The Wild Rose Press / Wildflowers Books

para said:

Will TWRP have reached Samhain's success status by the end of this year?

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Hard put to say, really. They very well could, but I would venture to say the answer is no. Not by the end of the year at least. The wait and see approach is probably best if one isn't too sure, IMHO.

para said:

Samhain is actually a relatively new press particularly in comparison to Elloras cave. They have been in business since Nov 2005. Which is a only seven months longer than TWRP.

Will TWRP have reached Samhain's success status by the end of this year?

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No.

Not a chance. Samhain has print books on bookshelf stores and an arrangement with Kensington. 6 Samhain books will be released as a Kensington line in the next year or so.

They aren't even in the same ballpark IMO.

jennontheisland said:

No.

Not a chance. Samhain has print books on bookshelf stores and an arrangement with Kensington. 6 Samhain books will be released as a Kensington line in the next year or so.

They aren't even in the same ballpark IMO.

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Samhain was started by people with actual publishing experience, who had knowledge and connections and knew how to draw people to their website.

You're absolutely right. Different ballpark--different ballgame--entirely.

And as a general rule, I never recommend epublishers who are new, or have after this long in business not made enough of an impact to guarantee semi-decent sales for their authors. My first ebook was with a tiny publisher--it still managed to sell almost 100 copies in the first month (it was the debut book of a new line, which I believe helped, but the fact remains I'd never heard of sales below 25 copies in the first month at any epublisher before, especially not after they've been in business long enough that they should have developed a decent readership.)

If you're looking for a house to submit to there are many others out there.

DecemberQuinn said:

...the fact remains I'd never heard of sales below 25 copies in the first month at any epublisher before, especially not after they've been in business long enough that they should have developed a decent readership.)

If you're looking for a house to submit to there are many others out there.

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I was very surprised to hear that they've been around almost as long as Samhain. I remember when Samhain opened, and WRP only showed up on my radar about 8 months ago. I think that really says something about their presence.

Sonarbabe said:

I have two books with them. One is scheduled for release in December and the other won't be until 2009. TWRP is legitimate and the staff is very friendly. As been stated above, the bulk of their sales comes from e-books. They're still relatively new--2 years as of last month--so, they have a ways to go before they reach Ellora's Cave and Samhain's success status.

In short, you probably won't make a lot of money from TWRP. But if you're okay with that and understand that going in, they're a good group to work with. Hope this helps!

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Thanks for the welcome, Sonarbabe. I've been a lurker for a while. *LOL* I just signed a contract with Amira for a paranormal romance, but I've got another romance ms that I'm having a LOT of trouble placing and they suggested TWRP as a possibility. (It's a realistically written romance where the hero is a wheelchair athlete. I have a lot of experience in the adaptive sports world because my son is a w/c athlete.) I've had a depressing number of rejections from agents because no one's comfortable with the subject matter, although many have said the writing is good and I'm getting good peer review crits on it. I figured with the Paralympics this summer in Beijing, and the movie "Quid Pro Quo" coming out, it might garner some interest from traditional agents/publishers, but so far no bites.

I also sent off a query to Cerrwidwyn (sp?) today about it, so I'm ready to admit I want to try to market this as an e-book.

Any other suggestions about possible e-markets?

What!? Harlequin SuperRomance is certainly comfortable with wheeler athletes. Several years ago, Fay Robinson's masterful A MAN LIKE MAC took the Rita, and the hero in that one was a wheelchair athlete/coach/trainer.

Keep trying! IMO.

jennontheisland said:

I was very surprised to hear that they've been around almost as long as Samhain. I remember when Samhain opened, and WRP only showed up on my radar about 8 months ago. I think that really says something about their presence.

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Yes, they don't seem to be getting their name out there so people go to their website. If I was with them I would be wondering how they are covering costs. I could be wrong but I think Cobblestone Press have been around for a similar length of time. They are getting more than three times the average monthly sales.

Deb Kinnard said:

What!? Harlequin SuperRomance is certainly comfortable with wheeler athletes. Several years ago, Fay Robinson's masterful A MAN LIKE MAC took the Rita, and the hero in that one was a wheelchair athlete/coach/trainer.

