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Bloomsbury Publishing / Walker & Company

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Netz

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Congrats, auriel! :D

Had an R&R from Meredith yesterday, for those wanting to keep track. :)

I'll also ditto the praise for Meredith - she's been lovely in her updates. :Thumbs:
 

auriel

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Woohoo, Netz! Very cool!

She seems to be really hard at work reading her subs. I was really surprised by the turnaround time. And yes, totally lovely.

ETA: Wanted to mention that my MS was also way longer than their requested 20-60k word limit for Spark, but that did not seem to be a negative (as of yet.)
 
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clorenz

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Just wanted to update that Meredith responded very quickly with some dead-on advice/comments. I am revising and re-submitting. She is fast, cordial and will make a great editor. Very impressive for someone so young.
 

FictionChick

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I was offered a contract from Bloomsbury Spark for my YA fantasy. As excited as I was, I ultimately decided to go with Entangled Publishing, who also offered me a contract. They had me at 40% royalties off cover price, versus 25% net receipts from Bloomsbury, in addition to other things.

Nonetheless, Meredith Rich has already proven to be a terrific editor and a genuinely kind person. Good luck to everyone waiting!! :D
 

clorenz

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Hey Fiction Chick-

I read your post with great interest. There is so much controversy right now surrounding these Ebook contracts. I am guessing that your book is also a romance since you chose Entangled. I find it pretty confusing. It's great that you had options. Best of luck to you!
 

FictionChick

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Thanks, Clorenz!

Yeah, the contract aspect is confusing. And I don't have an agent, so I want to be extra careful. I really studied both contracts before deciding.

My book is a YA historical with romantic elements. So it has romance, but I wouldn't call it straight-up romance. :) Entangled is open to a story so long as it has strong romantic elements.
 

frankiebrown

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An update: I received an offer of publication from Bloomsbury Spark on August 1st. For those who like a timeline, here's one:

Query and first pages sent (it was a #pitmad submission): May 28th
Full request: June 3rd
Update on submission status (still considering): July 3rd
Offer: August 1st

And I'm thrilled to announce that my debut novel is going to be released from Bloomsbury Spark during their launch this winter!

Good luck to everyone still waiting for news!
 

gingerwoman

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Oh wow congratulations! I'd be interested to know what sales are like with this digital line.
 

clorenz

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Congratulations frankiebrown. Meredith says that my Revision is still on her "to read" list. She is such a breath of fresh air in this industry. Regardless of what happens, I will let the watercooler know.
 

Guinea

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Yay Frankie. Awesome news!

Meredith favourited my pitch during pitmad. I sent it on and got a request for a full yesterday, so only 8 days of waiting. Very quick.
 

clorenz

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Update

Congratulations frankiebrown. Meredith says that my Revision is still on her "to read" list. She is such a breath of fresh air in this industry. Regardless of what happens, I will let the watercooler know.

Update: Meredith still couldn't connect enough emotionally with my MC. She was very nice as usual, and invited me to submit other work in the future.
 

EMaree

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Just a question, does anyone know why the wordcount caps at 60k? It seems very low, especially for dystopian and paranormal TA novels.
 

Guinea

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Just a question, does anyone know why the wordcount caps at 60k? It seems very low, especially for dystopian and paranormal TA novels.

They've requested my YA book and that is sitting at 92k, so I am not sure that is too much a problem, unless they edit vigorously once they offer.
 

EMaree

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Ah, drat. Writers' & Artists' Yearbook was one of few really solid UK publishing resources. It's always been biased towards trade publishing but it's a shame to see it doling out such poor self-publishing advice.
 
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Cathy C

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:Wha: I thought at first the link was a joke blog. That it's not is horrifying to me. I just Tweeted the link. People need to know about this before it finalizes. It's like the eHarmony dating website promoting Ted Bundy as the perfect match for 20-year-old brunettes. Well, yes, for TED, it is the perfect match...

Wow. Just . . . Wow. :scared:
 

girlyswot

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This from their advice page on reasons why you might self-publish:

  1. You want the book published more than you want a commercial success.
  2. You are completely convinced by your book idea, and want to be taken seriously by a commercial publisher.
  3. You are very specific about how you want your book to look, and so plan to produce a limited edition at your own expense to show how the product might best be produced.
  4. You know more about the market than any publisher could.
  5. You are fed up with publishers saying no and feel you have a good idea.
Indicates to me just how little they know about current self-publishing and how little respect they have for the authors who choose to do it. I actually feel sick thinking about how badly someone coming across that site and presuming it to be reliable could be duped.
 

victoriastrauss

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I blogged about this as well. For me, the inclusion of Author Solutions imprints is just the beginning of the problems with this new service.

I think what happened was that W&A, struggling to remain relevant in a world where self-publishing is commanding increasing presence and power, decided to jump on the bandwagon with a poorly-designed service produced at minimal cost which they also wanted to monetize by getting a fee for "leads." The whole thing is just so badly designed--for instance, the questionnaires that authors fill out in order to get the service provider comparisons doesn't include a question about how much they want to spend--and cheaply produced--the little writeups on each company are swiped from the companies' own websites, for example, and there aren't even links to the websites--that it's just embarrassing.

I think you could make a reasonable argument for including Author Solutions imprints--as long as the writeups provided by W&A were real writeups, not company PR, and explicitly noted the existence of problems and warnings. But you can't make any kind of reasonable argument to excuse the other problems.

- Victoria
 

gingerwoman

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:Wha: It's like the eHarmony dating website promoting Ted Bundy as the perfect match for 20-year-old brunettes. Well, yes, for TED, it is the perfect match...
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That is really an apt comparison. I am not joking. http://www.thepassivevoice.com/08/2013/xlibris-never/

edited... I just had a look at it. It at least doesn't promote the scammy Author Solutions services above the free services like Create Space so it doesn't look like Bloomsbury are getting a kick back, or anything as horrible as that. Still given the terrible accusations against these Author Solutions companies that I've come across online it is a shame...
 
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MeganJoWrites

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As if this wasn't said enough, Meredith is lovely to deal with.

She requested my full yesterday for the Spark line, an NA contemporary romance, which I sent and now sit on pins and needles. :)
 

luckybean13

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They've requested my YA book and that is sitting at 92k, so I am not sure that is too much a problem, unless they edit vigorously once they offer.

Hey Guinea, curious if you have an update? Meredith requested my full right after #pitmad on 9-13 and I've not gotten an update yet.