[Publisher] Ravenous Romance

Sakamonda said:

What they are offering is enough to impress multiple top literary agents (not just Lori Perkins) as well as several very, very well-known bestselling authors in print. There will be an announcement on who some of those bestselling authors are soon, is my understanding. And what they are offering is enough to get them multiple feature articles in major press outlets over the next two months leading up to the launch.

The other epubs didn't accomplish _any_ of that when they first launched, let alone before they launched. None at all. Just saying.

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Um... Yeah. They did. You obviously don't know much about BookStrand. They're releasing hundreds of titles and authors -- Nora Roberts, James Patterson... -- in October.

I was speaking about EROTICA epubs of original works, Shameless. NOT ebook reprint houses of existing titles, which is what BookStrand is. Two entirely different animals.

Sakamonda said:

I was speaking about EROTICA epubs of original works, Shameless. NOT ebook reprint houses of existing titles, which is what BookStrand is. Two entirely different animals.

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Please don't get your dander up, but I'm going to have to disagree and correct your error. BookStrand has ORIGINAL works of both mainstream romance and erotica AND epubs of existing titles. They're the sister company of Siren, one of the biggest epubs of original erotica out there right now. I'm not saying this new start-up is bad, I'm just a bit hinky over Perkins' involvement.

And, as JerseyChick said, I'm not getting into a pissing contest... So, I'm done here.

I don't think any of us are saying the new start-up is bad or doomed to fail or anything of that nature, as I have said repeatedly here and elsewhere. On the contrary I think we're all very hopeful.

But we're also all very cautious. And there's nothing wrong with that; it's not mean or nasty to be careful or recommend other people be careful.


(And as far as all the press attention we'll be seeing soon, when EC started, they were essentially unknowns creating a new unknown industry, not moving into an already-established one. It's a bit different, IMO, but it's also supremely unimportant either way. Press does not equal success, in any industry but publicity/PR itself.)

The defensiveness stance sets off my warning bells, personally.

But that's just me.

Well, as a regular reader and commenter of Lori's blog, I found out about her involvement in the new imprint a while ago. While she was discussing titles she'd like to see, Sex and Shoes came into being. I submitted a short story based on her initial guidelines, then waited. And waited. Weeks later, she changed the specs and I asked if I should resubmit based on the new specs. She posted my question but didn't answer it. So I'm writing this off as a no go. I'll save the story for my present publishers.

On the discussion about Lori's role in the new imprint: If she's an agent, and submits to a publisher she has an interest in, then she should damn well do her best to make it a successful venture, which will result in $$ for her and $$ for her client.

The point is though, how can the agent act in the best interest of her client, if she (the agent) also has to deal with the best interests of a company in which she has a financial stake? Maybe she can, but what if she can't? Then what? And I don't think it's so terrible to ask that. It's a legitimate question because as an author, I have to look out for my best interests as well. I just don't know how comfortable I'd be with my agent steering me toward an epublisher (as opposed to, say Avon) because she has a financial stake in that epublisher.

FWIW, I wasn't "steered" there. The decision to have my work published w/ Ravenous was mine alone. And Ms. Perkins has restructured her agency to address the conflict-of-interest issues that have been raised. And other major agents are selling there as well. So there's no reason to work through Ms. Perkins if you don't want to.

The authors that are being picked up by Ravenous by and large are _not_ amateurs. They (myself included) are authors with history of writing for the print market and have existing audiences. I believe they are also picking up newer authors, but are very selective, from my understanding.

Sakamonda said:

The authors that are being picked up by Ravenous by and large are _not_ amateurs. They (myself included) are authors with history of writing for the print market and have existing audiences. I believe they are also picking up newer authors, but are very selective, from my understanding.

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Who said they were amateurs? Has one single person in this thread called any of the writers involved amateurs?

If your agent submits to a particular house, they are steering you. (generic you, not you you)

Jeez - why so defensive about it?

11 days and counting since my request for submission guidelines.

dalynmiller said:

5. Ravenous Romance™ does accept non-agented submissions. You can email us at [email protected] for submission guidelines.

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Submission guidelines are now posted on their website for any and all to read.

From http://ravenousromance.com/submission.html

"What rights will you buy?
World rights in all formats. We will work to sell your subsidiary rights to a traditional print publisher on your behalf, as well as in translation throughout the world. We will pay you a percentage of any subsidiary-rights sale."

and

"Will you publish a print edition of my book?
No. If your book stands out, we will try to place it with a traditional print publisher."

Aren't these things an agent normally does?

Publishers keep and sell subsidiary rights (especially with larger publishers, the default positon is that they want most or all available rights). One reason it's good to have an agent is that he or she can usually negotiate to let you hold onto some of them.

