Sunday, November 30, 2008

TATE PUBLISHING AUTHOR EXPRESSES HIS THOUGHTS ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCE

To the STAFF of TATE PUBLISHNG:

With the recent news from Ingram, I could not help but to think of the many lives that have been, and will continue to be, touched. It is only through each one of your efforts that the stories written, and songs shared, are able to reach the hands of the people that they do. If it wasn't for the dedication, hard work, and passion from each of you, there would not be a single book, or cd for the people to appreciate. Whether your efforts, in any one project, reach hundereds or thousands, they can never go unnoticed. Take the time to appreciate the great work that you are part of and know that it is only with your efforts that it is possible.

May your hearts be filled with joy and your minds graced with peace.

Thank you,

R Roberts

Thursday, November 20, 2008

PUBLISHING A BOOK WITH TATE PUBLISHING SUCCESS FOR AUTHORS

I was "musing" today about this publishing world and aspiring authors and as Disney's Snow White I felt like standing at the wishing well and singing my own version of "I'm Wishing." She was wishing for a handsome prince. I would be wishing for ten minutes on national television to speak to the 85% of all Americans who we are told by the AAP say they have a book in them. There is so much misunderstanding about how the system works today and the myriad of options available. Self-publishing, vanity presses, subsidy publishing, imprints, traditional publishing, and the list of options is seemingly endless. At Tate Publishing, we have developed an immensely successful model which gives aspiring authors their only real hope at the traditional publishing model. We can give an author an advance if their project and author profile meet certain specifications. The rules we use to determine whether an advance is justified (and we have given many, many author advances over the years) is the exact same process that any traditional publisher uses. We received in 2007 tens of thousands of submissions from around the world and only 3% were considered for publication. At least those individuals who submitted had a chance for publishing. No one else is even looking at or accepting unsolicited manuscripts. The biggest difference in the few authors who get to publish with Tate Publishing is this key element. We give them a great opportunity. This week alone we gave two second book authors with us nice advances. The have earned it. I will just keep on telling the story correctly and leave the "wishing well" to Disney princesses for now.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

TATE PUBLISHING AUTHORS WRITE A BOOK AND APPEAR ON LIFETIME TELEVISION ABOUT GETTING PUBLISHED

Tate Publishing authors Les and Sharon Duncan to Appear on LifeTime Television’s HealthCorner

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: October 14, 2008. Les and Sharon Duncan are scheduled to be on the season premier of the popular television series, HealthCorner, January 4th, 2009.

Les, the author of Brain Storms; Surviving Catastrophic Illness, and a survivor of four brain hemorrhages and two brain surgeries suffers from cavernous angioma, an incurable disease that causes veins in the brain and spine to become knotted and tangled, and sometimes bleed resulting in stroke and/or seizure.

“Each time Les had a brain hemorrhage our lives changed instantly. One moment, he was able to see, hear, walk, and talk – the next minute he was severely handicapped and so many things we had taken for granted were gone”, says Sharon Duncan.

Cavernous angioma is the most common form of vascular malformation in the world, affecting 1 in every 150 people, but it is little known because the condition is often mis-diagnosed as an aneurysm or stroke without exploring the underlying cause. In a recent interview Les said, “There is a real need to raise awareness of this debilitating disease both in the medical community and amongst the general public. I am honored that Lifetime TV and Health Corner have given us this opportunity.” They always wanted to publish a book on this subject and Tate Publishing Company made their dream a reality.

Health Corner airs every Sunday morning on the Lifetime network at 9:30 a.m. Eastern/8:30 a.m. Central. (http://www.mylifetime.com/lifestyle/health/walgreens-health-corner-1)

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

HARPER COLLINS CUTS AUTHOR ADVANCES

Pasted article from Harper Collins article

HarperCollins to Cut Writer Advances
By M . RICH NEW SERVICES
HarperCollins Publishers is forming a new publishing group that will substitute profit and cost sharing with authors instead of cash advances and will eliminate the costly practice of allowing booksellers to return unsold copies.
In a move that surprised many industry insiders, HarperCollins announced on Thursday that Robert S. Miller, the founding publisher of Hyperion, the adult books division of the Walt Disney Company, would leave his post of 17 years to lead this new, as yet unnamed entity.
The new unit is HarperCollins effort to address what its executives see as some of the more vexing issues of the book industry. The idea is, Lets take all the things that we think are wrong with this business and try to change them, said Mr. Miller, 51. It really seemed to require a start-up from scratch because it will be very experimental.
The new group will also release electronic books and digital audio editions of all its titles, said Jane Friedman, president and chief executive of HarperCollins, a unit of theNews Corporation.
At this moment of real volatility in the book business, when we are all recognizing things that are difficult to contend with, like growing advances and returns and that people are reading more online, we want to give them information in any format that they want.
The new group is entering a difficult market for books generally. Citing economic uncertainty, the Borders Group announced last month that it was considering selling itself. Barnes & Noble also said it expected first-quarter results to be slightly down from the previous year.
Author advances and bookseller returns have long troubled the publishing industry. Best-selling authors can command advances so high that publishers often come away with slim profits, even for books that are significant successes. Publishers also sometimes offer high advances to untested authors in the hopes of creating new hits, but those gambles do not pan out.

CAN YOU GET AN AUTHOR ADVANCE FROM TATE PUBLISHING?

THE ANSWER CAN CERTAINLY BE A RESOUNDING "YES"

FIRST: REMEMBER, BOOKS ARE NOT BOUGHT, BOOKS ARE SOLD AND SUPPLY AND INVENTORY DOES NOT DRIVE DEMAND.

I am delighted to respond to this question which comes to me frequently. Tate Publishing is proud of our history of accepting for review unsolicited manuscripts from unknown authors. We also publish the works of authors who are household names. We look at all manuscripts on the basis of four elements. First, when our staff reviews each work sbumitted on the basis of the potential of an author advance. Each potential advance has several critical elements which include the potential of the author, the subject, etc. We have given advances from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars to authors. Second, we review a work, if it does not meet our criteria for an advance, on the basis of no advance but no financial investment from the author. With this level Tate Publishing absorbs all of the financial risk. We have many authors each year who qualify at this level. It ALWAYS has to do with marketability and the potential of the individual author. Next, we have the author investment program. This fabulous industry renovating offer to an author is only given to the few (we receive tens of thousands of manuscripts and in 2007 only 3.5% made the cut) who we believe we can sell at least 5,000 copies of the book. Once the book sells 5,000 we REFUND the author investment of $3,985.50 and guarantee an advance for the next book. Many authors have enjoyed this success. So, do you want an advance? Let us know and we will tell you what we discover about your work when we place it before the marketing test. Good luck to each of you as you seek a publisher!