Keep trying! IMO.

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Harlequin already turned it down. It's 100k, I don't know if that had something to do with it or not.

And it's not really a "formula" romance either. It's gritty in places. I don't sugar-coat it or give it the "Jerry's Kids" treatment. My son's been competing since he was 6 (he's 12 now), so I've spent a lot of time around w/c athletes. If you've ever seen Murderball, Kevin Orr, the US coach? My son knows him on a first-name basis. In fact my "hook" is if John Callahan met Debbie Macomber and they played Murderball, that's this book. *LOL* (For those of you who don't know, John Callahan is a very snarky, hysterically funny quad cartoonist who is an equal-opportunity pisser-offer. *LOL*)

Yes, it has a happily ever after ending, but there's a lot of peaks and valleys. And the heroine's son is in a w/c, too. Like I said, it's been given a lot of praise, it's usually staying in the top 20 on YouWriteOn.com (as long as I keep remembering to do reviews for credits! *LOL*) and on Novels-L I'm getting good responses. It's getting great responses from other test readers not related to me who have no reason to lie. *LOL*

BUT...it's just one of those....odd stories. I want to write several more based on characters introduced in this book. This one is the "tamest" of the series in terms of disability (and ironically I'm expecting to get slammed from some members of the disability community for not making the hero more disabled) because I want to hook readers, then take them on a ride with the other characters and get into deeper disability issues.

*whew* Sorry. Just got my first cuppa in me and now I'm feeling it. Didn't mean to ramble. *LOL*

Lesli.

Well if you were targeting Harlequin's category lines that seems a little long. Most of those run between 50 - 75K. If you had an agent you could try the Mira line that's 100 - 150K.
http://www.eharlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=538&chapter=0
I don't know maybe Kensington or Avon?

DecemberQuinn said:

Samhain was started by people with actual publishing experience, who had knowledge and connections and knew how to draw people to their website.

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Wasn't Samhain started by people who had been at Ellora's Cave? If so, that's a very different experience than starting from scratch.

Khazarkhum said:

Wasn't Samhain started by people who had been at Ellora's Cave? If so, that's a very different experience than starting from scratch.

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Yep. That's why as a start-up they were a good bet and able to attract some name authors to get themselves on the map. Whereas TWRP still hasn't managed to make itself known to readers.

DecemberQuinn said:

Yep. That's why as a start-up they were a good bet and able to attract some name authors to get themselves on the map. Whereas TWRP still hasn't managed to make itself known to readers.

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One of my points exactly!

The other being, since TWRP is coming from nowhere, I would expect it to take somewhat longer to gain a solid foothold than Samhain, where there was a ready-made audience.

I don't see how they had a ready made audience, really. Or at least the fact I sell well at one press doesn't mean I sell well at another.

veinglory said:

I don't see how they had a ready made audience, really. Or at least the fact I sell well at one press doesn't mean I sell well at another.

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Well, if I like an author I look for her other books. If she's been printed at house X & now is featured at house Y means I'll go to house Y for books. And many people announce where to find their e-books. So I would expect that others do the same, buying their favorite authors no matter where they are.

From what I see that effect is surprisingly small. I would see it more as A) [knowing what they are doing] causing both B) [getting good authors] and c) [making good sales]. Not just B) causing C). At least that's how it felt to me as both one of Samhains authors and one of their customers.

TWRP will have three editors at the New Jersey Put Your Heart in a Book Conference. They call it a mini-national.

They are also starting a contest where readers can win a Sony E-Reader. A chance to win with an e-book purchase or you can send in a postcard. They're pre-loading excerpts from TWRP authors on the Reader for the winner. I just hope it's being promoted enough. Maybe I should mention it on my blog?

Khazarkhum said:

One of my points exactly!

The other being, since TWRP is coming from nowhere, I would expect it to take somewhat longer to gain a solid foothold than Samhain, where there was a ready-made audience.

