# Michael Terrence Publishing ?



## Olly Buckle (Oct 20, 2017)

One of my friends gave me an advert they had cut from a free London paper which claims they are a 'Book publishing house urgently seeking manuscripts and submissions from new authors'. 'For your forum' they said.

My first thught was 'Vanity publishers, if it looks too good to be true it probably is.'

When I Googled them I found little, the page was full of their stuff, so I clicked on the top item which was for a short story competition open until Dec. 17. It all looked kosher until I got to the bottom and found this,

You will later receive an email with PayPal and credit/debit card payment instructions.
Once your payment has been received we shall confirm everything to you by email.

Rule number one, they pay us, not us them. I went back to the advert. It promises 'free' publishing for paperback and e-book and free cover design, smells like a scam to me, anyone got any experience of them? I may be doing them an injustice, but to me it screams* 'Don't touch it'*


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## moderan (Oct 20, 2017)

They have legitimate books out, says a cursory googling of the MTP Agency and Michael Terrence Publishing. They are also running a short story contest which takes a fee to enter. It smells to me, but is probably legal.


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## PiP (Oct 20, 2017)

What annoys me are the journals who charge a reading fee when you submit yet there is no payment to the writer... so WHO is making the money?


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## RHPeat (Oct 20, 2017)

Carole

The persons that are doing the reading are making the money for reading. Sometimes they are grad students. In competitions it might be a big name poet, who reads the final choices for the competition. So a group of readers do the reading and cut out the mediocre stuff and pass on the best stuff to the final reader. It generally is never one person that reads the poems. And only the best get read by the editor or judge depending on the journal or the competition. There are too many submissions for any journal or competition for one person to do it all. Who's going to read a thousand poems, some that have never even been work shopped? I took 4th place in a competition once that had 64 thousand entries. I felt good about that. 4th in 64 thousand isn't too bad or too shabby at all. I was still in the prize money with a hundred dollars. and some computer software. 

a poet friend
RH Peat


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## PiP (Oct 20, 2017)

Congratulations, Ron, excellent result.  

I understand what you are saying about reading fees for competitions fair enough at least there is prize money. But what about reading fees where there is no monetary prize?

I will find an example of a call for sub I read recently... back later.


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## RHPeat (Oct 20, 2017)

PiP said:


> Congratulations, Ron, excellent result.
> 
> I understand what you are saying about reading fees for competitions fair enough at least there is prize money. But what about reading fees where there is no monetary prize?
> 
> I will find an example of a call for sub I read recently... back later.



Carole it depends on how much the fees are and how much of a name the publication has as a prestigious publication. It might be worth the fee if the publication is outstanding. If you are talking 3- 5 dollars they will probably send you a copy of the publication as payment, if you are selected for the publication. I've had that kind of payment as well on anthologies I've been published in as compensation. Prize money is also presented this way at times as well with a 100 printed copies of your book if it is selected in a competition. I've yet to get a MS published in a competition. I have two out right now however. I won't get notified until next year sometime. I generally get things in anthologies and publications. You just have to keep sending it out. I would never pay 25 dollars for submission to any publication. No matter how many poems they would accept. It's unreasonable to say the least. But 3 dollars I have paid for submission at times, and been accepted as well as received a book. But usually they will tell you if a book is offered if you submit poems in their ad. 

a poet friend
RH Peat


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## PiP (Oct 20, 2017)

Thanks Ron,

Here is the post I was looking for

https://www.writingforums.com/threads/169801-Contests-and-Services-to-Avoid


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