EDGE Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing, Inc. / Absolute XPress

IceCreamEmpress said:

If they're not doing timely reversions of rights on manuscripts acquired for a now-closed imprint, that doesn't reflect well on their professionalism.

The ball's in their court to resolve this matter promptly.

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I agree, IceCreamEmpress. Yet despite numerous contacts, the issue remains unresolved.

any recent information/experiences/opinions for these guys?

http://absolute-x-press.com/

I have one of my short stories published in AXP's anthology. Plus, I've volunteered some time with them for experience, and I have a full out with EDGE. AXP is a good company, but aren't currently in bookstores (I believe they are trying to move to be listed with Ingrams, but no idea on what's going on there).

They do ebooks of their books on Smashwords. Their books can be found on EDGE's dealer tables at any local events that I've attended.

I don't know what their contract is like.

I do know that their turnaround time is a lot shorted than EDGE's.

I'm planning on submitting my SF novella to AXP.

(I'm not sure why people here are saying that AXP is a closed imprint...it's still open, and taking submissions).

darth tart said:

I have one of my short stories published in AXP's anthology. Plus, I've volunteered some time with them for experience, and I have a full out with EDGE. AXP is a good company, but aren't currently in bookstores (I believe they are trying to move to be listed with Ingrams, but no idea on what's going on there).

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They aren't hooked up with Ingram? Darth honey, that isn't what it takes to get into bookstores; it's what it takes to be listed online by Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and to be available by special order. it's a baby step. Getting a deal for bookstores is a giant step. I don't think these people know what they're doing, and I don't think you should be giving your work away to them.

(I'm not sure why people here are saying that AXP is a closed imprint...it's still open, and taking submissions).

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Anyone can say they're taking submissions. It's what else they're doing that's the interesting question.

HapiSofi said:

They aren't hooked up with Ingram? Darth honey, that isn't what it takes to get into bookstores; it's what it takes to be listed online by Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and to be available by special order. it's a baby step. Getting a deal for bookstores is a giant step. I don't think these people know what they're doing, and I don't think you should be giving your work away to them.
Anyone can say they're taking submissions. It's what else they're doing that's the interesting question.

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Since I bumped the thread earlier, I'll just put my 2 cents in from what I learned in the last few days of emailing with the company and one of it's authors (I'm trying to email a couple others).

AXP seems pretty industry savvy and seems to know exactly what they're doing. Edge, their sister imprint, is a well regarded Si/Fi imprint that produces award winning books that generate professional reviews. Books that, I might add, are distributed and stocked on shelves in store. Edge and AXP now work closely with one another (I believe AXP had some management issues a while back which have now been resolved). They're starting out as POD but there seems to be some indication that will change in the future.

I'm not sure why they're not listed with ingrams (or if they're not). They are listed on Amazon, though.

(http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&red...:stripbooks,n:!1000,p_30:absolute xpress,n:25)

I don't know about AXP - but I know Edge has distribution through Fitzhenry and Whiteside.

HapiSofi said:

Anyone can say they're taking submissions. It's what else they're doing that's the interesting question.

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Publishing, selling, and winning awards.

Their "Women of the Apocalypse" won the Aurora Award in Canada plus one of the authors of the anthology one an Aurora for her individual contribution.

LMILLER111 said:

Since I bumped the thread earlier, I'll just put my 2 cents in from what I learned in the last few days of emailing with the company and one of it's authors (I'm trying to email a couple others).

AXP seems pretty industry savvy and seems to know exactly what they're doing. Edge, their sister imprint, is a well regarded Si/Fi imprint that produces award winning books that generate professional reviews. Books that, I might add, are distributed and stocked on shelves in store. Edge and AXP now work closely with one another (I believe AXP had some management issues a while back which have now been resolved). They're starting out as POD but there seems to be some indication that will change in the future.

I'm not sure why they're not listed with ingrams (or if they're not). They are listed on Amazon, though.

(http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&red...:stripbooks,n:!1000,p_30:absolute xpress,n:25)

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From my discussions, it sounds like they will continue using POD technology, as they are a small Canadian press and it makes good business sense (less overhead that way).

They are listed on Amazon.com, but not .ca, etc. They are moving to that in the next few months. They will be available to bookstores but not on return, so chances are the books won't be on the shelves unless you have a good relationship with the local store, doing a signing, work there, etc.

I'm confused about Absolute Xpress. If they, like Edge, are an imprint of Hades Publishing, and both those publishers have established themselves in the market with distribution and award winning authors, why doesn't absolute xpress have the same infrastructure just by association? I've never heard of that before.

The fact that they don't have distribution to anything other than Amazon, is very peculiar. They should at least be available on all electronic points of sale, and should be order-able through bricks and mortar stores--as far as I can tell, they aren't.

I'd like some information on their sales. How are they selling anything over one or two copies if readers can't even find their titles? Nor can I google their titles and find any evidence of their marketing efforts.

