Cool Well Press

Most of the website is good grammatically, with only a few instances of comma abuse. The main page is aimed toward readers. Those are encouraging signs. However, looking further we find one of their upcoming books is by their own Executive Editor.

a blurb for Thomas Talks to Me on the Cool Well Press website said:

Author Denise Vitola, met the angel Thomas one lonely, desperate night in 1991 when she was about to abandon her dream of finishing her first book. Thomas took her under his impressive wing and guided Denise through the creation of several novels and short stories that sold to major publishing houses and magazines. She joins him now to show you how to become a successful writer by creating your own muse in the new non-fiction book, THOMAS TALKS TO ME.

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A quick Amazon check shows that Ms Vitola did indeed have a goodly number of books published by reputable commercial publishers; the editions I found currently available were ones she had re-issued through Createspace (which is a common thing for authors to do with their out-of-print backlist).

But Thomas Talks To Me seems to be a new book. And whenever a new publisher is putting out its own staff members' books, the question of "is this basically an expanded self-publishing venture" arises. I'd suggest cautious optimism and waiting a year to two to see how the business shakes out, with or without angelic intervention.

Looking at the "about us" page, she's the only one who lists any relevant experience beyond "I've always loved books from a young age" or "words have fascinated me since I was a child" or "I own a bunch of e-books".

The four "coming soon" titles on the home page are the featured titles on their "titles" page. And that's it.

I say give them the requisite year or two and see where they are then.

I found them on Facebook and was actually considering querying them.

The one question I would like to find out is: They say "We publish two distinct lines - book-length Young Adult fiction across all genres and non-fiction in a variety of genres." However, I have not been able to find out what the "variety" is.

I'm debating back and forth about if I should attempt a submission and let you all know how it goes... my only pause is that they will only print your book if it's 61,000+ words. My book is roughly 48,000. So it would be e-pub only. Not sure I want to go the E-pub/no print route just yet.

I'm going to email them a few questions, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Cool Well Press' executive editor, Denise Vitola has a great deal of experience in teaching writing workshops and decided that she wanted to write a book about writing. The question for Cool Well was, do we publish a book by one of our own staff who is eminently qualified to write this book, or let it go to another publishing house. The answer was simple. As for Cool Well only publishing print over 60k words, you will find that most pub houses will not even accept a manuscript under 60k. The cost for printing a book under 60k words is prohibitive. Authors who want to see their words in print should aim for this benchmark. If anyone has questions, I would be happy to answer them for you.

They list one title in print, which isn't listed in Bookscan, so they don't appear to have a large presence in the marketplace as yet. Might be a good idea to give them a year or two to get their footing.

This question is going to make me really sound like a newbie (which I am). But, since it has been determined that the executive editor has the experience she claims, that seems to be a good sign. But if everyone waits a year or two, how are they going to get their footing?

I hope that does not sound sarcastic. It is a legitimate question. If they do not get new authors, then the only person they can publish is one of their own. I'm simply trying to understand...

Cindyh2k said:

This question is going to make me really sound like a newbie (which I am). But, since it has been determined that the executive editor has the experience she claims, that seems to be a good sign. But if everyone waits a year or two, how are they going to get their footing?

I hope that does not sound sarcastic. It is a legitimate question. If they do not get new authors, then the only person they can publish is one of their own. I'm simply trying to understand...

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Hi Cindy...it's a valid question. It's great the exec editor has experience because she understands how books are sold. But I worry that their first book not only doesn't appear on Bookscan, but it also indicates they don't have established distribution in place right now. If they don't have distribution, then how do they plan on getting books out to market? It's an important consideration. Hopefully that will change.

As for how they will get their footing, it's a good question and one we should put to them, should they read the AW boards, since they don't go into any detail on their website. Most new publishers establish a platform based on those willing to give a new publisher their books and see how well they sell and what kind of distribution they get.

Thanks for the reply! The reason I questioned it is:
1). I am learning
2). Trying to start my own freelance business, I understand the concept of needing someone to take a chance on me so that I can become an established presence

Hopefully, they will come along and answer some of the questions we have. Again, thanks!

Cool Well Press currently distributes through Amazon and Create Space. We are currently setting up distribution channels through Barnes and Noble online, iBookstore, and LSI, which will give us the ability to distribute print and e-books in Canada, the UK and Australia.

Cindyh2k said:

Thanks for the reply! The reason I questioned it is:
1). I am learning
2). Trying to start my own freelance business, I understand the concept of needing someone to take a chance on me so that I can become an established presence

Hopefully, they will come along and answer some of the questions we have. Again, thanks!

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Sometimes, if the press is run by someone who's been in the business awhile (ideal!) then they'll bring in some authors from their previous publisher. I don't mean poaching authors and books wholesale, just contacting people they've worked with in the past and inviting them to submit books to their new press. That way it launches with a good range of books by established authors; the authors' current fans follow them to the new press and become the preliminary readerbase, starting the ball rolling in terms of word of mouth.

Cindy,

Ideally, the company should have authors, books, distribution and everything else lined up and ready to go BEFORE they ever take out a web page and begin accepting general solicitations. They should have more than one book in the chute before they go public, at least.

Publishers don't work in a vacuum. When I self-published comics back in the 90s, I went to established (small) companies and learned about distribution, got names of artists who were looking for work, who might or might not be a good editor, how to do promotion on a shoe-string, etc. and remember, self-publishing a comic is a badge of honor.

I also was told to set aside X amount of money and if I hadn't started turning a profit before it was gone, then stop. (Best advice I ever got.)

It's called doing your homework first before you let the world know you exist. Watching a company grow up in front of an audience tends to lead to the gray links in the index.

Read a few of those stories.

Lots of enthusiasm, lots of love for good stories.
Not a lot of experience or simply grew faster than they were capable of handling.
Few of the gray links ended well.

Thanks for all the responses! The thing I love about this site is the knowledge that is shared and the respectful answers everyone gives.

cradunn said:

Cool Well Press currently distributes through Amazon and Create Space. We are currently setting up distribution channels through Barnes and Noble online, iBookstore, and LSI, which will give us the ability to distribute print and e-books in Canada, the UK and Australia.

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Cradunn, thank you for coming on board and taking the time to answer.

And as always, thank you also to the AWers here who are continuously looking out for authors who are testing the waters with publishers.

Okay, I know these guys are new, but their anthologies look really interesting. Might be worth taking a risk...

Indeed. I may try to get a story in one of the anthologies, since that's a lot lower risk than, say, publishing a novel. If I get in, I will let you all know how it goes.

25% for ebook royalties seems very low to me.

They're looking at a novella

And if they do accept it, sooner or later I'll give a summary of what working with them was like for me.

Creative_Solitude said:

25% for ebook royalties seems very low to me.

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I think that's pretty standard, actually. At least in my limited experience.

Wow, Denise Vitola? Long time since I've heard that name. I was a fan of her Ty Merrick books. I always wondered why more people hadn't heard of them, especially since they had a similar feel to JD Robb's In Death books which really took off.

Not that any of this means this press is super mega awesome, but I'll be interested in seeing what they put out. I'm of the policy to never be a first adopter though.

MarkEsq said:

I think that's pretty standard, actually. At least in my limited experience.

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On the low end of standard for a small press. 30-40 of cover might be closer to the norm IMHO.

This company is out of business.

Donna Pudick said:

This company is out of business.

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Well that didn't take long...

SevasTra82 said:

Well that didn't take long...

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They did better than a lot of the startups we see. It was a legitimate attempt, if an underpowered and undercapitalized one.