How Often Do We Allow Others To Tell Us What To Think? How Do You Choose Your Publisher?

How Often Do We Allow Others To Tell Us What To Think? 

How Do You Choose Your Publisher?

How Much Credit Do You Give A Negative Recommendation? 

Have you ever heard of ensuring due diligence when you are reporting information on something, someone or a business? 

 These are all questions I’ve been asking myself a lot lately. It’s not an easy decision to make, and, frankly, sometimes it’s made even harder when your research doesn’t report all the facts you need to take into account when making a choice. Sometimes listening to other people's opinions doesn't help either, it hinders.

In fact, I once considered an editor for a position in my company on the recommendation of one author I respected and considered a knowledgeable friend. She gave me her opinion and her view of her own interactions with this person. It was a decent recommendation on a person unknown to me.

Then I spoke with another author who had used the applicant's services and was dismayed by what I found out. Her opinion was far from favorable.

This encouraged me to check out more of this applicant's listed references.

Thankfully, however, the personal and work references provided by this individual didn't quite have as narrow a view and the truth about certain unsavory behaviors of the applicant’s past revealed themselves. 

Though the applicant offered additional references when I brought the results of my background check to their attention, I was confident that the information I had already obtained was significant enough that I was able to make a more informed decision. One that likely prevented a lot of additional stress within my company. Due to the views and opinions of several people rather than just one, I didn't end up hiring this person for the editor's position.

I like to think I did due diligence in my investigation, and taking the time to do so saved my butt and my business.

Today I had some information that crossed my desk via one of my loyal writers that concerns me. In fact, it concerns me, my business, Naughty Nights Press, the writers with NNP, and, in fact, any writers out there that may have otherwise considered Naughty Nights Press for their publication needs.

It was brought to my attention that Naughty Nights Press has been included on a website called Preditors & Editors (their intentional misspelling, not mine). This site’s intention is to assist writers in making an informed choice of where they wish to send their manuscripts for consideration on publication.

Now, P&E and those who run the site are human (gasp). They are only able to determine their recommendations and ratings based on the information handed to them by writers, even if it may be embellished, fabricated or simply a misreporting of the facts to the powers that be over at P&E. Either way, the fault isn’t with P&E for that, so despite the fact I dislike their recommendation, which by the way is far from favourable or encouraging, I am not angry at P&E, nor am I about to launch a rampage against them as others have in the past. Where would be the point? It is simply an opinion. It could be a biased, one-sided opinion, yes, but it’s an opinion nonetheless.

Yes, I know from past experience that the NNP writers will hate me for asking them not to run over to the P&E site and give their differing opinions on their own experience with NNP, but I am asking it all the same. Don’t, please don’t. Your positive intentions can bring more harm than good if P&E feel, that just for providing a recommendation we disagree with, they’ve been attacked by a lynch mob. It’s okay. We will survive this as we’ve survived in the past. Eventually, in all things, the truth comes out. I think we are all aware where and why this recommendation has been entered there. Can’t do anything to change that, now.

P&E claims to rely on “documentation” before determining their recommendations and that is fine, documentation is only as good as the person, or writer, who submits it to P&E would like it to be. It doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t take the place of facts, one’s own actual research into a publishing house, or another writer’s experiences with a particular publishing house like NNP.

P&E is designed with the intent to help writers. And, they can and do provide that assistance to writers just as the forum “Bewares, Recommendations & Background Check” on the Absolute Write Water cooler does.

However, I feel these sites can also do a disservice to writers at times too. When listing a publisher based on information garnered from one or two sources (often related to one another), how can their recommendation be anything to base your entire decision on when they fail to give factual details? Just because one writer may have had an unhappy experience and chose to write to P&E about it, does not make that publisher one to be completely avoided without at least some other fact or form to back up the recommendation, don’t you think? It does happen, publishers and writers don’t always have a happy go lucky interaction with one another and from time to time one of those parties may leave the relationship feeling disgruntled or shafted. Their pride and feelings have been hurt. It happens.

