I am getting published

[marykay]

When it's a blessing, you will know it. God has truly smiled upon me. My book will start in the publication process in April.

[Ransom v. Unman]

Hallelujah! Way to go!

...

What's it about?

[kriswrite]

Wonderful! Who is your publisher?

Kristina

[tlm]

Marykay, congratulations!

Give us some details.

[Gravity]

Marykay, congratulations!

Give us some details.

I echo everyone's congrats, MaryKay! Finishing a book is an accomplishment few people know (and fewer people appreciate!)

What's it called, and who's the publisher?

[cpbookworm]

Congo rats! :)

[marykay]

The book is called "Inner Beauty". The book deals with the inner beauty that God see. A lot of times we can cover up,(make-up, clothes,etc..), but God wants your real "Inner Beauty" to shine. What he has placed inside of you, that's what he looks at. Old things have passed away, behold all things are new with our Lord. Tate publishing is my publisher. Check them out at Tatepublishing.com

[ProfessorAlan]

Let us know how it works out: distribution, marketing, recovering your costs/investment, etc . . .

[marykay]

I thank everyone for there congrats. Just continue to pray for me. Out of everything, I want to remain humble and meek at the feet of Jesus.!

[love2write]

Dear Marykay,

You may want to look at the list of publishers the Writers Beware has given 'two thumbs down to. I have posted the list over in the Writers Lounge. Tate is one of the publishers on the list.

It is exciting when a publishing company offers a contract. But writers need to beware of the scam publishers that are out there, that are looking to make money off of writers. The rule is money should flow to the writer, not from the writer to the publisher.

I'm sorry if this has upset you, but I had to be the watchman on the wall and send out a warning.

Don't let this discourage you, though. There are legitimate publishers out there that you can submit your work to.

[Gravity]

Well now, in all fairness, it depends of the situation. While vanity publishing is the kiss of death for fiction, for non-fiction it can work. If the speaker's platform is well-known, a tidy sum can be garnered for back of the room sales. Whether those sales are enough to cover Tate Publishing's $4000 set-up cost is obviously another question. Then after that expense is met, the books have to be priced attractively to move well and turn a profit.

Mary, I guess what we're saying is, it's your money. Make sure it's spent well, and wisely. Check all the avenues before you sign the papers.

[marykay]

Well, like I said earlier, if I don't invest in me, who will! There is one thing about the Holy Ghost, He don't lie. Yes, it is my money. Money well invested. I thank God for His Son Jesus and the gift of the Holy Ghost. But thank you guys for being concern. I love you. Keep prating for me, as I will you. Thanks!

[marykay]

Well, like I said earlier, if I don't invest in me, who will! There is one thing about the Holy Ghost, He don't lie. Yes, it is my money. Money well invested. I thank God for His Son Jesus and the gift of the Holy Ghost. But thank you guys for being concern. I love you. Keep prating for me, as I will you. Thanks!

How many people know out there that can't nobody do you like Jesus?
Keep your head up! There's one thing about this situation and that is if Tate publishing are not doing their job, God knows. So, that means that God will handle them. It's not up to us as " Good Christian" folks to judge them.

[Merry]

marykay, with all due respect for the talent God gave you, it would be wrong of us not to warn you about these people. Look, if you knew a lot of people who went to the same car dealership and got fleeced, is it judgemental to advise others to keep away? Jesus told us to be wise as serpents, harmless as doves. I submit it is NOT wise to go to do business with people who are known charlatans. I doubt you knew about them going into the deal, but I would see if you can back out and get your money. If you really want to self-publish, which is what Tate does, I would go with Lulu. You can get your book printed for about 400 dollars. (big difference, eh?) Better yet, get your money back, polish your book and try for a traditional publisher.

I know you must have been terribly excited and that's understandable and it gives me no joy to write this post. The first rule of getting published: watch out for the sharks! I will pray for you to get what's yours returned without hassle.

[peridot08]

When it's a blessing, you will know it. God has truly smiled upon me. My book will start in the publication process in April.

Congratulations! I hope all goes well for you and hope there will be many more to follow. :)

[tlm]

I would go with Lulu.

I have just finished a project that I have spent a great deal of time working on. This is for a friend who has a child who is dealing with many medical problems. Locally, the family is well known because the media has followed their story for several years.

Though this is a story of local interest, the bigger publishers did not have interest in printing such a story in book form, though I did sell a magazine story about the family.

I said that to say that, when I finished the manuscript for the family, I advised them to go to a self-printer like Lulu or Cafepress. They were looking into something like Tate and I advised them against it because I didn't think they should have to come up with all that "up front" money.

[Elkan]

We are with Tate and to this point have had no problems.

