Greetings to everyone from my post-Christmas sickbed. I've contracted the now annual after Christmas cold/flu. I mention this because the order of events happened incorrectly due to my being felled by a hainous disease after thinking I was going to skate by this year.
The bottom line is we are not closing. I don't get why people have to be such Debbie Downers and propagate doom and gloom. Sad. About the changes reported by Jane Litte on Dear Author website, they are being taken more ominously than they actually are. We've performed each of these before during the course of the last ten years, the only difference is that it's been made public. It's unfortunate that someone felt compelled to write to Dear Author and tell them that Samhain is closing in six months, but I thank Jane for writing to me and asking, presenting me the opportunity to rebut.
MOVING
Our lease is up in May and we're moving. Our current office is annoying. Everyone knows everyone else's business regarding the use of the bathrooms. Ick. So we let the option to purchase go and we are not renewing the lease. I don't like any of the locations we spent the summer scouting and I see no reason to take just anything. We've only got five full-time people onsite, most of whom would love to not have to drive to work. I know for sure Jacob and Amanda feel that way as they drive the farthest distance. So we'll go back to working remotely until something of interest comes along. 90% of company business is conducted through the internet anyway.
ATTRITION
Again, nothing new for Samhain. We haven't always made announcements when people depart. We hire a lot of new-to-the-workforce people, interns, people rejoining the workforce after being off for a while. We're a woman-owned company supporting women. As people go, we hold off on hiring new to see what the actual needs of the company are in personnel. Needs shift from department to department with the ebb and flow of business. For example, I'm finding that utilizing our CPA firm and just doing the day-to-day bookkeeping is working out better than finding another staff bookkeeper. I still have to review and approve the invoices to be paid, so why not spend five more minutes and cut the checks I have to sign anyway myself.
AD BUYS
You all already knew that one. Ads aren't netting us any traffic. When an ad costs upwards of $10 per click it's not worth the cost of the ad buy, the production of the ad art, nor the hours put in by staff to manage it. We're seeing more traction with other efforts.
SUBMISSIONS
We've closed to submissions before. I think it was in '08 or '09. This gives us a chance to catch our breath and clear out the slush pile. We're never closed to our internal authors, you are always welcome to develop projects. Agents are always welcome to submit works, too. We're just closing the slush pile for a while. I'm working with Latoya to develop some Special Call projects, which we've not done in a while, and we want to get our decks cleared before we launch anything new.
PUBLICATION SCHEDULE
What wasn't mentioned in the Dear Author article is our publication schedule. Currently, we publish close to six books a week in Romance and about four or five a month in Horror. This schedule is going to change.
When we first started Samhain, I had originally planned to publish four or six books a month. This had to quickly change to weekly and increase the number because of the demand. We were in the boom cycle of this new business model. The boom is over and we've got to look at how the industry is unfolding now. Time to be more strategic. We are looking converting the latter half of 2016 to fewer weekly releases and to increase our ability focus more publicity on the individual titles and increase the sales for each new launch. This is plan is still being developed and not finalized. I have no hard-and-fast numbers to give you at this point.
Companies can't remain static and changes have to happen to keep up with an ever-evolving industry. We are all in the for the long haul and we're working to push through this downturn, something that almost all industries go through, to get to the other side.
I hope this clarifies for you what's happening. It's nothing new. I apologize for how the information came out. I had asked Jane when she intended to post her article and she told me, but by the time she replied I was well dosed with 'Quil and not opening or even thinking about email. I had planned to go into the office today, but got too winded from showering, so I'm now back on the couch searching for episodes of Law & Order to lull me to sleep.
Please have a safe and fun New Year's Eve!