Ridan Publishing

brianm said:

Now that we know who owns Ridan, would you disclose please the people you have working for you (editors, etc) and their publishing backgrounds?

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Not that it's a state secret or anything - but why do I have to tell you who I employ? It sounds like you are interviewing me after I submitted a business plan in which you are considering investing. If you were being considered for Ridan authorship then certainly you would be entrusting me with your intellectual property and in that case I'd be more than happy to share information with you and have you talk to the editors I plan on using on your book, but no I really don't feel I have to post the resumes of them in a "genearal purpose" forum - if that sounds unreasonable, I'm sorry.

If you really want to know the editors they are credited in the books for which they did editing - you don't have to buy one just use search inside the book and look at the copyright pages. If you are an author and would like to hire one of them for your own work send me an email ([email protected]) and I'll be more than happy to "match make" (and before you suspicisous people get freaked no I won't charge you or get a kick back from them) any arrangements would be between you and them and would have nothing to do with Ridan other than to say I've used them and have had good results.

As for support staff, they are college students who don't have extensive publishing experience - what I try to do is give them some exposure to a field they plan on having full time careers at so no their resume's would not be impressive by any means.

and before you suspicisous people get freaked...

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Now just stop it. You have no idea how many gormless publishers have come here bleating about how wonderful they are, only to find out they know nothing about the industry and have no clue as to how to sell books. This is a bewares board, and it's only natural that we're going to ask questions in order to ferret out what's what.

Eh. I don't think that's fair. *She's* not bleating, or even promoting herself. "This is my business plan, this is what I do" in response to people asking for that information is hardly bleating.

RP doesn't sound particularly different from the other POD things we've seem come and go, but she has minimized her risk without taking it out of the author's hide, and she's being up front about her limitations.

The only "crime" here was Michael responding to a Google alert on his name and not mentioning that he was married to the publisher he was defending, which got everyone's hackles up. (And hackles SHOULD go up at that sort of thing.)

At any rate, I don't have a dog in this fight - I'm into e-pubbing, not POD - but in the interests of fairness, etc.

Edit to add: Posted while Cao was posting. The bit about gray links is what I was getting at, obliquely. I think this is someone with a POD press who has good intentions - being married to someone without a firm grasp on transparency isn't a crime.

priceless1 said:

Robin, getting a good deal on printing costs isn't a return on investment - it's simply good business. Your ROI is working to get your titles sold, which is done through marketing and promotion.

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You are right printing price is a cost of doing business and effects "profit". Profit is what drives all businessess so the more profit I make the more I can affort to spend on marketing.

I do have a higher printing price but I don't have warehouse fees. It is a trade off I'm willing to make for MY business - You are of course free to use whatever model for your business you feel works for you.

As to my promotions.
I don't do giveaways on my site. I do them through other sites. For instance:

• http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/2304-the-crown-conspiracy had 1528 people sign up to receive 2 free copies of The Crown Conspiracy
• http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/1833-cross-of-the-legion had 328 people sign up to receive 3 free books of Cross of the Legion by Marshall Thomas.
• Fantasy Book Critic just did a promotion for the Emerald Storm http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2010/04/winners-of-emerald-storm-giveaway.html you can see their site stats here: http://my4.statcounter.com/project/...f6ed94e1c65b&guest_login=1&project_id=4393819

Review copies - it depends. Leslie Ann Moore we do ARC runs for and send them to the likes of Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal she has gotten nice reviews from them (http://www.ridanpublishing.com/griffins_shadow.html) and that continues to be part of the marketing plan I do for her books. Michael's books are on a six-month schedule which makes it impossible to bet them to PW, LJ with their 4-5 month restriction so his go many to online sites like sfSite, Fantasy Book Critic, Fantasy Literature. Each book is treated differently.

As to no guarantee to being reviewed, of course not. But so far our track record is very good and only a few books we've sent out did not result in being reviewed. It is the nature of the beast - are you saying that every review copy you send out you can guarantee a review from?

- Email promotions - We are not spammy - we don't "blast". We target the promotions. I.e. Fantasy readers get email for fantasy books and not sci-fi or mystery. We always offer opt out and will never send an email to anyone who asks us not to.

- Social networking sites (especially GoodReads) - Yes this works for us very well - that's why we still use it.

- Bookmarks - are not gimmicky they are used in conjunction with other book related events - for instance a convention, book store signing, book fair. I know exactly how much sales I get from them as they are sent to a "special page to get the discount it offers" - The trick is getting good prices for bookmarks - I print up 5,000 for $46.20 or 10,000 for $91.25 and my ROI's on this small cost is through the roof.

Conventions - fantasy/sci fi conventions and I don't proclaim it is my "best" way to sell it is one of the tools in my chest that as long as it is producing positive ROI I'll use. I have a big roll out of Nathan Lowell at Balticon - I'll be more than happy to come back and enumerate the results after it finishes.

School signings - All I can say is they work well for us. More than a hundrend books moved in a 1hour period to people who will buy a sequel (we focus on authors with more than one title) so it works for us.

