[Publisher] Candlemark & Gleam

Thyey are pretty new. I would suspect overlap between the owners and the 3 debut authors? Maybe not. Anyway, they seem to be in a quirky (pretentious?) niche and their Amazon sales ranks top out at #649,280 so far.

Hi there.

I have a book coming out with Candlemark & Gleam early next year. The below information is what I've gathered so far.

As far as I know (and I researched the press quite a bit before signing) the publisher had no personal connection to any of her writers before starting, but does have a background in amateur book-binding and professional magazine editing. The publisher works with freelance editors and mostly acquires cover art from freelance professional artists. She recently released the first two novels from the catalog in paperback and both of them got Publishers' Weekly starred reviews. She's been handling preorders for the print orders on Kickstarter, providing various bonus items at higher preorder levels. Intermittent but consistent monitoring of Amazon sales rank suggests the sales there aren't what you might call strong, but I've heard (and don't have details) that she recently passed on both foreign translation and movie option inquiries to the author of the more recently PW-reviewed book.

The contract is relatively standard for these tiny presses, from what I've gathered from wrangles here I've read. She was open to adjusting language and inserting clear royalty formulas when I requested that.

The primary caveat I'd make to those considering submission is that C&G isn't a book factory; she seems to be concentrating on 4-6 books a year at most, and she doesn't aim for quick publication. It's also a small press; she works hard but she doesn't have the reach of bigger companies. I'm interested in watching how well an upcoming book from an author with a pre-existing fanbase does, but my personal expectation for my own book is dozens-hundreds of sales a year (from all sources), not thousands. (I'd _like_ thousands, of course, but I have a five year plan for that.)

I've been following their website and twitter, and I have to say they are growing on me.

I checked all of their titles and only one of them showed up in Bookscan. They are "distributed" by Lightning Source, so it appears they are POD. The one book that did show had sales in the low double digits...under 30 units.

That many print books already? Wow!

As far as I know, POD is being used to handle small print runs; it is 'print on publisher demand' not 'print on reader demand'.

It looks like the print version of Erekos came out a month ago, the print version of an anthology based around Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was a week or so ago, and the more recently-PW-reviewed book, Broken, hasn't actually launched in print yet and is scheduled for November. Amazon has a deceptive listing there. My bad, sorry.

I've signed on with them and so far, I've been really happy with them. The editor/publisher is both friendly and very very talented. I don't quite have a feel for how well my book will do, but I get the vibe that the editor is going to push hard to make every book she is publishing do very well.

All in all, awesome.

Also, they send MLP:FIM merchandise with their royalty checks!

Is there anything new going on with these guys that I might have missed? I sent a submission to them in March of last year, waited over three months, sent them a few nudges to see if they'd looked at my submission at all, and I never got a response. Now they're closed for submissions (they weren't when I contacted them with my first follow-up). Should I expect a reply at this point? I'm submitting elsewhere, but I'm not sure if I should hold out any hope for a response from Candlemark. Not sure if I should count any of my submissions to others as simultaneous or not. Any news helps. I'm very new to dealing with publishers, so sorry if I come across as helplessly naive.

Candlemark and Gleam

This is, unfortunately, a warning against working with Candlemark & Gleam.

I hate to be writing this.

I signed a contract with Candlemark & Gleam for my book, The Dominion, to be released in winter 2014. Kate Sullivan appeared to be the person running the shop and she was tremendously helpful as an editor. I am grateful for the work she put in and for her suggestions, which made the book much better. She also brought in a second editor, whose advice was less helpful. I appreciated, though, the thoroughness of getting that second viewpoint.
Meanwhile, another publisher expressed interest in The Dominion. I told him the book had been sold.

Once Kate and I had a book we were both happy with, she began work on the cover. She expressed disappointment with what she was getting from her designer and I recommended a designer I often worked with. I offered to pay some or all of his fee. She said, “You’re a writer. Put your wallet away.”

I had no advance and I knew this was a small company, but I saw her making investments of time and money and felt reasonably secure. She seemed happy with the work the new designer was doing.

Then, I got an email from the designer saying he had not received payment and that Kate was not responding to his emails.

I sent her a gentle email, mentioning that he hadn’t heard from her but also talking about other things. No pressure, just checking in.

She did not respond.

A potential issue with the cover art occurred to me and I wondered whether Kate was also concerned about this and was uncomfortable saying so. I went ahead and paid the designer myself to have a change made, so that she could choose from two versions of the cover. I emailed her to let her know I had done this and that I didn’t expect to be paid back. I had also wanted to put some money, at least, in the designer’s pocket—I did not mention this to Kate because I didn’t want her to feel bad.

As winter 2014 was around the corner, I also listed grants I might apply for that could assist with promotion for the book and asking if she had settled on a release date. I wanted to prepare to be as much help with promotion as I could.

When she did not respond, I grew concerned for her well-being and a friend of mine checked in with some other CM&G authors as to whether Kate was all right. I was assured by one author that all was well.
Winter 2014 came and went. There were no responses to emails.

In early summer 2015, a friend of mine met a former CM&G author through Facebook and discovered that Kate was responding to her emails. I emailed Kate again, saying that I still hoped that we would be able to work together and that it was important for me to hear back either way. There was no response.

A friend of mine left a phone message for her. It was not returned.

Finally, I sent her a registered letter asking for the return of my book, as she was in breach of contact. Delivery was not possible as no one answered the door.

In case she was on vacation or not able to receive the package due to illness or other circumstances, we waited a few weeks. Then, a friend of mine emailed her and said that I would, after a week, publicly take back my book and explain why I had to do things this way.

The possibility was still left open that she could contact me before the week was up to return my book and explain why she hasn't responded.

I wanted to give her time after each of my attempts to contact her, because I know people can have a bad week or not notice an email. However, at this point, it is approximately a year since my publisher last returned any communication from me and I think that's a long time.

I am taking my book back, as the contract has been broken, but I am saddened by the missed opportunity of working with the other publisher who expressed interest and by the time I’ve lost. I’m also concerned that new publishers may be wary about touching a book that hasn’t been formally released, even if the contract has been broken.
I didn’t want to go public about this because I don’t want to seem vengeful or bitter. What I really am is sad and I figured I could be sad in private. However, friends have convinced me that it’s unfair for me not to warn other authors, as I might have been warned. So, here I am.

Wow. I was considering Candlemark & Gleam, but that's going to change now. Going a year without responding to any communications or finishing production of a book that was under contract is ridiculous. Thank you for the warning, Gayleen. I'm sorry for what happened to you.