GeneralJist said:
@frob What do you think?
It's a business relationship, and you're best to remember that at every step.
Even when the publisher fronts you money, you are still hiring them. You're paying them extra for them to give you a loan. You pay for that money out of your sales, what would have been profit to you becomes the cost of that loan. They are basically taking the risk that you'll default on the loan if your book doesn't sell well, but it's still a business transaction.
The odds of a publisher agreeing to not just publish your book but also do significant additional work — basically the dream offer that writers hope for — are very low. You've got far better odds of an offer like that when the publisher comes to you.
GeneralJist said:
I was also a little put off, as it seems the person who called me didn't even read anything about my book, and asked me “so what's your book about?
That's something you absolutely need. Develop an “elevator speech”, a quick summary you could give while riding an elevator that you think could result in more sales. Even if you do get a good publisher you will still talk to people in the organization who need to get brought up to speed quickly. If your book succeeds you'll need to repeat the elevator speech thousands of times.
You'll also need to develop a full pitch for your book, for when someone hears your elevator speech and wants to hear more than the 30-second version. You'll likely be repeating it several hundred times if you're successful.
When someone asks you about your book, you'll want to be prepared with both of them.
GeneralJist said:
so, after a bit of basic research, it seems the above organization is a bit scamy.
The ones that seem most accessible usually are. The predatory companies make their money by churning through gullible people who are desperate for a deal and will take anything that seems plausible. ALWAYS have your contracts reviewed by a lawyer. It might feel like a big expense, but it's the bad contracts that are expensive. A bad contract locks you into an expensive deal that locks away not just your current book, but can siphon money out of every future project you complete. You might think “I'm saving myself $200 by doing it myself” but if they're a predatory company it can cost your entire future as a writer, or if you end up being successful in spite of it, a predatory contract can cost fortunes to escape from.
It's the exclusive publishers with all the gates and barriers that you really want to reach, and they have all those barriers to entry for good reason: because they're good publishers. You'll often need a friend-of-a-friend who knows about your work to introduce you to someone, and even then they can only provide an introduction and you'll need an amazing elevator speech and business pitch to get the deal.
