Wild Child Publishing / Freya's Bower

gingerwoman · Sep 11, 2013

seaaircarol said:
I have four books out right now from WCP/Freya's

What WCP/FB has done marketing wise:

Arranged and paid for virtual book tours

Arranged and paid for review tours

Arranged blog hops and contests (The current one is my avatar)

Arranged and offered interviews and feature spots

Sent out release notices

Provided ARC copies, and other e-formats for advance reviews.

Featured my books in paid for advertising in e-zines,

Gotten my book on or in as many online sellers stores as fits the genre of the books, not just Amazon, B&N and Kobo.

Backed me up and took care of a download pirate site.

Put together a press kit for me. (and distributed it)

Featured my books on all the publisher's social media outlets.

As triceretops listed on his blog post, this is a good portion of the what the BIG guns would be doing for your book.

There have been a host of other small things they have done as well.

I have a good marketing plan, as posted earlier, Yes, it is promotion plan, but it is part of the overall marketing of the book, so I'll stick with calling it a marketing plan.

Wow that is amazing! I published with Freya's Bower in 2008 and actually as much as I love Samhain and as much as sales of my book have been a hundred times better with Samhain, Freya's Bower got me reviews by sending out ARCs before my little novella came out, which for some reason did not work with Samhain. I had no reviews except the ones I got myself for my Samhain book for whatever reason. Might be different between 2008 and 2012 though. I gather it's a lot harder to get reviews from known review sites now.
I must add I am not blaming Freya's Bower entirely for low sales of my little novella with them, because I realize now that there are certain historical periods romance readers expect romance and erotic romance to be set in, and if you set it in an unusual historical period many readers of historical romance and erotic romance will not consider it. My little novella is set during the Salem Witch Trials.
I think Freya's Bower has rigorous editing and a commitment to quality.

gingerwoman · Sep 11, 2013

thothguard51 said:
In my experience, Indie published authors and self published authors are the ones that are mostly supporting other Indie and Self published authors. Don't believe me, visit the Goodreads author forums. Its like a feeding frenzy.

.

Are you using the term "indie" to refer to anyone not published with the Big Five?

thothguard51 · Sep 11, 2013

Indie = Independent publisher, meaning they are registered as a publisher, which is different than a self published writer claiming they are Indie authors...

gingerwoman · Sep 11, 2013

Yes I agree with what you are saying regarding misuse of the term. But there are a number of very big and successful independent publishers out there, so I certainly don't believe all the authors with them are selling to each other.

thothguard51 · Sep 11, 2013

I agree and did not mean to imply ALL Indie Published authors are feeding off of each other.

gingerwoman · Sep 11, 2013

Ah I see what you are saying. Well to a small extent I would say we are because those of us published with Samhain and Ellora's Cave etc.. do take an interest in each others books which increases sales. Probably Harlequin romance authors do the same promo to other Harlequin authors on social networking sites and get more sales from that.) But also there will be many non writer fans buying the books because they do trust the quality level of these publishers. Relating this back to smaller publishers like Wild Child you may be right that smaller publishers do rely to some extend on authors trying out other writers with the same publisher.
It's just plain easier to promo to people who write for the same small publisher, since these are automatic followers for a publisher on social networking.

thothguard51 · Sep 11, 2013

I think that with Romance, erotica, and such, these genres are an exception as the readership has been around for years and years and know where to go...

gingerwoman · Sep 11, 2013

Yes I don't know if other genres have such strong followers of actual publishers (the publishers themselves). Possibly horror readers have certain publishers they go to? And maybe some fantasy readers will go looking for TOR books?
Sorry I guess we are getting OT as Wild Child is a very general publisher although Freya's Bower has a small name in romance and erotica. Freya's Bower is possibly known for accepting slightly more literary romance and erotic romance/erotica but not I'm afraid well known.

seaaircarol · Sep 12, 2013

Just to avoid confusion, I want to point out that the list at the top of this page is not mine, though it was credited to me. I just quoted it in my post and said that most of these items weren't taken care of when my book was with WCP. Thanks.

SRHowen · Sep 12, 2013

Since this is in the bewares thread, and the beware was that the publisher expects a marketing plan, then it was said that they didn't go with the publisher because they would need to submit a marketing plan.

I disagree with several reasons pointed out for not doing marketing.

But, the fact that a publisher expects an author to market or promo, if that's your deciding factor on if you submit to that publisher, then that's your idea of what an author should or should not do. It doesn't make the publisher a bad publisher.

gingerwoman · Sep 13, 2013

SRHowen said:
Since this is in the bewares thread, and the beware was that the publisher expects a marketing plan, then it was said that they didn't go with the publisher because they would need to submit a marketing plan.

I disagree with several reasons pointed out for not doing marketing.