- Award entries - If you look at the awards that your authors have you'll see that they are the same awards that mine have - Foreword, IBPA, Ben Franklin etc. I don't do these for ROI I do these as it helps with other marketing efforts as it will give the person on the fence a reason to "give a try" to a new author. They are used only to gain a tad bit of credibility that helps to open other doors.

- Press releases - again not a ROI generator just a way to "get a little buzz" going - they are free and don't hurt but I don't claim to be able to tie them to direct sales.

Media kits - are used for reviewers - yes some vertical file them - but some look at them. It increases the chances of getting a review and I like to stack the odds in my favor. Again next to no cost as the book is already being mailed - so why not include a folder with author biography, reviews, etc with them?

- Author Interviews - They don't cost anything except a bit of time. So why not. We just did one at ScifiGuy http://www.scifiguy.ca/2010/04/guest-author-michael-j-sullivan.html and there are several people there that would not have known about his books if I haven't done them. What does it hurt to do them?

Websites - - I should have been more precise and said "online order pages" - the sites I make are like : http://www.ridanpublishing.com/Griffins_Daughter_special_offer.html
Here I offer the blurb, some reviews, a sample chapter or two and the ability to buy at a discount - Bookmarks, email promotions and social networking point to these pages and produce tremendous ROI's

- Contests - The most recent one was Book Spot Central's Tournament of the books (http://www.bscreview.com/2010/04/2009-book-tournament-winner/) where Michael's Avempartha won even against one new york times best seling author, and two Hugo Nominees. Now granted I didn't "get him into" this contest as the contest creator choose the 64 books of 2009 to pit against one another - but how would they have known the book even existed if I was not successful in marketing it? Obviously it came on to their radar because I've had some success in marketing. During this contents it was in 5 match ups and each match had several hundred people reviewing and commenting on it - so that sounds like great free exposure to me. The final had 738 views.

Book club appearances - Yes, I arrange for these and use meetup.com to "find them"

priceless1 said:

Now just stop it. You have no idea how many gormless publishers have come here bleating about how wonderful they are, only to find out they know nothing about the industry and have no clue as to how to sell books. This is a bewares board, and it's only natural that we're going to ask questions in order to ferret out what's what.

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No I do know there are a ton of them....that's just the point!! I see it everyday and try to steer people away from organizations that do just that. I was only trying to point out that I'm not one of them.

This forums runs a little interrogative because, well, they all say that. So we tend to want to know things about distribution, expertise etc.

CaoPaux said:

IOW, the hill you're climbing is: what experience and resources do you have to succeed where so many have failed doing exactly what you are doing?

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Small businessess in all kinds of industries die every day. There is no doubt this is a TOUGH TOUGH business. Again, as a businessness person this is not one that I would say...Let me start a business in this market because I know I can make a bunch of money doing it. Hence why I did not put together a business plan, go after investors, and take my shot that way.

I'm was forced into publishing out of necesity when my husband's small press (like so many others) failed. Will I fail too? Possibly? I've had two successfull businesses before and am starting another one indepdent of Ridan for the company I work at in my day job. So I have a good track record - but that by no means indicates a guarantee of success. I've never said ... I will be sucessful. What I've said is I will use my intelligence, business sense, and yes a lot of elbow grease and give it the best shot I can. In the end that is all anyone can do and only the market will prove whehter they "have the right stuff" or not.

I wish you all the luck, Robin. Sounds like you have your heart in the right place.

veinglory said:

This forums runs a little interrogative because, well, they all say that. So we tend to want to know things about distribution, expertise etc.

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Totally get that. There is good reason to be suspicious, but of course no one likes it when they get stained by bad actions of others. I'm fully willing to take the heat for things I do which is why I'm taking so much time here to answer the questions posed in as frank and open a way as I can.

priceless1 said:

I wish you all the luck, Robin. Sounds like you have your heart in the right place.

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Thank you priceless I wish your organization the best as well. Please don't take my comments here as some judgement on the "traditional" warehouse model - I know it is sucessful for many organizations and the book business needs as many successful publishers as it can get regardless of the models the select for their individiual businesses.

rsullivan9597 said:

Not that it's a state secret or anything - but why do I have to tell you who I employ? It sounds like you are interviewing me after I submitted a business plan in which you are considering investing. If you were being considered for Ridan authorship then certainly you would be entrusting me with your intellectual property and in that case I'd be more than happy to share information with you and have you talk to the editors I plan on using on your book, but no I really don't feel I have to post the resumes of them in a "genearal purpose" forum - if that sounds unreasonable, I'm sorry.

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There's no reason to get so defensive.

I followed your advice and did check inside your books and it appears you and Michael do the majority of the work from editing to cover design.

There are three other names of people who worked on three books (one with you), but nothing came up on those persons when googled, so I can only assume they have limited experience in the industry.

Question answered.

~briannm~

brianm said:

There's no reason to get so defensive.~briannm~

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Sorry if it came off as defensive...part of the problem of internet communication. I've never been to this forum before and I must say .... "Tough room".

