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Musa Publishing

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Have another cookie, in honor of Friday.

I can't wait for Musa to open back up to spec fic shorts - the story I'm thinking of sending just won honorable mention in Writers of the Future, my last qualifying entry in the contest. Now to fine-tune the mms!
 

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Have another cookie, in honor of Friday.

I can't wait for Musa to open back up to spec fic shorts - the story I'm thinking of sending just won honorable mention in Writers of the Future, my last qualifying entry in the contest. Now to fine-tune the mms!


Did you send it during this past quarter? (January-April 2012)

I haven't went to check the site because I didn't know when the judging ended.
 

WordCount

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I just got my email notification. They were delayed in judging because of K.D. Wentworth's passing, I'm afraid.
The story was submitted in Oct. 2011, for the Q1 2012 contest. The Q2 stuff probably won't be judged until later this
summer.

Thanks for clearing that up.

*twiddles his thumbs.
 

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Have another cookie, in honor of Friday.

I can't wait for Musa to open back up to spec fic shorts - the story I'm thinking of sending just won honorable mention in Writers of the Future, my last qualifying entry in the contest. Now to fine-tune the mms!

So, they are going to re-open for spec-fic. I thought they were only going to take unsolicited spec-fic unless it was for the magazine that they do.
 

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Okay, let's talk submissions. Here's the scoop:

The Urania (speculative fiction) and Euterpe (YA) imprints are both closed to submissions for two months. I closed subs for two reasons. First off, both imprints are scheduled pretty much through the end of the year. I don't want these imprints to be contracting people for publishing slots ten months down the road. Second off, the volume of quality submissions at both imprints has the acquisitions folks bogged down in reading full manuscripts, so I'm giving them time to catch up. We are still accepting agented submissions for both imprints, along with submissions that I or one of my head editors solicits/recruits.

That being said--

Our GLBT imprint, Erato, is in the early stages of development for the Pan line--a GLBT YA series of books. Although I'd love to see more GLBT romance, we would really love to see GLBT literature where romance is not the major fuel of the plot. We are aggressively seeking manuscripts for that line. In addition, we have just hired a new head editor for the Calliope (m/f romance/erotic romance) imprint. We are assertively recruiting authors for that imprint as well.

October is a big month for Musa. Not only will this October mark the first anniversary for Musa and Penumbra, but it will also mark the second anniversary of the Aurora Regency line--a traditional Regency romance line that I developed and subsequently purchased from another publisher. This October, we're also doing a FOURTH major event that involves the Calliope and Erato lines. We are seeking a lot of manuscripts of different lengths for that event as well. Also, believe it or not, we've had surprising success with a literary chapbook we released in the fall of last year, so I am always happy to consider that type of submission as well.

Musa will publish standalone fiction from 5k up. We are happy to publish reissues as well. I am personally looking for serialized fiction in all imprints.

As for Penumbra, our current submission calls are for the September Native American folklore issue (call ends April 30) and the October Edgar Allen Poe themed issue (call ends May 31). On May 1, we'll open the call for the November Exploration issue, and June 1 we'll start taking submissions for the December theme--Utopia. We insta-reject submissions that either do not qualify for our announced theme or arrive before/after our call period.

Penumbra will publish sci fi/fantasy/horror stories for each theme. We are looking for short stories up to 3500 words. We also publish poetry for each issue as well. Since we assumed and will fulfill the electronic subscriptions from the now-defunct RoF, our readership has been growing steadily.

Musa regular submissions go to [email protected].
Penumbra submissions go to [email protected]. Please put the theme you're submitting for in the subject line of your email. We will consider reissues, but so far I have yet to publish an already published piece. Our turnaround time for rejections is under a week. But if we pass your submission on to the next round of evaluation, you may not get any further response about your submission until 6-8 weeks before the issue is released. The longer you don't hear from us, the further your story is in the process. Each issue goes through a minimum of four different judging entities, and each level of judging is completely new except for one person. Me. Sorry for your luck.

There's a rumor running around that Penumbra might be looking for another columnist as well. Potential columnists may send me a query at [email protected]. Please list your background (education, relevant work experience, etc) and what you propose for a monthly column or feature in Penumbra. Oh, and ignore Birol (Back of Beyond--folklore, mythology and fairy tales) and Richard White (Terra Incognito--worldbuilding for speculative fiction writers_. They lie like dogs. I'm very nice and easy to work with.

