First, I'd like to make it clear that I harbor no ill will for anyone regarding their comments above, as I value honest and open communication above all. I believe that constructive criticism helps both companies and artists grow, and I thank you all for your time spent in helping us with that.
Second, I wanted to thank Mr. Brooks for his interest in our company, Grey Gecko Press. I'm always excited to learn that more and more people are hearing of us, and I encourage authors to vet their publishers before entering into any business arrangements.
If you'll allow, I'd like to respond to the previous posters, and as best as possible, I'll follow point-by-point. So, FYI, this is something of a long post.
If traditional publishing is so nasty, why is he expanding his self-publishing venture into a commercial press?
1. It is true that I originally began Grey Gecko Press as a company solely devoted to publishing my own works. As any experienced businessperson will know, this makes sense in view of our current tax code.
I started expanding into a commercial press because I realized that what I'd learned from my own experiences in self-publishing could be used to help other authors achieve their own goals, as well. I was asked several times by aspiring authors to assist, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing so, and realized that not only did I want to be an author, but a publisher as well. Not for wealth or fame, but to be able to give others a leg-up and makes things a bit easier. I saw how the traditional publishing process worked, and how outdated, outmoded, and overly complicated it is, and knew that I could do it better.
Is this a pie-in-the-sky answer? Maybe. But it's also true. Grey Gecko is
anything but traditional, and we strive to be better than those publishers in every way that we can.
So, they're selectively accepting manuscripts for commercial publication.
2. We do selectively accept manuscripts for publication, as many other publishers do. We accept submissions from anyone, with or without publishing credits and with our without agents, and judge each work on its own merits. In fact, we received more than 150 submissions in the last two months. We review these, choosing those that we believe are worthy of publication. By its very nature, the process does leave some manuscripts rejected, but we again break tradition by letting those authors know
why we rejected their work, at least on a top-level basis. And we actually send rejection letters, which many know is becoming more and more rare. For those that we accept, I get to do my favorite part of my job, and call the authors with the good news, rather than put it in an email.
But if your book isn't accepted, they'll edit it -- for a fee:
3. For several months during our initial switch to commercial publishing, and for many reasons, Grey Gecko Press positioned ourselves as a subsidy publisher. In February of 2012, we moved to full-service publishing and completely away from subsidy publishing. One unfortunate side-effect of that - and more to the point, how busy
I am - is that our website did not get updated correctly. I admit to 100% fault on that, and I invite you to review our new and updated "
Publishing" page at your convenience.
We no longer offer individual editing services. Not because it's not something that would be useful to authors, but merely because we don't have the time, as all our editors are currently working on our own books. We reserve the right to revisit this unique option for authors at a later date.
And, more confusingly, they're also publishing books they don't select for publication -- for a fee:
4. Again, this quotation was taken from our page that had not been updated. We do not currently publish books outside of those we select for publication in-house.
And either they have no clue what an advance is, or they are being deliberately misleading:
5. And yet another time we fall foul of an outdated page. We do, in fact, know what an advance is, however this was part of our arrangements when we were a subsidy publisher. It no longer applies, and has been extensively revised.
We don't pay advances at this time, preferring to allow our authors to immediately begin earning royalties. Collected royalties are paid monthly, included with a detailed sales report from the month before as well as historical data from the current year.
So, the owner is publishing his own works, and he'll publish other books if they're good enough, or he'll publish other books if they're not good enough but the author pays for editing and publishing fees. Waaaay too many conflicts of interest there, and no indication that they know how to get books in front of readers.
6. I do publish the few things I've written through my company, that's true. To date, that's 1 book and 6 short stories. My work is not above rejection, however, and goes through the exact same process as anyone else's. If my writing was poor, it would be rejected by my Editor-in-Chief, until it either got better or I got tired of being rejected. I also sign the same contracts with the company that my authors do, making the exact same percentages they do.
We do also publish other books, as well, provided they meet our standards for quality. Note:
our standards, not
my standards. Every manuscript accepted for publication has been thoroughly reviewed by multiple staff members. It's not just what I happen to like.
As to getting our books in front of readers, our books are available worldwide in print (trade paperback and hardcover) and ebook (Kindle and ePub) formats. You can find them on
Amazon,
BarnesandNoble,
Kobo, and on
our own site, as well. Our books are available in print and ebook format everywhere that has an internet connection. You can even request your local bookshop to order them through Ingram Book Company.
