BLUE DECO PUBLISHING
Writer Beware has received multiple documented complaints from authors at Blue Deco Publishing.
Problems cited include late or missing royalties and royalty statements, broken marketing promises, and difficulty reaching or getting responses from the owner, Colleen Nye. To explain these issues, Ms. Nye has reportedly offered bizarre and elaborate personal excuses that authors tell me they believe are either made-up or exaggerated. (For an example of the kinds of complaints I’ve received, see here.)
Frustrated with the situation, a group of seven Blue Deco authors took the unusual step of creating an online petition to demand payment and reversion of their rights. (Given that Blue Deco only had 16 authors, including Ms. Nye herself, that’s a big hit, over 40% of its list.)
I’m told that attorneys from the Authors Guild also contacted Ms. Nye. To her credit, she has been responsive. All the petitioning writers have received rights reversions, and all but two have been paid (both believe they have sales, but Ms. Nye says they don’t; they’ve decided to chalk it up as a loss and move on).
To any regular readers of this blog, all of this will be very familiar. Blue Deco’s shortfalls aren’t unusual; in fact they’re endemic to the small press world. Often the problems don’t stem from dishonesty or malfeasance, but simply from the fact that the people in charge don’t know how to run a business.
The Blue Deco story also illustrates why it can be risky to get involved with publishers that are primarily one- or two-person ventures. With the best will in the world, a single personal crisis or health problem can derail the entire company.
CHRISTIAN FAITH PUBLISHING
I get a lot of questions and complaints about a lot of different pay-to-play publishers and publishing services. But there are certain companies I hear about over and over–all of them savvy, well-packaged outfits that aggressively recruit authors with slick websites, print and digital advertising, and direct solicitation. One of these is Christian Faith Publishing.
As its name indicates, Christian Faith Publishing targets Christian writers: “to discover and market unknown Christian-based authors who aspire to craft the greatest spiritual impact imaginable via the written word.” It describes itself as “a full-service book publisher”–a misleading claim because, in fact, authors must make “a minimal investment“. How minimal? Well, that’s not really explained.
While the investment required of our accepted authors to bring a book to the world-wide market varies based upon the intricacies of each book, all of our authors are fortunate enough to undertake the production, distribution and marketing of their book via a short-term, affordable monthly installment plan which is to be recovered by the author from book sale proceeds before we are entitled to any royalty compensation whatsoever!
Writers be warned: this kind of coyness on pricing nearly always indicates excessive fees. I’ve heard from authors who were asked for anywhere from $3,500-$5,000 up front; for $495 up front plus installments of $295 per month for 10 months; for $950 up front plus installments of $380 for 10 months. Marketing is an add-on: for instance, $3,400 for a package that includes a “High-Definition Video Trailer”, a press release, and a page on CFP’s website. (This is not marketing. It’s junk. It’s not worth one cent, let alone four figures.)
What do authors get for these enormous fees? Basically, an assisted self-publishing-style service that’s little different from the packages offered by companies like Outskirts Press or the imprints in the Author Solutions family. Naive writers may not realize this, though, because CFP is careful not only to style itself a “publisher”, but to promise that it is “very selective” and that authors will have “availability” in “retail…sales outlets”. Its salespeople call themselves “Literary Agents.” Its TV commercials and web ads never mention money. And though its website does disclose that authors must pay, this is buried in the FAQ section and thus easy to miss. Put these misleading elements together with the fact that Christian writers are more likely to trust a company that self-identifies as Christian, and you have a perfect honey trap.
Does this business model remind you of anything? Maybe a certain Oklahoma-based Christian vanity publisher that recently went bust amid thousands of complaints of non-payment and other malfeasance, and whose owners were subsequently charged with multiple felony counts, including embezzlement?
If so, it may not surprise you to learn that CFP’s founder and President, Chris Rutherford, is a Tate Publishing alumnus. He has held various titles with the company, the most recent of which, per his LinkedIn profile, is Chief Business Development Officer (though note the strategic omission of Tate’s name):
Rutherford seems to have left Tate in the fall of 2013–at which point there were plenty of complaints and indications of problems at the company, though nothing like what started coming out in 2016–and started CFP in 2014. CFP doesn’t seem to have published anything until mid-2015; it put out just eight books that year, according to Amazon, but ramped up production in 2016, which is when I started getting questions about it.