Honest.
 

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We are still accepting agented submissions for both imprints, along with submissions that I or one of my head editors solicits/recruits.

That's interesting. You get agented submissions? Does that mean Musa pays advances?
 

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That's interesting. You get agented submissions? Does that mean Musa pays advances?

With a 50% royalty rate? Seriously? Why would we need to pay an advance?

In epublishing, it is my OPINION that it's far better to begin getting royalties a month after publication than it is to give the author an advance and then let them sit around and twiddle their thumbs until the advance is paid off. Apparently, several agencies are in agreement with us. We are currently working with multiple agencies and agented writers.
 
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Mustafa

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With a 50% royalty rate? Seriously? Why would we need to pay an advance?

In epublishing, it is my OPINION that it's far better to begin getting royalties a month after publication than it is to give the author an advance and then let them sit around and twiddle their thumbs until the advance is paid off. Apparently, several agencies are in agreement with us. We are currently working with multiple agencies and agented writers.

I'm sorry but that makes no sense. You really think it makes more sense for an author NOT to get money up front? That might make sense for you (since you're the publisher), but I'm sure the author doesn't think they're "twiddling their thumbs" when they have the money in the bank and they've been paid for their writing.

I didn't think agents dealt with non-advance paying publishers. Could you tell us a couple of the agencies you're dealing with?
 

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I'm sorry but that makes no sense. You really think it makes more sense for an author NOT to get money up front? That might make sense for you (since you're the publisher), but I'm sure the author doesn't think they're "twiddling their thumbs" when they have the money in the bank and they've been paid for their writing.

I didn't think agents dealt with non-advance paying publishers. Could you tell us a couple of the agencies you're dealing with?

It all depends on how much the novel makes anyway. If it gets 10,000 buys, screw the advance, I want the royalties!

If not, an advance is okay. But still, everyone has a different opinion of this, and it's not necessarily unheard of. Besides, like she said, I think half is enough.
 

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With a 50% royalty rate? Seriously? Why would we need to pay an advance?

In epublishing, it is my OPINION that it's far better to begin getting royalties a month after publication than it is to give the author an advance and then let them sit around and twiddle their thumbs until the advance is paid off. Apparently, several agencies are in agreement with us. We are currently working with multiple agencies and agented writers.
Seriously? I would much rather have an advance let it earn out. With no advance, authors are fronting your product and you're working with OPM (other people's money). Their work is tied up with no return unless you can sell it. It might be okay to test out, but I'd sure want to be able to revert rights in short order if it wasn't producing enough income. 50% of nothing is not very much.
 

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*sigh*

You guys ARE aware that we are a six month old epublisher, right? Tell you what--why don't you take a look around the world of digital publishing. Why don't you find me another e-publisher that is of comparable age, with a comparable catalog or a comparable product and a comparable royalty rate. When you find one that's paying out advances, come back and let me know--and let me know how much those advances are too.

When, on the other hand, you DON'T find that epublisher (because there isn't a six month old epublisher with over 200 books already published paying out advances to authors that I'm aware of), think again about the logical fallacy you've got going on here.

If you've read anything prior to this point in the thread, you will realize that I will not take Musa into territories that might bite us in the ass before I am convinced we are ready. For example, Musa will NOT go into print until we have enough of a financial cushion to take the hit, before we have distribution set up, before we have a marketing and promotional plan in place to get our books into brick and mortar stores. Why? Because that would be stupid. So many epubs have swirled down the drain of death for jumping into print.

If a writer is not content with a 50% royalty rate and wants an advance, I'm sure there are plenty of other options for their publishing needs. Right now, the risk is entirely Musa's. I have no intention of increasing that risk when we're still so young. I mean--surely, you realize what we're putting into each book, right? We're paying for cover art, interior design, editing, line editing, and formatting. We're paying for publicity and marketing. We're paying for website and IT costs. We're paying salaries. We're paying for ISBN registration. We're paying for everything.

I'm sorry but that makes no sense. You really think it makes more sense for an author NOT to get money up front? That might make sense for you (since you're the publisher), but I'm sure the author doesn't think they're "twiddling their thumbs" when they have the money in the bank and they've been paid for their writing.

