So there is a new publishing house out there, which isn't necessarily so bad in itself. But it's a good idea to know who you are writing for, just in case you get screwed over. And being screwed over isn't too tough, quite honestly, no matter what industry or publisher you are working for. So let's take a look at Packt Publishing, started earlier this year.
Some of you might remember that we posted a lot of news here when Wrox/Friends of ED and so forth went down. There were many stories about why Peer (who owned it all) went down, but the general gist of the story is hundreds of authors lost millions of dollars (yep) in advances, royalties, and reserves. That's the money that they hold against your royalties in case books get returned. It is SUPPOSED to be held in trust no matter what, but I guess the guys who ran it spent it. Or someone did. I have reserves for several books vanished into someone else's pocket/business, while someone else currently sells those books. No, I'm not bitter.
A good reason why we all got screwed over is becuase the guys who ran Peer messed it up, and while there are many posts/blogs out there about how it happened there's no point in dredging that up here. BUT GUESS WHAT! The Peer guys who put Wrox down in flames are running Packt Publishing! Not two months after we lost all that money, they started yet another publishing house perhaps with all that money they musta had and did not pay us with. OK, maybe not - but they had something and tons of us were left suffering (me, literally).
Yeah, while I was eating good ol pasta and process cheese and got fat because I lost all my money from MONTHS OF WORK slaving away for their company for absolutely next to nothing (note: much less than minimum wage), they went and started up a new one called Packt Publishing. I wish you guys (and any author that dare work for the publishing house) and Packt the best of luck.
News Source:
http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/index.htm#pp
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