Publishing Contract Offered

[JeannieM]

I have just been offered a publishing contract with Tate Publishing. I am as excited as I am overwhelmed.

[Rebecca]

Congratulations!! Tell us about your project... you know, plug it a little. lol! ;)

Rebecca

[cheriehill]

!thumbsup! I am an author published through Tate Publishing as well. I am well into the process and I am about 2 month away from distribution. It has been wonderful working with this publisher in every way. What is your book about???

[Inspiredwriter]

Congratulations!! I would like to hear more about your book project, when the adrenaline subsides a little.

[JMK]

Jeannie, congratulations! I'm thrilled for you!

[lgracebrooks]

I was offered a publishing contract with Tate publishing, also. I even received the contract in the mail to be signed and returned. Of course the contract was neither signed nor delivered. They are very expensive.
Congratulations for your success.

[writegirl1949]

Congratulations on the offer. It's a wonderful feeling, isn't it.

Tell us more.

Blessings, Francine

[Curtis]

Hey, Congratulations! I am so excited to hear this news.
Give us a hint about your book.
let us know how you like Tate.

[ibrinkley]

Congratulations! Let us know a little of what your book is about.!thumbsup!

[ellenjames]

Congratulations, Jennie!

ellenjames/Bertha
www.freewebs.com/wayber

[raindancer_ph]

Congratulations too. But do tell more, more, more.

[JeannieM]

'In the Company of Sinners' tells about the life of Jesus. With books on the market like the Divinci Code and The Jesus Papers, I feel the book is well needed for people to know the truth.

[Rose_Marie]

'In the Company of Sinners' tells about the life of Jesus. With books on the market like the Divinci Code and The Jesus Papers, I feel the book is well needed for people to know the truth.


that sounds reallllly awesome! :) i sure hear you about the truth. so much sensationalism going around about non-sense and it's desensitizing everyone to the truth of Jesus Christ. :(

[love2write]

Hello Rose Marie,

It's wonderful to get a contract --- a great feeling. But it is important that writers know who they are going to be in a contractual relationship with before they sign on the dotted line. I know this from personal experience, of which I won't get into here.

One thing of great importance for writers of all genres to know is money should flow to the author, not where the author flows money to the publisher.From what I see online Tate charges upwards of $4000 for publication. They will give you tons of reasons why you should 'invest' in your book. Of course. They want that $4000.

Another thing is your book will not be stocked in bookstores. That's where the real problems lie for writers --- when there is no real distribution. This becomes a big obstical if you want your book to sell to more than just your family and friends. You will have to have an aggressive marketing plan in place which will cost some $ and promote your book yourself in order to make back the $4000. Ask Tate what they do to distribute books nationally, what kind of discount do they give to bookstores, and if they have a return policy. If they do not have a return, or if the return not standard, and if they do not give bookstores 40--50% off, you will hit a wall with store managers.

My advice to you is to consider this carefully, and you should work up a great proposal and submit your book to Christian agents and publishers first before you ever go with a vanity press and shell out thousands. If you don't get a contract through a commerical Christian publisher, then try a vanity press if you can afford it. Just be aware of the drawbacks. Tate may be the right choice for you if you don't mind paying thousands of dollars and working hard enough to sell your book without national distribution. However, if you want to be a career author, if they charge you $ to publish, if they don't have distribution, if they don't have a standard return policy, if they don't have standard book pricing, if they don't get your books distributed through bookstores, don't do it.

If you want to go pod or vanity, I would check out I Universe. I believe they are a lot cheaper.


Regarding Tate:

Preditors & Editors has a 'not recommended' warning on their website.
http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pebt.htm

Absolute Writer has a thread about Tate.http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=992


Here is an excellent article on Writers Beware about Vanity publishing.http://www.sfwa.org/beware/vanitypublishers.html

[Sea Star]

I would also strongly suggest using Writer's Edge & First Edition, both wonderful sites that many, many Christian Publishing Houses use to find new manuscripts. I posted my synopsis on Writers Edge & was contacted by Harvest House. It has a small fee attached to use either service, but if you are posting a well written work & do your home work ahead of time, it can be an extremely rewarding experience. I too would not recommend going with a self-publishing service. I was contacted by two of them & didn't pursue either, as I much prefer to get paid for my work, than have to pay them to print it. Just my thoughts & hope it might help, Miralee

[ibrinkley]

I tried to find writer's edge and first edition but neither one is listed under the names. Do yo have an address for them?