For an epublished book? Sorry, but it makes perfect sense. Let's try this ONE MORE TIME--YOU CANNOT COMPARE AN E-PUBLISHER TO AN ESTABLISHED PRINT HOUSE. They're not the same thing at all. Authors turn to e-publishing for a number of reasons--and one of the main ones is for the monthly income. (Well, monthly at Musa at least. For some others, the income is quarterly) There are a couple of larger, older e-publishing houses that are paying token advances to some authors--but not many. Advances are not the normal status quo in digital publishing--because they aren't necessary. Publishers give advances against future earnings when they contract a book. Why? Because it takes anywhere from a year and a half to two years to get a book into print and out onto the market, and another half a year to a year to get paid for the first sales of that book. In epublishing, that wait is substantially less. Most of Musa is only at four months between contract and publication.

Therefore we don't pay advances, and we don't need to do so. I don't have a darn bit of trouble being held to a standard that is normal within our particular sphere of publishing. But I'm most certainly NOT going to be held to a standard that doesn't apply to the digital sector of publishing and one that our competitors/peers aren't held to. Musa will start paying advances when the other thousands of epublishers start to pay advances.

I didn't think agents dealt with non-advance paying publishers. Could you tell us a couple of the agencies you're dealing with?

And you would be wrong.

And yes, I'll happily tell you a couple of the agencies I'm dealing with. Our most recent agented contracts were with the Veritas Agency and with Parkeast Literary Agency. I will not, however, go into the particulars of those deals--financial, contractual, or otherwise.

Seriously? I would much rather have an advance let it earn out. With no advance, authors are fronting your product and you're working with OPM (other people's money). Their work is tied up with no return unless you can sell it. It might be okay to test out, but I'd sure want to be able to revert rights in short order if it wasn't producing enough income. 50% of nothing is not very much.

And that's the way it works with large print publishers--small but older, well-established print publishers too. But that's not the way it works in electronic publishing. So I think it's probably best to compare apples to apples instead of apples to brussel sprouts.

Or, at the very least, to learn and understand the differences between a company like Musa and a company like Harlequin or Tor.
 

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For an epublished book? Sorry, but it makes perfect sense. Let's try this ONE MORE TIME--YOU CANNOT COMPARE AN E-PUBLISHER TO AN ESTABLISHED PRINT HOUSE. They're not the same thing at all.

Yes you can, and yes they are. They both publish books. They might publish those books in different formats, and have slightly different ways of doing business, but at their hearts they're both interested in publishing the best books that they can, and selling as many copies of those books as possible.

Publishers give advances against future earnings when they contract a book. Why? Because it takes anywhere from a year and a half to two years to get a book into print and out onto the market, and another half a year to a year to get paid for the first sales of that book. In epublishing, that wait is substantially less. Most of Musa is only at four months between contract and publication.

Nope. Your reasoning is wrong here, Celina.

If it weren't, publishers would pay 100% of the advance due on signing. As it is, trade publishers only pay a proportion of that advance on signing (usually around 30%) and withold the rest until manuscript delivery and / or publication. But even if this weren't the case, trade publishers don't pay advances just because they recognise there's a lag between signing and publication: it's because they recognise that authors deserve to be paid for the work that they've done, in a timely manner.

And if Musa is taking just four months from signing to publication, then you must have some seriously speedy editors. That seems very rushed to me.

I don't have a darn bit of trouble being held to a standard that is normal within our particular sphere of publishing. But I'm most certainly NOT going to be held to a standard that doesn't apply to the digital sector of publishing and one that our competitors/peers aren't held to.

That's fair enough. But I'd be grateful if you'd try to be a little less confrontational in your tone when you explain your position.

I'll happily tell you a couple of the agencies I'm dealing with. Our most recent agented contracts were with the Veritas Agency and with Parkeast Literary Agency. I will not, however, go into the particulars of those deals--financial, contractual, or otherwise.

I don't think anyone would expect you to reveal the details of any deals you've made: that's between you and your authors.

For interested parties, here are our threads about Veritas and Parkeast.
 

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Having been paid a small advance for two of my books in the past that were put out as ebooks 10 months PRIOR to the print books being released, and then waiting and waiting and WAITING for that tiny advance to earn out (now I get a monthly check for both), I can see Mscelina's point.