Unlike Tate, CFP seems to deliver what its clients pay for. Authors searching for positive reviews will have no problem finding them: at the BBB, for instance, or the abundant testimonials on CFP’s own website.
However, like all vanity publishers, CFP relies on misdirection and ignorance to recruit authors who may not realize they’re not actually signing up with a “full-service book publisher”, or that they could get what CFP offers elsewhere at a lower cost, or that, whatever else it may be, CFP’s declared Christian mission is a form of advertising to which Christian authors are uniquely vulnerable.
Christian authors, take note: there are as many schemes, scams, and deceptive services in Christian publishing as there are in other markets. Just because an individual or company proclaims its faith doesn’t mean it will treat you fairly or offer you a worthwhile service at a reasonable price. In fact, in terms of marketing and distribution, faith is beside the point. Companies like CFP offer only junk marketing, and use the exact same distribution channels as everyone else.
UPDATE 7/12/19: CFP is currently the subject of a wage and hour lawsuit;in which the plaintiff alleges that they and others were not paid overtime. Dismissed in 2018 in favor of the plaintiff due to CFP’s failure to appear or defend, the case was re-opened in 2019, and the plaintiff is now seeking a class action.
This summary of the lawsuit includes some interesting details about what CFP employees do:
Full-service, indeed.
UPDATE 12/2/20: The lawsuit mentioned above has been settled. CFP got off relatively lightly, agreeing to pay $50,000 to the plaintiffs and their attorney. As usual with such settlements, neither party admits fault.
Christopher Rutherford is top dog at CFP. He was part ofTate Publishing whose owners were convicted of fraud. They are crooks. They sold my book to another company without my permission and knowledge.
Blessing"New to CFP" What Is The Owners Name,I really need help address this corporations
Thank you
This so called Cfp use the Name of Christianity to mess me up. But I will fight back to get all my money from them. My book is based on true life, I won't let them take my money. I will fight back.
I published my first book called, “Angel in White”, with CFP in 2019. I paid $3445. Other than the steep price, I was pretty happy with the process and how the book and video trailer (on YouTube) turned out. I’ve sold practically nothing except a few to my friends and family and have yet to receive any payment from CFP. I’ve only sold $68 worth, and it needs to be $100. What they don’t tell you up front – at least I didn’t know – is that, to keep your book “in circulation”,you must sign a 2–year contract and pay them $100 every 2 years, and per each additional book you publish, INDEFINITELY!
I’ve had my second book, a sequel to the first, done for almost a year, trying to decide whether to go with them again or not. I now realize that God was delaying me because He was protecting me from going with them. So now, I plan to go with KDP. But here’s the kicker: I am waiting for a reply from CFP asking them to give me the files, since I’m supposed to have 100% of the rights to them, so I can choose my own printing and circulation company (KDP), and get paid monthly without any fee. I sure hope they hold to their word and give them to me.
Anonymous 1/17,
Please read my blog post, which lays out the red flags: exorbitant fees for a publishing service that is more like assisted self-publishing than traditional publishing (online distribution only, for instance), with much more money due if you choose to buy similarly overpriced marketing services. If you're interested in traditional publishing, Christian Faith is not that. If you're interested in self-publishing, there are many far more cost-effective options.
Have a look at the Writer Beware website, which offers a full range of information, caution, and resources about a wide variety of issues affecting writers, including publishers and self-publishing: http://www.writerbeware.com/. Also feel free to email me with questions: beware@sfwa.org
I'm thinking of publishing with them and I am certainly inexperienced. Since you have an attorney checking on this, I'm curious to know did they see any red flags with this company?
So reading all the comments, it appears that some of the negative complaints could be because of novice authors with pie in the sky expectations. Self-publishing gets your book on the market, it doesn’t’ mean it’s good, nor does it mean it will sell. CFP clearly states they receive nothing until you recoup your investment, so why would they not promote your book properly?