I feel like Absolute xpress has lowered how I feel about Edge.

darth tart said:

From my discussions, it sounds like they will continue using POD technology, as they are a small Canadian press and it makes good business sense (less overhead that way).

They are listed on Amazon.com, but not .ca, etc. They are moving to that in the next few months. They will be available to bookstores but not on return, so chances are the books won't be on the shelves unless you have a good relationship with the local store, doing a signing, work there, etc.

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(???)

Maybe POD technology makes good sense for "small presses" but the fact that they're Canadian mean's very little. Actually, being Canadian should make it easier since there is funding from the government for presses that focus on Canadian authors.

Also, there have been several threads on AW that point to the fact that book signings or having your books in one or two stores, does very little, if anything, to impact sales.

Are their books really not returnable? Because if they aren't they won't get stocked. Do they give discounts to bookstores?

foreverstamp said:

(???)
Actually, being Canadian should make it easier since there is funding from the government for presses that focus on Canadian authors.

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The current federal government in Canada isn't exactly friendly when it comes to anything to do with the arts.

I just got my hands on Tesseract's 13 printed by Edge. My friend from Ottawa was in it and he swapped it with me for a POD anthology that I'm in. I immediately felt jealous. The cover art was amazing. Inside the book was a short story by Kelley Armstrong (She does the "Women of the Underworld" series (and a bunch more). If you like urban fantasy, I highly recommend her. She's a professionally (Penguin, Dutton, Plume, etc.) published author -- one of my favorites. gush gush . . .)

Anyway, back to Edge. . . I really liked the formatting they did - very professional. It looked like your average run of the mill NY Times bestseller type book, instead of that slightly weird font/print size/spacing that some POD books have. From what my friend told me, Edge put together a book signing for a bunch of local authors and helped with publicity at local conventions. We didn't talk money specifically, but from what I gathered it wasn't anything to quit your day job over. I was under the impression it was more Tim Horton money. (Which was what I got for my short story in the POD anthology that I did ) Maybe for an actual full length book, the money would be a little more.

foreverstamp said:

I'm confused about Absolute Xpress. If they, like Edge, are an imprint of Hades Publishing, and both those publishers have established themselves in the market with distribution and award winning authors, why doesn't absolute xpress have the same infrastructure just by association? I've never heard of that before.

The fact that they don't have distribution to anything other than Amazon, is very peculiar. They should at least be available on all electronic points of sale, and should be order-able through bricks and mortar stores--as far as I can tell, they aren't.

I'd like some information on their sales. How are they selling anything over one or two copies if readers can't even find their titles? Nor can I google their titles and find any evidence of their marketing efforts.

I feel like Absolute xpress has lowered how I feel about Edge.

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This is a legitimate question. I have an e-book out now that has been reviewed, what 5 or 6 times, and I know I appear on at least 8 or 9 online vending sites. Plus the publisher is marketing and promoting all over the place.

What's going on with a sister imprint that only has Amazon visibility?

tri

Anybody have any more recent experience with EDGE to add? I found an anthology call of theirs on Duotrope that looks like a great fit for someone I know, and I'd like to be sure I'm not steering her wrong by suggesting it.

Any recent experiences with EDGE?

Dawn Douglas said:

Any recent experiences with EDGE?

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I've had stories in five of their anthologies in recent years, with another coming next year. All experiences have been totally professionally handled, they pay, and they produce a great looking product.

Thanks, Williemeikle!

Any internationals with recent experience?

Do I need to specify if I'm international, when sending in a full? I can't remember if I gave that info or not.

Bump. From this thread, EDGE looks reasonable with a few outstanding questions but they'll go on my 'yes' list unless anyone has had any experience or updated info?

[Publisher] My (terrible) experience with Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

I came across some people still asking about them, so I decided instead of lurking any longer I would finally make an account to post about my experience with Edge. I actually just made a blog post about it yesterday, which I'll post at the bottom here, but to show I'm posting this in good faith and not just looking for blog traffic, I'll give the gist of it here.

My book was accepted by Edge, and they (eventually) gave me a rough estimate on when I would see a licensing agreement from them, which was about 4 months after I told them I'd like to look it over. Eight months later they still hadn't sent me anything, and, what's more, they hadn't communicated with me at all in 2 months. I gave them an ultimatum, which was basically please let me know what's going on or I will feel forced to pull my manuscript, to which they never replied.

The thing is, they could have told me it would be six months or more because of unforeseen delays or whatever, and I probably would have waited while working on other projects. Instead, they literally stopped correspondence with me two months after their own timeline on when they would send me an agreement. "Slow" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Anyway, the more detailed version of what I went through it here:

https://r-a-fisher.com/what-ever-happened-to-the-publishing-deal/

I am more than happy to answer any questions about my experience with Edge, whether or not you read the long version. I'll be out for a while, but I will get back to this when I can.

Thank you, Fishrobe.