Hi! I am a former employee of
Atlantic Publishing, and I'd like to share some facts about the company. I left
Atlantic peacefully, so this is not a matter of striking out in anger I
simply felt convicted to put this info out into the public domain. To the best
of my knowledge, as of the end of my employment the following was as true and
as unbiased possible. You can formulate your own opinions as you wish.
Info for Authors
- The average amount of authors it takes to finish
one book is at least two or three, because its very difficult to write
65K in 90 days, and the publisher would rather replace an author than give
an extension. In fact, a no-extension-no-matter-what policy was recently
put into place. Usually, only the most recent authors name goes on the
cover.
- Editors are also encouraged continually to
release authors if they are difficult or cannot meet a deadline.
Editors are asked to immediately release authors if there is a certain
percentage of plagiarism in their work, if they are under word count, or
if there is too much editing or re-writing that needed to be done in
these cases, the authors are sometimes not paid for their work. If you are
given a book that is partially completed, you will also be responsible for
improving the past authors work within your allotted 90 days.
- To make it easier to bring authors in and out of
a project, you will be asked to write a book in four stages (outline, 20K,
20K, 25K) and paid in four stages. Any revisions your editor asks you to
complete within these four stages is not included in the 90-day deadline
and revisions are usually necessary about 90 percent of the time.
- Authors usually make an average of $1500 for a
65K book and less for a partially completed book. However, most authors
dont understand that this includes revisions, finding and writing case
studies, nailing down case study permission forms, a full bibliography,
additional appendix resources, rewriting other authors work etc.
Additional work or a higher word count will very, very rarely increase
your takeaway unless your editor goes to bat for you.
- Since authors work on a freelance basis, you will
have no say in how the book is marketed, how your material is edited or
disbursed, the design of the book, etc.
- Since authors work on a contracted freelance
basis, the company owns anything you write once they pay you. Many, many
Atlantic books are partially comprised of material from their other books
written on similar topics. The original authors of the material that is
transplanted from one book to another are never alerted to the fact that
there may be several books out there with chunks (or even chapters) they
wrote and they dont receive credit or additional payment.
- Most of the books do not have marketing plans, so
do not expect to be doing book tours or having interviews. The marketing
department was, at last check, comprised of interns.
- Although you must turn in a completed book in 90
days, this is no guarantee Atlantic will publish the completed work for
many, many months.
- When you begin a project, you will be sent
research material about six to ten books from Amazon.com on the exact
same topic. This is because Atlantics topics are chosen every year by
what nonfiction is currently popular on Amazon. First-person personal experience
is usually not allowed in Atlantics books, and since only about 20
percent of Atlantics authors have any expertise at all with a topic, you
are essentially meant to rephrase all the material from these Amazon
books. In fact, the publisher often discouraged the hiring of experts
because they were often more opinionated and pushier than our normal
authors, who the publisher often described as mostly housewives and older
people looking for a project.
- Authors who have completed many projects with Atlantic
are often not hired back after a certain point because the publisher
believes that the quality of their work starts to slip, along with their
ability to meet deadlines. They receive no more leeway than a new author.
- The majority of the time, the publisher does not
read the companys books, and aside from special circumstances, will not
know what author is working on what project. This is partially because
most publishers the size of Atlantic put out about 10-15 books a year, but
Atlantic was balancing around 110 books in 2009-2010.
- Personal thoughts: I feel very certain that most
of the people who have ever worked at Atlantic would NOT recommend the
companys books to their friends or family, nor suggest that they write a
book for them. I understand that writing a book is a dream for many
people, but please weigh your options carefully before committing. You
deserve to be valued for your hard work, and Atlantic is set up as much
like an assembly line as a publisher can be.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Kim
Grand Prairie,Texas,
United States
Would like to get your advise.
#5General Comment
Fri, April 13, 2018
I’m writing you today because I have submitted a manuscript to this publisher and really want to talk with you about this company. I haven’t signed anything yet but am considering using them in their partnership program using a Ghost Writer. Just looking for information.
