GROUPMVP publishing

[oggbashan]

Selena just asked about these bozos, too.

My family solicitors have been around since Shakespeare's time.

They have seen a few dodgy characters try their luck. They have successfully defended pirates and highwaymen.

My solicitors, together with my eldest daughter's student lawyer and his streetwise friends can spot a dubious contract. (or draft one!)

Og

PS. It always pays to deal with experienced lawyers.

 

[SlickTony]

Hm. I too have been approached by Francine. I wrote back asking for more info, but that was as far as I've gone. I do happen to know three lawyers, and moreover, work for a publishing company myself, so I could probably get some expert advice. The only thing that makes me hesitate about availing myself of it is that none of them knows that I write erotica. The 3 lawyers all used to be in my Sunday school class--two of them changed churches when they moved, but we still get together.

I should've known it was too good to be true. But then, as soon as I told my husband that I'd been approached by a publisher, he said something about "first time rights only.

 

[oggbashan]

They didn't answer the question...

This is the response I received:

"Hello Oggbashan,

Thank you for taking the time to read the email. This is not spam, nor is
it a scam. We are legitimately looking for authors to publish, we pay you,
and you do not incur any costs or fees for publication.

We are a small publishing company in Montreal. We are in the process of
building a web site but as of now it's not up yet. We publish (paperback)
adult hardcore magazines and digests and going to start publishing novels
(about 160 pages per novel) this where you come in. Part of my job is to
comb the net looking for great stories to publish; ideally the stories
should be between 30 000 and 50 000 words, ranging from hetero / group/ bi /
MILF/ first timers, anal. We also publish digests with a word count 1500 to
3000; hetero / group/ bi / MILF/ first timers, anal, incest and gay, I
think you get the picture, I work from several sites and contact the authors
that I feel have stories our readers would be interested in reading. We want
the rights to publish your story but you always maintain the copyright to
the story and can republish your story with whomever you want. I hope this
has answered some of your questions; I would like to send you a sample of
one of our magazines and a digest. To do this I will need your name,
address.


--
Francine
Production Coordinator
Group MVP"

Very few people on Lit know my real name and address. Why should I reveal it just to get a magazine?

Og

 

[Selena_Kitt]

That's the exact response I got, Og...

 

[oggbashan]

That's the exact response I got, Og...

And as I said, they didn't answer my question.

Og

 

[JoeDreamer]

Thanks Guys!

I just receive Francine's email. I didn't take it all that seriously, but I was curious. Thankfully, I checked and found this thread. It saves me the hassle of dealing with Francine and satisfied my curiosity.

JoeDreamer

 

[SlickTony]

I did ask them to send me some info, but I never heard anything back from them.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

They sent me samples, but no contract copies (hmmm!)... after looking at the samples, I made up my mind... nuh-uh, no way...

 

[KarenAM]

Though I have not dealt with this company, I would be suspicious. The fact is that there are far more writers than publishers, and so it is the normal course of things that writers seek publishers, not the other way around. Now it is true that occasionally a publisher will run into a writer and be impressed enough with their work to make them an offer, but such instances are rare; generally a legitimate publisher is too busy dealing with a mountain of submissions and dealing with issues of editing, book or magazine production, and promotion of their books/magazines to roam the internet looking for talent.

It's understandable that people want to see their work in print; there's nothing quite like holding a book with your name on it. Unfortunately, there are people out there who will take advantage of this desire for their own profit, so you have to be careful. There are two ways I have used to see print:

1. Keep submitting to reputable publishers. There are a number of internet resources to help you find these. It takes time and postage and some luck, along with perseverence and high personal standards for your work, but it can be done.

2. If you just want to hold your work in your hands, or have modest goals for sales and fame and so forth, you can self-publish. Doing this has the advantage of teaching you how to do more than write, including editing and proofreading and so forth, and so requires the development of skills you might not have. It is therefore something you should not do lightly, or with grand visions of being the next Stephen King; in fact you will probably not make back your original investment; but you will have a book. For this, I'd reccomend iUniverse.

Best of luck, everybody!

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Though I have not dealt with this company, I would be suspicious. The fact is that there are far more writers than publishers, and so it is the normal course of things that writers seek publishers, not the other way around. Now it is true that occasionally a publisher will run into a writer and be impressed enough with their work to make them an offer, but such instances are rare; generally a legitimate publisher is too busy dealing with a mountain of submissions and dealing with issues of editing, book or magazine production, and promotion of their books/magazines to roam the internet looking for talent.

It's understandable that people want to see their work in print; there's nothing quite like holding a book with your name on it. Unfortunately, there are people out there who will take advantage of this desire for their own profit, so you have to be careful. There are two ways I have used to see print:

1. Keep submitting to reputable publishers. There are a number of internet resources to help you find these. It takes time and postage and some luck, along with perseverence and high personal standards for your work, but it can be done.

2. If you just want to hold your work in your hands, or have modest goals for sales and fame and so forth, you can self-publish. Doing this has the advantage of teaching you how to do more than write, including editing and proofreading and so forth, and so requires the development of skills you might not have. It is therefore something you should not do lightly, or with grand visions of being the next Stephen King; in fact you will probably not make back your original investment; but you will have a book. For this, I'd reccomend iUniverse.

Best of luck, everybody!

Nothing to add, just great to se you pposting Karen

 

[CharleyH]

I could never trust an editor that ends every sentence with an exclamation point !

Having said that?! NOW I remember it! I concur! Completely!!! It seemed a good give away. But in all fairness? People in Montreal don't speak proper French, let alone English!! :O

 

[Mikro]

Vanished

Hi All

I got an email from these people last week but as soon as i posted my own thread on here asking for information the Emails stopped.

MVP vanished, probably down the same hole my stories would have gone.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The seem to be hunting down people who don't post on the boards much... probably hoping to slip in under the radar...

