Belfire Press

JL_Benet said:

Actually, no. I just copied that statement from their Facebook page. I do have a book that will be coming out with Belfire, but I didn't even have that when I first posted about them. I do understand the skepticism and I understand wanting to wait to see if they will come out of it.

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Ahhhh. I see. The first post had no quotes and it didn't say it was from the facebook page, so I assumed it was your words. Never mind then. I wish you the best with your book, JL.

With a little further research, I found a lot of positive about Jodi lee and other staff members. These are people who truly love books with a passion. And, really, there are worse publishers. Just take a look at some of them in the index. As far as doing much of the promoting myself, isn't that true now days even with the big houses? Thanks for all your advice. I think I will sleep on it.

Shawshank said:

As far as doing much of the promoting myself, isn't that true now days even with the big houses?

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No. Large commercial publishers, university presses, and many of the larger small presses have full-time staff members whose job it is to promote authors' books, and connections with the media and other outlets that individual authors generally can't build on their own.

I think Jodi Lee is a lovely person and I agree that she is someone with great intentions, and one of the best-read and most genre-aware people in the US horror community. I wish her all the best in this endeavor.

The thing is, though, that you have to analyze for yourself if this is the best place for your book to be published, or if another publisher could give it better exposure and better opportunities. Perhaps the answer you come to will be "Yes, Belfire Press is the right home for this book."

But "The people involved are good people with good intentions, and there are worse publishers out there" just isn't an appropriate level of due diligence.

You say that you'd like your book to be in libraries, which I think is a worthy goal for sure. Very few libraries seek out micropress books, though; to get books into libraries on any kind of scale, Belfire needs to have a distribution plan and probably an agreement with a distributor in place--simply working with the two big wholesalers, Ingram and Baker and Taylor, isn't enough to get libraries to buy your book rather than another one from a Big Six house. So I would be sure to check on Belfire's strategy for making that happen before signing with them, if that is a key goal for you.

I thank you all for your advice. At the end of the day, I went with my heart. Something about Belfire Press and especially Jodi Lee just feels right to me. I guess it's the romantic artist in me, but I still believe the universe moves us where we need to be, if we will let it. I signed with Belfire for my novel Eternal Fall. Wish me luck.

Shawshank said:

I thank you all for your advice. At the end of the day, I went with my heart. Something about Belfire Press and especially Jodi Lee just feels right to me. I guess it's the romantic artist in me, but I still believe the universe moves us where we need to be, if we will let it. I signed with Belfire for my novel Eternal Fall. Wish me luck.

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Good luck! And hopefully you can bring your experiences here!

Did you actually ask any questions about whether they were in a position to make your goals for the book into realities? I'm all for going with one's gut--I proposed to my husband within six weeks of meeting him--but I think that getting answers to your questions is also really important.

No matter what, the very best of luck to you and I hope the book does marvelously and that you are delighted with your publishing experience.