Tate Publishing & Enterprises, LLC was a Christian publisher that printed books that operated on the

vanity press A vanity press or vanity publisher, sometimes also subsidy publisher, is a publishing house where anyone can pay to have a book published.. The term "vanity press" is often used pejoratively, implying that an author who uses such a service is pub ...

model. They ceased operations in January 2017 and owed their customers about $900,000 at the time.

Background

Tate Publishing & Enterprises, LLC operated, in general, on the

model in which most authors paid for the publication of their books. Its publishing charges may have been refunded for books with sufficient sales volumes. The company was founded by Richard and Rita Tate and was located in

Mustang, Oklahoma Mustang is a city in the southeastern corner of Canadian County, Oklahoma, United States. It is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan statistical area. Mustang's population was 19,879 at the 2020 census, a 14.3% increase from 17,398 in 2010. The c ...

. The company also ran the Tate Music Group

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

. In May 2012, 25 employees, out of over 200, were fired. According to the company president, this was a disciplinary action rather than a layoff, in response to employee leaks of confidential information related to rumors that the company would be outsourcing its operations to the Philippines. In January 2017 Tate ceased operation and notified the public that they would no longer accept new authors. In December 2019, Richard and Ryan Tate, respectively the former founder and CEO, pleaded no contest to 44 criminal charges, including embezzlement, attempted extortion, conspiracy and racketeering, that were laid in a

Canadian County, Oklahoma Canadian County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 154,405, making it the fifth most populous county in Oklahoma. Its county seat is El Reno. The county is named for the Canadian Ri ...

district court. The presiding judge in the case issued an order related to how customers would be granted reimbursement for their estimated $900,000 in losses over the next 20 years.

References

Book publishing companies of the United States Christian publishing companies American record labels Self-publishing companies Book publishing companies based in Oklahoma Defunct book publishing companies of the United States {{publisher-stub