Austin Macauley Publishers

Austin Macauley Publishers Limited is a British publishing company, with offices in London, New York and Sharjah. The company was founded in 2006 and publishes fiction and non-fiction books. It publishes new and established authors. The company publishes books in English and Arabic languages.

Business model

The company operates what it calls a 'hybrid' publishing model, claiming to offer some 'traditional' contracts to prospective authors as well as 'contributory' contracts, in which the author pays a part of the publication cost.

Published authors

Authors published by the company have included:

* Austin Stevens
* Carey Blyton
* Tariq Anwar
* Javaid Laghari
* Maryam Saqer Al Qasimi
* Ira David Wood III
* Lawrence Salander
*Oliver Friggieri
* Bonita Lawrence
*Simon May
* Claire Liddell
* Kevin Lueshing
* Alexander Matthews

Recognition

''Publishers Weekly'' named Austin Macauley one of the fastest growing independent publishers in 2018.

Their International Publishing Director is Jade Robertson. She was also listed among 'The 30 Most Influential Women in the Arab World 2019.'

Affiliations

Associated with Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) Austin Macauley Publishers is a member of The Publishers Association.

Controversy

Austin Macauley appears on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America 'Thumbs Down' Publishers List, which, according to the association, contains the companies ''about which heyhave received the largest number of complaints over the years, or which heyconsider to pose the most significant hazard for writers".

Austin Macauley was the company most often mentioned in "comments made by writers about misrepresentation and lack of transparency in the way some ‘hybrid’ / paid-for publishing companies promoted their publishing services" in a survey of their members by th
Writers Guild of Great Britain (WGGB)
and th
Society of Authors (SoA)
In an analysis of Austin Macauley's websites and available marketing presence the survey report, entitled "Is it a steal?", said that the company "adopted an opaque approach to promoting their services ... ere was no indication at the time of review (October 2021) in Austin Macauley’s advertising, in its advertising landing pages, or in its active submissions pages, that it will charge a writer. ... It also referred to authors paying ‘a small proportion’ of the cost of publication, but all the Austin Macauley contracts seen by the SoA and WGGB asked writers to pay more than it would cost to self-publish the work, even with the assistance of legitimate self-publishing services". Regarding the industry as a whole the report said that "the average loss for a writer in a ‘hybrid’/paid-for publishing deal was £1,861, with some participants reporting losses as high as £9,900", while " median of only 67 books were sold per deal, resulting in royalties of only £68".

References

{{Reflist

External links

*Official websites
*
Austin Macauley Publishers UK
*
Austin Macauley Publishers USA
*
Austin Macauley Publishers UAE

Companies based in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Publishing companies of the United Kingdom
2006 establishments in England