$3500 is not a lot of money for a company that works on billable hours.
If you want. To know what your work is worth, send a manuscript to a major publisher that pays advances to you if accepted. I am working with CFP to get my message to the market. So far, the experience has been great. Having said that, I have an attorney that handles all legal activities. “Trust but verify”. My personal opinion on the negatives I have read seem to be inexperienced authors looking for an easy road to make money. (I could be wrong) but. CFP provides a service for novice authors. Known authors that have many published books would not be using CFP. They get paid up front by large national publishers.
No, I don’t work for CFP ( – : But I have published many papers and also been a “contributing author” and I can tell you, when you are trying to get a book published and get paid to do so, the road is much different.
I really got stuck up on many crossroads of doubts to pursue my manuscripts to vanity publishing, a business wise standard of huge fees.And I tried the cheapest one kind of publishing but to my dismay the editing of the manuscript and the correct formatting were not attended to.It was a failure in my manuscript. On the next level,I have decided to do the two sets of editing and formatting separately to a qualified professional editor. The cheapest publishing furnished only the downloading of eBooks in two marketplaces. The marketing is still the author's effort to get into book exposure.Perhaps, the author is not only groomed for writing but for everything, must be an ambidextrous in all areas.
Got it, however, the big companies who are big enough to maintain payments to staff and pay for books right up front would not be interested in anything but what they deem they can make revenue off – Business 101. This company given up-starts and new to the business people like myself a chance. ya – I'm VERY happy. Can't Agree with what was wrote here at all.
Cynthia,
A publishing company keeps its lights on, pays staff, pays for paper and ink etc. by selling books to the public, not by charging fees to authors. But I'm glad you're happy with your experience.
This Blog is not my experience, I have had helpful staff every step of the way and encouragement. I am very GRATEFUL for this company. As far as the what the company of the brother who worked for did – who cares? I'm only interested in what this company does for me – could be he seen dishonesty and that's why he left??
Down Money? I am co-owner in a construction company – we have to use our credit and CASH to obtain materials pull permits, to purchase materials at times our accounts don't offer. In short we have to lay out money long before we see a cent. How does this person who wrote this blog think this company keeps it's lights on? How do they pay for all the staff who have helped me to this point? Who pays for the paper and ink?
I have NO PROBLEM with money down! Maybe these people who have seen too many movies where the author got a check before he started writing – I don't know nor do I care. I am VERY pleased with this company to date!
Whoever wrote this blog certainly has too much time on their hands.
Cynthia K. Burley
One last comment on Christian Faith Publishers. They sent me a notice recently giving me a choice. For an additional $100 they would continue to carry my book for another two years, or they would drop the book in forty-five days.
Since I have built up a relationship with a regular publisher in the last several years, I have offered the book to them to bring out a second edition. Christian Faith Publishers sent me copies of the files I needed to do this and also offered to send me the original inDesign files for the next publisher.
I haven't made any money on this project but it was an experiment anyway. I think it will still work out okay. But if possible, I'll stick with traditional publishing from now on.
Are you able to recommend your traditional publisher, as I would be looking to go to a traditional one when I have finished with Christian faith publishers? As my book is doing well so I think they might consider me? Can you tell me who it is so I could perhaps try them myself? I’ve had a fairly positive experience with Christian faith publishers
Anonymous 6/15,
Publishers that charge fees may exercise some degree of quality control (such as rejecting manuscripts that are too long or too short) but primarily they are interested in your money, not your book.
There are many reputable Christian publishers that don't charge fees; one way to find them is in Christian Writers Market Guide: christianwritersmarketguide.com/. You should always do some extra research on any company you're thinking of approaching–a few bad listings always manage to slip in. But this book is a much better resource than many listings you can find online, or just Googling "Christian publishers" (which is guaranteed to bring up scammers).
As for self-publishing, it can be a viable career alternative and some writers do become successful. It does offer pitfalls and challenges, though (just like traditional publishing). For more information, see the Self-Publishing page of Writer Beware: http://www.writerbeware.com/.
