Carina Press is changing HQ for sure! [Archive]

xccorpio

06-03-2010, 05:18 PM

Checking new posts at the eharlequin website it was a nice surprise to find Carina Press authors' promotion among the new threads.

It pleases me to see HQ is spreading out its mind-set.

Those of you who followed this publisher for years can understand why it surprises me. Specially with all the talk that was done months ago about HQ distancing from its newest venture.

Here are the links I found:

Jungle Heat (http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/carina-press/carina-press-june-books/jungle-heat)

Her Heart's Divide (http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/carina-press/carina-press-june-books/her-hearts-divide)

:)

More interesting links:

Carina M/M Writers (http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/carina-press/carina-press-mm-writers)

Carina Press M/M Writers and Readers (http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/carina-press/carina-press-mm-writers-and-readers)

Ambri

06-03-2010, 08:16 PM

Is Carina Press the new name for their self publishing venture?

veinglory

06-03-2010, 08:19 PM

No, it is their epublishing imprint.

jennontheisland

06-03-2010, 08:21 PM

Is Carina Press the new name for their self publishing venture?
That one is DellArte.
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=162391&highlight=dellarte

Ambri

06-03-2010, 08:22 PM

Oh. Well . . . good. I guess I really need to subscribe to Publishers Lunch or one of those similar market trends pubs.

jennontheisland

06-03-2010, 08:23 PM

Not really. Regular visits to the Background Checks forum are worth the trip. ;)

Shamrockgreen

06-04-2010, 07:54 AM

HQ's Carina will be a big boon for the authors, back issues can finally be had, downloaded, no printing to do and royalties for all. I think it is a good move.

jennontheisland

06-04-2010, 08:01 AM

Carina is offering back issues?

Shamrockgreen

06-04-2010, 08:11 AM

I don't know that they do...however eventually it would seem logical you would be able to obtain them.

brainstorm77

06-04-2010, 08:52 AM

How will Carina offer back issues (backlist books) when they have yet to publish anything? If you mean Harlequin, they already have a seperate ebook site that offers their backlist of books.

ShannonStacey

06-04-2010, 03:11 PM

Carina Press accepts books previously published in print as long as the author has the digital rights back. For example, Carina will be reissuing two of Hope Tarr's early Jove titles.

Cathy C

06-04-2010, 05:45 PM

I heard a worrying report from someone on another site who submitted to them, that Carina's contract is for ALL RIGHTS, not just electronic. But they've made no bones about the fact that they have no present intention to put books into print. That's a big burden on a writer who might never have the opportunity to see a print version.

Has anyone seen a contract to know if this is true?

ShannonStacey

06-04-2010, 06:13 PM

As far as I know, there are no current plans to make the books available in print, but I have seen them correct, when referred to as a digital-only imprint, to digital-first. To me that implies a "maybe someday?" situation.

My thought on the rights in general was that if any company was going to be able to exercise those rights for the most gain, it's this one. I also personally believe if a writer's priority is to have her book in print, digital publishing might not be her most attractive option anyway.

They also announced on Wednesday that five of the launch titles will be available in July as audiobooks from Audible.com (mine being one of them). That, for me, is an exciting new opportunity made available because the Carina team had the ability to exploit those rights.

Cathy C

06-04-2010, 06:58 PM

Oh, no question that Harlequin is aggressive in selling subsidiary rights! They have a reputation for that. But with ebooks, I'm a little afraid of having ALL print rights included with a (still experimental) concept. Even EC only takes trade print rights, leaving mass and hardback to the author. I just find it a little concerning, from the standpoint of an author wanting to have the best market exposure. :Shrug:

ShannonStacey

06-04-2010, 07:12 PM

I understand what you're saying, but I think it comes down to what an author believes her publisher may possibly ever do with those rights versus what she can do with them herself.

Realistically, what am I going to do with mass market rights to a book that's been published in digital and trade formats? Even if you took trade off the table, in today's market, how many publishers are going to sign a book that doesn't come with digital rights?

I think even the publishers dragging their feet in the digital market are going to have to start paying attention. Reportedly, digital sales of Steig Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest made up 29% of the first week sales. I don't think many publishers are going to buy mass market rights to a book they can't make available for the Kindle, nook & iPad.

So I personally would choose to give those rights to a publisher on the very slim chance they'll exercise them because I know there's an extremely good chance I won't.

Soccer Mom

06-04-2010, 08:24 PM

Honestly, if you've already sold a book's e-rights, the odds that another publisher wants print rights is pretty much nil. At least, that's how I look at it.

Stacia Kane

06-04-2010, 09:39 PM

I have a friend who signed with Carina; I'll ask her. :)

Dee Carney

06-05-2010, 01:10 AM

I just sold a book to Carina and part of my decision in accepting the offer was the presentation given by Angela James at RT this year. She *strongly* insinuated that although Carina is a digital first publisher, print might be a possibility. Also, did you catch the news that they will be selling some books through audible.com?

