Don’t be Prey

[image error]

I wrote a blog a few weeks back titled What You Need to Know Before Signing with Westbow Press. They are a fairly respected publisher (and I suggest unrightfully so.) One of their chief predecessors was a company named Tate Publishing who operated on the exact same model.

Tate just closed, (shortly before Family Christian Stores shuttered every location of their brick and mortar super-chain). Tate formally closed its doors on January 24, 2017. Good.

The unfortunate side, however, is that it broadcast itself as a “Christian Company,” probably as part of their lure to bring in authors whom they could take advantage of. Claiming you operate with a set of high morals gets people to drop their defenses somewhat (maybe like predator-priests and altar boys?) The Christian publishing sphere is going to take a bunch of flack between these sorts of gaffes (and Tate might be dead in part because of the major publishing houses looked at Tate and realized they could do the same thing while adding their name to it to garner credibility–mark my words, this will eventually come back up).

While Tate is finally dead, there are still a ton of clones out there ready to rip off indie authors, so use extreme prejudice when looking at “self-publishing services.”

I found an extremely good article titled Beware of Sharks in Publisher’s Clothing. You really ought to read it–I’ve used the principles it suggests over and over (in fact, Tate tried VERY hard to sign me when I wrote my first novel a decade ago. I was trying to survive on almost zero income working as a poor broke youth pastor with two kids, a mortgage, a second job, and a church income of $50 per week while I wrote in the evenings… Tate was more than happy to pressure me into signing–but prayerful wisdom prevailed and I turned them down. Still, I can recognize that they stroked the ego and dangled dreams and promises in front of me, but I recognized that it couldn’t be that easy. I also found horror stories on the Preditors and Editors website which helped steer me away.)

I’ve spoken quite a bit this with people in the past and will tentatively be teaching a panel that touches heavily on this at Lion-Con this fall. Nobody has a greater interest in seeing your book succeed than YOU, so get out there and make it happen.