 

[SlickTony]

The seem to be hunting down people who don't post on the boards much... probably hoping to slip in under the radar...

Well, dat splains why I never heard back from them.

 

[WFEATHER]

I was also contacted by Group MVP today, and fortunately in my online research to try to find some info on them first before replying, I found this thread on Google. So, thanks for helping me avoid a mistake!!!

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I wouldn't treat every publisher who makes you an offer you don't like like some scummy thief come to rip off your valuable writings and exploit your prodigious talents. The publishing business is changing terribly fast with the advent of e-books and on-line publishing, and people are scrambling and trying all sorts of schemes and plans to make money out of it. Not all of these are malicious rip-offs. In fact, the idea of some sharpie thinking he's going to make a fast couple of thou by yentzing you out of the rights to your "Mom's Anal Adventure" is kind of ludicrous.

I've heard from Francine too, and what she's looking for is people willing to accept her deal. If you don't like her terms, don't bother with her. But it's not like she's posing as the widow of the Nigerian Oil Minister or something amd asking you to send her money. Paying authors with copies of their works is an old and accepted practice in the field of low-margin art magazines and publishing lines. The main idea is not the scads of $$$ you'll make but that you get exposure and get your stuff out there where the agents are looking for vetted material - stuff that someone (besides the author) has found to be print-worthy.

Of course there are scams out there, and you should never have to put up any money upfront to get your stuff in print, but I think it's kind of paranoid to treat everyone like they're out to rip you off. I mean, let's face it, if they want your stuff so much, they can just grab it off this site and if they ignore Laurel's warnings, what are you going to do about it? Hire a lawyer and go after them for the $125 they might have made off your stuff?

I've bit on a couple of offers that were posted here that everyone else disdained, and they've paid off. One site was asking for BDSM stories, saying he couldn't pay anything at first, but if his site took off he'd pay royalties. I figured, "Well hell, I post here for free, why not send this guy something?" and about 4 months later started receiving my first royalty checks. I made enough off him to buy PC's for my whole family, and all it cost me was the pain of depriving some Lit fans of a few BDSM stories (which I'm sure were sorely missed )

Porn stories are a dime a dozen, and let's face it, 90% of them aren't very good. Publishers - any kind of publishers - aren't. The odds of Random House or Harlequin coming and banging on your door are nil. Go with Francine's offer or not, but don't treat her like she's some Enron exec with a contract for you to sign thinking about the scads of money she's going to make off your underappreciated stuff.

For me, if someone wants to take my stories for their site, they can have them. If they make money off them, I want a piece, otherwise it's just free publicity to me, and publicity is 95% of publishing. I'd rather have the publicity of 10,000 free reads than the $70 or so I'm going to make (if I'm lucky) off self-publishing with some Print On Demand outfit.

Just my opinion, of course.

--Zoot

 

[SlickTony]

Well, you've given me food for thought...

 

[Aurora Black]

I got contacted today.

 

[bathhouseblues]

This is like the thread that will not die. I just got contacted by Francine today. On my site, I have no contact info, so she left a message in my Guestbook. I googled her company, and lo and behold I found this thread. So thank you so much you guys for letting me know. And Francine's time wasn't all wasted. Because of her, I found this group and now a member!

 

[Aurora Black]

This is like the thread that will not die. I just got contacted by Francine today. On my site, I have no contact info, so she left a message in my Guestbook. I googled her company, and lo and behold I found this thread. So thank you so much you guys for letting me know. And Francine's time wasn't all wasted. Because of her, I found this group and now a member!

Great! Welcome to Lit and the AH!

 

[Boxlicker101]

This is like the thread that will not die. I just got contacted by Francine today. On my site, I have no contact info, so she left a message in my Guestbook. I googled her company, and lo and behold I found this thread. So thank you so much you guys for letting me know. And Francine's time wasn't all wasted. Because of her, I found this group and now a member!

Hi, Blues. Welcome to Lit. and particularly to the Author's Hangout. Nobody has ever been able to figure out which author owns the hangout, so we treat it as belonging to all of us.

 

[Green_Gem]

I was also contacted via feedback by Francine about two weeks ago. I replied asking for more information and was also offered the free samples which I understand have been posted to me.

From what I can gather, after looking at the samples I can make a decision. Granted the money being offered is very low, but my thinking was similar to dr_M's in that it might be an opportunity to get exposure in hard print. I am inclined to think they could probably take stories off the site for free and in all probability we would never know. Unless of course you came across one of the mags or digests with the story in it.

I found this thread after doing a search to see if any other authors had actually taken up the offer. It seems no one who has responded here has, and I was hoping to get some feedback in that regard.

I'll see how I feel when I check out the samples.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I was also contacted via feedback by Francine about two weeks ago. I replied asking for more information and was also offered the free samples which I understand have been posted to me.

From what I can gather, after looking at the samples I can make a decision. Granted the money being offered is very low, but my thinking was similar to dr_M's in that it might be an opportunity to get exposure in hard print. I am inclined to think they could probably take stories off the site for free and in all probability we would never know. Unless of course you came across one of the mags or digests with the story in it.

I found this thread after doing a search to see if any other authors had actually taken up the offer. It seems no one who has responded here has, and I was hoping to get some feedback in that regard.

I'll see how I feel when I check out the samples.

You don't really get a lot of exposure from the digests. I have stories printed in five of them and I have the digests. They do include my byline but no reference to Lit. and no contact info. I believe a novel would get much better exposure but that presents a lot of different problems.

 

[Green_Gem]

Thanks for the reply Boxlicker. A bit disappointing in terms of the lack of exposure. Kind of doesn't make it seem worthwhile at all. I am still wating for the samples. Will make a decision then either way.