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[Publisher] Dream of Things (Mike O'Mary)

NewKidOldKid

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Has anybody heard about them? They publish mostly anthologies and I have a couple of stories that might fit, but I was wondering if there's any information about them out there.

http://dreamofthings.com/guidelines
 
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JulieB

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I would ask if those royalties are on the cover price or the net. Also, what are typical sales? Do they have outlets other than their web site?

(Not saying anything one way or the other about them, just saying you should get answers to those questions.)
 

HapiSofi

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They've got two books out. Both are essay collections by a single author, Mike O'Mary, and both have the same publication date, 30 November 2009. Wise Men and Other Stories has a Christmas theme and an Amazon sales rank of 3,369,601. The other essay collection, The Note, is about "the power of appreciation and how a simple note can change a person's life." Its Amazon sales rank is 4,464,317.

In case you're not familiar with the Amazon sales rank system: the higher the sales, the lower the sales rank number. Dream of Things has racked up some demoralizingly bad numbers.

My guess is that the company's original purpose was to sell the works of Mike O'Mary, and that most or all of the staff consists of Mr. O'Mary. He's had very little success selling his own writing. I see no reason for you to assume he'll do a better job of selling yours.
 

mjomary

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Info from Dream of Things

Hi. Mike O'Mary from Dream of Things here. NewKidOldKid: Thanks for asking about DOT. JulieB: Royalties are 10% of paperback list price, 15% of hardback list price. Current outlets are dreamofthings.com, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com, and I'm talking with Atlasbooks and Midpoint about working with one of them as a distributor so I can have distribution to bookstores. HapiSofi: I started DOT in 2009 and the first two books I published were my own. I wouldn't call sales "demoralizingly bad" (at least I'm not demoralized!), but you are right...I have not sold a lot of my books on Amazon. But I've sold enough of "The Note" through direct sales to get Hallmark interested in adding it to their line-up of gift books, and more important, I learned a TON about producing books. I published "The Note" and "Wise Men" through a combination of offset, digital and POD, so it was a great learning experience. Now I want to give other writers a place to publish. Are you going to get rich publishing creative nonfiction in Dream of Things anthologies? Probably not. But even the Chicken Soup and Cup of Comfort anthologies only pay $100-200 per story, so you're not going to get rich there either. It's not about getting rich anyway. It's about getting published and finding readers, and I'm going to do my best with the Dream of Things anthologies to find readers for you. In five months, I've had 5,400 people from 77 countries visit the website, and I expect that number to continue to grow. One of the "Dream Catcher" stories I posted by a contributing author led directly to that author being contacted by a magazine editor and an invitation to submit a story to that magazine. Combine website traffic with a distribution agreement with an established book distributor, and I think I'll be able to sell enough books to keep reinvesting in the publication of more books, and to keep publishing new authors. So give us a chance (btw, DOT is me plus six other editors), and we'll do our best to publish some good books. Thanks.
 

JulieB

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Welcome to AW, and thanks for answering our questions.

(I may have more questions later, but I'm up with an allergy attack and not terribly coherent. But I did want to say thanks.)
 

NewKidOldKid

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Is there a tentative publication date for the different anthologies? Some seem to be open since 2009.
 

mjomary

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Some anthologies opened late in 2009, others opened early in 2010. Submissions for all anthologies are "open" until we get close to having a book's worth on each topic. As the folks at Chicken Soup say, it can sometimes take 1-2 years to put together an anthology. I hope to move a little faster than that, but still, it takes time. As we get close to having a book's worth of submissions on a specific topic, I'll announce in the Dream of Things newsletter and on dreamofthings.com that we've set a submission deadline for that topic. On the "Saying Goodbye" anthology, for example, we have about 75-80% of a book, so I'll be announcing a deadline soon. The deadline will be 2-3 months out, and then publication will be 4-6 months after that.
 

HapiSofi

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Paragraph breaks. They're a good thing.
 

M.R.J. Le Blanc

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Mike, you seem really gung-ho about your venture, but 'do my best' doesn't fill people with trust. You're looking into distributors, and that's great. But how are you going to market your anthologies? Being avaliable on amazon and B&N and having a distributor is great, but if no one knows the title exists no one's going to find it. How do you plan to market your titles?
 

mjomary

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I'll market via the Dream of Things newsletter to subscribers.

