Today I received a follow-up email from a different S&S staffer. It reads:
Hi April,
Veda forwarded your e-mail to me. I manage Archway Publishing for S&S, and would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about the service. There are a lot of options available to self-publishing authors today, and we believe Archway delivers real value. Please let me know if you'd be interested in speaking, and we can schedule a time.
Regards,
[name, with a simon and schuster email address]
And here is my response to that email:
Unless one of those options is to detach AuthorHouse from Archway, I have no interest in hearing anything more you have to say.
You cannot partner with Bernie Madoff to offer investment services and expect people to ignore the fact that your partner is Bernie Madoff.
---------------------
'Nuff said.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Sorry, that was NOT meant to be an anonymous comment.
If I get another response, I'll post about it here.
Whoops! Deleted your first comment by mistake, sorry!
To paraphrase - you were asking what lame response they could possibly have now, and hoped I'd let you know if one was forthcoming.
Funny isn't it, April, how similar the response to you from Archway, as the response provided by Allison Dobson of RH's Hydra to the SFWA! None of the specific criticisms are properly addressed and you just get the weak 'it's a new type of publishing model we are trying' and the priceless 'let's meet up and discuss'. As Scalzi told Dobson, what is there to discuss!!
Mick -
It's mystifying to me how these big publishers didn't bother to check out AH/ASI before choosing to partner up with them. It wouldn't take much Googling at all to discover how thoroughly shunned and despised ASI is among knowlegeable indies.
And this just confirms what I've been saying all along: with big pub, it hasn't been about art for a very long time: it's about money. I don't begrudge big pub the right to earn a healthy profit, but when doing so comes from bilking writers---the very people on which your entire business model depends---that's shortsighted, venal and just plain wrong.
I think that's the point. These big publishers are not dumb. They know the score with ASI brands and it's not stopping them getting in bed. For publishers, it's a quick revenue stream without the need to inwardly develop any real program. Right now, publishers are not seeing self-publishing as a true opportunity - much in the same way they have approached ebooks up to now. It's just another format and revenue stream to bail them out of years of complacency and standing still.
Now that AuthorHouse is being investigated as part of a class action suit, I wonder how long this partnership will remain.
Post a Comment