Hmmm…for the last 2 months, I have been considering sending my self-published book to Christian Faith Publishers because the other publisher, Lulu placed it on Amazon and sold my first edition to a buyer, and they sold it for $500.00. I'm stunned at the comments made by some who were disappointed in CFP. I spoke to an agent myself when she called me and asked about my book. She seemed really interested in it, but now that I have read about other's experiences and comments, I'm not so sure right now. Isn't there any REAL Christian publishing company out there who really wants to bring new Authors out? That's Ok…God knows what He's doing when He holds back on something as precious as my book. If self-publishing is not recommended, then where do we, as relatively new authors, make a landing?
They are TRUE scam artist's. They made a mess of my edit and gave me 0 help. They put things in and took things out. I was SHOCKED. I didn't think that could happen but I was wrong. I rewrote the book and had to edit it myself and there are STILL MANY mistakes. The so called publisher they gave me ended up leaving the company and they told me the next one was the "BEST" publisher they had. HA HA. What a joke. These people don't even know what is in your book. They don't read them. I saw a lawsuit against CFP about an employee not getting paid what she deserved for working for them FROM HER HOUSE! This just shows me they aren't even a legit company. Now the owner isn't even reporting ALL my sales. We authors are suppose to get a paycheck every three months. This is month 5 of this 2019 year and I still have no money in hand. Not just that, again, they aren't reporting all my sales. Anyone else who has been scammed, we need to get together and stop them from stealing from more money from us and others. Who wants in?
I just released my second book with Christian Faith. Both books are very good products. I am pleased with the finished product. Getting there was painful. The process is very slow. They provide marketing materials for an extra cost. The materials were crappy. They did give me a refund when I told them I was unhappy with them. That said, I have sold over 500 of the original and 60+ of the new release. Almost all of it because of my own blood, sweat and tears. I have begun querying agents to get my next book published. Fingers crossed.
Nenita Shannon said….In the positive side, I may not be persuaded by many disengagement partisans on discrediting a publishing company, unless you experience with them the actual process. Rest assured, from my assessments in January 1 to the end of the month of January,2019, so far so good, comments I read, I found more favorable to CFP.I had 100% trust and belief on having my manuscript be published at CFP. The way as it does in a fast growing tree, bad fruits and good fruits in publishing are always normal in perfecting a company craft. If manuscript will be successfully dressed in a well catchy book, just do your best in your marketing strategies:your blogspot,social media on driving traffic, email marketing,email responders,youtube,sales headline and many more. I strongly agree with CFP.Wait and see, rewards of your labor and investment will just return one day for those who humbled and patiently hoped for the harvest.
For anyone thinking of publishing with CFP: by all means consider the positive comments above. But please also consider the negative experiences other commenters have described, as well as the information in my blog post itself. And note that one of the things the positive commenters didn't address was whether they recouped their investments. Most authors with publishers like CFP never do.
I am thinking of publishing with CFP. Since you have gone through the process .. some practical insight will help
I am with Lester. I have published a book with CFP. I had a wonderful experience with them. No issues. I had book launch in October (book was released in August) I have received all royalties as well as invoices on where I sold them. They walked me through step by step and explained everything before we did it. I had to approve and sign off on everything. The contract was self explanatory. No hidden fees. I knew what I was paying for and recieved all listed in contract.
It was published over half a year ago. And no, it will never pay for itself at the rate it's going. One very important thing they don't tell you about is that the prices are are too high. For instance I was a keynote speaker at a conference where I should have been able to sell a large number of books but hardly sold any mostly because of price.
Hi Lester,
Has your book been published yet then? Have your realized the process is worth it with CFP?