At this point, I have no problems with sending them a story and seeing what they do with it. It doesn't mean I have to sell them another one... Hopefully the case will be that I'll want to continue subbing.

jennontheisland

06-05-2010, 01:41 AM

She *strongly* insinuated that although Carina is a digital first publisher, print might be a possibility.
insinuated
might
possibility

not very strong words

Stlight

06-05-2010, 02:08 AM

Discussion of Carnina rights requests in contract start with post #103
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161570&page=5

From B&BC

Dee Carney

06-05-2010, 04:08 AM

insinuated
might
possibility

not very strong words

Yep. And they're all mine. ;)

para

06-06-2010, 05:20 PM

Those of you who followed this publisher for years can understand why it surprises me. Specially with all the talk that was done months ago about HQ distancing from its newest venture.

Got to be honest I'm not sure why exactly you are so surprised. The only distancing I saw was that they didn't call it Harlequin Carina. All the press releases made it clear that Carina was linked with Harlequin. There are other Harlequin Imprints/Lines that don't carry the Harlequin in front. I don't honestly see any changes from what they normally do and I've been watching them for years. HQ cares about the bottom line and that's it. If Carina makes them enough money then great, if not it will be dropped.

I think the reason some folks might be more accepting of the rights grab contract is that Harlequin has the ability to exploit it, unlike other companies. Also it's a foot in the door at the largest romance publisher in the world.

xccorpio

06-06-2010, 09:12 PM

Got to be honest I'm not sure why exactly you are so surprised. The only distancing I saw was that they didn't call it Harlequin Carina. All the press releases made it clear that Carina was linked with Harlequin. There are other Harlequin Imprints/Lines that don't carry the Harlequin in front. I don't honestly see any changes from what they normally do and I've been watching them for years. HQ cares about the bottom line and that's it. If Carina makes them enough money then great, if not it will be dropped.

I think the reason some folks might be more accepting of the rights grab contract is that Harlequin has the ability to exploit it, unlike other companies. Also it's a foot in the door at the largest romance publisher in the world.

Did you click on the links I posted?
I admit that it could be a matter of perception.
Where did I see change?
For example, Bonnie Dee's writing usually includes explicit sex scenes between two men, she does it brilliantly. Jungle Heat will contain some of that for sure. The excerpt promises it, unless she went m/m sweet romance this time around. I bought the books she coauthored with Summer Devon, published by Loose Id. Plus others she wrote alone published by Samhain. Erotic m/m romance hardly gets more graphic.

If that is still in your opinion part of the usual HQ’s content, we can agree that I'd missed something while reading HQ books all these years.

jennontheisland

06-06-2010, 09:23 PM

Carina does seem intent on taking advantage of the popularity of m/m in ebooks. That is not groundbreaking; as Para mentioned Harlequin is about the bottom line. Other people are making money, so they're going to make a run at it too.

They've admitted that the current webpage does target writers. I guess when they launch the reader-directed site we'll see if Harlequin is willing to stamp gay erotica with their H.

If you follow veinglory's sales stat's on her EREC site, you'll have noticed that for the last couple years the erotic romance ebook market has been quite stable in terms of market share. Other than their non-romance lines (something other publishers have tried and dropped), I don't see Carina doing anything different than any other epublisher (slightly different for Harlequin in content and format, yes, but whether or not they acknowledge that is yet to be seen), and with that lack of distinction, it's going to be work for them to take a large enough share of the existing market (because they don't seem to be creating a niche) to convince the bigwigs in Toronto to keep this venture alive.

HQ cares about the bottom line and that's it. If Carina makes them enough money then great, if not it will be dropped.

Rights grab aside, it's a new epublisher offering little more than any existing epublisher. It has a big name behind it, and financing that is likely secure, but those things are overhead and expensive. I see no reason to treat them like anything other than yet another erotic romance epublisher.

xccorpio

06-06-2010, 10:29 PM

@jennontheisland, I'm talking about change compare to HQ's traditional lines path, I'm not comparing it to the established e-publishers, or implying a ground-breaking within the industry.

We agree about the rights issue, using those print rights will be a marketing decision like always. They might never do print editions, but if HQ chooses to do so, it already has in place the infrastructure and the distributions channels.

Any author who thinks his/her book could be published by a traditional publisher with advance paid and all, would know better than to submit it to a digital only press.

A prolific author could do both, the traditional and the digital only, creating different stories for each publisher. There are stories that are better suited for digital publishing.

It’s a personal business decision, nobody is forced to submit to them, even after getting the call, one can have a change of mind.

The whole purpose of this thread was to show that they aren’t hiding Carina Press as a lovechild. The audible deal is another nice surprise.

