Alright, so not too long ago I found myself unwittingly searching through vanity publishers on google. The issue with vanity publishers is that they charge a whole lot for a whole little, and they're mostly only a decent route to take if an author has a lot of cash to put into their work and not a lot of interest in making that cash back, they really just want to see their book in print and maybe give out a few copies to friends and families.

When I was a kid, my mom went through Outskirts Press, a sort of well known vanity publisher, and got a couple hundred of my books bound and [badly] edited, and as a fun little thing my grandfather's work set up a book signing for me where I brought a box of my books over and handed them out while signing them.

I thought, "wow, I've made it as an author!"

Of course I was 12 and any attention towards my writing would have defined a sense of accomplishment in myself that I could only dream of achieving now.

Fast forward to October 2016 when I came across Olympia Publishers, and bookmarked them to check them out later as they claimed not to be vanity publishers.

Only recently have I come back, and I decided to submit a few pages of All These Little Things to them on a whim. After this, I became curious as to who these guys were, and I started researching them.

On the company's own website, they claim if a book has potential and they are interested in publishing it, they will handle all fees and marketing. However, if they are reluctant to put money into the work but the author still wants to use them as a publisher, they will sign a "partner contract," which means the author is responsible for all incurring fees, and Olympia will only be responsible for publishing the book under their name.

If this is 100% the case, then it sounds fair. I know a lot of people shout "scam" at this, but think about it, if they don't want to put money into your novel, they aren't forced to just because you think it's good enough. You also aren't forced to pay for what would otherwise be the fee for self-publishing it.

After doing some research, I have found out three things. 1, Olympia has been around for ten years, but has surprisingly little being said about them on the internet. 2, of the things that are said, there is no middle case review. It is all either angry authors who were asked to pay and are typing away at their blogs shouting "SCAM, SCAM, SCAM!!!" or, 3, authors praising the site on how it gave them a jumpstart in their careers and they weren't asked to pay a dime and everything is fine and dandy.

Heck, one author even said that his book was recently picked up by a filmmaker thanks to Olympia.

Now, there are other publishers under the name Olympia (one is known for erotica) but I am basing all these findings off the same one, the one with this logo:

Anyhow, at this point, I didn't know what to think of this publisher. Are they for real? Are they a scam?

It is very possible that they are a real company who will take on authors free of charge, but just like any agent or publisher, they have the right to deny any author a book deal if it won't do them any good to do so. Offering a partnership contract could be an admittedly sleazy way at making sure, just in case your book blows up, that they still get in on the deal.

After a few days of research and no response from Olympia, I went on with my life.

And then, I got this in my inbox,

Dear Miss Strobel,

Re: All These Little Things

Thank you for sending us samples of your manuscript.

I am pleased to inform you that after careful consideration Olympia’s editorial section would now like to view the full manuscript of your work.

Please send the full manuscript to us as an email attachment in Microsoft Word format as a complete file as opposed to sending chapters individually.

Alternatively, you can send your manuscript to us in hardcopy, and preferably also on disk in Microsoft Word or PDF format. If you are going to submit by post, please include an SAE should you wish your work to be returned to you at any stage.

If you are yet to complete your manuscript this is not a problem, but please do let us know if this is the case and we can make a note in our database.

Thank you for your patience during this process. We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Of course, I saw a notice similar to this from one of those authors who angrily wrote SCAM SCAM SCAM on his blog after being turned down a contract and instead offered a partnership deal and a thousand dollar cost for submitting his work, so I didn't get excited like I would have. Instead, I sat back, and decided my next move.

I haven't signed anything yet, so why not hand them a virtual copy of the manuscript for ATLT and see what happens next? Worst thing that could happen is they offer a partnership contract and I politely decline and go on my way.

So, I sent them a copy, and I'm currently awaiting their response. I'll be posting an update here soon, under Part 2.