Samhain Publishing

Have you checked in, veinglory? They've always been back to me within a few months, including recently.

Is Samahain really that hard to get published with? It definitely seems like they take their time with publishing, well, picking who they publish.

I've had books rejected by Samhain that were later accepted by other "Top 5" e-book publishers (with minimal revisions), so, I guess, yeah, they're pretty tough to get in with. Then again, different houses have different needs at different times, so maybe I was subbing to Samhain when they had a glut of my subgenre and the other houses had a shortage... who really knows?

I've got to say, though, that I've got two books upcoming from Samhain now, and I am LOVING the process of working with them. I love working with Dreamspinner, too, of course, but I guess I kind of take them for granted because they're my old buddies! For such a big name, I've found Samhain very author-friendly and incredibly supportive (once I got past their fierce gatekeepers).

Yes, Samhain and Ellora's are very, very difficult to get published with, IMO. I missed them at least six times--six different books, and in a few instances, they did not respond. Very tough market, due in fact to their immense popularity.

Tri

Well, I'll try them as a long shot next week.

Wow. Good luck to anyone who's trying to publishing with them. I kind of figure some of the bigger houses would be a lot tougher to get into, but they sound really, really tough. I'm glad that they're a great place to publish with though. That must make up for the hard process.

Silver-Midnight said:

Wow. Good luck to anyone who's trying to publishing with them. I kind of figure some of the bigger houses would be a lot tougher to get into, but they sound really, really tough. I'm glad that they're a great place to publish with though. That must make up for the hard process.

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The first manuscript I sent to Samhain was accepted within a month, but I've had an R&R (revise and resubmit) with the sequel. I've sent that in and am waiting to hear back from my editor.

Samhain is great to work with - meticulous editing, lovely cover art, prompt communication and best of all, good royalties. Oh yes, that absolutely does make up for the hard work you put in.

Just ditto'ing what the others have said that yes, they are a bit difficult to get in with but I've heard nothing but good things about their editors.

Captcha said:

For such a big name, I've found Samhain very author-friendly and incredibly supportive (once I got past their fierce gatekeepers).

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Ann_Mayburn said:

Just ditto'ing what the others have said that yes, they are a bit difficult to get in with but I've heard nothing but good things about their editors.

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Chiming in to agree. I have several books with Samhain, and I love working with them. It's tough to break in (they rejected three of mine before accepting the fourth, and I've had a few rejected since then too), but well worth the effort.

Also, they tend to schedule releases pretty far in advance compared to other epubs I've worked with. Like, a minimum of 6 months out. As much as I get squirrely and impatient (wanna see my book released!!), it means a lot of time for editing, getting an awesome cover, more editing, sorting out any bugs or snafus that arise, etc. My next Samhain release comes out next week, and it's been finished for almost three months (cover, edits, galley, etc). For those of us who get mildly panicky when things get down to the wire? This is nice.

Veinglory, I've been trying to track down your submission with Samhain (in my capacity as editorial assistant), and I can't find a record of it.
If you'd like to email me or your current editor with details, hopefully we can find out how you've ended up waiting so long for a response! I'm on imogenATsamhainpublishingDOTcom

Imogen

My apologies, it seems that the problem was in my email, the damn thing never went out. [embarrassed]

I should also mention that Samhain provided me with an experience I have been looking forward to for a long time--walking in a (B&N) store and finding my book (4 copies of it) sitting on the shelf, with no urging or input from me at all. Yay!

veinglory said:

I should also mention that Samhain provided me with an experience I have been looking forward to for a long time--walking in a (B&N) store and finding my book (4 copies of it) sitting on the shelf, with no urging or input from me at all. Yay!

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Congratulations!!

veinglory said:

I should also mention that Samhain provided me with an experience I have been looking forward to for a long time--walking in a (B&N) store and finding my book (4 copies of it) sitting on the shelf, with no urging or input from me at all. Yay!

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that's awesome! The only bookstore I made it into was one in Texas... which was too far for me to walk to... since I live in Colorado! (I also had a couple of requests from libraries, but those were in other states as well.)

Glad you found out why you've been waiting so long on your 'submission'.

Oh, that's good! Don't be embarrassed--it's easily done, and I'm just glad you haven't actually been waiting for such an unreasonably long length of time.

I have a few horror shorts on my hard drive, but they are too short to be accepted in Samhain's horror imprint. Does anyone also know if the horror imprint is doing anthologies? Thanks.

Samhain has a "Special Calls" page under Submissions on their main site, where I've seen various anthologies listed. There's nothing posted there at the moment for any sub-genre.

I'm afraid Samhain's horror editor isn't currently interested in submissions of short story collections. He's happy to look at individual stories of 12,000 words and up, but not collections of shorter works at the moment.

Imogen Howson said:

I'm afraid Samhain's horror editor isn't currently interested in submissions of short story collections. He's happy to look at individual stories of 12,000 words and up, but not collections of shorter works at the moment.

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Ok. Thanks. I actually meant about submitting a piece to an anthology at Samhain, not sending in my own short story collection. I am probably misunderstanding you, but are you saying that Samhain doesn't have horror anthologies to submit to? Just don't want to be confused. Thanks for the response.

Sorry, MysteryRiter, I misunderstood you! To answer the question you really wanted the answer to, you're correct: Samhain doesn't have any horror anthologies to submit to at the moment.

That's not to say there won't be any in the future, of course, but I'm not aware of any plans for that right now.

Ok, thanks.

I submitted a horror novella to Samhain about 14 weeks ago. I'm itching to send a query, but I've held out this long, so I'm sure I can make it two more weeks. Still not sure if the wait is a good sign or a bad one...

JP Walters said:

I submitted a horror novella to Samhain about 14 weeks ago. I'm itching to send a query, but I've held out this long, so I'm sure I can make it two more weeks. Still not sure if the wait is a good sign or a bad one...

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I've been waiting just over 24 weeks on my horror submission. I read in an interview he did (before moving to Samhain) that a long wait is actually a good sign... though it sure doesn't feel like it. I've chased it twice, and it's still being considered. I suspect I need to bring it more into the horror genre -- which I could easily do.

Wow, 24 weeks! That's a long time. Crossing my fingers mine doesn't take that long, whichever way it goes.

Good luck to you though, I'd certainly be encouraged if they're still considering it this far out.