Thanks for inquiring about Snowy Creek Romance. One of our editors brought these posts to my attention (she's also a RWA member), and thought maybe I should do some clarifying.
The fact that she's an RWA member is completely irrelevant.
Here is our latest updates on AuthorAdvance.com:
http://www.authoradvance.com/publishers/snowy-creek-romance
http://www.authoradvance.com/publishers/loucks-christenson-publishing
Here are our imprints:
Lisa's Walk The Talk Show™ Internationally-syndicated show
Bow Wow Detectives™ Young readers pet detective series
Snowy Creek Romance™ Romance
Cross Creek Romance™ Christian Romance only
Black Opossum Books™ Children's Books
Thank you for that information. I have to ask, though, how are you able to publish so many different genres? Do you have experience in all of those genres? Most small publishers specialize; the contacts, knowledge base, marketing, etc. for, say, romance novels and children's books are so different.
How is an "internationally-syndicated show" a publishing imprint, and is it a television show, radio show, podcast, what? In what countries is it syndicated?
Id "Bow Wow Detectives" a publishing imprint, or the name of a series you publish? Are any of those books already published? Is your "Bow Wow Detectives" the same series as this Japanese series which has apparently been published in several other countries?
http://www.uklitag.com/site/project_detail_new.php?id=2138&cur_page=0
We own and operate our own call center and distribution center, and have been serving clients nationwide for the past 25 years! With this knowledge, we have connections in the media, with brick and mortar stores, wholesalers, and other distributors. We also own and operate our own brick and mortar stores in two states. We are also set up with Lightening Books, Amazon, BN, Bookbaby, and our own personal mailing list from our 25 years in business.
Call center? For what? Publishers don't need or use call centers. What "clients" have you been serving; I'm not aware of any of my publishers having "clients" they need to "serve." Are you distributing your books yourself? Who is your distributer, if not, and if not, what exactly do you distribute?
I'm confused as to how your company can have been in business for twenty-five years but you only list "publishing experience" going back ten years or so. If your publishing company has been in business for twenty-five years that would be twenty-five years of experience.
Unless the company you speak of, the call center & distribution, isn't a publishing house at all, but is in fact some other kind of business? In which case your statement above seems deliberately deceptive, and is essentially irrelevant to publishing.
I believe someone commented on my "lack" of industry experience so here is a little more about me:
I've been an RWA (Romance Writer's of America) for over 10 years; I was agented but canceled my contract; I am a past winner in the 72nd Annual Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition, I've won several other small writing contests; I'm a frequent lecturer on my wildlife documentaries which have been featured on television, local and regional news stations, newspapers, exhibited at The National Eagle Center, and sell my books through my speaking engagements or at my stores; I'm the host of Lisa's Walk the Talk Show, we are going into our sixth year next month and did you know that one of our shows is our romance show featuring published romance authors?
Again, all completely irrelevent. In other words, you are an aspiring writer still unpublished after over ten years; you've won a few writing contests either from a magazine which is totally unimportant in the industry, and a few other contests so unimpressive you don't even want to name them; and the rest of the experience you list has really nothing to do with running a publishing house. Hand-selling books at speaking engagements or from the trunk of your car is a completely different animal from arranging distribution nationwide, keeping roaylty statements, editing and acquiring books, designing them, arranging marketing and promotion, printing, etc. etc.
Some other guests you may have heard of: Charlie Daniels, Porter Wagoner, Carlie Wilson, Tim Wilson, Gene Watson, Marty Raybon, Veggie Tales, Kathy Ireland, Arron Tippin, Aaron Neville, Jean Craighead George, Joanna Wayne, B.J. Daniels, Beverly Swerling, Dr. Toy's Stevanne Auerbach, and hundreds more. You can see that site at
www.LisaLC.tv
Sorry, what does this have to do with running a publishing house? Especially since most of the names you've listed are not in fact published authors, but musicians, politicians, models, etc. Which again, seems to me to be deliberately deceptive.
You mention you have a show which features published romance authors then rattle off a list of names; to someone who doesn't have the time to research and doesn't recognize a few of those names, it seems as if you're trying to claim that all those people are published romance authors who have appeared on your show.
Even if they were, it wouldn't give you any sort of knowledge or experience to run a publishing house.
Next, I think someone was worried we hadn't updated our website in years.
Here is our record for our
www.snowycreekromance.net:
Domain Name: SNOWYCREEKROMANCE.NET
Created on: 04-Jul-10
Expires on: 04-Jul-11
Last Updated on: 04-Jul-10
This should show you that we purchased the domain just a little over a month ago, not years ago.
Here is our
www.SnowyCreekRomance.com:
Domain Name: SNOWYCREEKROMANCE.COM
Created on: 16-Jan-10
Expires on: 16-Jan-11
Last Updated on: 04-Aug-10
Now I'm really confused, I'm sorry. I thought you said you'd been in business for twenty-five years? But you only bought a domain name for that business last month? Can you explain that, if you don't mind?
I think this should debunk the rumors we haven't updated our website in "years". It hasn't
even been a year. I believe it's only been a week since our last updates.
We debuted Snowy Creek Romances' first author, Bernadette Marie, on April 30, 2010, and her second book in her trilogy was released July 23, 2010. Perhaps you met her at the Literacy for Life Autographing Party during RWA's 30th Annual Conference? She was signing both of her new books, Matchmakers and Encore Performance.
