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Austin Macauley Publishers
Hi. Has anyone had any experience of dealing with Austin Macauley Publishers? I understand they are a a small independent publisher that will offer authors 'contributory' contracts to publish their books. In days gone by they would have been called a' vanity' publisher.
Comments
Check on Preditors and Editors and Absolute Writers Beware site. They are to be avoided.
Do they actually publish anything that the writer doesn't pay for?
Yes they do, but it would be interesting to know what percentage that is of their overall book list.
Preditors and Editors and Absolute Writers Beware site: does this still refer back to 2011 in which case it's really out of date.
They changed their name in March last year - just removed the 'and' from the title. There's one director, Mohammed Bu-Malik, who was appointed in 2007. He was born in 1983 and is the director of two other companies. The registered office is in Cambridge.
Could pay a £1 for their accounts, but I won't.
Looked at couple of the events listed on the website - authors in bookstores, something not all writers can pull off.
It would be easy enough to contact one of their authors for some feedback.
Have done. One said they'd been very helpful in production of his book and with the promotion. Very grateful as he was a first time author. ( therefore did he pay ?). This was last year. A lady who had her book published in 2009 had a bad experience back then and has said, 'Don't touch them with a barge pole.'
No idea what the ratio was.
But if they are now under a different ownership and their procedures have been changed then, it may not be an issue anymore.
Do keep us updated, toothlight.
It does seem the new management are putting efforts into getting themselves more well known. Facebook/Twitter presence regularly updated. I contacted them by Twitter suggesting they got on to SmashWords with the ebook promotion coming up.The next thing I saw was AM offering 75% discount on ALL their ebooks for the duration of that promotion. Impressed.
Re promotion, that will definitely fall on you. AM publishes up to 14 titles per month so can't devote much time to publicising every book. But that's typical of most publishing houses unless you're a known name.
Is that after they have offered you a traditional deal - you say above that they would be publishing you 'this summer'?
Might this happen to Davide?
So why the difference? Why does MW get a 'proper' deal, and not the others? It seems like a two tier system.
Toothlight - I wish you well with your submissions to other publishers.
I got a book that previously had a publishing contract (the publisher left the company) turned down very quickly by a company called Endeavour Press. They helpfully suggested "a friend" who'd format the book for me for Kindle for £150. I don't think they even read the manuscript. The next publisher I sent it to (a traditional one) took it.
Having read what your publisher wanted, perhaps I should consider my offer to be cheap:)
I know it well.
The best of luck, davide.
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Back to AM. I've just received the 1st proofs. I had been very particular in my requirements for the lay-out. eg start on the right hand page for each successive chapter, chapter numbers and headings in Bodoni MT Black capitals, 16 font size centred on the page, dropped capitals over first two lines of first paragraph, text in Bookman Old style.
They've gone along with every requirement.
Re the cover, I'm in personal contact with the graphic designer who responds quickly to emails. He's currently working with the cartoon cover I sent in. Last week I had a quote given me by the book columnist for The Sun:
'You'll laugh a lot and thoroughly enjoy reading about the rather hapless Paul Mitchell's escapades. Perfect for animal lovers the world over.'
I sent this through suggesting that part of it could be incorporated on the cover. Immediate reply was a resounding 'Yes' with a suggested edited version.
Thus, so far, I've been impressed. Remains to be seen whether AM can deliver the goods - am hoping for a publishing date of end of August which they've said should be possible.
I was lucky I was loaned a writers & artist yearbook, I was surprised that I was offered a contract with 2 publishers and one of them was Austin Macauley. I never paid anything and was given a small advance, my book is due for release in early 2015 and will post links to the launch. I also have a friend who has also sent a manuscript to Austin Macauley and was asked to contribute but in all fairness for what they asked him to contribute would have in fact cost far more to have the book proof read and edited.
Times have changed in the field of publishing as I had spoken to the other publisher on the phone for some time, and they are a well known established firm. but they gave a depressing story of how books are to big and the print and storage costs etc, well to be honest it put me off from using them. so far I have had good contact from Austin Macauley and they are prompt.
all these reviews you read about them are like someone else pointed out, old news from way back. I also note that some US forums do love to rave and put people down they never seem to post any positive news. Rejection is a hard fact of life and unless you have sent your manuscript to at least a dozen or more publishers then you are clearly not trying hard enough.
I end this by also saying I was rejected by 8 and never heard from the other 7, I wrote too even when I enclosed self address with stamp to cover the postage.