undecided about e-pub

[romancewriter]

Earlier today I received an offer to publish one of my stories from an e-publishers, but I'm not sure if I should take it.

One of the reasons being that the stories they publish are erotic. Nothing wrong with erotic, but that's not what I write, so I'm wondering what do they want with me? They didn't mention wanting any revisions when they offered me a contract. Is it possible they'll want revisions after I accept the contract? If so, that's even more reason for me to not accept.

Another reason I'm not sure about accepting is this publisher hasn't even been around for a year. I hate to turn down a legit offer, but if all I stand to gain for months of hard work is a few bucks, I'd rather not bother. I know the e-pub market can be tricky, and it's not always easy to determine how much an author could make from a sale, but if this was a more established e-pub I'd be more willing to take the risk.

On the plus side the few things I have heard about this e-pub have been good, but I'm having the worst time deciding what to do.

[veinglory]

My 2c:

Yes, they are pretty much bound to want revisions to the extent of proofreading corrections and conforming to house style. If they wanted a major rewrite for content I bet they would have mentioned it.

Many epubs have a lot of erotic material but also publish other genres. If they only have erotica why do you submit there?

IMHO unless you really hate ebooks it isn't e vs. print so much as: is this the best you can do? A good epublisher is better than a bad print publisher in terms of earings and career.

Is it a good epublisher? What sales figures do their authors see for non-erotic stories? Did you try bigger presses first?

I publish ebooks and some of them do quite well, e.g. over 1000 copies. But having some sex in them does help, as a rule ;)

[Carmy]

Maybe you should check out the publisher in the Bewares part of this forum. If anything is known, good or bad, someone will tell you.

[Gillhoughly]

I received an offer to publish one of my stories from an e-publishers.......so I'm wondering what do they want with me?

Did they contact you first? Some operations troll places like this and other boards for e-addresses. Others get mailing lists from writing magazines. AuthorHouse did this to me, hoping I'd "publish" with them, unaware of the fact that I'd been in print for 14 years prior to their "Dear Aspiring Author" letter!

Is it possible they'll want revisions after I accept the contract?

Even print publishers ask for those. You have a say on whether or not to make them.

Does their contract involve paying you an advance or do they want you to put in money to get your work posted on their website? If the latter, then RUN away.

this publisher hasn't even been around for a year.

Why am I not filled with confidence? Go with your instincts and wait a bit.

As for the money, print advances beat e-pubs every single time.

I've heard e-pub writers "bragging" about selling 100 books a year, which is apparently some sort of milestone. In the print world you can sell thousands in a couple months.

Crunch the options:

Pay an epub to put your work up on their site. (NEVER)

Accept a contract that promises you a percentage of the sales. Sell 100 books at 5.00 for 40% and make 200.00 a year if you're lucky. (Meh.)

Sell to a print house for a real advance ranging from 2-5K dollars and get something truly solid on your writing resume. (Oh, yeah, baby!)

Here's an idea about what's out there in regard to advances:

http://www.brendahiatt.com/id2.html

Good luck!

[veinglory]

I missed the 'around for less than a year' bit. Given that the romance ebook market is crowded the bigger, older epublishers have most of the market share.

[JanDarby]

Personally, I wouldn't go with a start-up unless I'd used up all my other options.

Don't sell yourself short.

JD

[romancewriter]

Thanks for the advice.

In response to the why did I submit to them - well, I was asking myself that question and another look at the guidelines confirms they do accept basic contemporaries, although at the moment the only contemporaries they have available are also erotic.

Yes, I expected to be asked for some basic revisions, I was just afraid they would want a major rewrite which would take the story in a direction I didn't want to go. However, (see previous paragraph) I don't think that's what they have in mind.

Anyway I'm not jumping at this opportunity. I'm going to think on it a bit, do a bit more internet search, and I'll let everyone know. :)

[pepperlandgirl]

I think it pretty much depends on the publisher. There's one e-publisher that's been around for about a year that I would absolutely encourage people to submit to. There's a few others that I'd personally avoid because they're relatively untested and unknown.

