Hi all, Can any body tell me anything about Novum Publishers? Are they a credible publisher or just a vanity publisher. They have offered me a cost sharing contract and before I accept (?) I want to confirm they are as good as their brochure claims. I appreciate any opinions / advice. Jason
I have no experience with them, but their website strongly suggests they are a common vanity publisher. Authors don't 'share costs' with legitimate publishers.
I'm with stevesh. I've never heard of this company, but "cost sharing" and "credible publisher" don't really go together.
If this is them, they very certainly look like a vanity press. The fact that they have a brochure does not bode well.
This is also not a good look. Review of Novum Publishing by ASA (advertising standards authority, an independent regulator in the UK)
When you sign with a publisher, you shouldn't have to pay anything. Don't lower the bar so far. Submit to the top publishers first. Set your bar before you start and don't lower it past a certain point. Good luck! Hope you find the right spot for your book soon
Sorry to interrupt, but I just found this discussion now and hat to bump in it! But costs are quite relative, aren't they? Like also if you have no clue you will need someone for the outlook of the whole book and you also might need advice in graphics or the cover ... there are a lot of people generally involved who also need to be paid, therefore vanity publishing ist not bad.
Vanity publishing is bad if it's based on ignorance or misinformation. Vanity publishers often pretend to be 'real' publishers, and go through a game of considering your MS, accepting it for publication, etc., when really they accept every book anyone's willing to pay for. They often lie about or at least greatly exaggerate their marketing and distribution powers, etc. If a company is upfront about the costs? If they say they'll help someone self-publish, are honest about the services they can and cannot provide, and don't try to pretend to be something they're not? I don't think they're bad, but I also question whether they'd count as vanity publishers anymore.
But do you have an own experience especially with Novum publishers or is this just an assumption? Why I am asking this is because there are oft course always this question about nobody is taken care of by them, but there are some well knowm authors there also. Just wanted to add that.
Who are the well-known authors? They mention Manfred Baumann and Katy Karrenbauer - I've never heard of either one. Have you? Tips that they aren't legit publishers are lines like "Novum publishing is pleased with every manuscript submission. We submit an offer for publication for every good manuscript!" So, they're not publishers in the traditional sense of being a business whose profit comes from selling books to consumers, because if they were, they'd be a lot more selective of the manuscripts they're accepting. Are they a reasonable choice for someone looking for "assisted self-publishing"? Depends how much they're charging, what they're promising in return, and whether they're reasonably able to deliver what they promise. I have no information on any of that.
There are only handful of books they've published and only 3 by the same author show up in the fiction category. He's a German and was "happy with the translation" of his book.
Like in the Science fiction department there are some of them, mostly in German speaking version, but there is also a lot of that published in English right now. And better be happy with the translation than to be not, or?
German Sandra Plaar and Stan Wolf are examples for that, latter sold many thousand cpoies from his Fantasy stories. I think that's quite a good example that you also can make it out from a vanity publishers house - I always think that when your book or amnsucript is good, you will have a good chance to make it. That's the basic scenery, of course there ae more thing to consider and you have to have the backing from other people, like e.g. an publishing house.
I'd contact those authors, then, and ask about the publisher. People contact me to ask about my publishers pretty often - it's not a big deal. If those authors say the publisher is worth while, then that's worth something, for sure.
Really, is this quite a common thing to do so? Like how many requests did you got already - and can there be some truth in what one can write back. Must admit I am quite surprised.
I'd say I've been contacted ten or twenty times over the last few years. And I definitely respond with the truth - why should I lie? I make sure it's all in terms of "for me" - this has been a great experience for me or a bad experience for me and then say why.
Good anyways that you also keep contact to those whoe are interested so far. I will think about that. And I am sgtill also the opinion the vanity publishing is not the worst thing you can do as a newly arrived author. It keeps everything provided for you.
"Assisted self-publishing" may be a reasonable choice for a new author (may be). But vanity publishing is, by definition, not a wise investment.
Depends, I would say as you of course if dependent also need a graphic freelance, someone to read through your text and correct everything, not to forget the final layout, design of the cover, all these are paid jobs normally an therefore a vanity publisher like novum publishing keeps that provided for you in one package - I think it is not the most risky thing to do.
Vanity publishing and self publishing are not the same thing. I'm not a fan of either one, but with self publishing you at least maintain complete control of the entire process. Not so much with vanity publishing.
