I noticed the link in 'Writing Jobs' today and did a bit of background checking as this is a new competition which is charging a £10 fee.

Red Telephone Books have not yet registered as a company at Companies House although they have owned their web address since 31st May 2009.
http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/info

Here are details of the owner of the website, which are available from http://www.nominet.org.uk/

Domain name: theredtelephone.co.uk Registrant: Martin James Registrant type: UK Individual Registrant's address: 15 Chapletown Road Radcliffe 01 M26 1YF United Kingdom Registrar: Melbourne IT t/a Internet Names Worldwide [Tag = MELBOURNE-IT] URL: http://www.melbourneit.com.au/contacts Relevant dates: Registered on: 31-May-2009 Renewal date: 31-May-2011

Their email address is through hotmail and the domain is owned by an individual not a company.

You might want to think twice before giving money to a company who could vanish any time... plus the usual concerns of what 'published' actually means.

I agree. Saw this and thought it had nothing to recommend it.

Thanks for that jenzarina. There are always new imprints chancing their arm and calling for material. Sometimes it seems as though it's set up by writers looking for a way of publishing their own work and getting others on board to subsidise the cost.
Personally, unless the publication &/or competition is well established and well known I don't bother wasting my time submitting. A credit in an unknown publication doesn't mean anything in one's writing CV when submitting to agents.

Yes, glad I am not alone in my suspicions...
First prize is 'publication'.

writers looking for a way of publishing their own work and getting others on board to subsidise the cost.

What a brilliant idea?

Anybody want to enter a competition?

Hello, my name is Ollie and I'm the administrator for Red Telephone Books. If anyone has any concerns about the validity of what we are trying to do, please feel free to contact me (admin@theredtelephone.co.uk) and I will seek to address them.

Best wishes,

Ollie Wright
Red Telephone Books

Proof-reading on the Home page could be improved...

The first book to be published Red Telephone

It seems to be a feature of these sites.

There are plenty of ways to go through the agonies of submission without paying a tenner for the privilege.

Chris

<Added>

Missed out the second quote above:

The competiton closes on 31st December 2009.

When offering editorial services, it's not a bad idea to use them in your own publicity.

C.

Ollie, you can answer questions on here. Here are a some to start with:

What experience do you have of publishing - ie publishing other people's books?

How will you achieve distribution?

What royalty are you offering?

What are the terms of the contract between RTB and the winning and published author?

Who owns copyright of the submissions?


I expect other WW members will have others.

NaomiR

Hi Naomi,

"What experience do you have of publishing - ie publishing other people's books?"

We are a new imprint of a company with eight years experience of publishing non-fiction, which has also been publishing fiction for the past year. Please see http://www.bridgehousepublishing.co.uk.

"How will you achieve distribution?"

Through Gardners and Bertrams. We have a conventional marketing strategy.

"What royalty are you offering?"

50% profit-share royalty (our USP for authors).

"What are the terms of the contract between RTB and the winning and published author?"

A normal publishing contract - our contracts have been vetted and approved by the SoA.

"Who owns copyright of the submissions?"

The author. Should RTB publish your manuscript, as normal, you license it to us, the publisher.

Many thanks for your interest. Please let me know if you have any further queries.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Ollie
[url=www.theredtelephone.co.uk]www.theredtelephone.co.uk[/url]

Thanks to Red Telephone for answering those questions. I hope that gives anyone interested some more information.

Happy Christmas!

I am just curious to know, Red Telephone, who edits & proofreads the work - the publisher or the author?
It's just that a writer friend of mine had one of her stories published in a Bridge House anthology and it got, for want of a better description, mangled in the process, but no-one noticed before it went to print.




- NaomiM

I'm a little confused... is Red Telephone an imprint of Bridgehouse? Both companies seem very new from their websites, and I can't see anything about the eight years' non-fiction experience. Would be grateful if you could shed some light on this, Ollie.

Thank you for this insight, as a newcommer, I could have been tempted into this, thanks for the back-ground check, it's such a shame their are so many parasites out there!!

While some outfits are scam artists (check out Writers Beware on www.AbsoluteWrite.com), others, like this one, are simply naiive.
It behoves the writer to become a little street smart when considering publication, and don't be sucked into the sales hype surrounding recent technological advances in publishing such as Print on demand (PoD) and ebooks.