So, I subscribe to Globe Soup's Contest Newsletter, which I plan to write about in the future. They send e-notices for contests not affiliated with them (albeit these are prefaced with warnings that they are not from them). Last month, I entered one from Tadpole (in addition to entering one from Globe Soup). I would deem Tadpole to be a legitimate publishing company--even though their material comes from publishing paid contest entries and the "longlist" winners seem to be high. The reason is because they are upfront about being an online literary magazine, and they have real prizes. Some of these are marketing packages, but you get a complete, free marketing package if you win one.
When I went to check out the Off Topic Publishing Contest, warning bells went off. First, there seems to be only one contest judge--the owner and founder of Off Topic Publishing. This, in itself, doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it is a flag. The only reason this would be legitimate, in my opinion, is if the small publishing company needed more submissions and was using the contest to do that.
Then, however, I looked at the prizes. In reality, the first place prize is the only one that wins anything: a free manuscript critique/ and $100 CAD. That would be a decent prize, except a manuscript critique is not very valuable--you can get those for free from a beta reader. An edit would have been more valuable, as long as the editor knows his/her stuff. You also get free tickets to an online writing conference promoted and created by Off Topic Publishing. Writing conferences are, in general, scams. It is great to hear authors talking about their work, and this particular conference discusses copyright, which is important, but like all such conferences, the cost of attendance is high. Because this one is online, you could just go to YouTube and find a similar experience by piecing together your own conference. In person at major writing conferences, you might at least get some vendor freebies and contacts with publishing companies in exchange for the outrageous price.
Sadly, and something that should always send up more warning bells, the rest of the prizes consisted of worthless "free" tickets to the conference and discounts on editing or critiques. Presumably, since you are paying for it, you get to choose which you prefer. Please note: A discount is NOT a prize. That is what car dealers send to everyone on the scratch off "prizes" they use to get you to come to their "sales event."
At $20 CAD a pop to enter this contest, one has to wonder why the prizes are so chintzy. I have no clue how much she has offered to pay the four speakers at her conference, but at $120 CAD per ticket, presumably, she can have 20 full-paying attendees and still walk away in the black. Keep in mind that it is online, so she doesn't have to pay for space or anything else, other than potentially a Zoom meeting if she gets more than 90 people registered. At that point, she can certainly cover Zoom charges. As far as the contest goes, if she gets 5 entries, she has covered the first prize payout. In fact, if 125 people enter her contest, she has more than covered prize and conference fees.
So, perhaps, she is just a smart businesswoman? (Even then I wouldn't recommend entering this contest--why pad someone else's pockets?) Then, I went to the "submissions" section of the website. Unfortunately, this is a short-story vanity press. You submit a short story/essay to their website, but you have to pay a rather large fee--$50 CAD, if you are accepted for publication in their anthology!!! Now, presumably 10+ authors will be included in this single book. For that $50, you get only 1 "free" copy of the book. I can publish and buy books a lot cheaper than that on Amazon-and Amazon allows you to have your own imprint if you want to buy ISBN numbers. Notably, ISBN numbers cost $30--but that isn't per book! I understand they are using IngramSpark, which is more expensive than Amazon but offers wider distribution, but IngramSpark does not require exclusivity. They could also offer books on Amazon and buy the copies they distribute to the authors for lower cost. Apparently, the founder is not a smart businesswoman.
I am okay with self-publishing authors starting their own publishing business, although I don't recommend it. (Yes, I know, I am trying to do just that.) However, I am not okay with self-publishing authors starting a vanity press. If you want to hire me as an editor, I am all for it and advertise my services on my website. At the same time, I do not have the capabilities at this point in time to accept and review manuscripts that I will then publish under the Dreaming Reality name. When I do that, if your manuscript is accepted, it would not cost you a thing to have me edit it other than a percent of the sales. This would be a big jump to go from only producing my own work to producing the work of others. I need to make sure all books I publish can be available across a wide spectrum of platforms--right now I am only set up on Amazon, although I am going to be expanding, hopefully by the end of this year onto other platforms (IngramSpark and Draft2Digital-formerly Smashwords) so I can get better library and institutional coverage. I would need to have more marketing strategies in place. I would need to also have the time to review submitted books--which for me would mean submission windows that would not be open all year.
Most disappointing, is that since this contest requires you to submit the first 2,500 words of a novel, it makes it seem like you might get a publishing contract with them. However, when you look at their published book list on their website, there are only 10 different books and one calendar offered. Most of these are poetry anthologies edited by the founder, and two poetry books are written by the founder. Only one is a novella, which seems to be a collection of flash fiction--even though the contest seems to be looking for full-length novels. Although the contest does not limit genres, it seems like only poetry and flash fiction is all they have ever published. To me, there is no reason to offer a contest for full-length novels if you don't print them, except to get authors' hopes up that if they win they will get a traditional publishing contract. Instead, they will get connected to a vanity press that seems to have been started to boost the founders vanity.
Big or small, a publishing company should put promoting their author's works and making money by selling them instead of promoting contests and making money by selling tickets to online writing conferences. In this case, it seemed like the "publishing company" also did little to promote the books they produced.
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