never been submitted to the marketing department for approval.

     I then proceeded, as part of guide direction, to build a website using my computer background as my foundation, and after analyzing several other well-known author sites, and incorporating soothing and stunning colors and fonts with lots of pictures, my endeavor became soon accomplished. Everyone loved the site and after a few criticisms, which I fixed, the site became official and functional. Comments from the publisher indicated that the site should be a little more portal in nature, whatever that meant, and not so much of a brochure style. I thought about it and quickly decided that I was selling myself as an author representing my novels and not an informative resource center relating to the topic of my first novel, so I kept the site primarily as is. I did, however, link several topic related sites. My confusion forced me to ask. Why didn’t they want me selling myself as an author?

     It was at this point that I started thinking about the marketing of my first book. I not only became glued to the Book TV Channel on Saturday and Sundays, but I contacted the Marketing Director within my publishing company and introduced myself. The contact was pleasant and informative with the only concern from the Marketing Director was that I could be a little too premature in my marketing efforts and I really didn’t need to present my novel too early, which according to the Marketing Director, would cause my novel to become certainly obsolete even before printing – ‘going cold’ in industry terms. I agreed and backed off on this step. I then realized that what they were telling me was in fact true and to my mind suddenly made sense. I refrained from my marketing efforts at this point.

     My questions escalated at an alarming rate and I did keep a pad of notes, since my novel was now in copyediting and, the front cover was finished. All I needed at this point was clear and precise direction.

     At this point a year had flown by and my first book seemed to be near completion, at least to me, but as far as my publisher was concerned, there were still several more things that need attention before it went to print. My other two books were being edited and were progressing along similar to the first, except the delays were getting shorter, which told me that three of my novels would be coming out relatively close to each other, only because the first novel experienced major unexplained delays.

     Being business minded by nature, I started asking myself questions such as, the publisher must be spending major dollars bringing this book to print, my initial payment of $750 plus dollars must surely be depleted by now. How is the publisher making money to stay in business, and why are they not pushing my first novel to completion? These and a few other questions haunted me. I had finished the editing of my three novels and had time on my hands so I felt compelled in trying to figure out the world of publishing. I started inquiring, calculating numbers, the editing processes, the cover design, and the overall administration costs of a major publisher, including the costs for shipping, inventory, marketing, staff, and others. The answers that I arrived at seemed logical that my publisher must of had hundreds of clients and all their books were already printed and marketed, bringing in major dollars; besides this publisher had their own book store website.

     Still feeling a bit special after all these months, I accepted though I disagreed with some of the answers to my multitude of questions from the marketing department, the pre-determined publishers course of action. The novel was getting closer to completion and like a first-time author I was getting more excited to the point where I ordered 500 business cards and 500 shipping return labels with not only my name and contact information but my publishers as well.

     January arrived, 14 months after the contract date of the first novel, and so did an unexpected email, from a person who wanted to be kept confidential. This unknown person informed me to take a look at a website that would certainly interest me. Being curious, I clicked on it and low and behold there it was not from one author but from over fifteen, who were all venting their frustrations about their experiences. Wow, it was the same publisher that I was contracted to. I became upset after I read the first message posted to this bulletin board style website. I had no choice but to continue, so I kept reading and when I was finished, it became clear what this publisher was all about. The signs were there all along, yet being enamored about being a first-time published author -- I did not see the writing on the wall, or if I did, I ignored it.

     Feeling betrayed and cheated to a degree, I kept my loyalty in the forefront of my thoughts and figured that what I read was nothing more than comments from authors that didn’t follow the publisher’s guidelines or were perhaps too lazy to follow up on individual marketing work. Regardless of what I read, I knew I had a strong background in business, which forced me to investigate, not only my own publisher, but the publishing industry as a whole. My decision to investigate was for no other reason than to satisfy my own concerns; besides, my publisher already had thousands of my dollars and still I did not have a book in my hand. What I read from that website either needed to be validated or discarded.

     What I found out was astounding. The Marketing staff and publicists, which sounded to me like an entire staff, was in fact, one person; yes, one person. The company is a sole proprietorship, and is only three years old. In my opinion, and please I would love to be corrected on this point, is that my publishing company is probably nothing more than a small bungalow with a single car garage located in the low rent district. Traditional Publisher, as they promoted themselves as – I think not. In addition, I’ll bet that the Acquisitions Editor is the owner. It would not surprise me that within the next year possible criminal and/or civil actions may be in the future for this company.

