Leucrota Press / Arkham Tales Magazine

Does anyone know if Leucrota Press is backlogged with submissions right now? I submitted a query on July 7 and the submissions page says authors can expect an answer within 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, I checked on my query and was told by the acquistions editor that he was moving and was not doing submissions and referred me to the editor. The editor referred me to the acquisitions editor. That was over a month ago. Does anybody know the scoop? I don't want to bug them if they're already overworked. Thanks

popgun62 said:

Does anyone know if Leucrota Press is backlogged with submissions right now? I submitted a query on July 7 and the submissions page says authors can expect an answer within 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, I checked on my query and was told by the acquistions editor that he was moving and was not doing submissions and referred me to the editor. The editor referred me to the acquisitions editor. That was over a month ago. Does anybody know the scoop? I don't want to bug them if they're already overworked. Thanks

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They don't accept queries in July see this Link. So they may have not even reviewed yours. I would resubmit.

http://www.leucrotapress.com/submissions.html

That being said, I have a question of my own. Does anyone know if they except Fantasy YA? I can't see anything that says that they do or don't on their site.

Thanks for pointing out the submissions period, jsouders. I guess I should probably slap my head and say, "duh!" I guess the wording of the policy threw me off. To answer you question, if you look at all the titles on their "books" page, they seem to be pretty much adult reading - but I could be wrong.

popgun62 said:

Thanks for pointing out the submissions period, jsouders. I guess I should probably slap my head and say, "duh!" I guess the wording of the policy threw me off. To answer you question, if you look at all the titles on their "books" page, they seem to be pretty much adult reading - but I could be wrong.

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LOL, it was a little confusing. And thanks for the answer. I saw that too and that was my guess, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

herdon said:

I'd be curious to learn more about their distributor, Book Hub Inc. I'm not an expert on distributors, so I have no idea if Book Hub is a good, solid distributor or not. Anyone familiar with them? Priceless?

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Gee, only four months late on this. Book Hub appears to be new, so I have some reservations about their ability to get books on the shelves. This is a business of relationships, and the genre buyers have very tight budgets these days. They are more unlikely to buy books from a new distributor than they are from someone who has been in the business forever and is well respected by everyone.

I couldn't find a list of their clients, which is unusual, since most distributors use this as their calling card in much the same way that agents list their sales.

If you know why the likes of Chronicle Books, Running Press, Workman, Ten Speed Press, and Sourcebooks are successful and dominate the attention of readers. If you are a like-minded publisher we want to represent your titles and we will help your publishing endeavors with ongoing success in the marketplace.

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I pulled this blurb off their About Us page, and it bothered me because, well, the first sentence is an incomplete sentence. Plus, this doesn't really say anything. Distributors accept a publisher's lineup because they feel the books are very good and that the company promotes the books. It does a distributor little good if they have a stable of POD books or inferior books. It's true that they make money coming and going with returns, but they also have to worry about their long-lasting reputation.

Since I can find so little about them, I can't really say. But from what I can find out from my sources, I don't get the impression they are a big player in the distribution market. And this translates over to shelf space.

Now if the author has a great platform, that can change things quite a bit.

popgun62 said:

Does anyone know if Leucrota Press is backlogged with submissions right now? I submitted a query on July 7 and the submissions page says authors can expect an answer within 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, I checked on my query and was told by the acquistions editor that he was moving and was not doing submissions and referred me to the editor. The editor referred me to the acquisitions editor. That was over a month ago. Does anybody know the scoop? I don't want to bug them if they're already overworked. Thanks

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That is the same story I was given. Though after sending my complete manuscript as requested, and waiting since May of 2009 - I was given the run around when I queried. Eventually I received a very nice rejection, but then I was informed that they don't "physically" have it. And I am led to believe that they lost it. Very unorganized...so move on to the next.

edurante said:

Just as an update to anyone who is interested - Leucrota Press has purchased Arkham Tales, a quarterly online short fiction magazine. http://www.arkhamtales.com. They are open for subs, and I think the next issue is due out in early April.

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Good to see Arkham Tales back. They were due to publish one of my stories but they released it when they folded. I see it's the same editor still, so I guess I'll give them another shot

I've been going through various small publishers listed at Ralan's this evening, and when I visited the Leucrota page I got a notice from my antivirus program that an attack had been blocked. I thought it might have been from an earlier page, so to double-check, I closed out of the Leucrota page and then went back. I got the same message.

I'm only throwing this out there as an FYI. It might be nothing, but I've been to a lot of small publisher pages this evening with not a peep from Norton.

There's a note about the website problems on their blog page:

The Leucrota Press website may be up and down over the next week. It seems that we have contracted a bit of bad code or virus that is spontaneously making our site crash. We are working on the problem and will fix the site as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

***
In other news, Leucrota Press has three books in the finals for Foreword Book of the Year awards in scifi/fantasy and horror.The books are:

One if by Heaven Two if by Hell by Rick Maydak
Stones of Time by Erin Durante
The Kult by Shaun Jeffrey

Also, my book The Kult was optioned for film at the end of last year by Gharial Productions. A director has been chosen and filming is slated to start in September. Further details here: http://gharialproductions.com/ and here: http://shaunjeffrey.blogspot.com/2010/03/director-chosen-for-kult.html

I've recently signed a contract with Leucrota Press to publish my first novel. I'm very excited but also very nervous as this is my first foray into publishing, so I don't know what to expect or what matter of things could go wrong between now and having a book in my hands. So far everything seems great.

AnnikaHTDC said:

I've recently signed a contract with Leucrota Press to publish my first novel. I'm very excited but also very nervous as this is my first foray into publishing, so I don't know what to expect or what matter of things could go wrong between now and having a book in my hands. So far everything seems great.

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Congratulations! That's wonderful news!

Well, things went wrong. I've just been told that I won't be getting published. I'm devastated, but not overly surprised. I've been extremely disappointed with my experience with Leucrota. Communication was scarce, staff came and went, and the manuscript would come back to me for edits with more mistakes in it than when I last sent it. After an entire year of sporadic editing and twiddling of my thumbs, I was dumped with a handful of dubious excuses.

Maybe I was just unlucky. Maybe they are having internal difficulties. Maybe they weren't the right publisher for me. I just wish it hadn't taken a whole year for them to decide it just wasn't going to happen... and two days before Christmas too! I won't be having a very happy festive season.

I'm sure you can find a better home for your story.

And how about your other stories? I'm sure you have more.

I'm really sorry to hear that, Annika. Hope you find a much better home for your work.

This was my first novel, and my first contract. As crushed as I am, I know that if I can get one book contract, I can get another. I certainly won't be giving up.

UPDATE: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5942816#post5942816

Appears to have gone out of business, according to information in that link. The webpage itself is not working for me.

Not to derail this delightful thread, but has anyone ever comtemplated starting a list of publishers who have closed their doors? Sort of a morgue listings or an COoB thread, (Closed, Out of Business)...

I'm sorry that it has been an unhappy ending for Leucrota. I am glad though to finally have some closure on my experience with them. I hope all their authors can find new homes for their books, either with other publishers or as self published e-books.