Dancing with Bear Publishing

CreateSpace isn't true distribution where you have scores of sales teams, both in-house and independent, whose sole job is to pitch your titles to the genre buyers and libraries. Thar be a huuuuge difference.

Ask Dancing With Bear Publishing

Hello,

I saw your posts about my publishing company and wanted to invite you to ask any questions you'd like.

In the meantime, I'd like to tell you a little about us.

We began in June 2010 and are thrilled to be celebrating our 2nd anniversary in just a few months. The reason DWB began was because, as an author with more than 20 books published by 9 publishers, I was tired of not making any money. Then my first husband passed away, our children, grandchildren, and myself were devastated of course. To help with the grief, I wrote Dancing With Bear: A Love Story, a biography of our life together. (It went on to win 2nd place in the Sharp Writ Awards sponsored by Mensa, 2010)

Not wanting something so personal to be in the hands of another publisher who couldn't care less about me or my story, I decided to self-publish. Then, after thinking about it for a while, I decided to honor Bear's memory by starting my own publishing company called Dancing With Bear in his memory. I wanted to help new authors to learn the mechanics of writing, to learn how to submit to publishers and give them a fair contract.

We do not charge authors anything, of course. And I would like to remind everyone, especially new authors, money flows from the publisher to the author, not the other way around and if any publisher asks you for money, move on. I've heard too many horror stories of people paying their life savings for the sake of a contract and all they get is a garage full of books.

Our contract is 50% split. We provide ISBN, cover art, editing, promotion, etc.

I do recall someone saying something about us using Create Space, and that means no promo, and that we are low on the list at Amazon. So let me address that.

We do use Create Space, but some of the largest on line publishers also do, such as Silver Publishing, eXcessica, and Champagne Books. As far as Amazon goes, we do not depend on Amazon or it's rankings. Amazon is merely one of the places our books are available because Create Space sends them there. (Create Space and Amazon are the same company.)
We provide promotion, plus our authors are constantly giving interviews, on the radio, appearing on TV morning shows, and at book signings all year long.

Now, as to my own books that are available on our site. As I said earlier, I had more than 20 books published with 9 publishers. Unfortunately, when I first began submitting to publishers, I got my fair share of rejections, but that first publisher who offered me a contract also requested that my sweet romance was turned into erotic romance. Like so many new authors, I was so thrilled to have a "real" publisher wanting my work, I gave in and the publisher taught me how to write "those" books. I became very good at it.

The problem that came with that is that I am a Christian and everything I was doing went against my beliefs and then I had to drink to even write the smut I was selling! After Bear died, I had to re-evaluate my life and my writing and where I was going. After much prayer and long talks with God, I requested my publishers to release my contracts and pull my books. All but the first publisher did. So now I am rewriting all of those books to how they were intended to be in the first place, and I'm writing non-fiction Christian self-help and I'm very proud of that work.

I have only one other staff member, Bobbie Shaffer, who is the sub editor and CEO and all-around I-couldn't-do-this-without-her assistant. We first met when she submitted a manuscript, and we became friends, and then partners in the business. She is wonderful and I am so grateful to have her as a colleague and friend.

All of our authors are like family and very supportive of one another. I can't imagine doing anything else and I'm so happy to be where I am with God and with Dancing With Bear!

Please feel free to join our Yahoo! group and chat with our authors. Or with me! We are all very proud of DWB and the direction it's going this year, and we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dancingwithbearpublishing/

Thank you,
Marie McGaha

Read DWB Reply

We do much more than "click buttons." I wrote a reply to help clear up some of these questions. I hope it does and you are always welcome to join our Yahoo! group and ask our authors anything you'd like. We are small, we are profitable, and very supportive of one another. With all the publishers coming and going, I do understand your misgivings. It would not be prudent to jump into a contract with anyone without asking questions. And I have a lot of experience in this business as author, editor and now publisher. I do not want to get "big" and I'm very selective of what we publish. Of course, all subs go through my sub editor before I ever see them and if you get past her, you've done well!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dancingwithbearpublishing/

Thank you for your comments!

Marie McGaha

Katrina S. Forest said:

annatangent, we don't have anything against small presses. But we do want authors to have realistic expectations when they sign with one.

From what I can tell, here's what an author gives up and gets in return at Dancing with Bear:

For 50% of the profits on your books, they'll do some editing (I'm unclear on the editing experience of the staff so this may or may not be useful), give you free cover art, and click the buttons on CreateSpace for you.

For some writers, that may be all they want and that's fine. But at least they're going into it knowledgable.

Click to expand...