     My selected publisher, upon recent investigation, is not eligible for CIP (Catalogue In Publication), even though they requested that I fill out the form regarding this information at the onset. Also, I realized that copyright information had not been filed with the Library of Congress. Needless to say my respect at this point for my chosen publisher had diminished quite a bit. How could I accept anything that they were telling me, either in the Author’s Guide, or even by email? I now knew that they had no experience, yet they instructed on marketing efforts like they knew the secret formula for a successful release of a novel. I wondered about a question I had asked the first month into this journey, ‘Please tell me the most successful book you have published?’ Guess what, this question had been totally ignored and not answered. I read about vanity presses, author self-assisted publishers, on-demand publishers, and I’m sure a few more combinations that I cannot categorize at this time. I still felt fairly secure with my chosen publisher, only because of the money I had invested in my novels, which seemed to be much less than what other publisher’s were charging for editing costs alone. For this reason, I felt satisfied about my choice, but still, those disgruntled authors comments made me feel somewhat apprehensive as I myself was approaching this phase of the journey. I knew that I should have been jumping up and down with the knowledge that my first book, after countless un-explained delays, was now on the fast track to print, as I was told. I did not feel that way. This bothered me, since I have been so loyal from day one and now that I had suddenly figured out the company’s scheme of generating their revenues. I became troubled and deeply concerned. I really can’t explain what I was feeling at that time, and against my wife’s advice, I caved, and sent in my fourth novel. I was quickly accepted and I then proceeded to dish out another $750 plus dollars hoping that what I had read earlier would somehow not apply to me.

     Now that my first book was finally going to print, I knew from what I had previously read from that disturbing January website, that I was going to be approached, possibly pushed or even pressured into ordering 1500 or 1000 copies, at what the publisher would call a deep discount, which would be applied to an inflated retail price of course, but still way more than the average book would cost from other printing houses. I hoped this would not come. I was wrong, It did!

     For example, my novel had a retail price affixed by my publisher and without my approval at $22.00. If I ordered less than 100 copies my cost per book would be $19.80 per book. If I ordered between 100 and 300 copies, my cost would be $13.20 per book. And, if I ordered over 300 my cost would be $11.00 per book. Also, shipping costs of well over $725 were indicated on my order of a 1000 books. My authors guide indicated that 500 copies for a review was normal, at least for successful books. I asked myself, "Had they had any successful books; they didn't answer that question when I asked along time ago." However, they had forgotten a few things in their words. The postage and packaging costs of around $2,000 were certainly not explained almost like these fixed shipping costs were ignored and would somehow simply vanish into thin air. Five hundred copies allocated to review contacts, which they suggested, was required for a successful marketing plan, even though they indicated in the authors guide that only one to six out of a hundred would answer. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that what my publisher was saying did not make for very good odds. A thousand more copies for my own inventory is what I needed, again, according to the guide, to either sell at bookstores, luncheons, and get-togethers, not less than three times a week. What about the required storage and the copies that were misprinted? I had been warned earlier about the trouble with misprints and refund procedures.  I still had a internal question of what expertise or track record did my publishing company have?

     I then decided to contact other authors, not from my own publisher’s pool; besides, why would I want to talk to other authors in the same boat that I was currently in.  Instead, I obtained information from other various author and publisher websites in order to establish my own network of resources and information. I asked authors questions about their own publishers, their contracts, and in general their opinions about the whole process, including pricing, timings, deliveries, and possible contacts with the major bookstores. The response was overwhelming and I kicked myself in the ass, more than once, as I should have done this a year and half earlier, even though there was not a person in the world that could have convinced me of that back then. I learned about the industry, the scams, the copyrighting, the various publishing venues, the costs, the promises, and most important, the need to ask more detailed and specific questions.

