Bliss Books / Portals Publishing

Vanya,

Are these both part of the same organization or are they two separate entities?

Also, could you post something more on them (URLs, perhaps), so others could check them out?

Thanks!

Bliss Books seems to be a small press focused on "spiritual" books. Their website and other material look semi-professional at best.

http://www.blissbooksonline.com

We offer 10% royalty for the net sales of trade paperback books and 25% for e-books.

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Our products are internationally distributed through Amazon.

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In lieu of a monetary advance, we offer 10 books at time of publication.

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How did these folks come to your attention?

Their sales ranks on Amazon are not strong, compared to some other spiritual publishers I've seen.

The owner has limited experience in being an Author, published earlier on through Comfort Publishing, read about them here http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?179719-Comfort-Publishing and the rest of her books are published with her own co. I don't see anything on their site that would be of interest to an Author that would like their publisher to look for sales to readers. Home page is appealing to Authors to submit, not readers to buy!

I was going to point out several red flags - the site is geared more to authors rather than readers, their idea of 'distribution' is Amazon, etc - but I think this bit from their FAQ page says enough all by itself:

You rejected my manuscript! Don't you realize it was

the best book ever? Why did you reject it??
We never reject a piece of intellectual property. All such entities are marvelous and should be honored and revered. We did not reject your book; we did not reject you. We simply declined to publish it. There are many reasons why we might decline to publish a manuscript.
1. The author being a whiny, clinging, unyielding, micromanaging diva is probably the most often reason.
2. Refusal to follow simple directions..
3. Inability to grasp the concept of the heart and soul of the written word (as opposed to a grocery list - no matter how many how-to books you read).
4. Last as well as the least often and valid reason your manuscript may have been declined by Bliss Books -- it was really bad; we mourned for the trees which were sacrificed to print the words on the paper.

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Followed by this:

Our Letter of Declination states:
Here at Bliss Books, we believe that there is honor in all work. Perhaps you would find a greater sense of happiness and fulfillment if you were to send your manuscript elsewhere. Thank you.

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Really?

Whoa. Condescending much?

I get that *maybe* they were trying to be funny? But it just comes off as snarky and mean.

Also, "the most often reason" is terrible grammar.

Although they post in nice big green text on their website, these are all, in fact, red flags.

Vanya said:

Thanks all! not sure how to react to the submission request!

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I'd look elsewhere. Politely decline and say you're looking elsewhere. Consider searching for publishers beyond Google. Look in your bookstore. Look here. Look at the publishers for books you have at home. A good publisher is a publisher you've heard of.

1. The author being a whiny, clinging, unyielding, micromanaging diva is probably the most often reason.

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#1 reason is probably the oddest of the 4. A publisher wouldn't have a clue about what an Author would be like to deal with until an offer of publication is on the table and the Editor begins to work with them
.
#4 while it's certainly true that not all manuscripts are publish worthy (and maybe it's even most) I'm pretty sure they have added this to make those who are accepted feel extra special. Also I don't know that many tree's are sacrificed these days, mostly electronic submissions yes?

Trying to be funny there...I hope, but unprofessional and failing badly. That's a huge red flag to me.

Vanya,

You have to ask yourself, do you want a publisher to "practice" with your book?

Many successful small publishers have some experience in publishing before they hang their own shingle -- even if it's just publishing their own stuff for several years before they open their doors to a few selected authors and then once they have that experience under their belt, then they open it up for general submissions. The smart successful ones have a limited number of books they bring out a year and usually a very narrow scope of selected titles. This is so they can procure, edit, and market the books they pick up properly.

If a publisher who only sold m/m romances suddenly branched out into something like cozy mysteries without any explanation, I'd be worried that they didn't know the market, didn't have editors who really knew what made a good cozy mystery, didn't have the marketing force to promote these books enough to rise above the signal-to-noise ratio. That's why most smaller presses specialize in a few genres instead of being all inclusive.

Unfortunately, too many new publishers remind me of the old Mickey Rooney movies -- "Hey, I've got a barn, you've got a piano, let's put on a show!". And, you know what? If you're ONLY working with your own stuff, that's cool. However, when you start accepting books from other people, you assume responsibility for their books too. That is NOT the time for amateur hour.

What is the press bringing that you can't do for yourself? Does signing with them give you a bigger footprint? Does signing with them (and giving them part of your money) get you a better editor? Does signing with them get you a better cover artist? These are questions each author needs to ask themself before signing with ANY publisher from Random Penguin all the way down to the smallest publisher.

Taking up a theme from earlier in the thread: check bookstores & Amazon for books similar to yours. Pick the ones with the best-looking covers and the lowest sales ranks (something under 100,000). Check out who published them, and whether they're open to queries. Query them.

You may want to look for an agent first, though...good agents are worth their commission.

I love many small presses. But a successful small press has the background, experience, and capital to function. Most brand new presses are lacking part or all of those. Heartless as it may seem, your mms is not someone else's training wheels.

Pullquote on Denouement Literary homepage said:

Where Authors & Publishers
Tie the Knot

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If any person show sufficient reason why author and agent should not be joined in matrimony let them now declare reasons, or else forever keep their peace.

I mean, if no one else will, I'll play the part of the weird, hairy uncle staggering to my feet at the back of the room.

This should serve sufficiently:

I hold client personal information with confidentiality. As a matter of fact, that is part of our contract.

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Real agents have lists.

Here, meet N. Da, your new brother-in-law who always seems to be in and out of court.

For a writer, the Happily Ever After begins with a publishing contract.

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We all know it'll end in divorce.

There should be ample red flags on that page for anyone, but this is obviously an "agent" that's also a publisher. The site, in-between selling the two houses as hard as it can, invites other publishers to reach out.

That ain't how this works.

All of Denouement's books are with Portals Publishing. Not only that, none of the books are standard paperback price. One of the titles is spelled three different ways on the stub image, the cover, and the in the blurb. Errors persist through the descriptions.

Let Denouement Literary Agency, LLC help you find a publishing contract for your novel through one of our two imprints. We have been in business since July 2014 and are slowly cutting a wide swath into the publishing world.

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This isn't just a very new publisher learning on the job with your book. This is actively a Bad Idea.

Vanya said:

Why would you say 'look for the ones with lower sale ranks?' Thanks

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Because you are looking to see if any of their books have lower ranks, indicating better sales. Anything over 50-100,000 is selling less than a copy a week.