We're not talking thousands here -- my advances were in the low 100's. Having done it, it I were to sign with Musa, which is a comparable publisher to the one that put out those two previous books, I think I'd prefer to wait the six months, see the book release, and then collect my money. At a big house? No way, because you're right, the wait time is years. It's a matter of scale too, six of one is half dozen of the other, but I like getting that check every month.
 

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Having been paid a small advance for two of my books in the past that were put out as ebooks 10 months PRIOR to the print books being released, and then waiting and waiting and WAITING for that tiny advance to earn out (now I get a monthly check for both), I can see Mscelina's point.

We're not talking thousands here -- my advances were in the low 100's. Having done it, it I were to sign with Musa, which is a comparable publisher to the one that put out those two previous books, I think I'd prefer to wait the six months, see the book release, and then collect my money. At a big house? No way, because you're right, the wait time is years. It's a matter of scale too, six of one is half dozen of the other, but I like getting that check every month.

It wouldn't matter if it were ten dollars. You're saying you'd rather have the press hold your money and give it to you in small chunks than get it in advance. That doesn't make sense in any way. I could understand the reasoning of, "it's only a hundred dollars, so I really don't care if I get it in advance or not because a hundred dollars is a pittance."

And I can understand MsCelina's reasoning of, "no one else does it so we're not going to do it either." Fair enough. I didn't expect that Musa paid advances, I was just very suprised that an agent would deal with musa since it would seem like very little pay off for the work.
 

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You guys ARE aware that we are a six month old epublisher, right? Tell you what--why don't you take a look around the world of digital publishing. Why don't you find me another e-publisher that is of comparable age, with a comparable catalog or a comparable product and a comparable royalty rate. When you find one that's paying out advances, come back and let me know--and let me know how much those advances are too.

When, on the other hand, you DON'T find that epublisher (because there isn't a six month old epublisher with over 200 books already published paying out advances to authors that I'm aware of), think again about the logical fallacy you've got going on here.

I don't think the other posters are the ones using a logical fallacy here. You're expecting authors to compare you to other 6-month old e-publishers, but from an author's perspective, why would that be the comparison they'd make? The fact that you're only 6-months old is not in any way a selling point for prospective authors... it's actually almost certainly a detriment. So for you to expect them to only compare your company to other companies that share the same disadvantage as yours is logically peculiar. It's like saying "You should buy my car because it's fast. Yeah, it's just as fast as any other car with a flat tire and an underpowered engine. You're making a logical fallacy by comparing my car to ALL of the cars available for sale; you should only compare my car to other cars with flat tires and underpowered engines." Authors are free to submit to any publishers, not just those that are brand new (and committed to an incredibly ambitious publication schedule).

Right now, the risk is entirely Musa's. ... I mean--surely, you realize what we're putting into each book, right? We're paying for cover art, interior design, editing, line editing, and formatting. We're paying for publicity and marketing. We're paying for website and IT costs. We're paying salaries. We're paying for ISBN registration. We're paying for everything.
For a house that seems to pride itself on being author-centred, this is a strange statement. The authors are risking nothing? They're trusting you with the first publication rights for manuscripts that took months or years of their lives to produce. They're signing a contract that gives you the exclusive rights of publication for years. And they're risking nothing? Just because they're not putting up money doesn't mean they're not taking a risk, and I think you know this.

That said, I agree that it's common for an e-publisher to not offer an advance. I accept that you don't think it would be wise to offer them at this time. I think that's all you needed to say.
 

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For a new e-pub, I wouldn't worry about the advance. It's likely to be well under $1000, anyway, and take a while to earn out. Maybe as e-pubs weather the next decade, and if the economy grows, we might see a change in advances. For now, they're a royalty game.

The Big Six still offer advances in certain print areas. Once one reads past the glittery details of hefty advances listed in PW, the average advance is not that big - and shrinking. If anyone has solid numbers, please post them.

But I think genre advances for new writers have been hovering around 5K for some years. 5K is a nice chunk of change in comparison to minimum wage, but it's probably not going be delivered all at once. And again, the writer has to wait through that initial period before royalties come in.
 

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Lots of agents sell to non-advance paying pubs. If an agent won't rep your work to a publishing house that's a good fit, that's an issue with the agent, not the pub.