When you begin your search for a publishing house, I’m curious, how do you make your decisions on the ones that may be a viable possibility for you to pursue? Do you ask the current and past writers for that publishing house how they found their treatment? Have you inquired as to whether the house pays their writer’s royalties, on time, every time? Do you ask about the process of editing offered by the publisher and whether or not the writers found it acceptable, educational, perhaps even enjoyable? Have you looked around and observed the effort the marketing team of that publisher puts into promoting, doing that little bit extra to assist authors and may make that publisher stand out from other publishers because of something they do? What do you know about the people that run it, the management? What do other writers who may not be part of that house have to say about their interaction with the people from that publishing house on blog posts, assistance in information gathering, knowledge given about the publishing world? Do non-house writers, authors who are not published with that house, have good things to say about that publisher and the things they have seen them accomplish?

Whatever your questions may be, do you rely on one source when buying a car, a house? Of course not, so why would you do that when shopping for a publisher? I know I wouldn’t.

So, despite the fact that yes, NNP did have a rocky start a year and a half ago, and we did have to ask an editor step down, and we have had one or two writers for whom NNP was simply not the best choice, and unfortunately for all, the issue was discovered *after* contracts were signed, it doesn’t make the entire publishing house a “bad” place and one to be avoided, does it? In my world most businesses have trials and tribulations they go through. Perhaps I’ve just been more open and honest about ours rather than deal with it all hush, hush behind closed doors. My fault for not keeping the secrets to myself, I guess. I’m simply an honest person. I know I have proven that honesty and openness of everything at NNP to many writers, so I’m not worried.

As a general rule of thumb, for any viable businesses I have personally dealt with, it can take a couple years to show the true worth and success of a business. Judging a publisher so harshly within the first year harms them, and the writers who do happen to believe in them and do so for a very good reason.

That reason: NNP has proved themselves as a worthy publisher and the writers within my publishing house, for whom NNP does whatever they can to help bring out their best and publish their books, might be a good place to start your research. Many of them have been with us since the day we officially began our publications and continue to submit their manuscripts, receive their royalties on time, every time, and, as far as the writers have told the management, are more than happy with NNP. If my writers are not happy I’ve always asked them to come to me, to let me know what I can do to help, and I have done whatever was within my power to do. Unfortunately, I can’t please everyone. This is one way, perhaps, I do fall short, but that cannot be helped.

I can also honestly say that from the day NNP opened its doors we have struggled, yes. We have had to work at fixing some issues we had in our startup  yes, and even some day-to-day issues that may crop up. But, we have also been in the black since day one, meeting the needs of our writers, our contractual obligations, paying all our expenses and, most importantly, our authors. There has been one exception to this, yes, but many feel that exception was no fault of NNP and rather the writer’s personal intention instead. What can we do when we are not afforded an honest chance to try to fix something a writer is unhappy about? Or, consider if that writer may have actually had an ulterior motive to his behaviour and subsequent report to P&E. Could we have made that situation different? Maybe, but it’s doubtful.

As the saying goes, don’t believe everything you hear, for you may just miss an otherwise wonderful opportunity. Do yourself a favour, be independent and form your own opinion. I’m not saying you’ll make any different decision than you may have based off another’s recommendation, but at least get more that *only* one opinion before you judge. Also try to remember that sometimes sites designed to help writers can be given and report false information too. It happens. They are only humans behind the postings. The facts as they’ve been given them may not be the true situation. Who really knows? In my world, there are two perceptions to everything, three if you count the true facts.

Do your research into any publishing house. I am the first to agree with that. AND, READ the contract. Honestly, very few writers do and then they get all upset, blaming the publisher when something isn’t quite the way they wanted it to be. If you didn’t read the contract you willingly signed don’t you have some fault in it too?

It’s too bad, though. I would like to think that the things I’ve been told about NNP, about what I’ve attempted to do for writers over the last year and a half are true. It’s always been my goal to help my writers, not to be lumped in with some of the publishers who may not be so honest out there. Yes, they are many, and we hear about more and more horror stories every day. But there are just as many, if not more, good, honest publishers.

It saddens me, though, when my own business is listed up there and I have tried to be an honest, writer-friendly publisher that authors can be proud to be with. This morning, finding out that we are on P&E as “Strongly not recommended. A publisher in Canada” really hit me in the heart. That simple little phrase lumps us in with several other publishers who have been in the limelight lately and may not be quite so honest with their writers. Publishers who are not paying royalties, and who just plain flat out treat their authors like crap. It also lumps us in with vanity publishers and ones who have committed crimes or unreasonably scammed authors, conning them out of thousands of dollars to publish their work.