They weren't "rumors." CaoPaux linked to the actual blog, for example. That's not a rumor. It's a fact.
And again, so one of your authors signed at the RWA signing. So what? I signed at the Ballantine signing there. I don't expect people to be impressed by that. It's a publisher's job to get their authors & their author's books into events like that, and being able to participate in the signing at RWA is not an indicator of publisher quality or ability, only that you're not a vanity press.
You'll find her reviews on Amazon, and can find both of those on Amazon.com, and Amazon.UK, our websites, at our stores, and her books are available to bookstores currently under our distribution.
So you're distributing your books youself? Do you have a separate department for that? You say the books are available "at [your] stores," and previously you said you own two bookstores. So the books are available at two books nationwide? How about other brick-and-mortar stores?
And I assume the fact that the book is on both Amazon US and UK means you take world rights? What other rights do you ask for, if you don't mind sharing? That's very helpful information for writers to have.
Also, anyone can leave or get reviews on Amazon. Have any actual publications--legitimate ones--reviewed any of your books?
We have numerous books from our new authors coming out over the next few months. When we feel the time is right, we'll update those titles on our websites.
When you feel the time is right? Huh? Why would you not want to get those titles and author names out there immediately? Why in the world would you not update your website to include books which will be out in just a few months? You need to start getting word out well before the book's release date; that's how you get reviews and what reviews are for, it's how you create buzz, it's how you make people aware of your books. The idea that you would deliberately withhold information about upcoming releases for some specious reason like "the time isn't right yet" is worrisome indeed.
Heck, my books were listed on Amazon within a couple of months of the contracts being signed; the fourth in my series will be out sometime next year, has no title or release date yet, the ink is still wet on the contracts, but it's already listed on several reader/industry websites. That's what is supposed to happen.
I've spent over 25 years working in various aspects of publishing; as a journalist, ad designer, copywriter, ad sales, phone sales, printing, advertising, photographer, cover designer, signs, brochures; I've spent many years selling my stock photography to a very long list of clients.
None of this is relevant to being a publisher or owning a publishing company. None of this has anything to do with editing, creating, and/or distributing books to stores or the reading public. Stock photography is not books. Ad sales is not producing books. Neither is phone sales. Copywriting is not publishing. Being a journalist is not being a publisher. Advertising is not publishing. None of this has any bearing on your qualifications to publish books; you have none that I can determine so far.
Since this will likely be challenged, here's a short list:
KTTC
Ron Schara's Minnesota Bound
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Ducks Unlimited
The National Eagle Center
KAAL
Rochester Visitor
Kona Coast Coffee & Ice Cream
Plainview News
Post-Bulletin (story on Lisa/photo See Page 3D, June 13, 2006)
Post-Bulletin (story on Lisa's Winter Bugs! exhibit. December 8, 2006
AGPIX
Burzoff
Esquire
Self Magazine
Hearst
Anchor Marketing
D & D Commodities
Power3201
Woman's World
Diversion
Perspectives
Hazmat
Bubba Gump Seafood Co.
A Lot of Fun & Games (gameboard)
Allured Publishing
Skin, Inc.
Holt, Rinehart and Winston
NAHEE
Kind News
HSUS
Rourke
Rigby Education
Kirchoff/Wohlberg
Travel World International
Trips & Journeys
Writer's Digest
PDN
Disney
Harcourt
Grolier
Writer's Weekly
Pearson Education
Prentice-Hall
Nursery Retailer
Magazine
Function-Thru-Form
IBM
HyVee
The Creative Company
Heinemann/Raintree
Heinemann Library
Lynn Stone Images
Career World
Nursery Retailer Magazine
ACHRNews
Valutec Card Solution
North America Bancard
Author House
Times Plain Dealer
Marshall Cavendish Publishers
Lynn Stone Images
Boardwalk Auto
Idea Initiative
National Enquirer
Leroy Independent
I learned a lot working with and for the above publications, and started my own publishing company.
You learned a lot from Author House? What exactly did you do for them, or for any of these clients? It sounded like you simply sold them stock photography. Did you work for them in their offices? Are IBM, Lynn Stone Images, Boardwalk Auto, Valutec Card Solutions, or North America Bancard publishers? How about the Bubba Gump Seafood Company? What books do those companies produce, which you worked on?
Also you've listed a few of those companies twice.
It is a common practice to open your doors to submissions and I do look for authors I want to publish. I believe in giving breaks. God knows I've had mine.
Of course publishers need submissions; who said differently? Of course it's a common practice. Do you think we wouldn't be aware of that?
And to whom are you "giving breaks?" A publisher's job is not to "give [writers] breaks" or "make writers' dreams come true." A publisher's job is to assume the risk of publishing a book and to then sell that book to the general public. Dreams and breaks are incidental.
I believe this may even be a great time to mention to you that we are now accepting submissions for our Cross Creek Romance™ imprint. The website is being developed and will be available this winter.
If you have further discussions about who we are, why we only have two authors listed (I believe in building our house slowly), or things you need to address, why not email me?
Lisa
Lisa Loucks Christenson
Any time is just fine to announce you're accepting submissions, yes. And thanks very much for contributing to this thread. I hope you can answer some of my questions and clear up some of the confusion for us. This is a tough business and we writers have to be careful and protect ourselves; some of us try to help and protect others as well. But it's not personal and never is. It's just about finding the best possible publisher for a book, and making sure the author in question gets paid for their work and has the career they want.