[Publisher] Virtual Tales

lvcabbie said:

I read the same language in my contract and it appears the PUBLISHER is simply saying it has already paid those fees for the rights to publish and distribute through those links.
I'm not a lawyer but it doesn't seem outrageous or wrong to me.

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The excerpt quoted above says the author pays these fees (That is, they are deducted from the authors royalties). Is your contract different?

Anyone else out there have any experience with this publisher that could be shared?

Are you sure you need more information, Daddyo? It sounds like there's quite a bit in this thread already.

No, you're right. That was then, this is now. I did want to hear from someone published by them. I didn't, so I wrote several of their authors and received very positive feedback. Now that I've been offered a contract, I'm pretty excited to have found a home for RIVER BOTTOM BLUES.

I did want to hear from someone published by them

I had a serial published by them. I found them professional to deal with (though there was a gap in responsiveness to emails at one point, possibly due to my contact's temporary personal distractions, which was one of the two factors that made me decide to take my work elsewhere. The other factor was, my e-serial just wasn't doing anything. E-serials are not selling).

They did great cover art for my serial and seemed honest to me. I met the PR person at a con and she was really trying hard to sell books--though I don't think she managed it.

I wish them well. We parted, but no hard feelings on my side.

The only thing I would add is: how do you promote an e-serial? I promoted my hardcover book (published elsewhere) by sending it out to reviewers, blogs, etc. With small press, you have to do the legwork.

And e-serials are particularly hard to promote, and the market (at least when I was with VT) seems dead.

So don't expect to make much of (any) sales on a serial. Try to stick out for getting it in print somewhere. Or at least as an ebook.

Good luck.

Thanks, dlparker. Virtual Tales does print trade paperback nowadays, along with e-books and continues to offer e-serials.

Hey ImaWriter--so far my experience with VT has been very positive. Keep in mind that my manuscript has only been in their hands since August, but since then my assigned editor and I have gone through three separate, thorough edits. I was very satisfied that my book is in good hand, editorially speaking, at the end of that process. RIVER BOTTOM BLUES is now in the hands of the senior staff and is in the queue for cover design, additional edits, formatting, etc...for a Summer release. So...so far, so good. I don't anticipate anything that would change my positive opinion of them at this point. My advice is to be sure to read through VT's website's FAQs and maybe contact a few of their published authors. That will give you a better idea as to whether Virtual Tales is a fit for you.

I am a new VT author. They've had my MS since September and so far the process has been painless. Very professional in my dealings with them.

Them requesting your full MS is a great sign. They're acquisitions editor is a tough gatekeeper (which is cool).

Good luck!

By the way, when they lost my email address, they called me at home to get my new one because they wanted to read my full MS that much. Floored me.

Hey ramurphy--good luck with your book! Wish you well with your future relationship with VT.

Yeah, ImaWriterToo, I really agonized over the stipulation for an exclusive. I had tied my manuscript up with an agent a few months back wanting a thirty day exclusive, only to be rejected. My situation mirrors your's fairly closely. One other publisher had my full submission and two others had partials. Queries were out to several agents also. In the end, I honestly disclosed to VT where else my manuscript had been submitted, but that I'd give them first right of refusal--or the thirty days they requested. Fortunately, they offered a contract to me in less than two weeks. Once I accepted the contract, I contacted the other publishers (and agents who still had query letters) that VT would publish my book.

I wasn't put off by the exclusive. I just kept writing another story while they had this one. I understand their staff is pretty far flung so the complete MS get emailed and read then sent to the next person.

And a few months waiting wasn't so bad. Certainly not in the grand scheme of things.

Daddyo said:

Once I accepted the contract, I contacted the other publishers (and agents who still had query letters) that VT would publish my book.

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I'm confused. Did you contact all agents that just had your query and not material?

No, Erika, I contacted the agents with query guidelines that included partials.

They requested a full on my second one, but it's been 3 weeks now and I am starting to worry. What was the time between them requesting a full and getting a response?

