Do you write off the beaten path? Is your book a hard-sell to New York publishers because it doesn’t fit? Did you write a book for one of Harlequin’s lines, make it all the way to the final editor, only to have it rejected? Should you put that book under your bed or in the dusty recesses of your computer and forget about it?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Today's authors have a great deal of publishing options at their disposal. Well-written books which don't fit in the mainstream are finding niche markets and small presses are eager to satisfy those niches.
Two years ago, I posted a series on Publishing with a Small Press. I'm going to repost that series under a different title and expand it. Next week, I'll post Part Two.
Please post your comments, additions, corrections. This is a collaborative post.
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First, I want to start with some definitions:
New York Publisher (large press): These publishers typically have offices in New York City. They do large print runs for their author's books, which are distributed to book stores. They pay royalties (a percentage of the book's cover price, usually about 6-8 percent). The author gets paid an advance before the book hits the shelf.
Vanity Publisher (Self-Published): These presses typically publish anyone if you have the money to pay them. You will be expected to pay for things or provide your own, such as cover design, editing, and marketing. They may have limited distribution, if any. They're good choices if you're publishing something for a targeted group of people, such as a family history.
Small Press (epub or Epublisher): These presses operate like NY presses. They do not charge any fees to the author. They provide editing, cover art, and distribution. The distribution varies between publishers, as does the quality of editing and amout of marketing. Small presses are becoming a home to niche markets. Fiction which only serves a specialized group of readers isn't a good risk for large publishers. The writers might be as good or better than writers for big publishers, but they've chosen to write in an area which is not popular with the masses.
I find that there are two primary types of small presses:
Electronic or ePubs: Their books are primarily available electronically. They usually do not pay an advance unless it’s quite small. The author earns royalties (usually about 30-40 percent) from the cover price of the book sold in the small press’s bookstore and royalties from the distributor (usually a percentage of what the publisher receives). Many of these presses also offer their books in print via print on demand (see definition below) and through distributors such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
Traditional Small Presses: These presses do small print runs. Their books may or may not be available via other distributors. They may or may not provide an electronic format. They may pay a small advance.
Other Definitions:
Print Run: NY pubs do a print run of each book published. The books are then distributed to bookstores. Unsold books can be returned to the publisher for a refund. Returns of fifty percent or more are not uncommon.
Print on Demand (POD): This is a green alternative to print books. Over half of the books printed by NY pubs are not sold and are destroyed. Print-on-Demand books are printed when the buyer places an order, usually in a trade paperback format. At this time, they're more expensive to buy as the process is more expensive than a print run. POD books are rarely available in bookstores because in most cases they are not returnable. Small publishers and vanity publishers often uses a POD press to print their books.
My next post will include the pros and cons of small presses.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Lucy Monroe's Readers at Home Conference
For those of us who didn't get to go to RT (Romantic Times Conference) this year, I'm participating in Lucy Monroe's Readers at Home Conference. I'm kicking it off with a blog post about animals as secondary characters.
Stop by and say "hi." There's plenty going on all week, including tons of prizes and goodie bags to be given away.
Stop by and say "hi." There's plenty going on all week, including tons of prizes and goodie bags to be given away.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
I Want to Write That Kind of Book
As I was doing my final edit on the last 40 pages of Fourth and Goal before submitting it to a publisher, I came to one poignant scene that actually brought tears to my eyes. As I finished the scene and pulled myself together, I thought: Wow, I hope it affects readers as much as it affects me.
I started thinking about books that strike an emotional chord in the reader and how rare they are anymore. Fifteen to twenty years ago, it seemed as if you could read that kind of book on a regular basis. Now, I might read one “can’t put down” book" a year.
If my perception isn’t skewed, then what happened to create this problem? Do writers not write as well as they once did? Do they not put their heart and soul into each book? Has it become too much of a money-making business and less of a creative endeavor.
Maybe it's all of the above and more. I believe the pressure to produce has caused authors to write a technically good book, but often it has no soul. The characters don’t come to life and become your closest friends for the brief time you spend in their lives and their heads. You don’t root for them, cry for them, rejoice with them. You might enjoy the story. In fact, you might enjoy it so much you’ll buy more books by the author, yet it still lacks something. Have we, as readers, created this problem by clamoring for more and more books by our favorite author? Have we inadvertently caused the publication of soulless books? Because in the pressure to produce, a writer doesn’t have time to develop and explore their characters, really get to know them, and give them life.