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I'm not sure I agree that Samhain had a ready-made audience. I don't think readers all blindly buy books because they like authors. Ok maybe Samhain was an unfair comparison what about Cobblestone Press?

para said:

I'm not sure I agree that Samhain had a ready-made audience. I don't think readers all blindly buy books because they like authors. Ok maybe Samhain was an unfair comparison what about Cobblestone Press?

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Yeah, I feel like I should clarify my earlier statement, where I said Samhain was able to attract name authors to put themselves on the map. While I believe that did help, I think the main reason for their success was simply that they knew what they were doing. They knew how and where to advertise, they knew how and where to make themselves known. They have never behaved any way other than totally professionally in public. They knew how and on what to focus their energies. They had a lot of contacts and connections in publishing.

Cobblestone was started by published authors, if I'm not mistaken.

It can sound like some sort of nepotism or something, I guess, when you're talking about the success of a publisher started by people who were in publishing. It's easy to say that's an unfair comparison to make (in general, that's not aimed at you para). But the fact is, a publisher should have those connections and should have experience in the industry.

A Sony reader is a good prize. Is there a press release about that? I accept all romance and erotica related press releases for ERECsite, but very rarely receive any.

veinglory said:

A Sony reader is a good prize. Is there a press release about that? I accept all romance and erotica related press releases for ERECsite, but very rarely receive any.

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I've seen it mentioned on one writer's board. It is a good prize, but it's being announced as sponsored by authors so I'm not sure if it's a publisher promo or an author one.

"All this summer (June 11 – August 31), every time you purchase a title by any of these sponsoring authors (see list below), you will be eligible to enter our drawing to win a SONY eReader. The drawing will be held on Tuesday evening, September 2, 2008 at our weekly chat (9:00 p.m. eastern). (You do not need to be present in the chat room to win)."

ETA: I just confirmed with one of the authors. It is author sponsored. 50 authors each contributed $10 to the purchase of the ereader and advertising to promo the event.

DecemberQuinn said:

Yeah, I feel like I should clarify my earlier statement, where I said Samhain was able to attract name authors to put themselves on the map. While I believe that did help, I think the main reason for their success was simply that they knew what they were doing. They knew how and where to advertise, they knew how and where to make themselves known. They have never behaved any way other than totally professionally in public. They knew how and on what to focus their energies. They had a lot of contacts and connections in publishing.

Cobblestone was started by published authors, if I'm not mistaken.

It can sound like some sort of nepotism or something, I guess, when you're talking about the success of a publisher started by people who were in publishing. It's easy to say that's an unfair comparison to make (in general, that's not aimed at you para). But the fact is, a publisher should have those connections and should have experience in the industry.

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definitely - you may be an excellent writer but not have the business sense to run a publishing house. No harm, no foul there.

the harm AND the foul is when you get people opening up publishers with nothing more than a wish and a thought that they'd like to be in charge - they don't do the research, don't cultivate the contacts and don't understand the business. They don't get a distributor, they don't work the system to get their books out to the customers and they end up closing quickly enough when the business becomes a nightmare. And end up screwing the authors in the end.

I'm always surprised when people don't understand that publishing is a BUSINESS. It's not a part-time job, it's not a hobby. If it is, then at least be honest to your authors and tell them that it's that to you. If you want to be taken seriously as a publisher you have to put the time and work in as if it were any other business.

Offered another contract.

The wild Rose Press is offering me another contract on a short story I sent them a few months ago. It needs a little revising but that's not a problem. I'm still waiting for edits on my full length novel, An Authors Nightmare but my editor has kept me informed of the progress. No complaints here.

Jennifer Robins
www.jenniferrobins.com

A friend of my mother's has a story available through Wild Rose that she's heavily self-promoting. She gave my mother a postcard with her story's information on it with the URL http://www.wildrosepress.com/ but when I go to that page, it's just a list of "sponsored listings"--ads for self-publishing, basically. Anyone know what's going on with that? This is just curiosity on my part, mostly, since I don't even write romance.

Wild Rose's URL is www.thewildrosepress.com

Your friend's mom left off the "the".

Yeah, she left off the "the" of the URL. She should have checked before she had the postcards printed. The real page looks professional.