Fireblade Publishers

[NaokoSmith]

I received an unsolicited message from this publishing house http://www.firebladepublishers.com/ offering to advertise my free stories. They seem to do other services for writers as well and they feature fantasy work of a similar kind to my own although not so romantic.
Just wondered if anyone had heard of them and could give me an objective opinion before I sign up with them?
(Of course they may choke when I say, well mine is explicit erotica. I sometimes forget that the world wide communities aren't all as open-minded as this one!)

[NaokoSmith]

I didn't hear anything from anyone saying Fireblade are dubious dodgy people who will steal your soul and force you to perform acts you never dreamed you could enjoy so much so I am putting my stories up for them. If it all goes horribly wrong I'll post here and let you know! Or write it up for my next hot story: 'Naive author in the hands of wicked publishing house, 50 shades of Goudy Bold'.
xxx

[PennLady]

Naoko, be careful and good luck. I generally shy away from any place that sends me something like that unsolicited. I kind of just can't believe it's true. Plus I have had some similar email and when I look into them, there's always something sketchy.

[TxRad]

Since no one replied it more than likely means no on has had experience with them. There had been a bunch of shady offers like this floating around. Google them and check out if they have a website and make sure it is a working website.

If they are offering to advertise your free stories, what's in it for them?

If they are offering to promote your free stories, again, what's in it for them.

No one works for free.

[NaokoSmith]

Originally Posted by TxRad

Since no one replied it more than likely means no on has had experience with them. There had been a bunch of shady offers like this floating around. Google them and check out if they have a website and make sure it is a working website.

If they are offering to advertise your free stories, what's in it for them?

If they are offering to promote your free stories, again, what's in it for them.

No one works for free.

Oh thank you for this. See there are some good people around, since you were willing to warn me to be careful.
I had a look not only at their website but at the facebook pages for the person who sent me the message and one of their authors and they look like people who might be genuine. Goths by the look of the pictures. I did put gothic as one of my tags although I realised subsequently that I mean gothic as in Mary Shelley and other people may mean something different.
I dunno, I will give it a go. Perhaps they are just trying to get a stable of gothic stuff together. I thought what's the harm in it, they're not asking for the text of my work to rip it off and republish it as stories they sell and actually these particular stories are ones I would like to be read more widely anyway. If they want the text of the work they can just download the pdfs and rip it off, I don't know why they'd go to this much trouble.
xxx

[NaokoSmith]

Originally Posted by PennLady

Naoko, be careful and good luck. I generally shy away from any place that sends me something like that unsolicited. I kind of just can't believe it's true. Plus I have had some similar email and when I look into them, there's always something sketchy.

Thank you! as above, it's really nice to know there are some people who will take the time and trouble to say be careful.
xxx

[sr71plt]

You could approach offers like this from another perspective. What is it you have to lose against the possibility of more exposure for your writing? Have you already made it available for free on the Internet or intend to? If so, what about it is of more value than free? And already available for free.

I'm not saying to take their offer. But if you already are giving it for free on the Internet (which posting it to Literotica is doing) or intend to do so, and you don't have a plan to make money off of it yourself (and even if you are--I am selling books of stuff that the buyer can get here for free), what are you protecting?

For me, the biggest question on such deals is a question of what it would do in increasing a fan base set against whatever effort I have to put into the arrangement--set against how easy it would be for them just to swipe it and bypass and identfying me as author at all.

I've had offers like that. Most are amateur operations that I didn't see much benefit to. Even some of those I said "yes" to if I could tag on promotion for my marketplace books--because, the Internet being what it is, they could have just swiped the story and posted it. (Many sites are doing that anyway--more than my publishers can keep up with). And in a couple of cases they've actually paid for the stories--and come through with the payment.

[NaokoSmith]

Originally Posted by sr71plt

You could approach offers like this from another perspective. What is it you have to lose against the possibility of more exposure for your writing? Have you already made it available for free on the Internet or intend to? If so, what about it is of more value than free? And already available for free.

In the end that's what I thought. I'm putting this set of stories up for free, and these people specifically say all they will do is promote your book if it is free already. I had a good look round their website and they have a small number of titles which are of the kind I write, being set in fantasy worlds, but no erotica or romance. So I figure perhaps they just want to create a good stable. They're only offering to be a platform from which wider audiences might access material I already have up on Smashwords (and here but they link to Smashwords).

I thought they might give me a bit of expert feedback on my stuff but I think they are probably just a group who know as much as I do. I can look like an expert too because I started running a review blog! Well, perhaps I am an expert, in the wonderful world of web, who knows.

xxx

[NaokoSmith]

Well, Fireblade have listed my stories (although they've done it in their novels category not short stories but if their readers don't mind that I certainly don't). They look nice on their site and fit well in the categories where they didn't previously have any work: romance and erotica.

The publishing team sent me a very courteous email to inform me the books had been advertised on the site, and a nice personal message on Facebook (where I had the original contact from). They do look like real people.

If anyone else has free fantasy romance and erotica floating about perhaps you'd like to come and join me there!

I still really appreciate those who advised me to be cautious. And it's early days yet, I may still come back here asking if anyone has a box of tissues I can borrow!

http://www.firebladepublishers.com/f...s_erotica.html

http://www.firebladepublishers.com/f...s_romance.html