Many authors I’ve loved over the years are now producing dull, shallow books with characters I don’t remember for five minutes let alone a lifetime. As a reader, I’d rather read one exceptional book a year by my favorite author that read three or four forgettable novels.
All I know is I want to write the kind of book that stays with people, the book they read over and over again with the characters they remember fondly like the childhood friend who moved away. Perhaps, crying when reading my own scene is a step in the right direction.
I started thinking about books that strike an emotional chord in the reader and how rare they are anymore. Fifteen to twenty years ago, it seemed as if you could read that kind of book on a regular basis. Now, I might read one “can’t put down” book" a year.
If my perception isn’t skewed, then what happened to create this problem? Do writers not write as well as they once did? Do they not put their heart and soul into each book? Has it become too much of a money-making business and less of a creative endeavor.
Maybe it's all of the above and more. I believe the pressure to produce has caused authors to write a technically good book, but often it has no soul. The characters don’t come to life and become your closest friends for the brief time you spend in their lives and their heads. You don’t root for them, cry for them, rejoice with them. You might enjoy the story. In fact, you might enjoy it so much you’ll buy more books by the author, yet it still lacks something. Have we, as readers, created this problem by clamoring for more and more books by our favorite author? Have we inadvertently caused the publication of soulless books? Because in the pressure to produce, a writer doesn’t have time to develop and explore their characters, really get to know them, and give them life.
Many authors I’ve loved over the years are now producing dull, shallow books with characters I don’t remember for five minutes let alone a lifetime. As a reader, I’d rather read one exceptional book a year by my favorite author that read three or four forgettable novels.
All I know is I want to write the kind of book that stays with people, the book they read over and over again with the characters they remember fondly like the childhood friend who moved away. Perhaps, crying when reading my own scene is a step in the right direction.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Join Me at Lucy Monroe's "Reader at Home" Conference
What do tons of authors, tons of prizes, tons of hotties and tons of readers have in common? They’re attending the first ever Readers at Home Conference! During the week of April 26-30, authors and readers will converge on Lucy Monroe’s blog, to celebrate their favorite genre – romance!
We are giving away Swag Bags to the first 50 readers who register for the conference. To register, all you have to do is send an email to Lucy Monroe with your name and mailing address (for the Swag Bag) stating your intention to attend the RAH Conference. The Swag Bags are for conference attendees only and we are trusting that you truly intend to attend the conference and interact with the authors and other readers on the blog. :) Lucy is shipping the Swag Bags at her own expense, but many authors have donated loot for you all, and each Swag Bag will have a free book inside.
Yes, that's right - the conference is FREE. How cool is that?
Every day there will be multiple authors visiting and guest blogging, with new posts going live every 3 hours between 6 AM and 6 PM. Lucy will post a hottie who is definitely hunky enough to be a cover model and there will be daily drawings for multiple prizes (more than 50 over the week!!!), including dozens of signed books, a B&N gift card, a t-shirt, 3 prize tote bags filled with books and goodies (from Sue G at BTRB and Becke Davis), free online subscriptions to Affaire de Couer magazine and 2 more Swag Bags given away each day. What could be better?
Hope to see YOU there!
We are giving away Swag Bags to the first 50 readers who register for the conference. To register, all you have to do is send an email to Lucy Monroe with your name and mailing address (for the Swag Bag) stating your intention to attend the RAH Conference. The Swag Bags are for conference attendees only and we are trusting that you truly intend to attend the conference and interact with the authors and other readers on the blog. :) Lucy is shipping the Swag Bags at her own expense, but many authors have donated loot for you all, and each Swag Bag will have a free book inside.
Yes, that's right - the conference is FREE. How cool is that?
Every day there will be multiple authors visiting and guest blogging, with new posts going live every 3 hours between 6 AM and 6 PM. Lucy will post a hottie who is definitely hunky enough to be a cover model and there will be daily drawings for multiple prizes (more than 50 over the week!!!), including dozens of signed books, a B&N gift card, a t-shirt, 3 prize tote bags filled with books and goodies (from Sue G at BTRB and Becke Davis), free online subscriptions to Affaire de Couer magazine and 2 more Swag Bags given away each day. What could be better?