And via Facebook to fans of the Dream of Things FB page.

And via FB advertising.

And via traditional media.

Oh, I also plan to commission a study on the effectiveness of paragraph breaks in marketing communications.

I'm

sure

that

will

be

very

helpful.
 

cryaegm

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Oh, I also plan to commission a study on the effectiveness of paragraph breaks in marketing communications.

I'm

sure

that

will

be

very

helpful.
That wasn't really necessary. Usually, a wall of text can be very hard to read so paragraphs makes it easier, especially when you're replying to more than one person.
 

DreamWeaver

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I'll market via the Dream of Things newsletter to subscribers.

And via Facebook to fans of the Dream of Things FB page.

And via FB advertising.

And via traditional media.

Oh, I also plan to commission a study on the effectiveness of paragraph breaks in marketing communications.

I'm

sure

that

will

be

very

helpful.
Thanks for the lovely example of how gracefully you respond to feedback.
 

mjomary

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Sorry about the paragraph break thing. Clearly I missed the point. I apologize.
 
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priceless1

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I'm talking with Atlasbooks and Midpoint about working with one of them as a distributor so I can have distribution to bookstores.
Mike, be sure to let us know when you sign with a distributor, as this is the make or break element to all publishing. Facebook, newsletters, advertising are all pretty impotent ways of creating demand because you have to drive readers to those sites. As for the newsletters, many just delete them unless you already have a publishing presence.

I'll market via the Dream of Things ...via traditional media.
What does this mean? It's a catch-all phrase that has no specific definition. Are you talking newspapers? Trade reviewers? Online reviewers? Magazines? Radio? TV? All of the above? This takes money. Lots of it. It also takes someone who understands the business very well.

Before you do anything, you should really seal the deal on your distribution concerns. Without it, you'll wither. Trust me. we went into this game years ago with a lot of money and a silly notion this would be easy. I still laugh at our naivete.

But we were lucky to be mentored by some big NY publish-y names who guided us along, and we're doing very well now. But oh, the many times I've said, "if I knew then what I know now..."

You must know this business and have a ton of money sitting in your checking account before you can ask authors to trust you. Passion simply isn't enough.
 

mjomary

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Priceless 1: Thanks very much for the advice. I admire what you've done at Behler Publications. Also, I understand that a good distributor is essential. I plan to go with Midpoint or Atlasbooks.

By traditional media, I was thinking all of the above. I will have a marketing plan for each book and for the anthology series as a whole. I understand it will be expensive. What has your experience been with distributors? I would expect them to be valuable business partners. I am also getting advice on production and marketing from a publisher that has been in business for 20 years.

Also, I want to be clear to authors: I'm not soliciting book-length manuscripts right now. I'm asking for submissions of creative nonfiction for anthologies. My goal is to publish anthologies similar to the Chicken Soup and Cup of Comfort anthologies, but a little more literary. Authors will receive copies and payment, but it's probably going to be a modest payment somewhere between what an author would receive from a small literary magazine and what the Chicken Soup/Cup of Comfort folks pay. Authors will retain rights to their work. I will regard it as a success if I sell a few thousand copies of each anthology. If I do it right, I'll make enough to publish more anthologies and reach more readers over time.
 
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priceless1

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If you can get along with Eric Kampmann, then I salute you. To date, I've not known a single person who has a relationship with Midpoint thought he was a fun Joe. Not real wild about their services, either. Atlasbooks...um...no comment. Glad to hear you have a mentor - they are the absolute bomb.

I'm sure you've done your market research, but anthologies are just about the hardest thing to sell unless they're very niche and written by big names. A few thousand sales is a huge goal - just warning you now. Bookstores don't really embrace these collections. Even Costco is pretty ambivalent, and they're pretty good about carrying a few. Two of our titles are being stocked with Costco, and the buyer was just saying the other day they wouldn't touch an anthology with a ten foot dangling modifier.

I'm sure you've been mindful to produce something that actually has a marketplace.