Gray Dog Press

I'd steer clear, these guys are a standard vanity pub. they even admit that on their website:

http://www.graydogpress.com/publishing.html

Uh, if they're posting on craigslist, it's probably a) not legitimate or b) not someone you want to deal with.

From their responses, I'd say both apply to this situation, IMO.

I realize this post is rather old, but I'd like to clear up some misconceptions.

My name is Andrew, and I've recently been hired as editor-in-chief at Gray Dog Press. I've been doing contract & freelance work for GDP for a couple of years, and the press has simply outgrown its ability to handle the load, so I was brought in to head the operation.

I'd like to respond to the red flags mentioned in the initial post.

#3: I'm not clear on what the red flag is. Many of the large chains (Barnes & Noble, for instance) will not accept a book unless it comes from a distributor like Ingram. Ingram has an application process that a publisher must finish before they will represent the publisher's works. We jumped through all the hoops and are now able to sell to those chains. You can find, for instance, Dawn's Nelson's /A Cowgirl Remembers When/ on the B&N site. As for other bookstores, I have dealt with about three places in the last several years that do not require returnability on books. It's pretty standard practice. Sucks for publishers and authors, but it's the way the business works.

#4: Several local bookstores (Auntie's and Hastings, especially) carry our titles. We are also available at local large-chain stores (B&N), several non-booksellers in the region, etc. We are placing some of our books on Amazon, and books can also be ordered through our website.

#5: It's simply our policy not to give out our authors' contact information to just anyone who asks. That's out of respect for their privacy. However, as Russ wrote, if your work is under serious consideration we would be happy to have any of them call you. I'm also considering asking a few of our authors to be available to questions from prospective authors, but I fear that they would be overwhelmed by the amount of calls just like we are at the office. And if you are simply not interested in dealing with our press without talking with an author first, I would find a way to work something out.

Bushdoctor: we are not a "standard vanity pub." We are a traditional book publisher. We sign contracts, pay royalties, and take the risk if a book doesn't sell. We do offer printing services for authors whose work does not fit with our list. Those projects are handled in a completely different way, essentially like most self-publishing places. The reason we do this is because we have our own production facility on-site, so we are able to print books independent of the major printers. Any self-published work is not part of the GDP catalog, does not carry the GDP logo or byline, etc. So yes, if you bring in grandma's memoirs in a Word document that hasn't been edited, we'll print it for you. We'll even contract the editorial service (in actual hours spent, not some arbitrary standard number) to make it readable, if you like. But that portion of the business is separate from GDP in that the author is the publisher. This allows us to focus more time and energy on the small number of manuscripts that are viable for a small press to produce. We spend many more hours on editing, layout, design, marketing, etc. on the GDP titles.

Jsouders: the advertisements on Craigslist were probably unwise, and we haven't done that for some time. We do put out a call for submissions on Craigslist for our local lit journal, SpokeWrite. Because the journal is regional and a very small part of our operation, we get good results by putting a note on CL every couple of months and by attending and presenting at local authors' groups, schools, etc.

The reason those ads for GDP itself were unwise is because of the natural reaction that you illustrated: people assume that any business soliciting work on CL must be illegitimate or untrustworthy. That's an unfortunate misconception in some cases, and so we don't advertise there anymore because it simply makes us look bad. I'd like to think we're a pleasure to work with (I've received many encouraging calls from authors when my hiring was announced, telling me that I'm lucky to be with such a personal business).

I hope that clears up some of the questions that arose. Most of the trouble can be associated to the fact that we're a pretty new publisher, only having been around for less than three years. Frankly, the business grew in unexpectedly quick ways, and was overwhelmed. I was hired because of my editorial and publishing experience and because GDP has been understaffed. It's a wonderful business I've got myself into, and I'm proud to be part of it. We are continuing to grow and provide a much-needed service in this area of the country.

If you have any questions at all about Gray Dog, don't hesitate to ask. You can contact us via our website or me personally at andrew(at)graydogpress.com

Cheers,


Andrew
Editor
Gray Dog Press

#3: I'm not clear on what the red flag is. Many of the large chains (Barnes & Noble, for instance) will not accept a book unless it comes from a distributor like Ingram. Ingram has an application process that a publisher must finish before they will represent the publisher's works.

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The other way is when the chains order the book for national distribution.

priceless1 said:

The other way is when the chains order the book for national distribution.

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Right, which is not likely to happen unless it's available to them through a wholesaler anyway. I'm not familiar with any small presses getting their books picked up for national distribution without a go-between, but then I'd love to be in the dark about that. Let me know. Generally, nationally distributed books are chosen by the staff of the big chains, and they're not likely to see a book unless they carry it, which they often won't do if you're not working through a distributor.

Cheers,



Andrew

ancorder said:

IBushdoctor: we are not a "standard vanity pub." We are a traditional book publisher. We sign contracts, pay royalties, and take the risk if a book doesn't sell. We do offer printing services for authors whose work does not fit with our list.

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So, these printing services would be for a fee? The part described as "helped another 10 on self-publishing theirs"? The use of "vanity" as a descriptor is always problematical but there does some to be at least some part of GDP that is author funded?

veinglory said:

So, these printing services would be for a fee? The part described as "helped another 10 on self-publishing theirs"? The use of "vanity" as a descriptor is always problematical but there does some to be at least some part of GDP that is author funded?

Click to expand...

Yes, as I noted above, GDP the business (as opposed to GDP, the imprint) does provide editing, layout, design, and printing services. But those books are not published by GDP, they are published by the author and printed by GDP, just like most publishers' books are printed by, say, BookMobile or Publishers Graphics. So the author has all the rights, owns the ISBN, etc.

We simply don't have the manpower or resources to publish the hundreds of manuscripts we receive each year as GDP, because when GDP publishes a book, we go all-out, at our expense, to provide editorial work, marketing, design, everything, including production. Just like any other traditional publisher.

But the self-pub stuff comes out of the ability we have to print on-site, meaning we've done short-run (50 copies or less) of local authors' works, including printing journals for some local universities, as well as longer short runs of a few hundred books for authors whose work we didn't feel fit our requirements (in terms of style or subject matter; there are some genres we simply don't do) but who still wanted badly to see their work in print. But we take ourselves out of the role of publisher for those works; all rights and obligations belong to the author, and we do not get any residual payments from authors.

I like to consider this place completely author-funded, in that if we weren't getting authors' books to publish, we wouldn't exist.

I should also note that we are a regional publisher, meaning we work mostly with authors from our part of the country. If something astounding came over the transom from Pennsylvania, we would consider publishing it, but since we like to work closely with our authors on all stages of the book's production (we want them to be involved), it would make our process slightly more difficult. We are able to provide a much more viable end product when we know the market's outlets, which we do here. We have developed very close relationships with our authors, and we're proud that we're not some distant, impersonal brick corporation.

Hope that helps. Sorry that I'm so long-winded today.

Cheers,


Andrew