Hi everyone,

I'm here for at least a month on trial and from what I've seen, it looks likely that I will become a full member. I'm 26, currently about to take my final year at university before embarking on an English PGCE and I've been writing since I can remember but taking my own writing seriously for about 10 years. I write short stories and poetry and I have recently (in the last fortnight) started submitting poems and short stories to various magazines. I have had one reply - it was almost immediate - from a magazine called Erbacce, telling me that they liked my work and would publish my collection of poems but that it would be likely to be in late 2010. They also asked if I had considered publishing a chapbook. Of course, I've considered this but I thought that the way to do it would be to try to get my poetry circulated in magazines first. To cut a long story short; Erbacce also publish books and they told me that they would offer me a contract - bla bla bla and it goes something like this; I pay about £90 (this includes the price of printing 40 copies, postage and ISBN) I get 32 of those copies and I get paid royalties from any that Erbacce-press sell on their website (if royalties accumulate over £50). I'm at a loss as to what to do. I don't know why but there is just this niggling doubt about the whole situation. On the one hand, I'm thrilled to have somebody tell me they enjoy my poetry and offer to publish a chapbook for me and on the other, I'm worried I'm jumping in. Is there a downside to doing what I am considering doing? Reputation wise? Also, does anyone know anything about the company?

I've probably posed a lot of questions there and I'm sorry if I've abused my newbie status! Though, I do hope there is somebody out there willing to give me a little guidance.

Kind regards,

E

I've googled the name and can't find any warnings.
The main problem is poetry isn't popular except amongst other poets, and so there will be a very limited market for the copies. You should expect to give most of those 32 copies away to family and freinds.
I suppose it depends on whether or not you've got £90 burning a hole in your pocket.



- NaomiM

<Added>

And Welcome to WriteWords

Hi Esgoonom, and welcome to WriteWords

I would say that your niggling doubt is well-founded, in that it's a fundamental principle of publishing that money flows towards the writer, not away from them. You may not get paid for, say, a poem in a magazine, but it certainly shouldn't cost you anything. A publisher makes their money from selling books/mags, not from authors.

Another reason is that real poetry publishers are inundated with material, don't reply quickly except if it's a rejection, and are very unlikely to publish anyone who doesn't have a track record in magazines and competitions, since it's only those poets who have any kind of audience for their work; you're absolutely right that the way to go about establishing yourself as a poet is by exactly that process. If these guys are real publishers, I wonder why they're not in the same situation?

If they're offering a self-publishing service, where you pay for their help in producing a collection for anyone who's willing to pay, then they should be upfront about that: it's a perfectly legitimate business, but it's not a publisher.

I'll ask around my poet friends to see if anyone knows any more about these guys, but I would suggest you don't commit yourself.

Emma

Thank you for you replies!

To be honest, I'm not really sure what erbacce-press offers! Their service is here - http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/#/service-1/4526044153 - they don't seem to be making a profit out of it and it seems unlikely they will sell many books through their website. Thing is, I've got the contract (unsigned) in front of me before they've seen a proposal of what is to go in the chapbook. In effect, their decision to take me onboard has been based on their reading about 4 of my poems. Is that normal? Even if they are just helping people self publish?

I think I've made up my mind and I'll keep plugging away at the magazines and competitions. Feel quite deflated though, for a moment I let myself get carried away.

Thanks again,

Kate

They are calling themselves a co-operative, and appear to have set up a subsidy publisher - ie, the writer pays part of the cost of publication. This is basically a self-publishing co-operative for fellow poets. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but all it really does is convert your poems into book format. What to do with those books is up to you. It seems they expect you to tout them to fellow poets at poetry readings.


- NaomiM

I think Naomi's nailed it. It's not a scam, but it's not 'being published' in the normal way of things.

Deflating, I know, but that doesn't mean your work doesn't have merit! Of course it feels good to have someone say they like your work - that's what we all want, after all: to be heard.

Emma