[rljfl]

http://www.writersedgeservice.com/

http://www.ecpa.org/first_edition/index.php

Hope this helps. :)

[ibrinkley]

Thanks a lot.

[Sea Star]

http://www.writersedgeservice.com/

http://www.ecpa.org/first_edition/index.php

Hope this helps. :)


I'm so glad you had the web site addy's handy. I've been in and out today quite a bit, as we're starting to break ground to build our new home this summer & it's quite hectic. Both of these sites come highly recommended by publishing house acquistion editors. In fact, several of the large Publishing Houses state on their submission guideline pages that they only accept submissions through an agent, or via either of these two sites.

[kerrig]

Congratulations! You must be walking on cloud 9. Someday...get my head out of the clouds and back to writing.

[femi@singlesaff]

congratulations.i strongly recommend that the advices be considered.

femi

[love2write]

I could not find either of these listed in Preditors & Editors. P&E is a good site to check agents, publishers, editors, and more. If you look for their 'recommended' references you know you are safe. Here's the link for editing services: http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/peesla.htm

If you are looking for a Christian editor check out Kathy Ide. She comes highly recommended. I haven't used her...I don't have the cash. But I hear good things about her. http://www.kathyide.com/

[Charity]

Congratulations! Keep us posted on how things are progressing.

[Sea Star]

I could not find either of these listed in Preditors & Editors. P&E is a good site to check agents, publishers, editors, and more. If you look for their 'recommended' references you know you are safe. Here's the link for editing services: http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/peesla.htm

If you are looking for a Christian editor check out Kathy Ide. She comes highly recommended. I haven't used her...I don't have the cash. But I hear good things about her. http://www.kathyide.com/

If you are referring to Writer's Edge or First Edition, they wouldn't necessarily be found there, as they aren't a pre-editor or editor, or agent or publisher. They are a site that will post your synopsis & Bio & submit accepted ones to all the Christian publishing houses that subscribe to their service. They do not publish your work, nor do they sell it or print it. They simply review it & if it's accepted (on Writer's Edge, 65% is accepted, I don't believe there is an accepted or not, on First Edition), then they send it out to publishers. The Editor at the publishing house then makes the decision if they want to pursue it & ask for your first three chapters. IF they are happy with that, they will ask for your entire manuscript, & so forth.

If you really do not want to go the route of trying to get a publishing house to buy your book, then go with Print on Demand. I'll throw out a name that Kimberly, the Acquisitions Editor for Harvest House, mentioned as one of the best in the industry, at the recent writers conference I attended. It's Xulon, & their web site addy is www.Xulon-Press.com. They state the following: "Xulon Press is the original and largest on-demand Christian publisher, ranked #1 for Christian book publishing on Google, Yahoo & AOL."

[Thadd]

Iuniverse is a cheaper way to publish. I am in the process of just publishing my own stuff on my own website. That is until I have a following. Of course I don't put the great stuff out to be stolen of the net. This is just my way of getting an audience. I have been in contact with many,many vanity publishers but I never felt as if they could do more than I could do. With my writing on the net for free, I could always touch more people and I have never been a christian writer for the money. Of course, I would love to get some of my novels published, but that will come when I have a following of readers.

[southern96]

Have any of you tried to use Lulu.com for self publishing? It is cheap, ok it's free...lol. It only costs if you decide to buy an isbn and market the book on the net in Barnes and Noble or Amazon. You can market it and sell it by the lulu site itself without an isbn.

[ibrinkley]

I've used Lulu for 3 books and am selling fairly well on Amazon and Barnes and Nobles, plus selling a few on Lulu site also. The drawback is that their pre-designed book covers are not that great and very limited. But if you can get someone to do it for you with Photoshop, then you can just upload it to their site. I just finished my 3rd one there (A Light in Darkness) and have not bought the isbn yet but will get my proof copy this week. Check it out!
www.lulu.com/ibrinkley

[pixydust]

This is great! How's the processes going?

[ibrinkley]

The process is slow. Even after you get your proof copy, you have to edit then order another proof. But eventually it all works out. You can see the cover of my new book at:
www.lulu.com/ibrinkley

[Guinevere]

Congrats...kind of! I would really beware of any publisher that requires you to pay to have your book published. It should be the other way around.