Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Tate publishing suckered me into a signing a contract. I want to cancel it but have questions about what happens once I do. I know I lose my "marketing fee." However, do I get to keep the cover and other things they created?

Make sure that you understand the contract i.e copyright - who owns the copyright, you or Tate?? Who has the rights? Is there a time limit if Tate have the rights for a certain time (ten years??).
The cover design etc can be replaced at a small cost, but who controls your work is the big question.

Read your contract - carefully. There should be an exit clause that outlines what happens if you part ways. Usually the right to cover art is owned by the person who paid for it.

Not to kick you when you're down, but I so wish people would do their research before handing money over to "publishers". There's a simple rule, money flows TO the author. Any alleged "publisher" who asks for cash up front is 99% of the time a scam :(

I would strongly suggest you take whatever money you have left and talk to a good lawyer. He can tell you what your rights are and whether you can get back anything you signed away.

I agree with A.W. - always do your research. If you had seen a lawyer to begin with and had the contract carefully checked you would already know the answers to these questions. There is a good chance you would have never signed this contract in the first place.

You can also check out publishers, editors, and other resources for validity at Preditors & Editors.

Tate Publishing is listed as a subsidy publisher and even a quick web search turns up complaints.

Odds are it will cost you even more money to part ways and get the rights back to your work.

R.F.G. wrote: "You can also check out publishers, editors, and other resources for validity at Preditors & Editors.

Tate Publishing is listed as a subsidy publisher and even a quick web search turns up complaint..."

I was just going to post about this until I saw that you already did. Preditors & Editors is a good place to go to see if your publisher is on it or a place to go to see if a publisher your considering is on their list and if their recommended. A lot of times however they rarely suggest a publisher whereas they usually find an issue with them, in the case of Tate it's just as R.F.G said, subsidy and Not Recommended.

I remember someone last year who told me they went with Tate Publishing and was dying to get out of their contract.

They've been discussed before, there is a huge thread on GR about them with many unhappy people trying to get their money back. It also contains a number of people who drunk the Koolaid and think paying 4k for "marketing" is entirely reasonable (when it's not, it's a scam). And don't even get me started on the writers who hold themselves out as "traditionally published authors" because they paid money to Tate.

There's a thread on AbsoluteWrite that goes back to 2004.
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/s...

A.W. wrote: "They've been discussed before, there is a huge thread on GR about them with many unhappy people trying to get their money back. It also contains a number of people who drunk the Koolaid and think p..."

Aye, it's sad to see someone who thinks subsidy published is the same as traditional, but they are out there.