I read somewhere that the new website is already designed, only about a week to go before we can see it.

I forgot to say, Shannon and Dee, congrats on your sales. :Hug2:

xccorpio

06-07-2010, 12:15 AM

Actually, Carina Press' launch is tomorrow, I got confused because one book I want to buy won't be release until the 14.

KathleenD

06-07-2010, 03:40 AM

I have a dog in this fight (Xcc linked to my preciousss, thanks, /swoon) so I want to be careful what I say.

If you read that B&BC thread, I make the point that my book was never going to sell to a traditional publisher.

- Novella (and a short one, too, at 19K words)
- No defined genre, as it's a mashup between spec fic and erotic romance
- 28% of the book is explicit sexual content

Believe me, I was strictly looking for a digital publisher. For me, if CP sells other rights, it would be a miracle. So while I laughed when I saw the contract, literally saying that they were taking all rights including those not yet invented, I still signed it. I have a contract (two, actually, I enjoyed the editing/book design process with them so much I went back for seconds) with Harlequin Enterprises, which I can't help but think is a valuable professional credit.

And I've been lurking here for years - I know selling to a start up epub is chancy, but this outfit doesn't seem... as chancy. All of the infrastructure is Harlequin's, and paid for - legal, marketing, cover art. The imprint's only costs are editorial. (I don't count authors because we don't get advances.) Even the affiliate marketing program is Harlequin's.

It's a low risk venture for HQ with potentially a lot of profit, and it's being run by the lady who took Samhain from good to great. It's a risk for an author, but not a big one.

xccorpio

06-07-2010, 07:57 AM

Kathleen, congrats on your sales, and best of luck with the books. :Hug2:

Jenny

06-07-2010, 08:51 AM

Dee Carney

06-07-2010, 10:13 AM

I forgot to say, Shannon and Dee, congrats on your sales. :Hug2:
Thank you!!

Evangeline

06-07-2010, 11:28 AM

I'm excited by Carina Press, but like a few have mentioned, as an e-publisher, after this first rush of acquisitions they are going to acquire what sells--which doesn't make them stand out as unique amidst Loose-Id, Samhain, etc. Which means non-erotic romance and non-m/m is likely to get as lost in the shuffle as it does over at other top e-presses.

IMO, if you aren't writing what's presently popular and/or are not able to keep apace with the average output of a best-selling e-published author, I wouldn't see Carina Press as an e-publisher any different from the aforementioned e-presses. They do have the benefit of a respected crew steering the helm as well as beautiful cover art, but on a whole, e-books published by e-publishers--not simply digital copies of print books--presently remain a niche market, so examine the impact submitting to them will have on your career as shrewdly as you would when choosing which agent you want to sub to, or which RWA writing contest you enter to get the attention of a particular editor.

xccorpio

06-07-2010, 05:48 PM

I'm one of the Carina Press authors yahoo-ing around eHarlequin. I'm excited to be involved in the new venture. The rights I signed away didn't bother me. Maybe I'm naive but I'm interested in how Carina develops and joyful to be part of it. But for sure everyone should study a contract and be confident it works for them.

Jenny, yeah, I remembered that, I read the excerpt of The Price of Freedom yesterday, pretty intriguing.

What are you waiting for to spam your book cover? :D

Best of luck on the 14th! :Hug2:

@Evangeline, I think those categories surpassed the niche classification long ago. e-book sales are adding up by the second.
I agree that Carina Press is publishing similar titles to the others epublishers, and I don't have a problem with it, because is what I buy and write.

Here is a link if you want to check it out in more detail:
Launch Book excerpts (http://carinapress.com/blog/2010/06/launch-book-excerpts/)

BTW, most of the books I bought recently are digital versions.

On the other hand, if I really like a book, I might buy it twice, if there is a print version available. Why? The DRM thingie, in another ten years we don't know what authentication methods will be in place. However, digital reading is becoming as addictive as digital music for me. It's great to have a little device where most part of the entertainment library is carried everywhere. No more lost books, or embarrassment while reading sizzling titles in public.

It's alive!

Carina Press store (http://ebooks.carinapress.com/DBCDBB65-BFB6-4F5C-B6AA-B6556EF46689/10/134/en/default.htm)

Once again best of luck to all the AWers published by them!

ShannonStacey

06-07-2010, 08:28 PM

I forgot to say, Shannon and Dee, congrats on your sales. :Hug2:

Thank you!

K.L. Townsend

06-07-2010, 08:51 PM

I'm curious to see how the different kinds of novellas do. I have a few novellas I'd like to shop around, but they are on the tamer side. I assume the more explicit stuff sells more, so maybe in the end it won't make much difference to me. I just have a hard time finding places to sub novellas.

Congrats to those with releases out or coming out!

