Tag Archives: FREE

Industry Standard Group for Indie Publishers

As a Independent Publisher which is a Limited Company, I always tell my author friends and clients to make sure they don’t pay first and to look at prices…some are horrendous. A deposit is one thing, full payment…Hell no… they tend to be Vanity Publishers. Needless to say if you have a set of standards for one then you need them for authors as well. Not all authors are great to work with. I’ve had some damn right nasty ones who nearly made me give up helping others.

It does cost to get published. It doesn’t matter if you go trad or Indie. Traditional take part of your royality for the life of the book, which could be millions and they will only publish you if they can make a profit from you work. Also remember they have control of your manuscript – you don’t! Indie Publishers get paid a one off amount so if you make millions you don’t need to pay them anymore.

What I would like to see is a list of or group of Indie Publishers who assist each other like Indie Authors do. They must have at least five 5 star reviews/testimonials …remember we all have to start somewhere.

In fact, I’ll start a group on Facebook of LLC companies with 5 or more positive testimonials.  Let people know and we will build this together for everyone to look at and use. 

What information I will need.

Professionalism
Proof of LLC
Proof of your reviews and testimonials.
Genre you work with
Royalty Share – if you work that way
Deposit Amount – if needed
Contact details

Companies without Reviews/Testimonals will be added as pending
when they start up.

 

3 LINKS TO VOTE FOR 2 OF OUR ANTHOLOGIES & FORMATTING

VOTE FOR US

We need more votes for two of our Anthologies – Childrens Anthology & Ghostly Writes 2017, both which are available FREE as ebooks, and I’ve apparently been nominated for Best Formatter.  

If you know me and all the work we do for and with others, many times free – like the Indie Publishing News and the Three Anthologies I do each year, then you will see my formatting.

Here are the links.  Thank you to anyone who votes. 

Favourite Children’s Anthology

Ghostly Writes 2017

Best Formatter

Thank you to anyone who can and does vote for us. This means a lot 🙂

 

Journey into Creating a Publishing Company – Part Three

I never name call anyone. I am always polite and rational with anyone with any discussion. If or when a person earns my ire I tend to grumble a lot, though I do step back and think about the situation which has arisen. I will help as much as I can or as the client will let me…One thing I am clear about is when a client has approved a final file then they will need to pay for extra work, whether the original job was a swap of skills, paid or a package.

2016 was a big year with a lot of changes. It wasn’t a good year on many fronts though I did have a favourite. Needless to say this year was filled with bullying clients and gossip in the local writers group which I didn’t know about for nearly two years. I was devastated by both of these. Luckily for me I have stong family support from my husband and children and some really great friend. Many of those friends were students from my Business Management Course and my Incubate Course.

There was one bully who I worked with. They were like an advisor, going to do marketing for me on a local scale, introduced me to a local reporter for one of the free newspapers. All of this was appreciated. In exchange I formatted their first book, pulled together a book cover – all to the best of my ability at that time – both ebook and print, assisted them set up accounts with createspace and kindle. Now if one thinks about all the time involved the different things I was learning, it was a lot of work. I can’t really put a price on this.  They were happy with the result…UNTIL…They suddenly decided I’d not done the book properly (a word I now HATE) Thinking back I did two books for this person. The other was in exchange for a computer (desktop) he put a price of $300 on which strangley was raised to $400 during email discussions. It wasn’t acutally worth anything due to it’s age. Once again I did the second book plus two websites.
What I wonder now is if the second book was better set out than the first due to the growth in my learning…Would you redo a client’s book for free because you’ve learnt more about interior design?

One thing I will advise everyone with a small business…

MAKE SURE YOU KEEP ALL YOUR EMAILS FOR EACH CLIENT SO THEY CAN’T BITE YOU ON THE BUTT/ASS AT A LATER DATE!!