NNP doesn’t do that, we never have and we never will, so why are we listed in the same light? A single, one-sided, biased opinion can hurt many writers instead of helping them. One opinion, one noted recommendation without a listed “reason” even, makes Naughty Nights Press a bad publisher? One comparable to the others with the same recommendation?

Wow. Just freaking wow. I’m not even sure how to take this, but I guess I can only do what I’ve done since the beginning and keep trying to make NNP the best that we can be and prove these judgments as incorrect.  Let our history, our reputation with our authors speak for itself. There’s little more I can do about it.

I’m sorry that P&E felt NNP belonged up there with that type of statement. I’m sorry to the writer we were unable to appease, but most of all, I am sorry to the writers who might miss out on what NNP can offer them and I’m sorry to my current, loyal, long-time writers for the tarnish this puts on your good names for being a part of Naughty Nights Press.

But, all this negativity aside, it doesn’t change the very true fact that NNP has so many happy authors, does it?

The only thing I can think of to do about it, despite my initial gut reaction to want to loudly protest this negative recommendation, is to prove the recommendation and opinion of one person as false. I can only continue to strive for the vision I have for my writers and my business, and for those who chose to believe in this small publisher, thank you. I am proud to have earned that faith and trust. I will do everything as I always do to continue to earn it.

I am happy to say that I’m positive at least 99% of NNP writers are happy and shall continue to write for us. The other 1%...well, perhaps they are lost in a world of their own making as I’ve not been in contact for quite some time... It happens, you know. It is fiction after all.

I welcome your opinions and comments on what I have written here today. I feel that sometimes, despite the intention of some of these "helpful" sites to actually help authors avoid "not so good" publishers, they can also provide information on occasion that isn't all that helpful because their recommendation was based on information that may not be 100% true. They can provide information and recommendations that can unfairly harm a publishing business that is still attempting to gain its ground in this cutthroat business market.

What do you think sites like Preditors & Editors or Bewares, Recommendations & Background Check on the AbsoluteWrite Water Cooler forum  should be required to do before they report negatively on a publisher? Do you think it's reasonable or fair to expect explanatory documentation to accompany a "not recommended" opinion, or, should authors just take their word for it? These people are, after all, writers themselves, I believe. 

I'm not suggesting names be shared, that is unethical, but just the facts that the opinion and recommendations are based on. The varying of reasons offered for such a response from P&E is quite a long list. How is one to know what might need to be improved within their business model if one is never informed of the possibility that something may be not such a good thing? Assuming, of course, that any potential change was reasonable and possible while still maintaining an equal opportunity to both the author and the publisher for what each give to the agreement and working relationship. 

Not every publisher is a big bad rip off artist trying to steal one from a writer and waiting to pounce on the next unsuspecting soul to send in a best selling manuscript. Nor are we all closed off to suggestions and learning what may make us a better publisher in the eyes of the masses of writers out here.

I, for one, have never claimed to be perfect, and if someone could show me reasonable cause and benefit as to why something I do at Naughty Nights Press should be changed, I am more than happy to consider it.

 Life is, after all, a learning experience for us all.  Just as writers don't start out as best selling authors, nor do small, independently owned publishing houses have an immediate opportunity to join the"big six". I wish we all could.

Wishing you all a wonderful day.  Blessed be. 

Lady G

Blackmail, Threats, Coercion & Demands, Will I Bow? Not On Your Life

I received this email the other day from another writer in regard to a review and rating of my honest opinion on his book. I purchased and read the book, proceeded to rate it with a very generous 3.5 rating on Goodreads and the writer took offense.


"To: Gina Kincade
From: Bruce C. Cohen
Re: Goodreads Rating 3/8/12 for Sex Tales From West County: Billy's Tale

You've had your hour per Jacques Brel. This letter is to request that you remove the rating for Sex Tales From West County: Billy's Tale from your Goodreads bookshelf and ratings. http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/3832106-gina?page=2&shelf=read&sort=date_added

If the rating is not removed by noon c.s.t. on Monday, March 19, 2012, I will assume that you would like me to rate and comment on all of NNP's products.