My book has been published with Christian faith publishers and I have to say, everything people are saying here is not true? I’ve had a very positive experience with them and my book is selling well and I am looking to getting a profit and they do everything they say they are going to do and it would cost me just as much if not more to pay Private people to do editing and such things. Admittedly the editing was not very good but I don’t agree they are a vanity publisher,
I would say hybrid. They give you 100% of the royalties until you recover your investment which I think is very good and I don’t think the cost was nearly as high as some of the figures quoted here and I know, because I’ve just gone through it and I found it very affordable and I’ve now got a wonderful book that is available all over the world and is selling well and it doesn’t cost much to do your own marketing in small doses like TikTok, Amazon adverts, and social media and you can pay private people to do marketing for you and influences for a very reasonable cost and the press release was included in the price with Christian faith publishers along with many other things and it’s not an add-on, as it’s being said here on the add-ons or something completely different and are optional and you can always go and do those things yourself if you want and you can get out of the contract after two years if a traditional publisher spots your work and you’ve got to start somewhere! How else are we supposed to start? Not everyone has the time to do everything themselves and it would cost as much anyway
Question from R. Gayle Hawkins, fellow author:
I recently published with them rather than self-publish like I usually do because I wanted help with editing and press release, which was done. However, I keep hearing complaints about their proofreading and improper grammar, which is why I wanted to use a publisher. Have you heard any other authors complain about it?
Thanks for all the comments. I will definitely stay away from them. I just got a letter from them today. I will know where to file it now. I beginning to think all publishing companies are scams.
Hi Millie, I think there are several things you need to understand. First, Ingram only calculates royalties a quarter at a time. If the royalties add up to less than $20 they are "banked" until the next quarter. Second, most of the people who say they are selling your book do not stock copies but sell them as Print on Demand. So there are no royalties until they actually sell a book. Third, you can order copies of your book at 50% off. But you won't receive royalties on those books. And fourth, your initial contract with CFP is for two years. At that point you can ask to have the project back and you can take it where ever you want. You publishing specialist would tell you all of this, if you asked. And it's all in your contract. I know that the editing is one of their weak areas, and I'm not defending that. If I ever use their services again, I will hire an third party editor. But it isn't fair to blame them of things that aren't true. I don't believe that they try to cheat you. But they do take advantage of a situation where you need someone to help with publishing a book and don't know how to do it. They charge for this service. That is normal. Most people who need to use a service like CFP will never make any money. If their project is one that will make money, they won't need CFP. That may not always be true, but it normally is. So go and talk to them. Ask to talk to the owner if you want. They are small enough that you can do that.
Millie,
Thanks for your comment. I'm so sorry you had what sounds like a very unsatisfactory experience with Christian Faith Publishing.
Many companies like CFP have a dollar threshold that you have to meet before they will release royalties. For instance, unless your royalties due are $100 or more, they're rolled over into the next royalty period until you get to $100. Some companies deliberately set the threshold high, because they know that typical sales are low, and being able to roll royalties over repeatedly to the next royalty period reduces the number of payments they have to make.
As to getting your rights back from CFP…check your contract to see if there's language allowing you to terminate the contract with notice to CFP. Companies like CFP often do provide such clauses in their contracts. You won't get your money back, but you will at least be able to make a new start.
And feel free to email me directly if you have questions: beware @ sfwa.org
I am not a writer, but I wanted to put my journal into a book in order to give to my family and friends to explain to them why I am no longer a Mormon and why I am now a Christian. It is called: Finding God's Truth. The problems I had with CFP were:
1. Many of my pictures turned out dark. They did fix some of them.
2. I paid $3,000 for them to edit and produce my book. But, I did most of the editing myself. I kept finding mistakes that I felt they should have caught. Again, I am not a writer but I was paying for them to find the mistakes. There are still some small grammatical errors in my book.
3. Again, I did not do this to make money, but to inform my family and friends why I am no longer Mormon. But, CFP promised I would receive royalties from any books sold. They put my book on Amazon. I know a few people who ordered my book, yet I never received any royalties. I bought one book off Amazon through the publisher and I never received a royalty. I did notice other companies were selling my book. I wrote one of them and they said they acquired my book from a wholesaler. I realized, all this meant was that I will never receive a royalty from my book, but other people will make money off of me.
I feel like CFP is a scam. Yes, they will produce your book. Yes, you will receive some copies of your book. No, you won't receive any royalties. It has been over two years since my book was put on Amazon and I have never received any royalties. But, Yes, other people will use your work to make money. I would like the rights to my book back so that I can find a real editor and publisher and for the publisher (CFP) to be unable to no longer sell my book through Amazon.
