I was called by Tafford Publishing, A self publishing service, after sending them my contact details online. I talked to one of their reps for a while and it seemed legit, however I found loads of bad experiences on complaints board. Has anyone heard of them or dealt with them? seems a bit too good to be true.
copied and pasted from http://www.traffordpublishing.com.sg/Pearson-to-acquire-Author-Solutions-Inc.aspx Does this mean that 150,000 authors have published an average of just over 1 book each or am I a total dufos?
copied and pasted from http://www.traffordpublishing.com.sg/Pearson-to-acquire-Author-Solutions-Inc.aspx Does this mean that 150,000 authors have published an average of just over 1 book each or am I a total dufos?
My advice is to stay clear of anyone who wants even one penny of your money, purely because that's a sign of a scam. These people make money not from book sales but from vain people willing to pay thousands so that their work gets published instead trying to make it good enough to compete in traditionnal publishing market. If you are desperate to see your work published asap, you can publish an e-book for free on Amazon and a few other places, there are even places where you upload a file and they'll print you a book for just under $5 and they print on demand. No need to pay vanity press, it's a waste of money.
Predators and Editors has no comment on them other than: "Trafford Publishing: An on-demand self-publishing publisher."
If I was going to self publish, I'd start with Amazon Kindle free publishing unless paying someone gave me a lot of other services like editing and marketing.
i was hired by an author of trafford-published books to edit the books before a second printing... i found so many goofs and glitches their so-called 'editor' let slip into print, i would never recommend this vanity press...
I wouldn't recommend ANY vanity press, and I certainly wouldn't expect quality editing from them. There is virtually no incentive for ensuring quality.
You said it yourself - isn't it clear? Don't do it! Why don't you just publish it on Amazon? Smashwords etc. Just release it in e-format - making it compatible to Kindle is actually very easy (though not worked out how to do the ToC yet). Not sure about other e-readers though. But there's really no need to go through a vanity press unless they offered editing and marketing services - but since they have no incentive to do either one of these well, I would only go with them, even with offers on these services, if they have glowing reviews. And you've already answered that one.
Basically, if you have to pay for printing, all marketing is on you. It doesn't matter if they claim otherwise. This isn't the worst way to go if you are willing to market your product. There are plenty of success stories of people doing just that. But your product must be in tip top shape, well written and well edited. Trafford is not a publishing company. They are a printing company specifically geared toward printing books. When you deal with companies like this YOU are the publisher, they only offer editing, cover art and printing services. You can buy that yourself in many places from reputable printing companies. You can find a good editor and artist at guru.com and printing or copying at all kinds of places. A publisher takes all the risk and they pay YOU.
Daniel submitted a new resource: Trafford Publishing - self-publisher with customized promotional and design packages Read more about this resource...
are you recommending this vanity press as a reliable resource, daniel? have you any personal knowledge of the firm and the quality of its products?... from what i saw first-hand of both their books and how they dealt with clients, i could not recommend them and would not include them in any list of resources...
Daniel submitted a new resource: Trafford Publishing - self-publisher with customized promotional and design packages Read more about this resource...
If that is the case, I'd like to see that stated explicitly. I'm disturbed by the "official" endorsement, especially for a vanity press about which some troubling points have been raised.
Absolutely not recommending it. Just because a resource is added doesn't mean it's endorsed by me or the site. Normally I wouldn't add it at all, except there was this existing thread already and I figured it might as well be associated with a corresponding resource entry. If they deal with their clients poorly, that's what this thread and the resource ratings would be for. I do see where your coming from though, which is why it might be best to create some sort of system or standards for the resource directory. Not at all.