Tough but ultimately fair IMHO. If you can ignore a little snark along the way.

rsullivan9597 said:

Sorry if it came off as defensive...part of the problem of internet communication. I've never been to this forum before and I must say .... "Tough room".

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Yes, it is.

The questions asked will be tough because writers depend upon this forum for fact based information on publishers and agents, so that they can make informed decisions regarding their works. Ridan's business and publishing models, your experience, and the experience of your staff all factor into a writer's ability to make an informed decision.

No one wants to see you fail, we just want to provide members with accurate information about Ridan Publishing.

I appreciate your taking the time to answer questions and I hope you will continue to participate in this thread.

~brianm~

priceless1 said:

I wish you all the luck, Robin. Sounds like you have your heart in the right place.

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i agree.

brianm said:

Ridan's business and publishing models, your experience, and the experience of your staff all factor into a writer's ability to make an informed decision.

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Absolutely. No disagreement there. My point really is for those who I "get to that point" with I discuss all the kinds of things I've been writing about here, and much more we've not touched on. No one will enter into a contract with Ridan without full disclosure.

The only real issue is I do this one-on-one. The ONLY reason I'm talking about it here in an "open forum" is to answer the questions people have posed. I'm not asking those here to send me manuscripts. As I said - I've had zero luck with unsolicited manuscripts so the only people who know about Ridan (or should) are the ones whose shoulder's I tap. This whole thing started because Susan (my intern) found David's book and thinks it "might" be worth pursuing. And I think it is very reasonable for David to ask advice, here - so absolutely no harm there.

Some people started posting assumptions about Ridan based off of their experiences with others - again perfectly reasonable. But I think you can understand wanting to be judged on what you do not what others in the industry have done. I'm just trying to address the issues by providing more details about my business.

I've seen your books at cons.

I notice that you've got someone who knows something about pre press doing your covers. That's quite extraordinary and I hope you tell that person their work is making a substantial statement about the press.

Medievalist said:

I've seen your books at cons. I notice that you've got someone who knows something about pre press doing your covers. That's quite extraordinary and I hope you tell that person their work is making a substantial statement about the press.

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Thanks Medievalist I'm very proud of the Ridan covers all of which were done by Michael as I mentioned previously I used to have an advertising agency - it was a company with Michael doing the artwork and myself doing the marketing.

I do feel that good covers do make a difference on sales. There is a writer friend of ours (not a Ridan author - whose first book was coiming out from a small press and the cover they had - I'm sorry to say was just terrible) Michael "threw" her together the following at no cost. It caught the eye of a fantasy book critic reviewer and got her a review on it alone - so yes I think covers matter



Some of the "Ridan Covers" that show the coordination of a "series" are:

I'm not easy to impress, but I have to say the Secrets of the Sands cover is beautiful. It would definitely make me pick up the book.

rsullivan9597 said:

Some people started posting assumptions about Ridan based off of their experiences with others - again perfectly reasonable. But I think you can understand wanting to be judged on what you do not what others in the industry have done. I'm just trying to address the issues by providing more details about my business.

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Of course I understand and I'm confident the hot seat is probably where you would rather not be today. Thank you for sticking around and answering our questions.

Good luck.

~brianm~

Queen of Swords said:

I'm not easy to impress, but I have to say the Secrets of the Sands cover is beautiful. It would definitely make me pick up the book.

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Agreed. Very cool.

Excellent covers...

Speaks highly of Michael's artistic ability.

Robin, best wishes for success for you and your authors!

Unimportant said:

I know that some small presses sell a hundred copies per title on average, some five hundred, some three thousand.... Given your experience with RP so far, what kind of sales figures would you expect a new RP author to have over, say, two years post-release?

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Really hard to say. The first (non Michael) book was released in June 09 so not even a year under our belt. Michael' first was almost exactly a year ago. I can say that so far sales each month have been more than the previous one so we haven't reached steady state yet...which is why it is hard to predict. There is a wide variety between authors. Remember we select from those self published that already have created some fanbase and some are more entrenched then others.

The top sellers are doing several hundred a month but others only do 40 - 50 a month. Our "best seller" was Todd Fonseca's Time Cavern which we did a lot of xmas promotion for (his is a childeren's book) and he hit over 1,000 in December. His sales did die down quite a bit post x-mas but Michael's books - that also really took off in November have increased every month since then so in his case it wasn't just a Xmas thing.

In a few weeks we'll release the first book from Nathan Lowell and he has a very rapid fan base from his podiobooks. He has said in many interviews that he expects to sell 500 of each of his titles and I'm nore than confident we'll blow that out of the water. I'm predicting 1,000 - 2,500 Quartershare's in the first 12 months of release. I'll be more than happy to return to this forum next year and see which one of us are correct. I already have several hundred emails who have signed up to receive a copy the second it comes off the press and many of these have expressed a need to buy multiple copies to give to friends and family. In addition, more than a hundred more have signed up for a "special edition" hardcopy that we will limit to 250 copies. I've been able to do well with authors that have started with far less so I'm "bullish" on what will occur with Nathan. I'm sure he'll become a "top producer" out of the gate.