Our book will be released in June. Before going with them we tried doing some research and really didn't find a lot other than something about them being the #1 Christian publisher for that year. I don't know the source and I haven't been able to verify it, but I also didn't see an overwhelming amount of negative comments either. I see the money up front as a security deposit. After you sell 5000 books you get the investment back. In the contract they also commit to investing three times your investment in marketing. I will admit that that is not a lot, but it is more than straight self-publishing where you have NO help. Every author, especially new ones should expect to put a lot of leg work and sweat and tears into promoting the book. You can't expect to write it and watch it sell on it's own. We honestly feel that the Lord has led our entire process, including Tate as the publisher, and He won't leave us hanging now. From our pesonal experience to date, Tate is only guilty of one of the things on the list and that is taking money up front. I might have a different opinion in a few months after the book is out, but to this point all has gone well.

Pray about it and see where the Lord is leading.

[Elkan]

I forgot to mention that Tate also does the cover art which can be expensive if you have to find someone to do it.

I don't know about Lulu or Cafepress so I can't compare. I can only speak on my experience with Tate.

[love2write]

You might want to contact Victoria Strauss at Writers Beware and ask her why Tate is on their list of publishers to avoid. I don't know the reason WB included Tate, but I know a lot of authors who have been burned by vanity publishers or pod pubishers who make claims that the author's book is going to be a huge success because it is highly marketable. It may be, and I hope it will for those of you on this thread that have gone with Tate.

But writers beware when a publisher asks for money. Traditional publishers do not. Also beware when they claim to have a fantastic marketing department but they have no national distribution into bookstores. These publishers will tell you your book will be 'available' to bookstores, but that is different than actually being distributed.

If you are under contact with Tate, I hope you do make your investment back. But I want to encourage you that with your next book you seek a commercial publisher that will not charge you any money, that is if you plan to have a career as an author.

However, there are times when one of these publishers is the right fit, like Toni mentions above. I've put together a book of family stories that I might have Lulu print. I'm not interested in having anyone read it other than family and friends.

All kinds of wolves come in sheeps' clothing. One other thing to take into consideration when having your book printed with a vanity press, your book will not be recognized as a legitimate publishing credit. What this means is when you write something new and you begin to submit to traditional publishers and literary agents, your title will not be recognized by them as truly published and you should not include it in your list of publishing credits.

There is an interesting thread over at Absolute Write about Tate. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=992

[Gravity]

This will be my third year teaching some workshops at the Glorieta Christian Writers Conference. The subject of self-publishing always comes up; in her above post, love2write pretty well nails the industry's thinking. Money flows to the author (or should); anything else is simply employing what Kinko's can do, only on a bigger scale.

As I said up thread, vanity publishing can work, if the factors are all in place. I.e., first, the work has to be non-fiction; vanity publishing for fiction simply does not work. Second, the platform must support back-of-the-room sales; the more widely-known the platform, the better. And third, the unit price must be set high enough to recoup the cost of printing, but not so high it discourages sales. And that is a tricky proposition.

What I tell my writing students, especially those that are writing fiction, is to seek commericial publishing first, and when and only when that fails, should they seek out the vanity houses.

[tlm]

I forgot to mention that Tate also does the cover art which can be expensive if you have to find someone to do it.

Lulu does have stock photos for book jackets. Cafepress has a function where you can use your own photos for the cover.

[Elkan]

There is an interesting thread over at Absolute Write about Tate. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=992


I just spent a little time reading through that link and came away with one thing.

Those who seem to warn against Tate have nothing concrete against them that they are bad to do business with. The only complaint seems to be that you have to pay up front. Those who have commented working with Tate don't seem to have a problem with them. If Tate was so bad, where are all the disgruntled authors that want to warn others against the terrible experience they had? I'll admit that I also haven't heard any of them singing their praises though. So what is one to think?

As many have said, and I have to agree, Tate isn't for everyone and until I am completely through the process, which will be soon, I have been relatively satisfied. The only thing I've been dissatisfied with is the timing on marketing. I work in marketing and I love marketing so I've been trying to get them to pre-market our book, but that doesn't fit their business model, so I've had to pre-market myself.

I have also learned though that I can't make it happen by myself. God is the one in control. We had some really sweet marketing partnership doors that appeared to open when they suddenly shut with no warning and no logical explanation. I am learning to lean more on Him than I realized I needed to. This is also why I said in an earlier post that His hand has been in this whole process from beginning to end. There have been some really unexplainable things that have happened that we can only explain as His hand being in it.

I'll let everyone know how it all turns out one way or the other.

[Gravity]

Thanks for your honesty, Elkan. As I've said, if the book you have with them is non-fiction, and your platform solid enough (enabling you to do enough back-of-the-room sales for a full sell-through), you should be okay. The only dicey part will be the setting of the price, but again, if they work with you on that, so much the better.