Bob
Ocala,Florida,
USA
Setting the record *straight*
#5UPDATE EX-employee responds
Fri, December 16, 2016
For the record, the commenter "Bruce" who filed the rebuttal is the publisher's brother. It's important to know that his comment isn't unbiased at all; I have every confidence the publisher asked him to write it. Your best bet is to stay as far away from this company as you can, whether as an author, employee, intern, service provider or partner.
tired
Las Vegas,Nevada,
United States of America
Really
#5UPDATE EX-employee responds
Tue, June 21, 2011
I thought the original poster was very objective and accurate.
Honestly, writing 70k words in 90 days with this outfit just usually doesn't happen. Here's why: They mow through editors like crazy -- most of them are interns or fresh out of college -- and it can take a year or more to complete the editing process just for that alone.
But the writer will be blamed for all delays, regardless of the reason, and will be expected to meet even more ridiculous deadlines for editing and revising. After all of that happens, figure on another 2-3 month period for the thing to get printed.
They also aren't sure of what they want and when a different editor comes in, expect to rewrite most of the book. If you're at the final stage, there's a chance you will be editing and revising the entire book again with a period of two weeks or so.
If you just want to see your name on a cover and say your book came from a "publisher," and you're unemployed or otherwise not doing anything else full time, then go ahead. But as the original poster said, there's virtually no marketing.
You also have to wonder why it's so imperative to write the book in 90 days for so little pay. Either pay the writers more or allow a reasonable amount of time.
Another part of this is that unfortunately, for the reasons stated by the original poster, they are considered in the publishing industry as more of a content mill than a reputable or good publisher. If need be, do one book with them, tops, just to demonstrate you can handle a project that big. Then move on.
"Bruce" who posted above said he wrote 12 books with them in 5 years and is happy. Well I hope so because I doubt another publisher would pick him up; he's typecast himself.
I don't care how many "awards" the books get. They are probably self-awarded. It's interesting that he mentions original content. Virtually all of the material is "cued" from these so-called "reference books" which are really just other books by authors on the same topic. The only thing truly original -- never seen before -- are the case studies. But this is not necessarily unlike other books. Look at any book on Twitter marketing, for example, and you'll see what I mean. It's all the same stuff over and over with very little useful or earth-shattering information.
Before doing this, consider selling your work to a publisher that pays more or self publish. If you self-publish on Kindle and sell just 1,500 books for one dollar, you'll make the same amount of money.
All in all, I don't recommend it except for the most inexperienced of writers. And they probably won't survive the process. I think it will be an unpleasant, disappointing and stressful experience for anyone other than someone who plans to devote all of their time to it and doesn't care about the pay. Even if it's an emergency or you give ample notice, you will be expected to rush to get as much done as you possibly can. For your trouble, you'll then lose the book to some other unsuspecting person. And then the process repeats.
Definitely not worth it.
Bruce
Miami,Florida,
United States of America
Not exactly accurate information.....Setting the record Straigth
#5General Comment
Tue, October 19, 2010
I have written and published more than 12 books over the past 5 years with Atlantic Publishing Company. They are easy to work with, communicate well, give me plenty of latitude to write creatively, provide me with whatever support, research materials and other guidance as needed and pay me on time, ever time.
I have been very satisfied with Atlantic and I am exceptionally proud to see my books win multiple awards and become very successful, with four of my books receiving awards.
Finding a publishing company as an independent author is a challenge, Atlantic gives new writers the chance to get published and write excellent books. Keep in mind, the book manuscripts must be quality reviewed, they will not publish poorly written material and unfortunately, there are some poor writers out there. There are not too many publishers willing to give new writers this unique opportunity, and for that opportunity they gave me, I am thankful for Atlantic Publishing Company.
I think the biggest issue is that people write junk or steal from other sources and expect to get published, which won't happen. You have to write quality content, that is original and interesting. Atlantic gives you that opportunity.