I highly recommend that you and your staff refrain from commenting on my works."


True to his threats in the above email he and his wife have begun a nasty bashing session over on the Goodreads walls that I find very distasteful and not very professsional. Going so far as to change their original rating of a book (of an NNP author) from a 5 to a 1. And this is not a personal attack on the author?? It certainly appears that way to me.

Ken Charles, aka Bruce C. Cohen, is an author with my ePublishing business NNP you see. A very disgruntled one who has threatened, coerced, demanded and attemtped to blackmail NNP into returning the rights to the books we have contracted with him. Why? Assumingly over the cover he disliked. Or perhaps because we turned down his application for our advertised Editor Required position. Or perhaps once the work was properly edited he'd decided our usefulness had come to an end. Who knows why in truth. Petty? Oh yes, very much so.

Bruce C. Cohen has repeatedly attempted to negatively impact NNP's reputation by posting multiple, negative and nonfactual posts, of a legal nature regarding his contract, on his Facebook profile page. In addition he's posted similar comments all over several groups on Facebook in an purposeful attempt to discredit our services because we refused to fall prey to his tactics! One group in particular actually requested that he not "air his dirty laundry" in on their pages.
The proof is in the pudding as they say and emails to NNP admin, our cover designers and marketing personnel will show the malicious nature of Mr. Cohen's posts and his very obvious intentions. The email above is simply the tip of the proverbial iceberg!

Although the disgusting nature with which these actions have been carried out by Mr. Cohen, do bother me (they are totally paralleled to the threats in his emails in fact), what has prompted my blog post today is the manner in which Mr. Cohen and his wife have now begun directly attacking an NNP author. This is just...just... Well I don't even have the words for how sickening this is! I've mostly kept quiet about this until now so as not to fuel the problem and spurn Mr. Cohen on further by acknowledging his juvenile behavior but I am simply astonished at the lengths this man is willing to go to at this point!

What kind of person takes a personal vendetta that should has been left behind closed doors, or better yet - in a court of law to decide, and bashes not only a business but also its writers? What morals are lacking in these attacks? I ask you, could you, would you EVER do such a evil thing to another writer??? Not without some damn severe cause I wouldn't!

I Am The Publisher. I Pay You. I Am Therefore, Your Boss. You Don't Get To Call The Shots.

There is something some people clearly just do not seem to understand so please, allow me to be very blunt and we shall see if perhaps they can see through the amount of arrogance and stupidity they currently suffer from for just a moment. I'm not holding my breath though.

I am the Publisher.  You are a writer.  You submitted your work to MY company to edit & make all nice and apply a pretty cover to for which, in exchange, you are credited as the author of the work and shall be paid.

However, I am still the Publisher,  which means I have invested time & money into your work so, in exchange, I have a right to sell your work.

I am the Publisher, I give your work to distributors to sell, they make copies & versions of that work, which they advertise for you in their applicable formats to provide to readers who wish to buy your work.

Readers pay for your work, they want to choose the version or format of the work that suits their ereading device so they can actually READ what they paid for.  These formats & versions are provided to the readers by the distributor through their conversion methods, via the Publisher.  

Readers have the right to get what they pay for.  

Distributors have the right to get paid for distributing, converting & advertising your work.

Publishers have the right to get paid for investing in your work and making your work acceptable & attractive to the readers.

I am the Publisher. I pay you. You work for ME & MY company.
Therefore, in effect, I am your boss when it comes to the work (s) you have submitted to me and I have accepted and made all glittery.

Don't for one damn minute believe that YOU can tell ME how to run MY business.  

Don't think that you can threaten, manipulate, coerce, slander, or attempt in any other way to force me and MY company to allow you to try to change the way things work in MY business to suit your deranged sense of entitlement.

Don't think for even a second that you can manipulate the contract to suit your desires and illogical, invalid claims AFTER the work has been published. 

Don't assume that you can only now, 8 months or so after signing said contract, THINK you may see a problem with that contract and decide that you have found a way to force my hand and provide you with free editing services by claiming non-compliance for a logical manner of production.  Don't think that you can claim you were unaware of how ePublishing works. 