Even in those days, I insisted all clients to proofread their own books for any formatting edits. Bits that need changing or taking out etc.  This person approved the final file. Six months later they complained I’d left their home address in the back of the book and I have the synopsis in the back as well.  EXCUSE ME…YOU APPROVED IT!!  Fed up with the ongoing emails, I redid the formatting which was once again APPROVED.  
    Now we come to the end of 2016. They had decided to sue me…I presume at small claims court. They were going to win and take all my business/money etc.

WOW.  Not only this, I had another client who disparaged my name (Yes I can still sue them for defamation of character) They contacted me for a meeting.  I went into a deep depression and fog for three weeks…It was one of the worst time in the year for this to happen due to course work for Business Management along with trying to claw my way out of the fog and stabilise once more. 

With the bully I was still getting emails. In the end I sent them an offer which most folks wouldn’t refuse. I got a unpleasent email stating I was to re-do the book, and upload it to createspace, and purchase 5 or so copies to be sent to them by a certain date. They had gone a step to far. I was now furious.
     Offering them one last deal. It took several weeks to prepare and over $500 out of my business…which is still a loss to this day.  I printed off all their emails I met with my business admin who I had to pay ($75) to go through them and advise me if I was correct with my assumptions. That was another $300. Yes I was correct. If they sued me I could prove they were in the wrong, not only that, I could re-sue them for defamation of character.
     The email was sent. It wasn’t accepted. I still don’t understand why. The email was sent via my business admin. Their reply.  “All I wanted was to have it edited”
    If a client has approved a final file then they need to pay for any further formatting edits. They also need to use the final file I sent them.  I have about 4 different files with different words counts on my computer…Which is the right one? Why should I continue to edit their work for FREE when they had approved final files. 

From this time one I went quiet on Facebook which of course, affected my business badly. This person was still on my friends list and in two groups I ran. It wasn’t until mid 2017 that I finally deleted them, unfriended and blocked them. This was all thanks to another online friend who is like a sister to me. The relief was immense, though with them still living locally I was real nervous going up town. Call it anxiety of thinking they’d verbally attack me in the street. This is also another reason few of my friends online know I went back to England. 

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU KEEP RECORDS FROM ALL YOUR CLIENTS AND ALSO ALL YOUR REPLIES. IT MAY SAVE YOU ONE DAY.

This same person also emailed saying they had paid for a membership to the Chamber of Commerce…NOPE they didn’t because I have my receipt.  However I still wonder today if they paid for a second year – without my permission due to the fact I still received post from this group. I have never been able to find out.

SAVE ALL YOUR RECEIPTS!

As for the second person…They are still in the background, pottering along with life, asking me for coffee…well until they found out I was back in the UK…

The strange thing is that the only clients I’ve ever had issues with were all local males to were I used to live. All my online clients have been amazing and I have loved working and growing with them.

As for the Writers Group. I gave the then chairperson – who is an Editor, a printed out copy of my book to look through and advise.  She came back that it wasn’t her style and a bit rude. Ok yes she is an older lady.  What I didn’t know was that she’d told the rest of the committee and god knows who else that I wrote Erotica.  The book at that time was called Malachy’s Unit – it is now called Hidden Secrets.  It is not erotica or even erotic. It is murder, mystery romance with a bit of spice.

Nearly two years later I took my children’s book in to sell and show to the writers group. Girlie and the War of the Wasps. One of the gentlemen who approached me to buy a copy said. “Oh, I thought you only wrote erotica.” to my reply. “I don’t write erotica.”  Once again I was as mad as hell. I never went back to the group. The thought they were all looking at me a a nonsense smut writer (yeah they were that bad) was beyond a joke.

The Best Part…

The best part of 2016 was assisting a client with three children’s book. ‘The Pottontots’ is a set of three books with wonderful art work by the author. Keith Broad was awesome to work with and his stories are a great read for any child.

Daycause – The new crowdspeaker

So Headtalker is over and done with and another one moves in.  I’m not sure how new they are to the crowdspeaker idea. What I will say is it is looking good.  