This is not an endorsement or advertisement, nor do we have any paid resources in the resource directory. To be clear - if we ever have a paid resource advertisement, it will be clearly marked as such.
the problem as i see it is that since you are the site owner and have posted the info on that company twice , without any visible warning or explanation of why you're doing so, one can only assume you're endorsing it... even the hidden addition of why you posted it... ...doesn't really give any hint of any reluctance on your part to do so, despite some of us having noted before your second posting that the company is one to be avoided... ... and your addition can't be seen till one clicks on 'read more...'... so it definitely appears to be an endorsement, paid-for or otherwise... ...plus, 'should be expanded' is so ambiguous as to be useless in encouraging readers of the thread to post their opinions about the company, imo...
Yes. As I see it, the only thing a disreputable company needs in order to become a "resource" is to create an account and start a disingenuous question about the company. And resources still look an awful lot like endorsements. The word itself implies a valued tool.
I added the bold of Cogito's quote for emphasis, as I agree. If something is posted as a 'resource' by a respected member of a community, let alone the owner of a respected writing community, to me it indicates source that has at least been vetted by the individual posting, and thus, a resource of legitimate value.
I think this discussion is better suited for another thread, but I'll reply anyway. It was posted twice because I was having issues with the new system - one has now been deleted. If you read the resources, you'll see in bold that I said the reason for posting the resource was because their was an existing thread. I see where you're coming from, but do you have a suggestion solution? My opinion is that by allowing any publisher to be listed in the publisher category we're allowing a discussion thread and rating on that publisher. This allows the publisher to have a reputation on WF and help people better find centralized information on the given publisher. Honestly, if someone trusts a resource because it was posted here, by me or not, they haven't done due diligence in their research. I think you guys have a fair point about the implications of hte term resource (but see my response above). This is actually why I'm asking for feedback on the resource section and developing community standards. As for the situation you described, resources cannot be automatically approved by any member other than Senior and Contributing members, so this can be avoided; if a resource looks like it's added by such a company, it won't be approved.
see what i wrote above: in the first instance, my implied suggested solution is to not let your added caveat be hidden, put it first, not last... in the second, it was to change the ambiguous statement to a more clear and explicit one at the beginning of each posting of what, as cog notes, should not be called a 'resource'...
I don't think it's a great idea to list commercial sites as resources. We don't have the means to adequately vet them, and whether intended or not, calling a site a resource is a de facto endorsement, disclaimers notwithstanding. I'd rather see resources limited to official sites, such as government copyright sites, academic sites, and recognized primary resources like respected dictionaries, standard market listings, or widely respected independent sites like Bill Shunn's Manuscript format or Paul Brians' Common Errors in English. Too often, commercial sites are pushing an agenda, even if they appear to be offering objective advice. Calling them resources can be highly misleading.
Okay, let's talk about the real world. You pay them and what you get, at best, is a pile of unsold books to store in your basement. For all their talk about advertising it will not get your work in any bookstore. When the say worldwide book distribution that means they'll print any address on the box you care to have placed there. But you have to sell the book and send the reader there to buy it. And how will you do that? They promise "Personal Web Page in the Trafford Online Bookstore" Whoopie! But uhh...when was the last time you cruised the pages of a vanity press book store. How many of your friends do that? I looked at their offerings, beginning from the first on their list: Project Manager: Released Aug 28. Two reviews, one of them from the author. Neither are verified purchasers. Has not sold enough copies for a rating. Second Chance: Released Aug 28. No sales no reviews. Zebras Never Die: Released Aug 27. No sales no reviews. Confessions of a Part Time Optimist: Released Aug 22. Sales ranking #1,779,056 From the top. No reviews. Crossing Cain's Road: Released Dec 18 2012. No sales rank. Two five star reviews. Neither actually bought the book. So you can guess who they were. Are you beginning to see a picture emerging as to value for the money? Like any whore they'll tell you that you're wonderful. But then they'll turn and say it just as sincerely to the next customer. If you take the money you were going to spend on them and spend it on a writer's education you stand a chance of actually selling what you write. In fact, Spend a few dollars here, and you'll be able to better see what you need to do to achieve success.
