Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten a number of questions about a publisher called Europe Books (EB). It’s part of a complex of “brands” under the umbrella of Gruppo Editoriale Europa, including Europa Edizioni (Italy), Europa Ediciones (Spain), and Europa Buch (Germany)*
EB’s motto: “Our Books Travel the World.”
We live in a time of great political and social changes, of liquid boundaries and cultural contaminations. This context makes it inevitable that literatures rapidly lose their national connotation and gain a more extended European trait.
Over the past 15 years, we have established our leadership by reaching a wider audience which is not confined to the Italian borders. We opened branch offices in the main European capitals. Both our bestselling writers and emerging authors are published simultaneously in Italy, Spain, Germany and, from now on, in England as well. France and the United States are our next goals.
Despite the slightly shaky English on display in the paragraph above, EB looks–at least to the casual glance–like a traditional publisher, boasting important-seeming titles in Italian editions by Barack Obama and Pope Francis, along with bestsellers by Adam Kay, Melvyn Bragg, and more.
On closer examination, however, it turns out that most of those titles have not been published by EB at all, but by other imprints of EB’s parent company, Gruppo Albatros Il Filo (more on that below). There’s also a distinct promoting-to-authors vibe on EB’s website, with much mention of “emerging authors” and touting of the publicity EB says it provides. There’s also this: a “submit your unpublished manuscript” page offering “evaluation” of a laundry list of markets and genres, from fiction to non-fiction to children’s books to “degree theses” (not generally a category in which reputable publishers are actively seeking submissions). An equivalent page appears on each of the company’s websites. There’s even a standalone URL.
Some caution is always in order when a publisher focuses recruitment efforts on unpublished authors; not infrequently, what the publisher is really after is inexperienced writers who’ll be less likely to recognize a bad deal when they’re offered one. And indeed:
“Co-production” equals pay-to-play. “May or may not” usually equals pretty much always.
Writers who submit to Europe Books, or are solicited to submit (EB seems to be active in that regard) are told that they must buy 200 copies of their own books–not at discount, but at cover price, with amounts running into four figures. Publication happens only upon payment in full. The order form is part of the contract:
Self-purchase requirements are a common way for vanity publishers to dodge the vanity label. It’s not an upfront fee, it’s just you buying your own books! But whether you pay upfront or after the fact, the bottom line is that you must give your publisher cash in order to be published.
Far from being “co-productions”–which imply that the publisher is investing something of value–pay-to-play publishing offers are usually carefully calculated to cover not just the entire expense of publishing your book, but the publisher’s overhead and profit as well. And a publisher that has made a profit before the book is even released is unlikely to be highly motivated to cut into that by providing high-quality editing, design (you can judge the quality of EB’s book covers here), distribution, or marketing (EB’s promised marketing, detailed in its contract, focuses on cheap and not-very-useful methods like website listings, press releases, and email blasts).
Note also the promise of a refund if 500 copies sell (those sales, of course, exclude ebooks and any copies bought by the author). Where fee-based publishers promise refunds, the benchmark has been set where it is because it’s almost never reached.
Other EB contract lowlights: 10% net royalties on electronic editions, sales reports just once a year and only on request, a two-year contract term with no possibility of renewal, and the ability of the author to cancel at any time. While that might sound good, the latter two provisions emphasize that it’s all about the (upfront) money: once the writer has paid in full, EB has received its profit, and any sales are gravy. It thus has no need for an extended claim on the books themselves.
As mentioned above, EB and the other Europa imprints under the Gruppo Editoriale Europa umbrella are just one branch of a larger group, Italian publisher Gruppo Albatros Il Filo. Albatros owns two additional imprints–Vertigo Edizioni, which has two website addresses, and Lastaria Edizioni–which are the actual publishers of most of the recognizable authors and titles claimed on the websites of EB and its Europa cousins.
Clearly, Albatros does at least some traditional publishing through Vertigo and Lastaria; it’s not very likely that Barack Obama and Pope Francis–not to mention successful writers like Adam Kay (This Is Going To Hurt) and Jean Teule (Le Magasin des Suicides)–agreed to buy their own books in order to be published by these imprints.
However, both Albatros and Vertigo have recruitment pages similar to those on the websites of the Europa brands; and writers’ own experiences confirm pay-to-play offers from both. They’ve been doing it for a long time, too. In a 2012 expose, Italian author and journalist Alessandro Cascio describes sending Albatros a trunk manuscript, and receiving an offer requiring him to buy 300 copies of his book for around 3,000 euros. The reward? If sales (excluding his own buys, of course) reached 300 copies, he could publish a subsequent book and not have to purchase anything.