Let us know how it works out, and blessings on you!

[tlm]

We all hope the very best things for you!

[writeinvest]

All the best with your book MaryKay. I pray it will go well for you.

[stoplight]

I don't know much about Tate Publishing like the others so I just went and typed in their name. One Yahoo at the top was Tate Publishing Scam.
WritersNet and Christianstoryteller.com both have negative reports. I then went next to Amazon.com to see if any of their authors showed up. Two out of three did.
I know the flustration of getting rejection letters; the long wait, and then boom a literary agent wants to take a look. Boom again: Not interested! So you start all over again. Thats why Vanity Presses are so dangerous they feed on the hopes and prayers of good people just wanted to get into that publishing ring.
I wouldn't want anyone here at ChristianWriters to fall into wrong dealings so I think everyone should pray for everyone connected to this site and ask God to put a special blessing on us. Remember "where two or more are gathered!"
So whether it's MaryKay or anyone else, the Holy Spirit will quicken them to know the truth so it can set us free. Good luck MaryKay

[marykay]

thank you for your concern. I'm doing just fine where I am. But you continue to pray for me. I will continue to pray for you.

[mahatma]

I have published two books with Tate and my first audiobook is coming out soon. I love the Tate family, we met last year at CBA in Denver and I believe they are sincere in their business. I hope to do much more work with them in the nearby future!:D

[marykay]

I knew that there were someone that had some encouraging words to say about tate. Thank you for responding to the thread. I hope to continue my writing career with them also. Stay blessed.

[love2write]

What kind of marketing does Tate do for its authors? Do they have a national distribution into bookstores in the US? Not just 'availability' but actual placement on the shelves.

Can you tell us how much you paid for publishing with them?

[Gravity]

I dunno. I suppose that at the end of the day a writer must live with their own definition of satisfaction.

Some take the vanity/subsidy/self-publishing (it goes by various names) route. It's immaterial whether the books are shelved, have national distribution, catalog placement, or reviews. It's enough...and more than enough...for the writer to hold their book, smell that wonderful papery smell, riffle the pages, and think "I did this." Whatever the cost of that experience, they're happy. And that's fine.

The second group (including yours truly) seeks something rather...different. They want all the items listed above; most of all (not to put too fine of a mercenary point on it) they want money to flow to them (Yog's Law), instead of away.

Who's to say who's right? In the final anaylsis, the author of the work is the sole arbiter. Mi dos centavos; nothing more.

[love2write]

John,

Would you agree that self-published/vanity books are not considered as truly published and that a writer should not mention them as a publishing credit when submitting new work?

[Gravity]

Absolutely. Over the years I've talked to a ton of editors, and every single one is agreement: in the publishing world, self-publishing doesn't count. The reason is simple: the work has never been vetted by an outside source. In the end, it's the same as taking one's book to a local printer and paying to have it bound. Has the book been printed? Yes. Has it been published? No.

But as I said, far be it from me to rain on somebody's parade. If all a writer wants is a few copies to market at fairs, or to give to relatives, or even sell from the back of the room after a talk (and this last one can be quite lucrative) then self-publishing at a good unit price may be an option. As always, it's caveat emptor.

[marykay]

I am going to put a conclusion to the whole matter. What you do, you do. What I do, I do. If it sells, it sells. If it doesn't, it doesn't. God has the final say. I am just a willing vessel that knows what he told me to do. I did just that. I'am sorry that I cannot satisfy your itching ears. I must move on.

[ProfessorAlan]

Has the book been printed? Yes. Has it been published? No.
That's the key distinction.

But of course, to each his own.

[Gravity]

Nobody's upset with you, Mary. You've made your decision, and God's richest blessings on it.

[Nessa-Ciryatan]

An interesting article to read. (http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/faqs2.html) Here's a quote:

How much do I pay a publisher to publish my book?

Nothing. Not a dime, not half the expenses, not "a modest sum," not anything. Not ever. You don't pay to have your book published. The reason you don't pay to have your book published is as follows: If you're a writer, then writing is your job. People get paid to do their jobs---nurses get paid to nurse, ditchdiggers get paid to dig ditches, and writers get paid to write.

[stahrwe]

The traditional publishing business is changing radically. Gone are the days of the serial magazines with stories published in installments and physical publishing is also problematic. We are in the revolution of the online. That is good and bad. It is good because it allows for vast exposure but iti s bad because there is so much stuff out there.

As for self publishing being meaningless, Charles Dickens paid to have the first edition of A Christmas Carol published. It made his career. Find and read a little book called: Midnight Carol.

[wgjones3]

While the self-published vs. traditional-published discussion is a worthy one it never needs to be carried out in a thread where someone is announcing their upcoming title.

the end