OOC: more publishers

[sythyry]

I'll get back to the story soon, I promise.

In the meantime, a helpful non-LJ person has recommended Twilight Times Books to me. If you'd like to second the recommendation, or warn me against it, please do!

(Sorry I can't just add this to the poll in the previous entry, but polls are not editable.)

Comments

[kobolds.livejournal.com]

I'm actually curious about the publishing process now.

Why are you asking us for our opinions on these companies? Surely applying to all of them and then going with whichever gives you the best deal (in however you are choosing to measure this, be it money, creative control, ownership of licenses, etc) be the best idea?

Or does it just plain not work like that? :S

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Not quite like that, no.

I can send a book to one publisher at a time. The publisher will say they're going to give me an opinion in six weeks, but it's always taken six months for me.

Most likely they'll reject Wrath. Big publishers are, as far as I can tell, struggling nowadays. They prefer safe bets: familiar authors known to sell well, or, failing that, familiar subjects known to sell well. Wrath is neither. I don't know any books like it in the bookstore today, though there may have been some twenty or thirty years ago.

So, I'm going with small publishers, who can be more experimental. I don't expect a lot of success there either, but I have some chance, perhaps.

But some small publishers are better than others. If a three-person publishing company is in the process of losing a person, say, their books and authors will suffer. Some may be clueless about how to market SF novels. (I wouldn't know. I am clueless about how to market SF novels.)

I am pretty ignorant of the world of small presses. I'm trying to get whatever guidance I can. I don't know specifically who knows what about them, but I figure that Sythyry readers collectively know more about them than I do.

And if small presses don't work out in reasonable time, I'm going to selfpublish it, I think.

[kobolds.livejournal.com]

Well that was very informative and I can now understand the research for a good publisher.

In case it matters in your decision with the poll, the only bad thing I have heard about sofawolf press was delays in orders, but I cannot really attribute that to them, there are many possible reasons for it, including the UK's occasionally bad postal system, so you may want to discard my negative things vote from the poll.

Also, no matter who you publish with I eagerly await its release. And what happened to AMOI publisher? Did they turn down Wrath?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I didn't ask them, actually. I'm not sure they're much better than self-publishing.

[kobolds.livejournal.com]

You have bad experiences with them, or is Wrath just sufficiently out of their aea of expertese?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Wrath is close enough to their expertise. But I'm not delighted with how energetically they have been promoting Marriage.

[kobolds.livejournal.com]

If it hadn't been for Terrana I may never have heard of it (or World Tree)

[read-alicia.livejournal.com]

I can send a book to one publisher at a time. The publisher will say they're going to give me an opinion in six weeks, but it's always taken six months for me.

FYI - with the prevalence of the web (and increased submissions), it is no longer a detriment to your book if you do simultaneous submissions. All the authors in my circle simultaneously submit their work - it's sort of an unspoken rule. The game has changed :)

Usually, it goes down like this. Publishers have been saying for decades that they don't want simultaneous submissions and they aren't about to officially change that since it makes sense to keep it a buyer's market. However, if few people have the luxury of waiting to sell something anymore. Centers like Grub Street Press have conventions where you can submit your work to a bunch of publishers and agents in one day. And if two publishers find out that you sent the same work to them, they won't be as likely to toss the submission since they need work to turnaround quickly in order to make the press money. You'll notice in more acceptance letters these days, there's a sentence about "If the work is still available..."

Glad to help :) Submit freely, dear sythyry!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Oh really?

(Dern those unspoken rules. They're awfully hard to learn.)

Thank you much, Alicia!

[read-alicia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the amount of many rejection letters that authors get has reached critical mass and tipped the balance.

Just don't go overboard - I generally just submit to 3-4 places at a time, or 1-2 if I'm really pushing to have a particular publisher.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Do you go to many SF conventions? It tends to be a more literary genre than furry, and most cons that I've attended in the past will have at least one panel about getting a novel published. The panelists are (for the most part) people speaking from direct, recent experience.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I don't go to many cons at all -- one a year maybe. I don't have a ton of spare time. I have been to that panel a few times. Hasn't helped much.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

The panel itself possibly not - very few convention panels are instructive for anyone who has any idea at all about the subject matter. Information's gotten by chatting up the panellists afterwards and asking advice on your particular problem. In your case, you've got a novel and a gamebook already published, so you're obviously not a timewaster. Failing a convention, there are undoubtedly SF authors' boards where advice could be had.

[zahz-veheronn.livejournal.com]

The only bit of advice I can give, (since I have heard nothing about the listed publishers)is the same bit of advice i got off of a freelance writer and self published author I've known personally for some time:

When self publishing It is typically within a writers best interest to avoid vanity presses. go with larger self publish presses if at all possible, and when doing so go with what ever one has the best hearsay from folks you trust, a longer than most the rest of the competition 's history, and the publish options/ formats you want. go with one that will allow you to set your price for the book you write and gives you royalties.

I have no Idea on advice concerning the going to conventions route... so i am of very little help there

you could potentially enter into si-fi fantasy writing competitions (going with the bigger longer running ones like writers of the future if you want to take a competition route) if nothing else a competition like Writers of the future will get your works seen and judged by a panel of fantasy and si fi writers, and sometimes even publishers. I know for example Anne McCaffey has been on the panel of judges in past years of the competition.
It will get your works out there there are cash prizes/ scholarships and the chance to have a short story or story fragment published as well. there are a couple other honest competitions of this same sort specifically designed, as is writers of the Future to let unknowns get their foot in the door and get seen by others in the field. the catch is in order to enter you cannot publish any works through other means until after you have either won or been weeded out of the competition.

[quoting-mungo.livejournal.com]

http://crossedgenres.com/serialsubmissions.htm#serial
You may want to look into this as well, if nothing else pans out? I haven't looked particularly closely at it, as the only novel-like thing I have that's remotely finished is 1) already online (if in very rough draft form) and 2) pr0ny.


-Alexandra

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Oh, if I can't get a small press interested in a moderate time, I'm going to publish it some other way: Lulu.com self-publishing, say.