I write in a specific genre (romance) whose epublishing community is very strong....samhain, ec, carina, etc.... NONE of those pubs pay advances. I think authors get hung up on the idea of an advance because of legacy, not because it's a reality in the epublishing world.

Typing on ipad, please forgive typos. ;)
 

Mustafa

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Lots of agents sell to non-advance paying pubs. If an agent won't rep your work to a publishing house that's a good fit, that's an issue with the agent, not the pub.

I write in a specific genre (romance) whose epublishing community is very strong....samhain, ec, carina, etc.... NONE of those pubs pay advances. I think authors get hung up on the idea of an advance because of legacy, not because it's a reality in the epublishing world.

Typing on ipad, please forgive typos. ;)


I think it's more to do with the fact that it seems - at least to me - that epubs want to be perceived as being just as valid an option to publishing as the print guys. And I'm not saying they're not. But when statements are made that royalties are BETTER than advances for the writer, I have to scratch my head and wonder if the person talking is ignorant, or just purposefully misleading.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but mscelena's comment about 'twiddling thumbs' really made me angry. A writer who has been paid for their work is not twiddling their thumbs. They're writing.
 

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I think it's more to do with the fact that it seems - at least to me - that epubs want to be perceived as being just as valid an option to publishing as the print guys. And I'm not saying they're not. But when statements are made that royalties are BETTER than advances for the writer, I have to scratch my head and wonder if the person talking is ignorant, or just purposefully misleading.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but mscelena's comment about 'twiddling thumbs' really made me angry. A writer who has been paid for their work is not twiddling their thumbs. They're writing.

"twiddling your thumbs" is an age-old expression for waiting, nothing more.

I'm writing no matter when I get paid. I'm writing whether I sell the book or not. If you think a writer can't wait and write at the same time, frankly, you're in the wrong business, because I've waited for answers on some submissions longer than it took to write the novel. Waiting is a part of the writers life. You fill the wait with other projects, but the wait? The wait is always there

Royalties, whether paid in advance or not, are paid on SALES of the book. If your book doesn't sell enough to make back the advance, you won't see more royalties anyway.

mscelina's point (I believe, I'm not trying to put words in her mouth) was that the money is the same either way: either the author gets paid an advance and waits for it to earn out after release to start earning more royalties, or they start receiving royalties the first pay period after release. Either way the amount of royalties is the same, the amount paid is the same.
 

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"twiddling your thumbs" is an age-old expression for waiting, nothing more.

I'm writing no matter when I get paid. I'm writing whether I sell the book or not. If you think a writer can't wait and write at the same time, frankly, you're in the wrong business, because I've waited for answers on some submissions longer than it took to write the novel. Waiting is a part of the writers life. You fill the wait with other projects, but the wait? The wait is always there

Royalties, whether paid in advance or not, are paid on SALES of the book. If your book doesn't sell enough to make back the advance, you won't see more royalties anyway.

mscelina's point (I believe, I'm not trying to put words in her mouth) was that the money is the same either way: either the author gets paid an advance and waits for it to earn out after release to start earning more royalties, or they start receiving royalties the first pay period after release. Either way the amount of royalties is the same, the amount paid is the same.


No, it's not the same. If you're paid an advance and the books don't sell, you still got paid. If you get the advance and the press decides not to publish the book, you still got paid. If you get the advance and the press goes under. You still got paid. Getting the money in advance and getting a royalty is not the same.
 

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Mustafa, they're not HOLDING my money. An ADVANCE is money paid on copies that haven't YET been sold -- in ADVANCE. Those are always risky for a publisher, but bigger publishers offset those that don't earn out (not necessarily a loss for the publisher, either) with those that do. UNTIL the book sells enough copies that they royalty for those books EQUALS what they paid me in advance, I don't see one single dime. (in other words: What Vanessa said)

It's really six of one, half dozen of another, except in cases where a book doesn't earn out. Again, risk a publisher takes. For a pub of this size, which I have dealt with before, I would not have a problem waiting the short amount of time Mscelina is saying it takes before getting paid for every single copy that has been sold.

And I gotta go with Mscelina on the risk factors -- yes, the publisher puts up all of the money for the production of the product, pays the editor and the cover artist and the formatting. Which is why most royalty rates are between 10-40% depending. Splitting the profit 50-50?? That's incredibly generous.