You're wrong. Snowbooks is owned and run by Emma Barnes and Rob someone or other. The site you linked to belongs to Anna Torborg, who does freelance work for Snowbooks.
From her bio on the site you linked to:
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[Publisher] Snowbooks, Ltd.
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You're wrong. Snowbooks is owned and run by Emma Barnes and Rob someone or other. The site you linked to belongs to Anna Torborg, who does freelance work for Snowbooks.
From her bio on the site you linked to:
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Ditto on what Old Hack said: Snowbooks is Emma Barnes and Rob Jones. Anna Torborg, who did all my cover art, designed my website and designed the website for my little effort to save publishing free of charge, btw, set up her own freelance biz last year. It's completely separate of Snowbooks.
Trust me, Snowbooks is 100% legitimate.
Lmiller111 (ETA: Or anyone else who got the referral), is Anna Torborg's site the one that was given as a suggested editor on Snowbooks rejections? If so I could see where the conflict might still exist.
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Anna doesn't do any editing. She proofreads and reviews manuscripts, but that's it. Her website doesn't offer up any kind of editing service at all.
I'd still like to know what editing service Snowbooks is referring its rejects to.
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Um, Terie, I hardly think asking something twice is "making such an issue" about something. I also don't think that the unbacked comment by one person is enough to quell my concern.
While I have heard of UK agents suggesting editorial services, I've never heard of a publisher (uk or otherwise) making such a recommendation. I could be wrong, of course, but if it's so common, please give me some examples of reputable publishers that do this.
I've been rejected (and many people from my writers group have been rejected) by several Uk agents, and we've all received the "recommendation" that we contact one of two editorial services (it's always the same two in our experience). We've also been rejected by several UK publishers and have never been referred to freelance editors by any of them.
Also, Snowbooks is a very small publisher and if they're referring people to private editorial services provided by people in their employ (even if on a contractor basis), it would absolutely be a conflict. ETA: I'm not saying they are doing that, but that's why I asked, so I could look into it.
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Again, I'm not saying they are. I'm just curious to which agency they're directing those who get rejected.
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I'll make an inquiry. They also have an open rejection letter on their website.
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A misunderstanding warrants a correction, only a deliberate lie would call for an apology IMHO.
Now I'm wondering about this. I just noticed that it was a few years ago, so maybe it's a thing they did but no longer do? Either way, it's a moot point since they don't do it anymore, and perhaps haven't done it for years (if they ever did it).
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You could always ask it in the comment section of their blog post, but I suspect they've never done it.
'ello 'ello,
Emma from Snowbooks here. Any questions you'd like to ask me, ask me directly
here and I'll reply, or on our blog.
The discussion here is one of the reasons why we stopped giving feedback to
rejected authors. For a few months, years ago, we suggested to authors whose
manuscripts we really felt needed a lot of work that they might do worse than
to get someone to look it over. I can't remember the name of the literary
agency we suggested, but I'd met the woman who ran it, liked her and included
her company with the intention of pointing authors in the right direction.
Snowbooks, its directors and its staff had no financial or personal or any
other type of connection with her.
The feedback was immediate and outraged. Why would Snowbooks lure unsuspecting
authors into submitting their books, only to be marketed to? OK, we thought,
if that's how you're going to interpret an attempt to help, we won't bother.
So we stopped providing any sort of feedback, ideas for next steps and so on.
And now this current thread suggests, essentially, that our company is a front
for selling editing and other services. I will bite my tongue, for the most
part. We are a regular, well-thought-of, award winning, established publisher
of trade fiction and non-fiction. We work extremely hard to publish authors'
work, and publish it well. We're the sort of company authors need more of. So
it's disheartening to see you leaping to wrong conclusions.
We have always undertaken cover design work for other publishers, and
occasionally authors who have chosen the self-publish route. And if you know
anything at all about trade publishing, you'll know that it's extremely
competitive and hard to make a living in. So as individuals, we freelance to
supplement our income. I work under the Snowangels brand (www.snowangels.org)
and provide data and design services - ONIX XML, catalogues, websites etc.
Anna trades under her own name, as you've seen. If you really take exception
to that - to us working two jobs so that we can keep our precious Snowbooks
alive and kicking - then, well, the market will lose an independent trade
publisher and you'll lose a possible publishing deal. And that'll be twenty or
so authors a year who won't get published.