Of all the imprints, the only one that doesn’t seem to be recruiting is Lastaria–but given the consistency of the business model across the rest of this company, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it plays the same game.
Always remember: reputable traditional publishers don’t require authors to pay anything or buy anything as a condition of publication.
* Not to be confused with Europa Editions, a well-regarded New York-based independent publisher.
UPDATE 8/30/21: Looks like the word is getting out about Europe Books, and Albatros has taken note. I’m starting to hear about solicitations by sister imprint Vertigo Edizioni. Calling itself Vertigo Publishing House, the angle is a little different from the Europe Books solicitations: an offer to translate the writer’s book into Italian. Here’s the message one writer received via Facebook:
The endgame is the same: a vanity contract requiring writers to buy 200 copies of the finished book.
Reading all the comments is like listening to echoes of my own experience. The main differences are that my price was for 200 books at £17.50, Only £3.500, and my potential fee from them was just 10%, — £!.75 per copy sold. I managed to control my feelings and was most polite in my refusal of their contract.
Let me add to all the comments. If you are approached by someone called Victoria who does a great show of having read your book and being enthusiastic about it – delete all contact with her. Europe Books is a scam. I am a small publisher and when I started to ask some questions the promised contract did not arrive. Victoria and her gang knew they had been rumbled.
An editor from Europe just called me, raving about my book. He mentioned that it was a co-authoring scheme that I would pay something upfront to help kickstart design. When I asked how much he said 2,000 euros. I worked in small publishing for years and hate this model of publishing. They’re just taking advantage of people.
Thanks. I was just sent the same copy as you shared for contracts form editorial plans. You just saved a poor Dad looking to publish a work perhaps for survival from scammers
Europe Books, not only attempted a 4,500 GBP scam, by asking me to pay such amount upfront, the word “royalty” does not appear anywhere in the proposed contract. In other words, Europe Book does not have any intention to share profits with the author: the work’s creator.
Hi everyone!
First of all, a massive thank you to the author of this piece. It’s such a minefield out there and having some kind of guide for the first time author is fantastic. Thank you.
Secondly, I have also just received a proposal which (you’ve guessed it) invited me to purchase 200 copies at the immoderate cost of almost 3,000 GBP with the pie crust promise of refunding monies paid once 500 copies have been sold. I politely refused. I utterly believe that sooner or later my manuscript WILL be published by one of the good guys out there,
Now, all debut authors, STAY STRONG and keep trying! Refusals are all part of putting our work out there and you only need ONE real publisher/agent to say YES. Remember J.K. Rowling was refused 10 times! Imagine being THOSE agents now! Chuckle…
Keep writing! Keep trying and believe in yourself and your work! The very best of British to you all my fellow wordsmiths.
I’m glad you found my post, and were able to avoid this scheme!
I offered them 10 edited and covered books in 1 year (7 existing and 3 new), and I also explained how J.K.Rowling and others didn't go through all the you-must-struggle-and-pay nonsense. I enlightened them that the real business and profits are in the traditional publishing route. They were only interested in scamming me on 1 book firstly – likely wanting to do the same with the others – but I didn't let them con me on that. Austin Macauley and World Literary Agents have tried similar rorts on me too.
Just like everyone else I have also just received a reply from Europe Books regarding my manuscript. Yes, they're interested. Most information on internet suggests they're not a vanity publisher but it appears that they are! I'm going to call them just to see what type of game they're running. My background is in graphic design and desktop publishing, formating and proofreading. I'm using Lulu self-publishing and have everything completed up to this point. I was intrigued by their speal regarding international marketing which is what I was interested in. I can actually buy my book on Lulu wholesale in any amount I choose. The immediate problem whether through Amazon or Lulu is "Marketing". I thought I'd try to contact several European bookstores directly with a sample of my work and possibly broker a deal to supply maybe five books in each store. If sells were successful, they could then purchase my book wholesale from me directly and there is also purchase on demand to consider.
Hi. What was your findings? You interested in starting a proper company? From reading here there’s a lot of people requiring a service we could provide. Let me know. Regards.
I got the same pitch from Europe Books recently and the letter was so badly written with so many mistakes that I was immediately suspicious (well, not immediately. At first, I was thrilled someone wanted to publish my book–and the letter was personalized, including details about my book, like someone had really read it!)
Anyway, after researching and reading many of these comments I realized Europe Books is a scam…
Beware, unpublished authors!