Hope to see YOU there!
Readers at Home Conference Sponsors
~ Guest Blogging Authors ~
Leigh D'Ansey
Other Readers at Home Conference Sponsors
(donated
prizes, items for the Swag Bags, etc.)
prizes, items for the Swag Bags, etc.)
Why Health Care Reform is Personal to Me
I've kept quiet recently on my stand on health care reform, but I've been receiving comments about it from several people who are assuming I am against it. While I really try to refrain from political arugments, this one is really personal to me. Read on, if you want to know why and take me off your anit-health care maiiling lists. This is my letter to congress:
My mother raised two daughters on her own after my father died. I was three at the time. She never remarried.
She also had a disability. Rheumatic fever as a child left her with a weakened heart. In 1961, she had one of the first open-heart surgeries ever performed in by the University of Washington to have a valve replaced. As a result, she was never very healthy. Yet, she worked harder than most healthy people. We survived on what she earned from a small L&I survivor’s pension from my father’s death and made managing an apartment complex mostly of senior citizens.
My mother mowed almost 2 acres of lawn once or twice a week at that complex. In Eastern Washington, the temperatures often reached over 100 degrees in the summer. She didn’t care, she maintained it like a showplace. She did all the bookkeeping, rent collecting, and HUD paperwork. She watched over her “little old ladies” like a mother hen, making sure they were taken care of, often fighting Welfare so their benefits wouldn’t be cut off.
She had a social life, too. She was an active member of the American Legion Auxiliary and the 40 and 8, along with being precinct committeewoman for many years. She loved to go out to lunch with her friends.
Never once did she accept any type of public assistance. Nor did she have any health insurance coverage.
I always knew that she was living on borrowed time. Even as a child I lived in constant fear that I would lose my mother, as she was all my sister and I had left.
When I was 23 and she was 61, she wasn’t well. You could tell her heart was giving her problems. The doctor tried to encourage her to see a specialist in Spokane about 180 miles from our home. She kept putting it off. She didn’t have the money for the visit.
That July, her time ran out. She suffered a debilitating heart attack. As a result, she lived for another year as a mental vegetable and finally died in her sleep. She wasn’t even old enough to receive Social Security.
I am certain, without a doubt, if she’d had health care, she would have lived a much longer life. My mother didn’t deserve to die so soon. My sister and I had already grown up without a father, and now at a relatively young age, we were also without a mother.
Please don’t let other children lose their mothers or fathers prematurely. Vote for health care reform.
I hope you can now understand my position. I hope I've changed a few of your minds on why we need this.
My mother raised two daughters on her own after my father died. I was three at the time. She never remarried.
She also had a disability. Rheumatic fever as a child left her with a weakened heart. In 1961, she had one of the first open-heart surgeries ever performed in by the University of Washington to have a valve replaced. As a result, she was never very healthy. Yet, she worked harder than most healthy people. We survived on what she earned from a small L&I survivor’s pension from my father’s death and made managing an apartment complex mostly of senior citizens.
My mother mowed almost 2 acres of lawn once or twice a week at that complex. In Eastern Washington, the temperatures often reached over 100 degrees in the summer. She didn’t care, she maintained it like a showplace. She did all the bookkeeping, rent collecting, and HUD paperwork. She watched over her “little old ladies” like a mother hen, making sure they were taken care of, often fighting Welfare so their benefits wouldn’t be cut off.
She had a social life, too. She was an active member of the American Legion Auxiliary and the 40 and 8, along with being precinct committeewoman for many years. She loved to go out to lunch with her friends.
Never once did she accept any type of public assistance. Nor did she have any health insurance coverage.
I always knew that she was living on borrowed time. Even as a child I lived in constant fear that I would lose my mother, as she was all my sister and I had left.
When I was 23 and she was 61, she wasn’t well. You could tell her heart was giving her problems. The doctor tried to encourage her to see a specialist in Spokane about 180 miles from our home. She kept putting it off. She didn’t have the money for the visit.
That July, her time ran out. She suffered a debilitating heart attack. As a result, she lived for another year as a mental vegetable and finally died in her sleep. She wasn’t even old enough to receive Social Security.
