ms « Robin Writes

It occured to me that I hadn’t mentioned our publishing branch lately, so let me update you a bit on that aspect of our bookstore:

RHP is a division of All on the Same Page Bookstore; you can reach our page through the store website. We are accepting manuscripts as of RIGHT NOW, and we’ve selected our first one to be published in 2013. However, I’m not going to announce it until the contracts are signed….

We are requesting an entire manuscript, accompanied of course by a blurb. The ms will be read by at least two individuals. There may be some changes we request before acceptance, but an author is free to make those changes or withdraw the manuscript. We really aren’t unreasonable, but sometimes things need to be fixed. This process takes about two weeks, or a bit longer given the time of year.

Once that is done, the author will receive an email detailing a potential contract. If all the points are agreeable, and authors may certainly request changes, a contract will follow. This part takes approximately three weeks, depending on how much back-and-forth is needed to agree to terms.

Finally, the manuscript (with changes made by the author) is sent to editing. Editing could take several more weeks, based on the schedule of the editor. After that’s completed, the manuscript will be sent back to the author for final approval. During the time, the author and RHP will collaborate on the cover design.

The estimated time from submission to publication could be as short as two months, or perhaps three to four. Most likely, our first book of 2013 will be available in February in both e-format and paperback.

We do want to stress, again, that we do NOT charge our authors. We handle editing, cover design, formatting, printing, and marketing/sales. Authors receive royalties, and are NOT required to purchase a particular number of their own books. Period.

So there you have it: RHP.

Drop us a line…or a manuscript!

In the interests of full disclosure, I did re-query one agent. That was after a friend referred me to her publisher and I’d received a contract offer. I mentioned that to him, and re-sent the info he’d originally asked for. Still nothing. So, about that publishing contract:

Because my friend had mentioned the book to her publisher, I was asked to send a query; so I did, of course – who wouldn’t? And it was very exciting – a real publisher and all! Boy, was I excited! The gal told me she’d get back to me in a few days. Except…it was 24 hours later! That’s when she asked for the full ms, to which I complied, and said I’d hear back within a week.

Talk about complusively checking email – I did that after querying all those agents, too, but this was even worse! And, it was over a weekend!

Just a few days later, however, I got an email with a couple questions: was this a series, or was a sequel planned? And how willing was I to participate in marketing, etc.?

Oh, heck yes! Whatever it took, I was in – and I’d already started writing the sequel anyway.

The next day, I got the contract. ALL of this happened in just under a week. By the day after that, I’d turned it down.

Am I crazy? Maybe. Probably. But here’s why I told them “no”:

The E-book wouldn’t be released until October, the paperback late January.
Their marketing strategy was simple, basic, and something I’d be doing myself either with or without them.
They don’t work with bookstores.

Yes, I’m impatient. But I also own a bookstore and know the importance of getting out the merchandise BEFORE the holidays, not after. All of their “marketing” involved free/easy/simple online things, which I already do for said bookstore or could easily sign up for and do myself; the one exception was their authors’ group, but approximately 100 of my Facebook friends are also writers which kind of negates that “perk.”

And wait – don’t work with bookstores? They told me that I’d have to sell my books to stores myself – based on their 50% author discount. So I did the math. I would pay $7 each to buy books from the publisher, then haul them to a bookstore; the bookstore would pay me just over $8 per copy, when the books sell. My cut of this came to about $1.50. Huh. On the other hand, if they sold my books to a store at a 40% discount and paid me on that other 60%, I’d earn about the same thing. The big difference was my hauling books everywhere.

Now, if the book isn’t coming out until after the holidays, and I have to do 95% of the marketing and selling, and I can actually make almost $9 per book with direct selling – and over $3 each selling to bookstores at a standard discount – why in the world would I choose to go the traditional publishing route?

Actually, there is one reason: the tendency for trad publishing to look down their collective noses at self-published work. It’s changing, slowly, but it is changing. A lot of booksellers don’t really care, as long as the book is good, but some do; many will indeed accept your book but on a consignment basis – that shouldn’t be a problem. Buyers don’t know the difference, and it simply means you do have to work to sell your book; but you should be doing that already!

So, that’s why I turned down a publishing contract and went the SP route….