Thank you so much for this.
I received this offer from Europe Books and was initially hooked; until I saw it involved me buying 200 copies of my own book.
A cursory glance at the dire quality of their book covers together with your article means I will steer clear of all these charlatans.
I was contacted today like "Mehru" and I found this page. This is soo funny because I and my brother almost believed it! They're soo professional. Professional scammers. Lmfaooo. Thank God I still had to really dig deep till I found this blog post. Thanks to who wrote this post and may God bless you!
Thank you, l almost, thought they were good.
Thanks for everyone comments 😀
Hi I also received the contract today from EB for my poetry manuscript publication with all the same text, it echoes a big risk. However I want to know from experience any of you may have had if you have in fact published with them: are they as promising on marketing your work as they say like having interview broadcast, book fairs launch and what the world media writes about them including Guardian, BBC and CNN etc. And is it true the roadmap they show reaching 60,000 bookshops world-wide? Is their marketing plan real?
Author from the Philippines here!
I have 5 literary titles and a few awards to my name in my home country so it's not my first rodeo. When I finished my new collection of nonfic I started selling it as a PDF ebook, indie style out of my digital trunk so to speak and also sent it out to as many trad publishers as I could, hoping for someone to take a chance on for a printed version. I wasn't aware that I had sent it to Europe Books until they sent me an email saying they're interested to publish my work and it'll be published in the UK, it will be in book fairs, blah blah. I knew it was a shady one when I couldn't find any social media or even a LinkedIn for the undersigned Alice Guinot. But yes to echo all the others here this is a scam that wants you to pay for 200 copies of your own book. Now that I have found a local publisher for my new nonfic book I may give in and take a Zoom call from their rep for shits and gigs and ask them some basic questions since they sent me another email courting me to publish with them–there was a contract attached now!
Please fellow writers, doing our lonely work is hard enough, so I hope this helps in warning others of the predatory nature of some "hybrid" publishers masquerading as legit traditional publishers. DO NOT PAY FOR YOUR OWN BOOKS!
I will paste the full text of the second email they sent me below…
Dear Karl…
my name is Alicia Guinot and I am an Editor for Europe Books. The
Evaluation Committee of which I am a member read your book ‘‘Calling Out
the Destruction’’, and I am glad to tell you that we would love
including you amongst our authors.
Now, let me also tell you a little bit more about our story.
As you know, our Group has offices in several European countries, among
which the UK, Germany, Spain and Italy. In particular, English-language
books are distributed by Vine House Distribution ltd for a total of more
than 40.000 stores across Italy and Europe, including the well-known
WaterStones and WhSmith bookstore chains.
Our editorial plan includes both international bestsellers and books by
emerging writers from all over the world, which we meticulously select.
In case you decide to accept our proposal, we will promote your book on
television, at the main international book fairs, through our press
office and many initiatives that are specified in our publishing contract.
Moreover, by clicking on the link below, you will access a conspectus of
the editorial plan that we designed for you. Please take your time to
read it carefully.
For a more efficient browsing, I would suggest you to click on the link
when using a computer, rather than a smartphone or a tablet. I would
also like to invite you to read the page thoroughly, for you will find
two sections dedicated to your book. One focuses on the editorial plan;
the other, on the publishing contract. You will also find more
information about the Publishing House.
Here is the link: https://europebooks-platform.co.uk/DeMesaKarlR377DMSR/
For transparency, I would like to point out that, in compliance with the
publishing contract, the Author is compelled to buy a prearranged number
of copies from the Publishing House. This will allow us to better
promote your work through all our channels. In case your book sells more
than 500 copies, we will refund you the sum that you will have paid for
the purchase of your copies.
If you are interested, I'll be glad to schedule a date and time in case
you'd like to talk further about it and to give you the reasons which
led us to choose your book to enter our catalog. I want to tell you that
it was a pleasure reading your work and I would really like to deepen
its contents together. We can schedule a call; I am available on Skype,
Zoom and Whatsapp, too.
I look forward to hearing back from you to hopefully discuss and start
our project.
Best Regards,
Alicia Guinot
Got an offer from these people a few days ago and got all excited until a relative mentioned it could be a scam. Let's just say my excitement dropped drastically after doing some research…
Eliot Clarke,
As noted in my update on my post, I'm hearing from multiple writers about solicitations from Vertigo Editions to translate their books into Italian. I think it's possible that enough information has gotten out about Europe Books' vanity publishing model that they're now trying to recruit using a different name.