But there's one thing I've learned over the past 2 years in this wacky business---non-erotic romances do not sell well in e-book form. Shoot, most regular contemporaries don't sell well, in my experience. I've got a book that garnered great reviews and with a strong publisher. I've sold like 10 copies or something in the past 10 months. Great reviews, decent story lines, and lots of sex--the only thing I can figure is that it didn't have any (gay) vampire or werewolves or bondage or 3somes. As a counterpoint, all my books with (gay) vampires, bondages, and 3somes are selling like gangbusters. In fact, I've already earned more in the first quarter of this year than I did all of last year.

In conclusion, e-publishers might not be the best market for your book, period.

[veinglory]

In general I agree. Exceptions might be older, genuinely all genre, epublishers like Hardshell.

I have a site specifically about comparing erotic romance epublisers, although you book isn't in that genre you might get some idea about their general postion there all the same erecsite.com

Feel free to PM the publisher's name to me if you want a truly candid opinion and any facts I might have about them.

[Inspiewriter]

In general I agree. Exceptions might be older, genuinely all genre, epublishers like Hardshell.

I have a site specifically about comparing erotic romance epublisers, although you book isn't in that genre you might get some idea about their general postion there all the same erecsite.com

Feel free to PM the publisher's name to me if you want a truly candid opinion and any facts I might have about them.


I agree about Hardshell, New Concepts and EC being acceptable. And I believe some readers prefer e-book versions of anything like erotica or romantica. They read it and erase it. Nothng comes in the mail.

Pepperlandgirl is right about the non-erotic ebooks not sellng as well. In fact, I used to write for New Concepts until they decided to publish only the steamiest romances--traditional and inspirationals were not selling as well and so they re-thought their business strategy.

[veinglory]

EC have a general line called Cerridwyn. I don't know about their sales but I see print copies in store--they might be worth a go.

[Stacia Kane]

My book that I pulled from Triskelion just went to Cerridwen, I'm very excited about it.

I do understand thought that while Cerridwen's sales are good, they don't generally equal EC's, for the reasons listed above.

[JulesJones]

If you can sell it to a good print house, then do so. I am certainly not going to diss epublishers, seeing as I'm published by one and I'm doing rather better than the suggested couple of hundred dollars per book. But I'm working in a sub-genre that a) is not accepted by places like Harlequin, b) will probably sell better in ebook than dead tree format for a while. If I wrote something I could sell to Harlequin or Kensington, I would submit it there (with the blessing and enthusiastic encouragement of my current publisher, going by what they've said in the past).

But as Emily says, a good epublisher is better than a bad print publisher. Start at the top and work down, and don't rank purely by whether it's dead trees or electrons. (Publish America is a print publisher, after all...) Check with Emily for specific info about this particular publisher, and any others you might be thinking of.

[Christine N.]

Can I ask something?
What's up with all the Celtic names for romance e-publishers? Triskelion, Cerridwen, Samhain...

LOL...

[Inspiewriter]

Can I ask something?
What's up with all the Celtic names for romance e-publishers? Triskelion, Cerridwen, Samhain...

LOL...



I hadn't noticed. Good question.:D

[job]

What others said -- start at the top, with the publishers most likely to make money for you.

Try for agented submissions to the big print publishers
and submission to the category lines
before you look at e-pubbing.

When you go to e-publishers, try the big, well-established ones first.

It's your hard work that made the manuscript.
You deserve to get as much money for it as possible.

[gingerwoman]

Samhain also publishs mainstream non erotic books, non erotic romance, and other non erotic genres.

[wee]

Personally, I wouldn't go with a start-up unless I'd used up all my other options.

Don't sell yourself short.

JD


And even then, work on your writing & improving it until you are accepted for print.

I guess it depends on what your aspirations are. Though it is probably shocking to many "purists", if I was writing purely for my own amusement, I would just keep a blog or a journal! I hope to make money doing this someday. More than that, I dream of walking into a Borders in a city I've never been to before, and walking to my shelf, with all my books.

T'ain't never gonna happen in e-pubbing. If that's okay with you, then no big deal & go for it! But if you dream of a shelf of your own, keep pursuing print & keep improving your craft.



wee