We did our first campagin, got a tad lost and deleted it.  (Don’t you love a learning curve) We did the same campagin again and got it correct.  You can find it here.  Please support if you can.

https://www.daycause.com/claireplaisted/enchantments-the-beginning-2

Anyway Daycause is slightly different from both Headtalker and Thunderclap.  This time you don’t have to gather a certain amount of supporters for the campagin to be published. You can set a term limit of up to 60 days in advance and it also has different social arenas to choose from.  The campagin goes on Twitter, Facebook & Google Plus and you raise awareness by sharing the campaign to get supporters.  So far we have 11 supporters for our next book release – Enchantments with covers 19,000 plus social media folks.

What we do like about this site is you can write a blurb and add images as well.  There isn’t some many words or letters to use like Twitter though they do ask you for a short blurb as well for Twitter

Lets all hope this takes off.  It is totally FREE so get in there and give it a go.  Let us know what you think.

https://www.daycause.com/

Indie Publishing News

Indie Publishing News Magazine Issue 8 OUT NOW

This months Magazine had Tory Gates as our Featured Author. A Man of many talents.  We also have antoher five interviews from Indie Authors around the world who you need to know about.  New Releases, Poetry, a short story…. and much more.

Indie Publishing News. Issue 8 PDF

GET YOUR COPY HERE TODAY

Business Reflections of 2016

Reflections of the past twelve months. What have we done. The highs and lows. The requests and even the chat.  

I have met some amazing people over the last twelve months. Many who have helped to improve my love of learning, friendship, sisterhood and much more. With business growing I find it is now time to thank everyone who had helped make this a great year. Thank you for your comments, chat, shares, reblogs and support. Without you I would not be where I am today.  A fine spot with more highs than lows. THANK YOU

Clients of 2016

We have assisted EIGHT AUTHORS with NINE books – ebook and print.  We have also assisted these authors along with another FOUR to learn the ropes of Publishing.  Some wish to do as much as they can, others like assistance each time.  Some of these authors have several more works to be published and we are looking forward to working with them again. We have also worked with twenty-five authors for our Anthology…More on that later.

Sponsorship 2016

We set up a Sponsorship earlier in 2016.  Our WINNER was J B TAYLOR  with his Sci Fi novel called DISCOVERY.   J B Taylor was Awesome to work with. We’d also like to thank Limelight Literature and Fantasia Covers for been part of this Sponsorship. 

Indie Publishing News

We opened a new avenue to MARKETING for FREE to all Indie Authors and those who supported Indie Authors in February 2016.  This newsletter grew at such an astounding rate it is now MONTHLY ONLINE MAGAZINE which goes worldwide.  US, UK, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, INDIA, EUROPE – Time to do a survey. All a person needs to do for FREE Marketing is sign up to receive the Magazine and share it out, this helps spread the word on their work as well as anyone else who participates in the group.  We now run a SPOTLIGHT AUTHOR who gets the cover page as well as around 5 – 6 pages of information about them, their books, reviews etc.

Last month we introduced the Roving Reporter idea. This is for those who write or find interesting articles they wish to bring to attention of other Indie Authors and supporters.

As from January 2017 we will have a BACK PAGE ADVERT.  For next year this will be Advertising GOINDIENOW an wonderful company who supports Indie Authors with marketing and video discussion – plus much more.

Anyone who else who wishes to support the Magazine to keep it FREE is welcome to place on-going adverts (the same one each month or bi-monthly for a small fee.  This Magazine is not out to make money! It is there to help. However at 40 plus pages it takes time, so assistance is always welcome.

Ghostly Writes Anthology

FREE Anthology for those who wish to write a short story of up to 6K for Halloween.  Once again this was well received. We had 25 Authors participate, some publishing for the first time.  The Anthology was well recieved and is still downloading well on KINDLE – The eBook is FREE)  We are looking at writing a short Ghostly Romance Anthology for Valentines…However this has an entry FEE of $10 each.  The HALLOWS EVE ANTHOLOGY WILL ALWAYS BE FREE IN EBOOK FORMAT.