Mildred Salgado (Millie)
I did fall for this company back in 2016, the YouTube trailer was good, but the rest of their services were misleading at best. The professional editing was done once, and I had to read the book I wrote 5 times to catch the rest of the spelling errors. I ask for a final edit and they told me it would cost extra. Since published, I have still found errors. What they sold me on, is that they would release my book to 3000 media outlets, I haven't gotten the list of those outlets to this day. I spent 750 dollars on a radio add campaign and only sold two books. There getting the receipts from people who bought books that month. Once we prove I sold more than two books with radio adds, the lawsuit from the radio station for hurting there credibility will give my lawsuit teeth.
I still question some of the comments about Christian Faith Publishers in this thread. I found the company to be upfront and they have met their commitments. However, as is true of all self-publisher companies, a lot is left on your shoulders. If you need to have a lot of hand holding, etc. then self-publishing isn't for you. I think most of the disappointments vocalized here and in other places about various companies are the result of people having expectations that no company could meet. I've been doing some research on self-published books, and the fact is that most of them don't sell because they aren't really worth reading.
Inscript is part of Dove Publishing and has been excellent.
The irony with this company is that that owners are not even Christian or at the least practising ones. Its a money making scam!
Stay away from Christian Faith Publishing they have stolen all of my royalties and according to Amanda Beary that there is NO sales report and not one book was sold and that is a load of crap..Also AMAZON leaked my E-Book on line and so far a FRAUD company has free access to my E-Book for free..Customers sign up with this fraud company and pay 50 dollars a month to see my E-books and movies for FREE…According to the TECHS so far 50 thousand people have seen my E-Book for FREE…Christian faith publishing knows about this and they are not doing nothing about it…And why??? Well it's because they do not care about their Authors they are a bunch of crooks stay away form this company…
You might take another look at CFP's BBB's customer complaints again (9/12/2018).
Anyone know if S.T. Shaw Publishing in Portland, Maine, is legit?
How was your experience with them? Additional hidden fees? Did they do what they said they would??
My experience with them was depressing sad, n unthought off.
I am about 1 month away from my book being printed by CFP so far no complaints. Everyone has to start somewhere with their publishing and for the services they provide I think its worth the cost.
" Marketing is an add-on: for instance, $3,400 for a package that includes a "High-Definition Video Trailer", a press release, and a page on CFP's website. (This is not marketing. It's junk. It's not worth one cent, let alone four figures.)"
My book has just been released by CFP and all of this was included for no charge on the contract. When you calculate the pricing against what you would have to pay to hire professional editors and designers, their pricing isn't really that far off. And they are careful to make sure you know everything up front.
For me it was worth some money to go through the experience with them and see how it works. I think I could now go to Create Space or Ingram Spark and do it myself. But I have not found the experience to be like you describe here. The internet has brought a new era upon us and the old assumptions of the past are falling by the wayside. I know that some people have been taken for a ride by vanity publishers. But it isn't really fair to paint everyone with the same brush. Time will tell where they go, but I own all the rights to my book, and even if they went under, I would just carry on.
I suspect that some of the earlier difficulties were growing pains of a new company trying to get into the right slot.
A lot will depend on your publishing specialist, of course. If you hit a deadbeat, then you will have problems. Mine was okay (Brian Greenwalt) and I have no complaints.
I ended up going with Westbow Publisher. I chose them over CFP. Does anyone have experience with Westbow?
I very nearly signed up with these guys. They are very, very smooth-talking and talk about God and all. I sent them my manuscript, because they said they are selective about what they publish, they have Christian standards. no cursing, violence etc. Of Course, they accepted my ms, then sent me a contract to sign, for a lot of money. But I didn't go ahead with it, because I had 'bad feeling' about it. Intuition, I guess. Too bad, because they really were very kind and helpful, I had a long conversation about my book, and they seemed genuinely interested.
You get an A+ by default if you become a BBB accredited business (which CFP is). Pretty much all you need to do to maintain it is to respond promptly to complaints.
Christian Faith Publishing has a "A+" rating with the Better Business Bureau. That just cracks me up!