Oh my… Have I been scammed? This was after reading some blogs in the net including research gate. As chemist maybe, my instinct says “wait… don’t panic and look back at what happened. Because of the many negative blogs, I feel obligated to post this blog.
Here is my story.
After I presented my research on nipa oil at the 31st Philippine Chemistry Congress, a lady came to me and asked me about my research. I cannot recall her name and affiliation. A week later, I received an email from Lambert Academic Publishing asking me if I would like to publish my research on nipa as a book. Thinking my research is not enough for a whole book because it only focused on the oil of nipa, I declined the offer. Instead, I sent to them another manuscript. After they evaluated the contents of my manuscript, I received an acceptance letter with a publishing contract. The contract was quite fair. So we began to review the proof of my book in a well-understood process of emailing the manuscripts back to LAP until I gave the go signal for publication.
This manuscript in now the published book with the title “Naming and Writing Simple Inorganic Chemical Formulas: A Modular Approach."
The book is available at amazon.com and other book sellers online.
Then it got strange, like a multi-level marketing scheme. The editor of LAP sent me an email asking if I would like to participate in reducing the price of my book in the market. To do this I have to buy some copies.
Publishers need to sell books to survive but most authors got a box for free as a courtesy. Instead, they wanted me to buy my own work so that perhaps others could get it cheaper under some volume purchase arrangement. That is simply vanity publishing.
I did not. And I understand publishing, and even the terms of publication seem fair to me. But to help you, here are some thoughts.
THE PUBLICATION AGREEMENT/CONTRACT
The contract that LAP offered to me , for me is very generous. The copyright is retained by the Author. The Author can republish the contents of the book in parts or in whole. However, I must not miss the part that says, the Author “bear[s] full responsibility of the Work’s content .” It rings in my mind that IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CONTENTS OF YOUR BOOK, YOU SHOULD NOT PUBLISH IT WITH LAP.
This is standard. They want experts and assume no liability.
Here are parts of the contract:
The Author will:
6.1. remain the copyright holder of his / her work,
6.2. receive a free of charge standard publishing service,
6.3. receive a PDF digital download version of his / her Work after publication,
6.4. be able to publish the work in whole or in part with other publishers
6.5. receive royalty payments according to the provisions of this Agreement.
The Author agrees to:
7.1. deliver Work of original content to the Publisher,
7.2. bear full responsibility for the Work's content,
7.3. ensure proper referencing in the Work,
7.4. ensure having usage rights to any data included in the Work,
7.5. ensure having commercial usage rights to a custom cover picture in case such is provided by the Author for the cover of his / her Work,
7.6. handle all claims by third parties that have arisen in relation to the Work's content,
7.7. keep the Author's information in the Publisher's portal up-to-date,
7.8. processing of his / her personal data according to Publisher’s privacy policy to ensure the publication process and the marketing
of Author’s Work,
7.9. receive information from the Publisher regarding the publication, promotion and marketing of his / her Work
I believe the above Author’s responsibilities are fair enough and I did do my part. Did they do theirs? I observed flaws in the published book, like a missing word, instead of hydrogen ion, what was in print was only hydrogen.
Do I have to blame LAP for this? I did all of the work, they are profiting from it, so they should use a copy editor. Here is my problem? Though they have errors in it, they charge $150 dollars to make revision once it is published. To do what? They publish no hard copies, it is print on demand, they are going to correct a typo and make a new PDF.
DID I MAKE ANY MONEY?
In the first year, I received nothing. Okay, my book is not a best seller. In the second year, I earned a book voucher worth 24 Euro, valid until 2023. Seven people bought my book according to the royalty inventory.
That is terrible. Since this is Amazon, they have a feature that tells the relative rank of your book in the market as against other books being sold. It's not popular, so perhaps only seven people bought it. But they must know what it is likely to sell, unless they just write everyone, get them to write a book, and then get them to pay for their own book.
IS THE DISTRIBUTION OF MY BOOK REAL?
My book can be seen being sold online at Amazon Japan, Canada, France, etc. You can Google my book.
Even then, I doubted there was any real promotion effort. I had to order my book as an ordinary customer via amazon.com to see if it was real. Here, I was relieved because I received my book and I am satisfied with the print and paper ( paperback).
A SECOND BOOK?
Yes, I am working on a second book with LAP.
If it turns out to be a similar situation, where the published does not do any copy editing, I will let you know.
LAP and I are in the process of editing and formatting. The book. If LAP WILL SCAM ME THIS TIME I WILL LET YOU KNOW.
WHY THESES AND DISSERTATIONS?
Let me guess. Well, theses and dissertations are supposed to be believable because prior to binding and graduating, experts in the fields have reviewed it. You have defended it in front of experts in your school. This saves the publishers the money and worries in reviewing and editing . Publishing in LAP is free so it is smart to choose theses and dissertations.
MY ADVICE
If you are an Author who is not confident with your work and afraid to take full responsibility of your work, do not publish it with LAP.
If you feel lazy to collaborate with the publisher in the editing and formatting process, do not choose LAP.