     I recently had the opportunity of meeting a person who knew a very famous author and after minor discussions gave me this author’s address. Once I sent a query letter, I started to think about all the people that I had sent my manuscripts to for reviews, endorsements, and comments over the past year, like I was advised to do. I suddenly realized in the form of a question -- What about my own copyright? I proceeded to ask my publisher about this and after a week of no response, I found myself inquiring about the proper channels in order to register my copyrights. I spent a great deal of time understanding this process and the government office quickly answered my questions and with a great deal of accuracy. As my questions were answered timely, I figured out that CIP (Catalogue in Publication) was a tool that traditional publishers used to inform bookstores and libraries of books that were in the process of being published, sort of being in the construction phase. Once the book was published, the CIP disappeared. My publisher could not be part of this program since they engaged in author subsidies – the $750 plus dollar deposit. However, my copyright was still my main concern. I checked my name and titles and to my surprise, I could not find anything. Sixteen months had passed since my first contract and my book was not there in the Library of Congress website search facility. I became agitated and asked my publisher about this again. The answer came in the form a phone call, the first and I hope the last one, as what I listen too was merely nothing more than excuses, including, publisher staff problems, the Anthrax hoax, computers being down, and the copyright office too swamped to handle the backlog of requests. For the first time in my journey, I did not buy it; besides I knew what I needed to do. I copyrighted myself -- it was simple, really painless and simple. What I didn’t know was that my publisher, as a result of my copyright questions, felt the need to, without cause, accuse me of heading up a secret correspondence email ring, which by their accusations, I was doing nothing more than secretly bashing my publisher with other ‘hobby authors.’ My incoming emails now have a copy to the legal department. My guess is that the copy to the legal department is a copy to the owner. I did have one more question to ask. I emailed my publisher and asked about the make-up of a royalty payment. To me an honest, and logistical question with merit and meaning. I did not get an answer of what I was looking for, specifically in dollars and cents. Instead I got something to the affect that if I shared the names of the authors that I had been accused of defaming my publisher over the past while, my publisher would grant me amnesty and answer my question. At this point I became alienated and totally frustrated with my small-time publishers actions not to mention their narrow-minded views. It is very clear that my publisher cannot nor does not have the resources to bring my novel to market. They even had the nerve to hold the mailing list for my review copies in ransom. In other words, if I ordered 300 review copies they would send me the review list. If I ordered 250 review copies I would not receive the list. What is this all about? Does this sound positive? It is clear to me what my publisher is all about.

     I am not an expert in any stretch within the field of publishing, but I do find myself presently knowledgeable about what not to do to get published in today’s environment. I recently had read that everything you need to know about a prospective publisher is at your local bookstore. This is so true. Look at the first page in a book, it will tell you everything you need to know to choose a publisher. Look at the Publishers name, the address, the copyright information, which should be there, the disclaimers, and the imprints. Besides, the simple fact that the book is in the bookstore says volumes and that this is a publisher that can get the book to market. Be careful whom you choose. Do your homework and research publishers by asking questions. I am reminded of the cliché, ‘If it is too good to be true, then it probably is!’ I cannot stress enough in advising you to ask questions, lots of questions. Remember, most authors love to talk about their accomplishments. However, if you can’t find your answers or you simply do not have the time to spend investigating, please, send me your manuscript along with $16,390.00 and I will send you 1,500 completed soft-cover books with a full color cover and all within 20 months. However, if you are like me and have four novels then please send me $65,560.00. Maybe, I just might be able to get that retro Ford Thunderbird – the red convertible model. You too for an outrageous investment can be a published author. My advice – It’s your manuscript, it’s your money, beware!

     Footnote: This article would not be complete unless I shared the last scene. The complimentary copy of my first book surprisingly appeared in the mail. I quickly opened the large brown envelope and there it was, in it’s colorful glory -- My book! My thoughts are certainly tainted, which suppressed my emotions. The book, not much bigger than a holiday issue of a TV Guide intrigued me. I opened the cover and noticed that the font size required a magnifying glass to read the words. The paper seemed to be of a lesser quality, almost newsprint looking. The orange color in the cover, which I approved, is now missing and the dark image of the farm worker, which I could now see in full detail, would offend many Canadians. The final insult to my injury; the price; at $22.00. Feeling angry, disgusted and cheated, and knowing that this price was a bullet to the brain, I tossed the book to the coffee table, when my wife picked it up and after two days, when it was all said and done, the error count she frustratingly reported was twenty-two.  Having gone through the entire process, I do have a heart, therefore, I will adjust my prices in the above, so now, you as a first time writer will only need to send me, lets say an even $60,000.00 and I will do your book... I might even move in with you!