Evangeline

06-07-2010, 09:34 PM

@Evangeline, I think those categories surpassed the niche classification long ago. e-book sales are adding up by the second.

I agree that Carina Press is publishing similar titles to the others epublishers, and I don't have a problem with it, because is what I buy and write.

I agree, but since I don't write erotic romance, paranormal romance, or anything else that's very popular in e-publishing, I have to approach e-publishing with a shrewder eye.

BTW, most of the books I bought recently are digital versions...However, digital reading is becoming as addictive as digital music for me. It's great to have a little device where most part of the entertainment library is carried everywhere. No more lost books, or embarrassment while reading sizzling titles in public.

Same here unless I want my formats to match. But e-books make impulse buying so much easier! :D I have twenty books waiting to be read simply because I put them all in my shopping cart after reading a description! If they had been print books, I probably would have put half back on the shelf, and might have regretted buying the other half when I got home. But now I have zero excuse. :ROFL:

veinglory

06-07-2010, 09:48 PM

I wish it was clear on Carina how long those books were. I can't even find the cover price/word count table.

jennontheisland

06-07-2010, 09:52 PM

I wish the menu links at the top didn't open new tabs when I click them.

K.L. Townsend

06-07-2010, 10:36 PM

I wish it was clear on Carina how long those books were. I can't even find the cover price/word count table.

Yeah, I mentioned that in another thread. That's kind of important. I have no problem buying novellas. Heck, I like novellas. But I want to see some kind of pay range so I would know what I'm paying for.

xccorpio

06-07-2010, 11:31 PM

Indeed, the price is according to the book length, the range posted on their blogs, should be listed on the book information.

http://carinapress.com/blog/2010/06/welcome-to-the-new-carinapress-com/

Larkin

06-07-2010, 11:53 PM

I wish the menu links at the top didn't open new tabs when I click them.

I noticed that, but it didn't bother me. Some parts of the Water Cooler does that too, no idea why. ::shruggs::

K.L. Townsend

06-08-2010, 02:20 AM

Indeed, the price is according to the book length, the range posted on their blogs, should be listed on the book information.

http://carinapress.com/blog/2010/06/welcome-to-the-new-carinapress-com/

Awesome. Thanks!

Days like this I wish I could afford some kind of ebook reader thingy. I really like novellas to read in between novels.

san_remo_ave

06-08-2010, 03:50 AM

Awesome. Thanks!

Days like this I wish I could afford some kind of ebook reader thingy. I really like novellas to read in between novels.

You should be able to download and read on your computer via a free reader (like Calibre). Carina doesn't use DRM so should be no big deal.

Jenny

06-08-2010, 04:24 AM

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes :) On the Carina Press blog (http://carinapress.com/blog/2010/06/welcome-to-the-new-carinapress-com/)they've listed book lengths and prices as well as some of the changes still in the pipeline for the website. 20% off the prices to celebrate the launch sounds pretty good, too.

Xccorpio <--- see my avatar (fingers crossed the upload worked) discreet cover spam ;) Great idea!

xccorpio

06-08-2010, 04:38 AM

You should be able to download and read on your computer via a free reader (like Calibre). Carina doesn't use DRM so should be no big deal.

I second that, Calibre is great to organize the ebook library.

These days I read mostly on the computer, in my experience the best PC reader is Mobipocket, it lets you import different formats, even pdf files without causing problems with Adobe Reader, this one is great without the Adobe Digital Editions, it comes with a function that reads the book aloud like an audiobook. I use that one to listen my own writing and trying to see what needs to be revise.

Here is the link to download the free Mobipocket software for PC http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/ProductDetailsReader.asp

There is a Kindle for PC too, which I haven't try yet: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311

There are many publisher who offer free ebooks too, we had some links around here a few months for the HQ ones, but I don't know if they are still available.

Xccorpio <--- see my avatar (fingers crossed the upload worked) discreet cover spam Great idea!

Wow! That's a beautiful cover! Congrats, the right cover helps with sales.

Soccer Mom

06-09-2010, 04:27 AM

Thank you!

Those are some awesome reviews for your book. Congrats!

Lainey Bancroft

06-09-2010, 05:18 AM

Those are some awesome reviews for your book. Congrats!

Made me look!

They ARE great. Congrats!

nutbird

06-09-2010, 10:11 PM

These days I read mostly on the computer, in my experience the best PC reader is Mobipocket, it lets you import different formats, even pdf files without causing problems with Adobe Reader, this one is great without the Adobe Digital Editions, it comes with a function that reads the book aloud like an audiobook. I use that one to listen my own writing and trying to see what needs to be revise.

Thanks for the link! Mobipocket looks great. I've tried the Kindle for PC, and it is pretty good, but it doesn't seem to have all the extras that Mobipocket has.