And are they really that tough to get through to this point? I would love to get a contract by them, but only time will tell.

Hey Lisa--My turnaround after the full was less than two weeks, but I expected at least 30 workings days. Give them that and then shoot them an e-mail. I know that they are very busy right now and the holidays had to slow things down a bit.

I will do that, thanks Daddy-o. Jan. 4th would be it. If I don't hear anything, I will definitely e-mail them. And you're right, the holidays I am sure didn't help.

But sincerely, do you think I have a chance at this? I've been drowning my brains in trying to be hopeful, but you know how the negative crap can be. Thanks again!

Keep this in mind--I'm very new to Virtual Tales (August 2010 contract), so my experience with them is limited to my satisfaction with them up to this point. I think that they would have rejected the full by now, if that was their intention. My research indicates that they are fairly selective: Out of 200 or so submissions a month, they request about 20 full manuscripts, and out of the twenty, they offer a couple of contracts. So, yours just may still be in that stack getting narrowed down to two.

I'm not seeing any distribution for this publisher. Did I miss it? what kind of sales to their titles get?

That kinda makes me even more nervous, not that you intended that, thanks for your input though. It got an offer from another pub. about a month back but I didn't like the deal. It would only be an e-book. VT offers it in print and in an e-series which I thought was impressive.

So I can speculate up down and sideways, but I won't know until they tell me. I do like your projected scenerio though, you may indeed be right. I really didn't know they were that selective...makes it even tougher to hear if it is declined.

One other thing, they never said on the submission page about simultaneous subs and never said anything in the email about it either. But someone else mentioned they don't like that. I have other fulls out, but VT is first on the list. If by chance I get another offer somewhere else, I will notify VT and give them time to decide before I make my own final decision.

But it can swing the other way where they all decline me. Man' that would suck. Don't wanna think that way though. Anyways...thanks again and congrats on your sell. River Bottom Blues looks interesting. Good Luck with it!

Mine took about two months. Right now, things are slow. The internal mailing list, except for a burst of 'merry xmasses" is quiet.

I wouldn't worry until after the new year.

Here's their distribution --

Find Our Titles At:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk
• Amazon.ca
• Amazon.fr
• Barnes & Noble
• Books on Board
• CyberRead
• Diesel eBooks
• eBookMall
• eReader.com
• FictionWise
• Indigo/Chapters
• iTunes
• Kobobooks
• Mobipocket
• Powells
• Sony eStore
• Waterstones
• WHSmith

In addition, they may be found in local libraries.

Check out: http://www.virtualtales.com/

lvcabbie said:

Here's their distribution

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That's just a list of stores/online venues. In standard publishing parlance, distribution means the publisher has an agreement with an outfit (or several) that provide both order fulfillment and an active sales team to sell to book store buyers.

One of the reasons e-books sell for less is the lack of need for such sales forces.
The downside of e-publishing is that it's up to the author to publicize the book themselves. Virtual Tales will send out the standard news release to the national services but it's still up to us to follow-up with those we're trying to sell to.
When my novel is released, I will get busy contacting local news outlets and prepare myself to take part in any and all interviews I get from that. I'll also alert my on-line contacts to get them to buy and then pass the word.
However, once a book begins to sell, its status will show up on the listed services and people will buy just because others with like interests have done so.
Also, the end product is cheaper for the buyer as there is no need for a large stock of unsold volumes.
Some plusses - some minuses.

The up-side of ebooks is that most sales are made directly from the epublisher. So if you place a book with an epublisher with good sales you job is pretty much done. Author promotion them adds some value, especially for sales via distributors like Amazon.

But this is not really about ebook or not ebook. As I understood it, this publisher also provides print sales? Also not all epublishers are created equal.

I went with VT because they are primarily an ebook publisher. They publish novellas, which is what I write. The print stuff was unimportant to me. I knew what I was getting into.

Look, if you are looking for a publisher that will put ink on paper books on bookstore shelves, then VT may not be for you. Move onto something else.

To quote David Lee Roth, "This isn't rocket surgery."