But, the fact that a publisher expects an author to market or promo, if that's your deciding factor on if you submit to that publisher, then that's your idea of what an author should or should not do. It doesn't make the publisher a bad publisher.

If you don't mind and can remember please PM me just before this Blog Hop. I have severe ADHD and it's very hard for me to remember these things I'm afraid. (I have a book with FB.)

LindaJeanne · Sep 13, 2013

SRHowen said:
Since this is in the bewares thread, and the beware was that the publisher expects a marketing plan, then it was said that they didn't go with the publisher because they would need to submit a marketing plan.

I disagree with several reasons pointed out for not doing marketing.

But, the fact that a publisher expects an author to market or promo, if that's your deciding factor on if you submit to that publisher, then that's your idea of what an author should or should not do. It doesn't make the publisher a bad publisher.

This is bewares, RECCOMENDATIONS, and back-ground checks. It's about giving authors enough information so that they can make their own decision. It's not about labeling anyone as a "bad" publisher.

The need for a marketing plan is a relevant data point. People will have different opinions about this; authors can read the opinions, and make up their own minds. Some will see it as a negative, some won't.

HapiSofi · Sep 13, 2013

SRHowen said:
I wanted to add this:

I have four books out right now from WCP/Freya's

What WCP/FB has done marketing wise:

[list omitted]
[T]his is a good portion of the what the BIG guns would be doing for your book.

Actually, the biggest thing we'd be doing is selling your book into brick-and-mortar bookstores and to libraries, and our promo would put more emphasis on getting reviews from major trade publications.

I don't say this to disparage other promotional activities or advertising. Those are good too.

SRHowen · Sep 13, 2013

I have one author who has gotten her print books into libraries in LA, I honestly hadn't thought of that as a marketing point. But, yes, the entire catalog of Wild Child and Freya's books are listed in the Overdrive catalog.

Hapi, I was listing promotional things, that compared to the list that was on the blog link about being a marketing chump.

SRHowen · Sep 13, 2013

gingerwoman said:
If you don't mind and can remember please PM me just before this Blog Hop. I have severe ADHD and it's very hard for me to remember these things I'm afraid. (I have a book with FB.)

Did you sign up for the blog hop? If not, even though the deadline has passed, I think I can still get you in.

gingerwoman · Sep 14, 2013

SRHowen said:
I have one author who has gotten her print books into libraries in LA, I honestly hadn't thought of that as a marketing point. But, yes, the entire catalog of Wild Child and Freya's books are listed in the Overdrive catalog.

Hapi, I was listing promotional things, that compared to the list that was on the blog link about being a marketing chump.

I don't know how libraries in other parts of the world work, but I've found I can suggest to my city's public library that they buy a POD book from any reputable digital first press and they generally buy it, I know they will buy ebooks too although I've never suggested any, but I've suggested a lot of print POD books from Samhain and actually I'll bet they'd buy FB books too. I hadn't thought about FB because I only have a 15,000 word book there so that will never be POD.

I think I signed up for the blog hop. Waking the Witch by Lisa Whitefern.

gingerwoman · Oct 11, 2013

They've closed to submissions for out of house authors until October next year. 0_0

SRHowen · Oct 15, 2013

Off topic, but BTS magazine is running a couple of well promoted blog hops for Oct and Nov.

http://btsemag.com/contests/november-blog-hop/

That's the Nov one, co-sponsored by Freys's Bower, the Oct one you can find formthe drop down menu.

gingerwoman · Nov 30, 2016

[h=1]Wild Child Publishing / Freya's Bower are closing. [/h]

triceretops · Nov 30, 2016

gingerwoman said:
Wild Child Publishing / Freya's Bower are closing.

Hmmm...not too surprizing 'cause they were having some problems when they offered me a contract. I can't remember why I passed. But it had to be a pretty good reason. Good luck to those who still have books with them.

triceretops · Dec 7, 2016

I guess this publisher is alive and well. They just contacted me, expressing that I'll be read for evaluation Jan 16 2017

Aggy B. · Dec 7, 2016

Really? The author I know whose with them has been prepping all her books for self-publishing because they had announced they were closing.

triceretops · Dec 8, 2016

Wow. I rechecked. I'm mistaken. I got them mixed up with The Wild Rose Press. I'll bet you're right then, and thanks for catching that.

Wild Child Publishing / Freya's Bower

gingerwoman

gingerwoman

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

gingerwoman

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

gingerwoman

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

gingerwoman

seaaircarol

Frustrated Pluviophile

SRHowen

Erotica is not a four letter word!

gingerwoman

LindaJeanne

On a small world west of wonder

HapiSofi

Hagiographically Advantaged

SRHowen

Erotica is not a four letter word!

SRHowen

Erotica is not a four letter word!

gingerwoman

gingerwoman

SRHowen

Erotica is not a four letter word!

gingerwoman

triceretops

triceretops

Aggy B.

Not as sweet as you think

triceretops