I encourage Christian authors to check out my company, Dancing With Bear Publishing, www.dancingwithbearpublishing.com. Please feel free to chat with our authors and ask them what they think, they will be honest, which I expect from everyone who publishes with us. We are small, will have our 2nd anniversary in June, and even though we don't publish a lot of books, what we do publish is quality. We also provide promotions, and do everything we can to make sure you are successful with us! You can contact our authors through our Yahoo! group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dancingwithbearpublishing/?yguid=487147931

Good luck in your endeavors!
Marie McGaha

DWBPublishing said:

I encourage Christian authors to check out my company, Dancing With Bear Publishing, www.dancingwithbearpublishing.com. . . .

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No offense intended, but this is really odd: YOU MUST FOLLOW THE FORMATTING GUIDELINES OR YOUR SUBMISSION WILL NOT BE READ! [And the details that follow.]

Most peculiar. A normal publisher would take any reasonably formatted file in a standard word-processing file format and do what is necessary to edit and format it for publication, if accepted.

It is the author's job to write the best book he or she can and to provide it in a reasonable format, not to vex himself or herself over minutiae and to do the publisher's formatting or design work.

Pardon me if this seems a bit cranky, but the requirements just jumped off the page at me.

[Edited to add: kudos on other aspects of your operations as you described them.]

--Ken

ResearchGuy said:

No offense intended, but this is really odd: YOU MUST FOLLOW THE FORMATTING GUIDELINES OR YOUR SUBMISSION WILL NOT BE READ! [And the details that follow.]

Most peculiar. A normal publisher would take any reasonably formatted file in a standard word-processing file format and do what is necessary to edit and format it for publication, if accepted.

It is the author's job to write the best book he or she can and to provide it in a reasonable format, not to vex himself or herself over minutiae and to do the publisher's formatting or design work.

Pardon me if this seems a bit cranky, but the requirements just jumped off the page at me.

[Edited to add: kudos on other aspects of your operations as you described them.]

--Ken

Click to expand...

Although I'm endeared to the mission statement of Bear, I have agree with this. To me, this is an automatic rejection for a publisher and I've doled out more than one for this reason alone. I'm not a formatting guru, in fact, I had to have mine done for my first self-publishing venture. I don't know a hard-return from a semi-soft one. I've always had my publishers take care of this task and, luckily so they obliged and done the job right. I'd be apt to screw it up, requiring additional, time, money and energy.

tri

If you saw some of the submissions we have received, you would understand. Some of them don't even put them in a word doc, but embed them in the email.

I remember when I was researching publishers trying to get published and thought the sub guidelines were ridiculous too, but any author who can't follow submission guidelines of what font, size, and how to indent, (and if you think that's unreasonable, you really need to read other pubs guidelines), they probably are going to be a pain in the editing process too.

We get a lot of submissions and it helps us decide who can follow rules and who can't.

Will we dump someone who sends us a mss. in Times New Roman instead of Trebuchet MS? No, of course not, but to know an author cares enough about their work to follow the rules makes them stand out.

ResearchGuy said:

No offense intended, but this is really odd: YOU MUST FOLLOW THE FORMATTING GUIDELINES OR YOUR SUBMISSION WILL NOT BE READ! [And the details that follow.]

Most peculiar. A normal publisher would take any reasonably formatted file in a standard word-processing file format and do what is necessary to edit and format it for publication, if accepted.

It is the author's job to write the best book he or she can and to provide it in a reasonable format, not to vex himself or herself over minutiae and to do the publisher's formatting or design work.

Pardon me if this seems a bit cranky, but the requirements just jumped off the page at me.

[Edited to add: kudos on other aspects of your operations as you described them.]

--Ken

Click to expand...

I never liked those stupid guidelines either until I became a publisher. These are 3 of the pubs I was with, along with their guidelines.

These are Champagne Books guidelines:
http://champagnebooks.com/submissions.htm

Guidelines​

Only submit finished works please. We don't want to wait for you to complete your novel if we're excited about your initial submission. Word counts are to be approximately 25,000 words for novellas, 70-80,000 words for full length novels. Be sure to proof read your manuscript thoroughly. Your manuscript should be double spaced, New Times Roman 12 point, with one inch borders. No footers or headers, but please include contact information on the top line of each attachment, so that we are able to contact you should your submission get separated from your query letter.​

We no longer take simultaneous submissions, so please do not submit your manuscript to us if you have sent it elsewhere. ​

Your submission package must include the following:​

1) A professional query letter which includes the title of your novel, word count, genre, a brief biography and your contact information. Include this in the body of your email.​

2) A synopsis of your book that describes the story from beginning to end. Please keep it to 2-3 pages in length. Attach it to your email in RTF format. Please give your synopsis an appropriate title, not simply 'synopsis'. ie: Synopsis-The Winner.​

3) First three chapters, saved in RTF format and attached to your email. Please name your partial manuscript appropriately, ie: Partial-The Winner.​

4) A promotional plan, showing short term and long term goals. While your submission won't be won or lost on the basis of this 'plan', it will get you thinking about what you can do to help promote your novel. Saved in RTF format and attached to your email. ​

Email your submissions to:​

[email protected]​

[email protected]​

[email protected]​

These guidelines are from Silver Publishing:
https://spsilverpublishing.com/subm...0.html?zenid=1a47c0ff221bffdd9be36a35148cee41
FORMATTING YOUR SUBMISSION

Please follow these simple formatting guidelines.

