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A contract, but is it worth it?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alistair Roberts
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Alistair Roberts

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I've been patiently waiting on a reply from a publisher and finally I got en email saying they love the novel (Merlin and Ceridwen) and would like to publish it. Living on a limited budget, I finally breathed a sigh of relief until I kept reading. As I am a new author, they want me to pay them a small fee to cover initial printing costs. Like, I don't have money to buy clothes f...........
Seriously though, since when do publishers ask you to pay them? Once actual sales start, I would get 25% on royalties, on net sale prices. Has anyone heard of anything like this?
 
They're a so-called vanity publisher, by the sound of it. They charge. You'd have to do the Marketing legwork yourself, I'd imagine. Whose job would it be to make the sales happen?
 
yes i've had this twice one for £2,500 the other £8,900. unfortunately the only two offers of publication i've had. A literary agent i approached afterwards warned me against accepting offers that requires upfront payment.
 
25% seems better than expected, but don't worry I'm not touching it. I might do a fairly length re-edit of it, and then re-self publish it until I get lucky! Thanks for the replies folks.
 
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