I am certain, without a doubt, if she’d had health care, she would have lived a much longer life. My mother didn’t deserve to die so soon. My sister and I had already grown up without a father, and now at a relatively young age, we were also without a mother.
Please don’t let other children lose their mothers or fathers prematurely. Vote for health care reform.
I hope you can now understand my position. I hope I've changed a few of your minds on why we need this.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Our Weekend Trip
My hubbie and I took a weekend trip to Port Townsend last weekend. It's one of our favorite places to go, and we go there often. The last three times we've gone there, we've tried the bed and breakfast route. I've now decided after three strikes, we're done with B&Bs. Last fall the two we stayed in didn't belive in heat. The one this past weekend didn't believe in hot water.
We have a favorite place we love to stay with gorgeous views of the water and great rooms, not to mention a wonderful restaurant and bar. They also have bikes and lots of places to ride including a nearby island with a state park on it. We're going back there from now on. So much for being adventurous.
I'll post pictures of our trip later.
We have a favorite place we love to stay with gorgeous views of the water and great rooms, not to mention a wonderful restaurant and bar. They also have bikes and lots of places to ride including a nearby island with a state park on it. We're going back there from now on. So much for being adventurous.
I'll post pictures of our trip later.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Rose City Romance Writers--Readers Luncheon
I'll be at the Rose City Romance Writers Readers Luncheon. I hope to see some of you there.
The Rose City Romance Writers are proud to host the 10th Annual Romance Readers Luncheon on Saturday, April 17, 2010 from 9 am to 2 pm. This year's guest speaker is bestselling author of classic romance and modern women's fiction, Jane Porter. Jane's presentation, entitled Be The Hero of Your Own Story, is sure to inspire.
Join Us at the Governor Hotel in Portland for good food, great romance authors, and a gift basket raffle like none other. 2010 Cost: $40.00
Some of the authors attending include :
•Amanda Forester
•Anthea Lawson
•Catherine Cade
•Christina Crooks
•Christine Young
•Courtney Milan
•Delilah Marvelle
•Eilis Flynn
•Elisabeth Naughton
•Erica Ridley
•Genene Valleau
•Gerri Russell
•Gina Robinson
•Hanna Rhys-Barnes
•Jami Davenport
•Jean Johnson
•Jenna Bayley-Burke
•Jessa Slade
•Kimberly Fisk
•Kristina McMorris
•Kaylin McFarren
•Lacy Danes
•Linda Wisdom
•Lisa Hendrix
•Lucy Monroe
•Maisey Yates
•Margaret Mallory
•Marianne Stillings
•Mary Vine
•Meljean Brook
•Minnette Meador
•PJ Alderman
•Paty Jager
•Terri Reed
•Terry MacLaughlin
•Theresa Meyers
•Wendy Warren
Sound like fun? Register Now!
For more information, please check out the Rose City Romance Writers website.
The Rose City Romance Writers are proud to host the 10th Annual Romance Readers Luncheon on Saturday, April 17, 2010 from 9 am to 2 pm. This year's guest speaker is bestselling author of classic romance and modern women's fiction, Jane Porter. Jane's presentation, entitled Be The Hero of Your Own Story, is sure to inspire.Join Us at the Governor Hotel in Portland for good food, great romance authors, and a gift basket raffle like none other. 2010 Cost: $40.00
Some of the authors attending include :
•Amanda Forester
•Anthea Lawson
•Catherine Cade
•Christina Crooks
•Christine Young
•Courtney Milan
•Delilah Marvelle
•Eilis Flynn
•Elisabeth Naughton
•Erica Ridley
•Genene Valleau
•Gerri Russell
•Gina Robinson
•Hanna Rhys-Barnes
•Jami Davenport
•Jean Johnson
•Jenna Bayley-Burke
•Jessa Slade
•Kimberly Fisk
•Kristina McMorris
•Kaylin McFarren
•Lacy Danes
•Linda Wisdom
•Lisa Hendrix
•Lucy Monroe
•Maisey Yates
•Margaret Mallory
•Marianne Stillings
•Mary Vine
•Meljean Brook
•Minnette Meador
•PJ Alderman
•Paty Jager
•Terri Reed
•Terry MacLaughlin
•Theresa Meyers
•Wendy Warren
Sound like fun? Register Now!
For more information, please check out the Rose City Romance Writers website.
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