Got offer on neo-noir thriller

congrats. What sort of publisher? I just sold my first crime novel to Mainly Murder Press, a very small publisher. I've accepted the fact that agents aren't interested in small presses, in general.

wickerkat and congratulations!

I am indeed going to move you--just a quick jump up to Ask the Agent. Hopefully you'll get lots of good advice there. Back in a moment with the link...

Congrats!

If the press is new, I hope you've checked them out somehow. Have you looked for a thread on them in Bewares and Background Checks?

I recommend Janet Reid. This sounds a lot like the stuff she likes. She's not my agent, but she reps a friend of mine. She also runs the QueryShark blog, and has her own blog at www.jetreidliterary.blogspot.com. I met her at Bouchercon last year and she's great. She also reps Jeff Somers, who wrote The Electric Church, also called "near future noir."

Give it a shot. Congratulations and good luck!!

First congratulations.

Second, I second Cyia's recommendation that you check out the publisher before signing. Small is fine, but make sure they are experienced and professional and the best place to publish your book.

Third, if you want to try to use this as bait to find an agent, you need to start sending queries to possible agents and put words to the effect of offer from publisher or something similar in the subject line of the email. AND you need to stop negotiating the deal.

An agent will be less interested if you have already negotiated all the terms because then the agent can't negotiate the contract. And it's my understanding that the agent will only be interested (assuming this is the kind of deal the agent may be interested in at all) if they can then negotiate the terms.

Once you have negotiated all the terms, your chance of getting an agent with the offer as bait plummets.

good luck.

~suki

Congrats, make sure you check them out as Cyia and Suki have mentioned.

wickerkat said:

...my current publisher may be small, but i'm hoping this could be a stepping stone to a bigger press...

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This is not as easy as you'd think. Janet (Reid) told me it's actually pretty hard to break out a small press book to a larger press.

Does this small press offer an advance? Many if not most agents aren't going to be interested if the publisher isn't offering an advance against royalties.

And please check the Bewares & Background Checks forum before signing with this publisher! You don't want to get stuck with any of the well-meaning but inexperienced publishers who can't sell your book to bookstores and ultimately to readers (or worse, the deceptive vanity printers like PublishAmerica).

sorry I have no advice -- but congratulations! =)

wickerkat said:

thanks guys, great advice, i'm looking into this all, actually, i just did send off a query to janet reid, looks like we are on the same page

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Good luck.

so far no advance and i'd be their FIRST BOOK EVER...i know the risks, that's why i'm trying to secure an agent, or at least show the contract to a lawyer (yikes $1000, but they'll do it for $400)

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Are you certain you understand the risk? Does the lawyer have experience with publishing contracts specifically? They're very specialized, and plenty of lawyers who are experts in other areas have no idea of the kinds of things a publishing contract should and should not have.

Does the publisher have prior experience in the publishing industry? The number of new publishers who start up with no experience is astounding. Almost without exception they fail. And they often take the writers' books with them.

well, we should know in a month where this all goes, but i've already lined up some great blurbs as well as 60 blogs/ezines/forums and all kinds of stuff - i plan on selling thousands - i would hope somebody like JR would be interested in an author that could move 5000 books, right?

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Everyone plans to sell thousands; doesn't mean they do. Is the publisher able to get books into bookstores? Without a strong distribution channel in place, your chance of selling 5000 copies is near zero (and your chances of selling about 75 copies total is much greater). Blogs, ezines, etc. are all well and good, but the way to sell thousands is for your book to be on bookstore shelves all around the country.

I'm not saying this to discourage you; I'm pointing out the reality based on following dozens upon dozens of new publishers in the B&BC forum. Are they POD or offset?

color me naive or in denial, but WTH gotta start someplace, right?

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You can start at the top and work your way down. Why start at the bottom? Like I said, Janet (who is my agent) told me it's very hard to break out a small press book. And a no-advance, new publisher with no books already published is the bottom.

I know you're excited someone is interested in your book, but this isn't the time to think with your emotions. Trust me, I sympathize. But this is a business decision, and you need to really think about what you'll be doing to the product you're selling.

Wickercat,

I do not mean to rain on your parade. Trust me, I've worked for some less than stellar publishers before. As long as you're walking in with your eyes open, you're in better shape.

However, my (bad) publisher was known more for slow/small advances. His books were carried by major distributors and were in bookstores nationwide.

If the publisher you're with does not have distribution set up, and I don't mean using Ingrams or Baker and Taylor as a warehouse, then the odds of your book getting into bookstores goes right throught the basement.

If you are uncomfortable naming your publisher here, please send Ann Crispin, Victoria Strauss or me a PM and we'll tell you what Writer Beware has on them (if anything) and what we can find out about them. Anything you ask will be kept in strict confidence.

Congrats on getting someone interested in your book. Just don't sell yourself short.

After all, Publish America claims to give people's work "the chance it deserves" and we know how well that works.

If there is no advance, you won't be able to secure an agent. What's in it for the agent if he/she can't take a commission?

Hi, wickerkat.

Every press does have to start someplace, but why does it have to start with your book? If they fail, you've sold your first printing rights (for no advance) and it's going to be near-impossible to sell them elsewhere. Your book will thus effectively be dead.

Dozens of small presses fail every year. The honourable ones release their authors from contract and return their rights. The dishonourable ones simply disappear. Publishing is a very tough business, and a lot of these people probably had their hearts in the right places, but all the goodwill in the world isn't going to help your book get into the hands of readers. Experience, knowledge and hard work will. The fact that your press is being started by folks with (apparently) no publishing experience is a huge red flag for me.

I'd like to recommend you a couple of threads on AW:

Lainey was in a similar situation to you (first book at a new imprint). It did not go well.

There's dozens of threads in the Bewares forum from people who went with new publishers that gave them little money, no distribution, and then folded. The Cacoethesis Publishing thread may be of particular interest to you. It's been a while since I read it, but as I recall, several authors there started with "Well, I've got to begin somewhere" and ended up frustrated and angry when the owner vanished.

If your book is good, it's worth trying to get it published by a legitimate publisher. At the very least, I would query agents widely with your book (not mentioning this offer) before taking such a leap into the unknown.

Best wishes with your novel, and cheers.

Why not write another book and try to get an agent's interest with that one? Janet signed me on my fourth one, and I got dozens of rejections before that. A first book is rarely publishable.

wickerkat said:

Every press has to start someplace, right?

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No, it doesn't. It should start from a place of experience. It's not an entry-level job. At the least, the people running it should already have distribution in place before they ever look at acquiring a book.

I can tell nothing we say is going to deter you, so I wish you all the luck in the world. And I sincerely hope nothing that happens with this book stops you from writing.