And by the way, this is another area of potential conflict of interest for an agent who places his or her clients with a publisher he or she owns or has a financial interest in, since subrights sales can be more lucrative for a publisher (often, 50% of proceeds) than for an agent (the usual 15% commission). For the client, on the other hand, agented sales are more lucrative. The question is, will the agent be highly motivated to fight for his or her client to hold onto rights, where keeping those rights is to the clear benefit of the publisher?

- Victoria

Celebrity Romance

This category addresses every woman's fantasy of a night with a famous celebrity, rock star or athlete. The identities of the celebrities must be thinly veiled and fictionalized, but with recognizable tip-offs.

And they say they're professionals. Professionals would stay the hell away from Real Person Fiction however 'veiled' it is. Even those 'amateurs' that write the stuff know not to try and sell it or draw attention to themselves in any way.

para said:

Celebrity Romance

This category addresses every woman's fantasy of a night with a famous celebrity, rock star or athlete. The identities of the celebrities must be thinly veiled and fictionalized, but with recognizable tip-offs.

And they say they're professionals. Professionals would stay the hell away from Real Person Fiction however 'veiled' it is. Even those 'amateurs' that write the stuff know not to try and sell it or draw attention to themselves in any way.

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Yipes! If the identities of the celebrities are "thinly veiled and fictionalized, but with recognizable tip-offs," can't they still be sued by the celeb? After all, the whole point of this story seems to be giving women their fantasy of spending a night with a specific, recognizable celebrity. Otherwise, why bother? If I write a story about a woman who spends a night with a muscular Olympic swimmer with long limbs who has eight gold medals, I think people will see through the veil, and Mr. Phelps' lawyers will be knocking on my door. Not to mention on the door of the publisher. And if I write about a famous actor who has lots of adopted kids through his current long-time girlfriend, then people will recognize the star behind that "thin veil."

And what about this one?
Environmental Erotica
In this category, the heroine is always concerned with the health of the environment, and she is looking for and finding love in all the wrong places, and saving the environment while she’s doing it.

Has there really been a demand for this sort of story? To be, it sounds as if it could wind up being preachy and dull.

AnneMarble said:

Yipes! If the identities of the celebrities are "thinly veiled and fictionalized, but with recognizable tip-offs," can't they still be sued by the celeb? After all, the whole point of this story seems to be giving women their fantasy of spending a night with a specific, recognizable celebrity. Otherwise, why bother? If I write a story about a woman who spends a night with a muscular Olympic swimmer with long limbs who has eight gold medals, I think people will see through the veil, and Mr. Phelps' lawyers will be knocking on my door. Not to mention on the door of the publisher. And if I write about a famous actor who has lots of adopted kids through his current long-time girlfriend, then people will recognize the star behind that "thin veil."

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But his name's Mrad Mitt! There's no way you can tell who it is!

yeah... no.

this entire thread is creeping me out.

Mrad Mitt.... you STOLE my character!

I wonder if this is the 'big splash' they were after...somehow I doubt it.

I'm going to be generous and assume that they wanted to get manuscripts that were fresh takes on the old roman a clef potboiler bestsellers of the past, like Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls and Harold Robbins's The Hucksters (not to mention modern day romans a clef like The Devil Wears Prada).

And that whoever wrote the submission request was just earsplittingly incompetent.

Of course, that changes the issue from "completely confused about how US libel and intellectual property law works" to "not able to write clearly."

Neither is what I'm looking for in a publisher.

I don't know about Robbins, but wouldn't Susann fall under "glitz" - like Jackie Collins (I can usually figure out who her characters are based on in the later Lucky Santangelo novels )

Does glitz even exist as a subgenre any more?

Can someone with math skills please parse this for me?

Lori Perkins has her SEX AND SHOES anthology slated to be published by Ravenous Romance. According to comments she posted in response to her own blog post about the anthology, the authors are to be paid $1 per page and then a 38% royalty. I do not know how royalties work so clearly I need to educate myself in this matter but in a nutshell: 38% of WHAT? The total sales? The profits of said sales? Or a figure to be established?

And, if the anthology has 20 stories in it, wouldn't this mean that the 38% (however it is calculated) is then split 20 ways? What does this come down to in dollars and cents for each author represented in the anthology? I suspect not too much.

Let's base our example on sales of 1,000 books, a sales figure I understand to be very unusual in the eBook world. I am told very few eBooks sell 1,000 copies. And let's say the price of the eBook is $9.99. And let's say a 6-page ($6) story of mine is in the anthology. What do I get in terms of $ when all is said and done?

Math help, please!