The "offer" is slightly different from the Europe Books solicitation, which is for English-language publication, but I'm certain the endgame is the same: the same book purchase requirement that's described in my post. Europe Books and Vertigo Editions are part of the same company, both have a history of pay-to-play publishing, and both host similar new author recruitment pages on their websites.
If you proceed, would you let me know what happens? beware@sfwa.org
Hi, i'm after some advice please. I've recently self published my first novel, limited success. Yesterday i received an email from Vertigo Publishing, requesting a PDF of my book for them to review. If a positive evaluation, then they would want to discuss the possibility of translating my work into Italian.
Reading the many comments on here, it's got to be a scam???
Has anyone else been approached like this?
Cheers
Eliot
Yes. I have. Victory’s denunciation of EB’s extravagant offers really help to turn them down outrightly.
I had a publishing proposal from Europe Books recently. Got excited, especially so when I talked to someone who made it sound like they really liked my book, and they want to publish it. Then I've read the contract; pay 2,980 pounds to print the first 200 copies and they will ship said copies to my address for free. Assuming I lived in the U.K., since I don't however, I have to pay additional expenses. It would seem I have to sell these copies myself? On top of paying Europe Books? I'm very angry, it took three months to get a response. I should've done my research, but these places shouldn't be allowed to operate. It's a stain on the industry.
Europe Books is a scam!
I recently completed my first book. I spent months researching my options. I can tell you that anyone requiring you to purchase 200 books upfront is NOT a good deal for you! There are many self-publishing companies that will help you convert your manuscript into a finished book for a fee and then "print on demand" any books you order and even ship them to your buyers. Most books will cost you the author $4-$6 each, depending on the size & if there are photos. What I have learned is that writing my book was the easy part. Getting it to be book-ready and then developing a marketing plan is way more labor-intensive. I will also say that 90% of authors take the easy route and rely on placing their book on Amazon. It's fast, easy, and cool to see your book on Amazon. But you will not sell many books unless you are marketing it.
I am glad that you have given this detailed denunciation of this vanity publisher.
I have been victim to more than one! I now only send my work to traditional publishers and although so far there have been only refusals it's still honest that way..
Thank you for this publication and as I was made aware from research on this topic. Any book worth selling by a publisher doesn't require an investment from the author if the publishers marketing team already evaluated the sales pitch. These vanity publishers however should be avoided for a few reasons; 1. They charge you what you can spend and invest for your self and still have enough left over to worry about other things later. 2. Their is no guarantee of actually selling 500 book to make back your investment and for me is the main borderline of a good scam or tactic. And 3. Self publishing offer much more for authors who are willing to work on their own books than any literary agent can ever sell and publisher can publish. It's all about you and your pride in your work/ book. Ask 50 shades of grey a self published hit. The market is challenging but you have to challenge it by stepping up your game. All the best authors and always be careful out there.
Thank you I am awaiting a phone call from EB about publishing my poetry book. I'm glad I read your page. Best wishes
I endorse the expressions of gratitude for your work, Victoria. I revised diaries from a 1964 tour of Europe, trips over and return, and six months' living and working in the UK. I was always doubtful about the product's market potential. I had published articles and book chapters while working as an academic and recently, had two non-fiction books published with small, but reputable, publishers. Before being approached by EB this morning, I'd been warned about vanity publishers, albeit less elegantly and comprehensively than you have done. You have provided a valuable service.
I'm 82 and will just content myself recovering my French and enjoying gardening. Good luck to you and all your correspondents.
Thank you, Victoria, for this clear analysis. I was just about to fall into their web, flattered by their invitation, but I had doubts. Now I see that the money I would have spent to buy 200 books at 19.50 GBP, for a total of 3,900 GBP or 4,252.44€, can be better spent on my own marketing and cover design.
Hi Victoria, thank you for this warning. I was just contacted by Europe Books saying they liked my manuscript and wanted to chat. So many dreamsmashers out there. I had a feeling they were vanity. Congrats on YOUR successes!
Unknown 11/02,
I really don't have anything to add to the cautions in my article. Writer Beware endorses self-publishing, which can be a good choice depending on your needs and goals–but we never recommend vanity publishing. We consider Europe Books a vanity publisher. If you want to discuss this more, or have other questions, feel free to email me: bweare@sfwa.org
Hi, i'm an emerging author from Africa, I sent my manuscript to the same publisher some months ago, and they recently replied, everything exactly as stated on your article. I'm currently awaiting a zoom meeting call with one of their editors and I would like some advise from you if possible based on this deal.
Best Regards