• Manuscripts will be accepted in the following formats: .docx, .doc, .rtf, and .txt
• 1.5 line spacing.
• Standard 12 pt serif font such as Times New Roman is preferred.
• 1 inch margins (left, right, top and bottom) with a 0 .5 indent for the first line of each paragraph only.
• No “tabs” or spacing to indent the first paragraph line are to be used. Manuscripts with tab and space indents will be rejected immediately.
• Page numbers on the bottom center of each page.
• Header of manuscript must contain author name and title. Example: Book Title by Author Name
• All submissions must be spell-checked and edited based on US English or UK English grammar and spelling standards.
• Regional words and slang are accepted when appropriate.

These are submission guidelines from eXcessica Publishing:
MSS FORMATING

Attach ONE document .doc (Word) or .rtf (Rich Text File)
Email subject line: EXCESSICA SUBMISSION: TITLE OF WORK
1 inch margins all the way around
Arial —12 point font
double line spacing
0.5 at beginning of each paragraph
No extra returns between paragraphs
Use * * * * (four asterisks with spaces in between – center this on its own line) between scene breaks
In longer works, begin chapters with the word “Chapter” followed by the chapter number

Insert hard page breaks between chapters

The first page and your cover email must contain at top left:
Name (real/pen)
Email address
Title of work
Word Count
Genre(s)
Firebolt/Heat Level
Warnings (Ex: This title contains f/f sex, nonconsensual and anal sex)
Short synopsis

A NOTE ON EDITING: When it comes to editing, we expect you to be incredibly diligent about your work. It needs to be as error-free as possible before submission. Your mss will be read and reviewed for both content and errors. If your mss has clearly been sent to us unedited, it will be returned to you. Once accepted, your mss will be line-edited before publication.

****PLEASE READ OUR EDITING GUIDELINES BEFORE SUBMITTING!****
– ———————————————————————————

DWBPublishing said:

If you saw some of the submissions we have received, you would understand. . . .

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Well, it is your process and your decision, naturally. I only speak as a very, very small-scale publisher (of infrequent, niche books) who does whatever it takes to make a worthwhile book happen even if the file needs work (and that can include hundreds of hours of editing, proofing, and formatting). But I have the skills and experience to do that without much vexation, and the luxury to take on only those rare projects I want to (with only one more in the pipeline and, to be honest, hopefully no more not by myself).

One of the finest books I published started as a file dictated via Dragon Naturally Speaking by a woman without the use of her hands (almost none -- she could control her electric wheelchair with one hand). So it had countless errors and read as if dictated, not typed -- which was precisely the case. No way was I turning that down for mechanical reasons.

Best wishes for success with your endeavors.

--Ken

Well now....

ResearchGuy said:

Well, it is your process and your decision, naturally. I only speak as a very, very small-scale publisher (of infrequent, niche books) who does whatever it takes to make a worthwhile book happen even if the file needs work (and that can include hundreds of hours of editing, proofing, and formatting). But I have the skills and experience to do that without much vexation, and the luxury to take on only those rare projects I want to (with only one more in the pipeline and, to be honest, hopefully no more not by myself).

One of the finest books I published started as a file dictated via Dragon Naturally Speaking by a woman without the use of her hands (almost none -- she could control her electric wheelchair with one hand). So it had countless errors and read as if dictated, not typed -- which was precisely the case. No way was I turning that down for mechanical reasons.

Best wishes for success with your endeavors.

--Ken

Click to expand...

That is an exception I would not pass on either, Ken and I understand what you are saying. We do not publish a lot of books either because there are just the two of us running things, and Bobbie is the sub editor. She sees everything before I do. We often accept work that has not followed the guidelines strictly, and we get a lot of first timers who have no idea what everything means, and if the story is good, we don't turn them down. The reason that is there is to get people to look at their work more closely, to do what they can to polish the mss. before they send it to us, and we do offer a pre-editing guide to authors to use to polish their work. I don't know of any of the big pubs who would accept sloppy mss. that didn't follow their guidelines. I also spend many, many hours on editing, teaching authors the mechanics of editing and writing, and there is one book I have been working on now for nearly a year and I'm only half way through it.

I wish you all the best and God bless you.
Marie

Avoid this small publisher. They promise to notify you "within 2 weeks" regarding a final decision (leaving you giddy and crossing off calendar squares) only to ignore your status queries after they are 2 and 4 weeks late and finally (I am done being a harpie) 5 weeks late--last Wednesday. Quite a disappointing and disillusioning experience with Dancing with Bear Publishing.