On to
LaylahHunter's remarks:
So this is a very young outfit with its roots in self-publishing.
The "Innovation Is Our Business" section of the "Why We Rock" page (
http://www.greygeckopress.com/about-us/why-we-rock/) lists features that are available from quite a number of small ebook outfits discussed on this board, which suggests that they might not realize how many competitors they have in the field, some of whom have been providing these "innovations" since before the ink dried on the novel that gave Grey Gecko its purpose.
Like I said, I believe they mean well. But they're a young, small publisher in a crowded field, and it sounds as though all of their experience with the publishing industry is from the outside looking in. The standard AW caution of "give them two years and see if they're still around" definitely applies.
Sure, we're a young outfit. I'll admit that. Still, everyone has to start somewhere. And with our 8th book just being released this month, and with 2 more before the end of the year, I think we're doing pretty well for an upstart.
I realize we have a lot of competitors in the field, too. There are well over 100,000 small presses in the US alone. Many focus on very specific niches, either by genre, or locals, or what have you. Some don't. We agree that there's a lot of competition, but that doesn't take away from us: it's not a zero-sum game. We use the term innovation to mean doing things differently than traditional publishers, not necessarily different from anyone else. Innovation doesn't necessarily mean exclusive.
As to our experience, we believe that being authors ourselves gives us a unique perspective on the industry, one that allows us to put authors first, as is our company motto. We have one of the best - if not
the best, I leave that to others to judge for themselves - contracts in the industry, giving authors more rights and input than anyone. Our authors are made a part of the entire process, including choosing their own cover artist and art, to name one thing. We also have limits on our terms (most contracts are 5 years), we allow authors to buy out their contract based on their current sales, and a whole host of other things.
Again,
Unimportant:
Their hearts may be in the right place, but their finances aren't. They're trying to raise money from donors to give them a year's worth of operating capital, and so far they're about 2% of the way there.
We did run an IndieGogo campaign in an attempt to raise capital, true. We're a small business; capital is our lifeblood. I don't know of any small business that wouldn't like more capital. To be fair, we did give away some great perks with that campaign, even though we didn't reach our goal, which was admittedly set just a wee bit high.
Every new business raises capital; we're hardly alone in that. Does it mean that we can't continue as a company? Hardly. The company is in sound financial shape, and is still publishing books. In fact, we're going to the
Texas Book Festival at the end of the month, and we'll be surrounded by 40,000 book-buyers. We've got six books in our production queue right now, and we're always adding more.
Will we keep looking for additional ways to raise even more capital? Of course we will. The more capital we have, the more books we can publish. That's only logical.
Lastly,
Thothguard51:
Since Grey Gecko also offers paid fees for editing, publishing, art work and marketing, I see no incentive for them to publish from the slush pile.
So far, it sounds like most of their books come from staff members.
I am also not a fan of paying royalty off of net minus expenses.
I will pass...but I am sure they will get a few other beginners who have not done their searches...
Again, we are no longer a subsidy publisher. All of our current works (except my own) have been received through submissions or through direct calls for stories (our short story anthology
A Fancy Dinner Party). So yes, we do "publish from the slush pile."
Two of our books and six of our short stories are from staff members. The remainder are from submissions.
We pay based on a net revenue split, not net revenue minus expenses. Here's an example:
John is currently receiving 50% of net revenue for his book "The Best Book Ever." For the current month, Grey Gecko Press has received $10.00 for sales of his book from Amazon.com. John receives $5.
Pretty simple, really. And that number goes up (for John) the more his book sells, up to as much as 80% of net revenue.
I would encourage anyone who has any questions about Grey Gecko Press to
email me directly, and I will be happy to answer them. Or, feel free to post here, and I will do my best to keep up with the questions.
As I said above, I firmly believe in honest and open communication, and I'm willing to answer any questions that I can. Please note: Due to privacy concerns, I cannot give sales data about other author's books without their consent (though I'm happy to give out mine).
I would also encourage you to take a good hard look at the quality of our books, send emails to our authors, and visit our Facebook page and ask questions. Anyone associated with Grey Gecko will be happy to provide you just about any info you're looking for.
I thank you for your time, and for allowing me to respond to the points raised in the thread.
Sincerely,
Jason Aydelotte
Executive Director
Grey Gecko Press