Strategic Book Publishing

Could you tell me if this company is any good? Are they self publishing or POD pretending to be traditional publishers?

I don't trust them. After you submit your manuscript, they'll hit you for a fee. That's my take on the subject.

Check them out at Preditors & Editors or WriterBeware. I think this is the new publishing arm of Writers Literary--a total scam.

Jeanne

Ten minutes with Google will tell you all you need to know.

Thanks. The Writer Beware site was great

Now they wont:)

Their approach is very sneaky. They ask for a full proposal, very professional. They come off sounding really legit. Then they hit you with an editorial "review." It's not the same type of review you get with a real publisher, where the seniors and ad men decide if the book is marketable. It's a review where they tell you that your book needs copy editing and you must use one of their people to do it. That's where the fee comes in.

I repeat: If a ms is ready for publication, the publisher does the copy editing--FREE! Printing: FREE! Publicity: FREE!
Most even pay you an advance, as soon as you sign the contract.

I'm not sure why Writers Market lists them. The listings are free, so they aren't doing it for money. They used to toss out fee-charging publishers. There are a number of them in WM and have stayed, despite complaints.

DCE

See the "Alert" on Writer Beware.

If you have had problems with this company, the Florida Attorney General's Office would like to hear from you. There's contact information on Writer Beware. Just click the "Alert" on the first page.

-Ann C. Crispin
Chair, Writer Beware
www.writerbeware.com

Strategic Book Publishing is a bait and switch scheme. They will tell you that this is at no cost to the author. They then say, \"If you book has not been edited, you can use our editors.\" However, they also state that you can use your own. I wrote back, stating that I would use my own professional editor and asked what the next step would be. They then sent a contract & stated that once payment is made and contract signed, we could get started. MAKE NO MISTAKE: They are a vanity publisher. The only difference between them and most vanity publishers is that they use fraudulent information to to bait people in. The costs are about $1000 up front then, in the contract, it says something like, \"There may be no other fees but that is dependent on various factors.\" It doesn\'t tell you what those factors are - which means they will continue milking you.

Also, they will tell you there is no cost to the publisher but, as someone mentioned above, try to get you to use their editors. Once you don't, they will bring out the other costs as they did for me.

New name: <a href="http://www.sfwa.org/beware/twentyworst.html">Strategic Book Group</a>.

I had received a response from Strategic Book Publishing and I thought they were for real when contacts were being made. Being a cautious person however, I googled them and the negatives about them were so overwhelming. They had given no indication that they were a vanity press...so I am happy about the the information I received about them. Since I am still in contact with them... after reading about them on this site , I have sent them the following email:

Hi, I just got your response, however, I am still unsure of one key factor, and that is...will at any time in our author/publisher relationship will I be required to contribute financially to see the process completed in its entirety? If the answer is yes, then this is where our road ends. So please let me know soonest as possible so that we do not continue to waste each others\' time.

I am still awaiting a response. I will let you guys know what they have said. But thanks once again for the heads up.

Received email acceptance for application I hadn't submitted, request for ms. Found only negative info from P&E. Smelled like scam. Out of curiosity, sent short ms. Got back tell-tale scare about need for editing. Dumped 'em. They're real pros, with all the bells & whistles to entice a naive writer.