Ellechor Publishing

Looks like they've been around less than a year. Can you find any of their titles in Christian bookstores?

I'm not sure I like that they're giving writing courses to their authors (they say the intensive course costs $200 but is free to contracted authors.) You'd think if they were accepting manuscripts by these authors, the writing would be polished already.

Then I'd say skip them and go with the bigger houses (not sure what the big Christian publishers are as I don't write that genre).

Does anyone have any updated info on and/or experience with this publishing house?

They list Ingram as their "distributor"...and I'm not talking about Ingram Publisher's Services...so there is a question about how they get their books to market on on shelves. Also, their sales are quite low on Bookscan (whose numbers aren't dependable, and are more representative). It's a good idea to find out whether any publisher you're considering has the ability to get their titles nationally distributed, along with marketing and promoting them.

priceless,

I'm not sure what you mean by your Bookscan parenthetical statement. Wouldn't something have to be dependable to be more representative?

Thanks for the reply

Wouldn't something have to be dependable to be more representative?

Click to expand...

No, and here's why. It's impossible for any database to obtain a solid sales number on any given book because not every bookstore reports their sales to Bookscan. And Bookscan sales figures don't include libraries or e-book sales. So, at best, those sales figures are representative, which gives editors and agents a feel for how a particular title sold.

For example, Bookscan lists one of our titles as selling roughly 15,000 units. The truth is that title has sold more like 20-something-thousand units. The gist is that it sold a lot of units, which means this that if that author was shopping around a new book, an agent or editor would sit up and take notice based on those Bookscan numbers of his previous book.

Conversely, if a querying author's previous title has a Bookscan number of 25 units over a three year period, that is also representative of overall sales, and the agent or editor would judge accordingly.

I am an Ellechor author so perhaps I can provide some insight based on my experience. My first book, Alizel's Song, will come out next month. So while I can't yet speak to the sales numbers, I can relay some information based on my relationship with them so far.

Ellechor is a traditional publisher that fronted all of the costs for production of my book, as well as gave me free copies. I went through 5 rounds of editing with the acquisitions, developmental, and copy editors. They also paid for a professional to do the cover and format the interior. They are releasing three other books with mine and they do 4 releases a year. To me that says that they are focused on quality over quantity. As referenced above they are a fairly new company, but it seems like they are growing.

The only thing I paid for was extra copies of my book to sell at signings and some physical storefronts I own. The exact deal depends on the quantity ordered. I think I got mine for about 50% off the cover price. They expect that authors be active at marketing and selling their own books in general, but I was never required or pressured to purchase any specific number.

I believe that they are also starting their own POD and Ebook imprints, as is the case with many publishers. These are separate from their main line of books, however.

Updating link: http://www.ellechorpublishinghouse.com/