Don't think that by sending me over 15 harassing emails and multiple inbox messages on Facebook, containing termination notices, new contracts, rights reversions or any other crap claiming that MY company committed fraud, copyright infringement, intent to deceive or duplicity in any other form when YOU didn't read the contract or didn't care to be concerned for its contents when you signed it let's you off the hook & I will simply hand you back your work. 
You didn't inquire, ask questions or bring any concerns to the table prior to signing it and being advised by us to read it throughly, have it reviewed by competent legal council and let us know if you had any questions or concerns. This is NOT a factor at this point and your right to complain ended to moment you signed it.

Don't think you can threaten to contact MY company distributors, social media sites and online piracy to claim MY company illegally infringed upon your intellectual property & copyright in a blatant attempt to smear MY business name. You signed an agreement.

Don't think that threats to me, every member of my staff, complaints or arguments & insults to my cover designers or claims that my editor is incompetent or modified your work AFTER you worked one on one with her & approved the edits (which by the way are the intellectual property of MY company) will give you the means to take back that work and send it off to another publisher.

Don't even believe that you can simply begin to DICTATE to me what I, the Publisher, your boss, the current legal owner to the exclusive publication rights and commercial exploitation of the work for the length stated in the contract must do or not do, say or not say, disclose or not disclose to whomever I choose in the medium of business dealings about you, your insufferable holier than thou and immoral methods.

You're a fool if you think you can demand I allow you to enter MY private groups on any social media site after you've been removed from them for not following the rules of the groups & treating other members with respect or following the simple request to actually participate in a positive, supportive manner and for your rude and nasty attitude.

You're a fool if you think you can beat me into submission with your high & mighty bullshit and demand I post or do not post ANYTHING I choose to MY blog(s) so long as your right to privacy is protected in the WRiTTEN content of said blog posts.

I am the Publisher, you are the writer, I pay you according to the agreement you signed for the work or choose to remove it from circulation for violating the rules of my distributors or IF I feel the work will not bring in the desired proceeds. 

Do NOT attempt to tell me where & why I am wrong. If I've made a mistake, a reasonable mistake, a logical mistake that has no bearing on any of the above sales & payments, expectations of production & commercial exploitation and would not affect you in any negative capacity then please, save your overbearing, nasty attitude for the next pub you try to rip off.

If I turned down your application for a position within MY business because you could not fulfill the required criteria, and your references came back less then savory, this does NOT give you the right to decide to then become angry, belligerent and argumentative about every aspect of the production & publication of a work contracted prior to the decline of your services simply as a "pay back" because you didn't get what you want.  This does not entitle you to get your work edited for free.  This does not entitle you to a damned thing. Temper tantrums are quite childish.

And finally, do not attempt to tell me that I must behave, speak & converse with you outside of said signed author agreement in any way deemed by  YOU as unprofessional or expect to to bow to you & respond to your games on YOUR decided timelines. 

Simply put, I don't bloody well have to! I will run MY business MY way and YOU will not be the one who tells me I can't. Of course, you don't have to like it, but you do have to deal with it.

MY publishing company did not seek you out, you submitted your work(s) to MY publishing company remember.  The big mistake I made (which of course I didn't realize at the time due to a lack of a background check) was to accept your work(s)  

Now, I shall simply have to follow the reasonable course of professional action and sell it.  OR you can choose to pay the "buy out" fee for the work(s) if you want the work(s) back earlier then the contract conclusion date.  

The "buy out" fee is a representation of the costs associated with the work done on your book & the investment into it.  

People deserve to be paid for the job they've done. It is a reasonable and legal acceptable requirement.

We did not dictate to you how to write your book (your job), do not dictate to us how to do our job.

Four Major Things That Can Ruin A Writer's Career

Four major things a writer should NEVER do if they ever hope to succeed in the world of writing:

1. Insult a publisher they are contracted under.

2. Insult a marketing person in charge of promoting their books

3. Insult/put down the editors who are working on their book.

4. Insult the designer creating the cover art for their work.

Do any of these things and you risk being blacklisted as a writer.

Do them all and you have just signed your own guaranteed failure contract.

Follow me for a list of the minor things to accompany this shortly!