Join the Group today: – Ghostly Writes Anthology Group

On going Training

As the Director of Plaisted Publishing House I have continued my Business Training with a Diploma in Small Business Enterprise – Level 5. I graduate in 2017.  I will continue to grow and learn to make my company one of the best, if not the best out there for Indie Authors. I love being a Small Press Publisher. I love to chat and see how I can help. Please dont’ hesitate to contact us.

The Lows

There have been a few lows, through seeing people in a positive light and them coming back to bite you due to living in a negative world and thinking they know what we should be doing as a company.  Even we are still learning the ins and outs, though there are many out there who know – WE KNOW OUR JOB. I’d like to thank those who have given us the love and support we have needed, mainly from friends and clients worldwide – we are proud to say we pulled through – taking the bull by the horns and growing stronger than ever before.

WATCH OUT 2017

 

Submissions for our Magazine

Hello and welcome.  As you may have noticed we have a magazine called Indie Publishing News.  This is a FREE Magazine for Indie Authors and small businesses who support them – Cover Designers, Editors etc.

It has been decided to open up this popular magzine to various submissions.  At this time you can submit an article for:

Short Stories – 500 words only

Blogs with interesting articles or advice for Authors.

We are open to ideas, to make this magazine the best it can be. You can contact us at plaistedpublishinghouse@gmail.com

Submission Criteria:

You need to join the Indie Publishing News Group on Facebook and Sign up for the magazine if you are an Author or Small Business. To get approved you need to sign up HERE 

You are asked to share the magazine on social media and in emails. This is to grow everyones fan base.  If you have readers interested we have a sign up for them HERE

We are also offering businesses several Advertising spaces which will be either by-monthly or monthly.  Costings will be advised for those interested.

Haunting you this Hallow’s Eve

Ghostly Writes Anthology 2016

It is that time of year again when authors love to haunt you with our scary, horror filled books that will thrill anyone who loves Halloween.

Ghostly Writes Anthology, presented to you by Plaisted Publishing House, Ltd, New Zealand, with a selection of 26 Indie Authors from around the world.  This eBook will be available wordwide from the 31st October. (KINDLE will be late due to getting PERMA FREE established) Each story has its own focus, be it a haunting or not. There are creepy cottages, houses and creatures. Some you won’t want to read at night.

One thing you will notice is that we have left the English Grammar and Spelling in the country of origin – like it or not, it is what it is – English from around the globe.

This year our authors and their stories are:

A Dying Scream – J G Clay

Cabins – J B Taylor

Caedes – Adam Mitchell

Canvas – Sarah Mosier

Chaconne – Neil Newton

Death has a Sound – Rocky Rochford

Embers of Webber Street – Karen J Mossman

Eternally Connected – JLC Roche

Ghost in the Machine – Eve Merrick-Williams

Ghost of a Chance – Wendy Steele

Haunted House Arrest – Jennifer Deese

Hello Dear – Stewart Bint

Luella – Kyrena Lynch

Mother Called Today – Mike Elliott

Natatorium-Adele Marie Parks

Play Time – Amy Budd

Ruby Kisses – Jessica Wren

Sitting on a Cloud – C A Keith

Soul Man – Claire Plaisted

Spools of Thread – Ashley Uzzell

The Beneficiaries of Secret Cottage – Jane Risdon

The Curse of Havencrest – Cayleigh Stickler

The Ghost of Rose Cottage – Marjorie Hembroff

The House on the Hill – Jim Adams

The Thin Place – Elizabeth H Newton

Here are a few of the teasers to enjoy.  

                                   

                                      

If you wish to have more information you can find me at www.plaistedpublishinghouse.wordpress.com  

plaistedpublishinghouse@gmail.com 

Our offical book trailer will be out soon on YouTube along with two others made by authors who are participating in this years anthology.