Vanity Publisher !!

On the 25^th January I received an email that I found very disturbing and upsetting.

Mr Harry Taylor is in fact Mr Reggie Byram.

If you do a search on Google for Mr Reggie Byram you will find an article on www.guardian.co.uk, the news paper, with the title of "Injured vanity costs ....."

Here you will read just what sort of man Mr Reggie Byram is.

He comes over as such a pleasant gentleman. When in fact he seems to be nothing more than a con-man.

Until this point in time I was not aware of the pit falls that can occur with vanity or subsidy publishing.  Perhaps I was just too naïve - too trusting.

Mr R Byram is a Vanity Publisher.  He is only interested in making money for himself.

I am now left with my two books that I have paid him to publish, being now longer available after the stockists have run out of copies. 

If I wish to sell any more copies of my novels – Kristina’s Destiny and Andrew’s Destiny, I am going to have to get them re-published.

The company of Kinglake Publishing Limited is no longer trading.

It is no longer anything to do with – www.Kinglakepublishing.co.uk

Andrew's Destiny

Andrew’s Destiny was published without the many, many corrections/edits ever being done.

I was both horrified and saddened by this.

I had only found out because I had my suspicions, perhaps you could call it a ‘feeling’ that he had gone ahead and published anyway.

I had not ‘signed off’ on this book and I asked for it to be taken off the market until the corrections/edits were done.

I asked Mr Taylor why they had not been done, and he said that ‘these things happen’ and that I can be reassured that all had been done now.  He sent me the proofs to check over and the signing off paper work.

Andrew’s Destiny was republished in the New Year.

My first doubts about my Publisher - Mr Harry Taylor, of Kinglake Publishing Ltd

I was beginning to have a few concerns about Mr Taylor.

I was told that my book would be available in book stores.  I had been in a few book stores locally to where I live and it was not to be seen.  I even asked in a couple of Waterstones Book Stores and was told it was only available to order.

I mentioned my concerns about this to Mr Taylor via email, but he managed to waffle around the subject.

It was the same when I asked about the other book signings he said he was arranging for me.  They never happened.

Mr Taylor then offered me a contract for my second book, Andrew’s Destiny.  This was for me to pay less money, but for the same deal as before.  He said that he would like it published before the 3^rd November when I was having my book signing.  This did not happen; he came up with some excuse about the shop not wanting me to be promoting two books as the same time.

I then spent the next few months trying to get the editing/corrections done on my book.

I sent pages and pages of things that were not correct – some silly little things, some quite important.  Most were because Mr Taylor said my book was far too long and he had cut out large chunks and told me not to bother and put them back.  He said they were superfluous to the story.

Now as he was the publisher I assumed he knew what he was talking about.

Unfortunately he cut out things that made subjects further on in the story senseless without some sort of explanation.

Mr Taylor even told me I was causing him too much work because I had put in a ‘carriage return’ after every line which he had to remove individually.  Now I use a computer, the term of ‘carriage return’ is only used as far as I am aware, when you are typing on a manual/old typewriter.  All I can assume is that the double spaced word document, which was how he had asked for my manuscript to be formatted, he was unable to convert back to single spacing.

He then told me to read some Graham Green books, he suggested a couple – I did buy one and read one, I thought I would try and see what he was trying to say/imply.  Having read this book that had been written in the middle forties I found it of no use whatsoever – it was very outdated.

Then on the 2^nd December I again wrote and asked Mr Taylor if the edits/corrections had been completed.  I had no reply.  I sent another email a few days later, and was told by his ‘secretary’ that he was away on business.  By now I was getting concerned, because he had told me that he wanted to get the book out in the 'shops' before Christmas.

I then had an email to say my book Andrew’s Destiny was published and I would receive my books shortly.

My second book Andrew's Destiny and the beginning of my doubts

As soon as I had accepted and signed my contract for Kristina’s Destiny, I was asked if I was going to carry on writing.

I had a few ideas and said that I was thinking about it.  So I began a second novel in the early part of last year, 2010.  This book was to be called Andrew’s Destiny.

I thought I would write a parallel story, using a character from my first book.  I asked Mr Taylor what he thought of the idea and he appeared interested.

So I began writing again.

By the time Kristina’s Destiny was available on-line at the beginning of August 2010, I had almost finished writing Andrew’s Destiny.

Then the editing started.

When I was satisfied with it I sent it to Mr Taylor.

In the meantime he is supposed to be arranging book signings – or so I am led to believe.  He telephones me and asks me if I would be prepared to do an interview for the local newspaper.

I agree, but explain that I have just had laser eye surgery and I am still wearing dark glasses, this would be no problem I’m assured.  The interview is done over the phone, and not person to person, which I had been led to believe.  This happened about fifteen minutes later – not a great deal of time to prepare, but the reporter did a good job and it did not sound too bad in print.  A few days later a newspaper photographer came around to my house to take my photo.  You can see both the photo and the interview here.

As you will also see on my website, the book signing was a disaster.  If only he had asked my opinion, about which towns would have been more suitable.  Mind you the town in the email that he sent me, which was actually down in Cornwall would have been even more unsuitable, as I live in Berkshire.

When I asked if he had made a mistake, he told me that it had been a typing error!?  I should have realised then that I had a problem with Mr Taylor

First book to be Published

Having looked on the internet once more, I made my choice of publisher and having been told what I would get for my money, I told them I would be happy to accept their offer.

This was with the Publisher – Kinglake Publishing Limited.

The publishers’ name was Harry Taylor.  He seemed a very charming gentleman, as he talked me through what he was going to do for me.

This is some of what I was being offered:-

Editing of my work

Copies of my book when printed

Help with a website to promote my book

Publicity package

ISBN Assignment

UPC barcode

Availability with online booksellers such as Amazon, W H Smiths etc

Books available from bookshops

Marketing/Book Signing Kit

This was for my first novel – Kristina’s Destiny

Well most of the above I got – but with difficulty.

I was sent my first sent of proofs which I diligently read through.  I sent pages of corrections/edits back to done.  Believe it or not, it took some of the edits took at least three attempts on my part, sending back and forth to be implemented.  They were stupid things as well – for some reason best know to the publisher, he wanted to change what my character was eating!  It was bazaar and very annoying.

At last the day came for me to receive my books.

It is difficult to explain how I felt the day they arrived – at last I had achieved something.

Getting Published

Writing a book – your first novel is something that is both exciting and daunting, or at least this is what I found it to be.  Having finished writing, a friend of mine in America read it for me and told me I should try and get it published.

I didn’t think I a stood a chance of getting it accepted.

But I took her advice and I sent off to many publishers – all told me that it wasn’t what they were looking for.  One of them I am sure had not even read my synopsis, because their comments made no sense to what my story was about.  Another said I had too many characters, another one said the story was too complex.

I was only writing a modern romance, I thought it might appeal to a range of people – perhaps holiday makers who like to take books away with them to read on the beach or some such thing.

I looked into the idea of self-publishing but I was not sure this was the way I wanted to go.

I then purchased a copy of ‘Writer’s Market UK & Ireland’.  I then spent a week or so going through this, finding publishers who would be prepared to take a look at manuscripts without me first getting an agent.  I then sent out a few hard copies of my books – this was quite expensive.  I also sent some via email.

I then had two publishers who got back to me with positive comments.  The first told me that they may be interested, but they would not be able to give me a positive answer for a couple of months.

The second said 'yes' they would publish.

Both wanted me to pay some of the publishing costs.

Now I am only writing as a hobby and money is not that plentiful.  My ambition at this point in time was to see my book published.