Judul : Alert: Blue Deco Publishing, Christian Faith Publishing
link : Alert: Blue Deco Publishing, Christian Faith Publishing
Alert: Blue Deco Publishing, Christian Faith Publishing
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer BewareBLUE DECO PUBLISHING
Problems cited include late or missing royalties and royalty statements, broken marketing promises, and difficulty reaching or getting responses from the owner, Colleen Nye. To explain these issues, Ms. Nye has reportedly offered bizarre and elaborate personal excuses that authors tell me they believe are either made-up or exaggerated. (For an example of the kinds of complaints I've received, see here.)
Frustrated with the situation, a group of seven Blue Deco authors took the unusual step of creating an online petition to demand payment and reversion of their rights. (Given that Blue Deco only had 16 authors, including Ms. Nye herself, that's a big hit, over 40% of its list.)
I'm told that attorneys from the Authors Guild also contacted Ms. Nye. To her credit, she has been responsive. All the petitioning writers have received rights reversions, and all but two have been paid (both believe they have sales, but Ms. Nye says they don't; they've decided to chalk it up as a loss and move on).
To any regular readers of this blog, all of this will be very familiar. Blue Deco's shortfalls aren't unusual; in fact they're endemic to the small press world. Often the problems don't stem from dishonesty or malfeasance, but simply from the fact that the people in charge don't know how to run a business.
The Blue Deco story also illustrates why it can be risky to get involved with publishers that are primarily one- or two-person ventures. With the best will in the world, a single personal crisis or health problem can derail the entire company.
CHRISTIAN FAITH PUBLISHING
As its name indicates, Christian Faith Publishing targets Christian writers: "to discover and market unknown Christian-based authors who aspire to craft the greatest spiritual impact imaginable via the written word." It describes itself as "a full-service book publisher"--a misleading claim because, in fact, authors must make "a minimal investment". How minimal? Well, that's not really explained.
While the investment required of our accepted authors to bring a book to the world-wide market varies based upon the intricacies of each book, all of our authors are fortunate enough to undertake the production, distribution and marketing of their book via a short-term, affordable monthly installment plan which is to be recovered by the author from book sale proceeds before we are entitled to any royalty compensation whatsoever!Writers be warned: this kind of coyness on pricing nearly always indicates excessive fees. I've heard from authors who were asked for anywhere from $3,500-$5,000 up front; for $495 up front plus installments of $295 per month for 10 months; for $950 up front plus installments of $380 for 10 months. Marketing is an add-on: for instance, $3,400 for a package that includes a "High-Definition Video Trailer", a press release, and a page on CFP's website. (This is not marketing. It's junk. It's not worth one cent, let alone four figures.)
What do authors get for these enormous fees? Basically, an assisted self-publishing-style service that's little different from the packages offered by companies like Outskirts Press or the imprints in the Author Solutions family. Naive writers may not realize this, though, because CFP is careful not only to style itself a "publisher", but to promise that it is "very selective" and that authors will have "availability" in "retail...sales outlets". Its salespeople call themselves "Literary Agents." Its TV commercials and web ads never mention money. And though its website does disclose that authors must pay, this is buried in the FAQ section and thus easy to miss. Put these misleading elements together with the fact that Christian writers are more likely to trust a company that self-identifies as Christian, and you have a perfect honey trap.
Does this business model remind you of anything? Maybe a certain Oklahoma-based Christian vanity publisher that recently went bust amid thousands of complaints of non-payment and other malfeasance, and whose owners were subsequently charged with multiple felony counts, including embezzlement?
If so, it may not surprise you to learn that CFP's founder and President, Chris Rutherford, is a Tate Publishing alumnus. He has held various titles with the company, the most recent of which, per his LinkedIn profile, is Chief Business Development Officer (though note the strategic omission of Tate's name):
Rutherford seems to have left Tate in the fall of 2013--at which point there were plenty of complaints and indications of problems at the company, though nothing like what started coming out in 2016--and started CFP in 2014. CFP doesn't seem to have published anything until mid-2015; it put out just eight books that year, according to Amazon, but ramped up production in 2016, which is when I started getting questions about it.
Unlike Tate, CFP seems to deliver what its clients pay for. Authors searching for positive reviews will have no problem finding them: at the BBB, for instance, or the abundant testimonials on CFP's own website.
However, like all vanity publishers, CFP relies on misdirection and ignorance to recruit authors who may not realize they're not actually signing up with a "full-service book publisher", or that they could get what CFP offers elsewhere at a lower cost, or that, whatever else it may be, CFP's declared Christian mission is a form of advertising to which Christian authors are uniquely vulnerable.
Christian authors, take note: there are as many schemes, scams, and deceptive services in Christian publishing as there are in other markets. Just because an individual or company proclaims its faith doesn't mean it will treat you fairly or offer you a worthwhile service at a reasonable price. In fact, in terms of marketing and distribution, faith is beside the point. Companies like CFP offer only junk marketing, and use the exact same distribution channels as everyone else.
UPDATE 7/12/19: CFP is currently the subject of a wage and hour lawsuit;in which the plaintiff alleges that they and others were not paid overtime. Dismissed in 2018 in favor of the plaintiff due to CFP's failure to appear or defend, the case was re-opened in 2019, and the plaintiff is now seeking a class action.
This summary of the lawsuit includes some interesting details about what CFP employees do:
Full-service, indeed.
Demikianlah Artikel Alert: Blue Deco Publishing, Christian Faith Publishing
Demikian artikel Alert: Blue Deco Publishing, Christian Faith Publishing kali ini, mudah-mudahan bisa memberi manfaat untuk anda semua. baiklah, sampai jumpa di postingan artikel lainnya.
Anda sekarang membaca artikel Alert: Blue Deco Publishing, Christian Faith Publishing dengan alamat link Sapiens