We don't market our services to authors. We work with people who come to us,
to ask for our services. We don't make any mention at all in our rejection
emails of the services we offer as individuals.
As I say, please address any further questions to me directly, on this forum
or on our blog, or by email to [email protected].
Emma from Snowbooks here. Any questions you'd like to ask me, ask me directly
here and I'll reply, or on our blog.
The discussion here is one of the reasons why we stopped giving feedback to
rejected authors. For a few months, years ago, we suggested to authors whose
manuscripts we really felt needed a lot of work that they might do worse than
to get someone to look it over. I can't remember the name of the literary
agency we suggested, but I'd met the woman who ran it, liked her and included
her company with the intention of pointing authors in the right direction.
Snowbooks, its directors and its staff had no financial or personal or any
other type of connection with her.
The feedback was immediate and outraged. Why would Snowbooks lure unsuspecting
authors into submitting their books, only to be marketed to? OK, we thought,
if that's how you're going to interpret an attempt to help, we won't bother.
So we stopped providing any sort of feedback, ideas for next steps and so on.
And now this current thread suggests, essentially, that our company is a front
for selling editing and other services. I will bite my tongue, for the most
part. We are a regular, well-thought-of, award winning, established publisher
of trade fiction and non-fiction. We work extremely hard to publish authors'
work, and publish it well. We're the sort of company authors need more of. So
it's disheartening to see you leaping to wrong conclusions.
We have always undertaken cover design work for other publishers, and
occasionally authors who have chosen the self-publish route. And if you know
anything at all about trade publishing, you'll know that it's extremely
competitive and hard to make a living in. So as individuals, we freelance to
supplement our income. I work under the Snowangels brand (www.snowangels.org)
and provide data and design services - ONIX XML, catalogues, websites etc.
Anna trades under her own name, as you've seen. If you really take exception
to that - to us working two jobs so that we can keep our precious Snowbooks
alive and kicking - then, well, the market will lose an independent trade
publisher and you'll lose a possible publishing deal. And that'll be twenty or
so authors a year who won't get published.
We don't market our services to authors. We work with people who come to us,
to ask for our services. We don't make any mention at all in our rejection
emails of the services we offer as individuals.
As I say, please address any further questions to me directly, on this forum
or on our blog, or by email to [email protected].
Erm, not quite. One poster suggested it as being current practice, other posters quickly refuted it.
If you read through the thread you'll see many posters making both these points and in fact being very supportive of Snowbooks as an example of a good publisher. In fact a number of posters here have been published by Snowbooks or have friends who have been published by Snowbooks. "Exceptional" and "first class" are just some of the comments bandied around.
MM
Thanks Emma.
I don't blame you for coming on here to defend Snowbooks, if it was my publishing company I would have done exactly the same.
Snowbooks are a great publisher, one I am considering submitting to.
I don't blame you for coming on here to defend Snowbooks, if it was my publishing company I would have done exactly the same.
Snowbooks are a great publisher, one I am considering submitting to.
Hi Emma,
Thanks for clearing up the misunderstanding. Can you give a projected lead time on submissions? Is 6 months a good window and if we haven't heard from you after 6 months to nudge? Thanks
-- Jamie
Thanks for clearing up the misunderstanding. Can you give a projected lead time on submissions? Is 6 months a good window and if we haven't heard from you after 6 months to nudge? Thanks
-- Jamie
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For what it's worth, Snowbooks currently is looking at a full of my SF manuscript. They seem to be a solid, professional group, and I'd be happy if they took it on.
I don't blame a publisher for wanting to come and set the record straight, but if you're going to do that then at least have the decency to acknowledge that most of the posters here were actually defending your company and pointing out that the original accusation was not correct.
99% of the comments on this thread are strongly supportive of Snowbooks. Failing or refusing to acknowledge that makes you risk looking like a schmuck.
MM
I don't see the point of creating such a fuss.
A great publisher has taken time out of a hectic schedule to address concerns. She should be thanked, not receiving snark. And no, she doesn't look like a schmuck to me, just a busy business woman who was kind enough to pop in [and make an extensive post.]