• Guest please check The Index before starting a thread.

Solstice Publishing (formerly Hearts On Fire Books)

Edita A Petrick

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 6, 2007
Messages
89
Reaction score
22
Location
Richmond Hill
Website
www.editapetrick.biz
Publisher and sales

Anonymous warnings are suspect in so many ways that most people just wipe them out of their memory. Indeed, if you have solid proof that Solstice had cheated you out of your legal earnings, signing your name after this post would only help your case - not expose you to litigation.

Solstice would not - could not - file any legal suit against you if you, indeed, had proof of sales, as your statement here says. If that is the case, and you have tangible proof of sales, then any decent lawyer would take up your side of the lawsuit, with no retainer and legal fees paid only when the lawyer wins the case -- which he/she surely would...if things are as you say.

The only time "litigious" element enters the picture is when the author makes false claims and issues defamatory statements about the said publisher. Or when the author does not have any proof of sales and only believes he should have...or any combination of the two. Then I'd understand anonymity and litigious implication.
 

Filigree

Mildly Disturbing
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
16,441
Reaction score
1,529
Location
between rising apes and falling angels
Website
www.cranehanabooks.com
Wrong.

Companies file lawsuits all the time against people with legitimate grievances. They're called SLAPP suits, and they're meant to intimidate or financially wear down the defendant. Because the defendant typically has to find a lawyer, put up a minimum of several thousand dollars in a war chest if they can't find a decent pro-bono attorney, and deal with the slow grind of the court system. By the way, good pro-bono lawyers - with case law background in free speech issues - are not that easy to find. And it can take months on a waiting list. Many US states have no provision for court fee payments, should a defendant win.

Yes, with a legitimate case, a defendant may find a sympathetic judge who will toss a frivolous case early. Or the defendant lives in a jurisdiction with strong anti-SLAPP laws designed to protect free speech.

But the company or individual filing the libel/slander/infringement suit is counting that they can make the defendant fold before that. They often are not even expecting to win against the defendant, just make the process as unpleasant as possible. Both to 'teach a lesson' to the defendant, and quell other dissenters.

I can't go into more detail, but I know exactly what I'm talking about - though Solstice had nothing to do with my experience.

I have no problem at all with someone wanting to protect their right to anonymous comments. Not everyone has the finances, the willpower, and the emotional support to risk a SLAPP case against them. I'm pretty sure that anyone harmed by Solstice or similar companies can figure out where to send the relevant information so it can be used properly.

And if not, well, the universe is not kind to ignorance and stupidity.
 
Last edited:

parumpdragon

I sometimes hiccup fire
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 8, 2011
Messages
29,042
Reaction score
6,712
Location
Arizona
Has anyone heard anything new about this publisher lately?
 

RDHoward

Registered
Joined
Jul 21, 2015
Messages
12
Reaction score
1
Hi Guys,
They offered me a contract agreement this morning. After messaging several authors with them and reading up a lot on recent pitchwars requests and publishing news, they seem to be legitimate and do have some authors on the bestsellers list on Amazon. Those that I messaged said they, too, had their doubts in the beginning, but it was a good experience. The covers seem to have improved slightly. I did find an interview article with one of their EIC who lives in Spain. I guess their acceptance rate is about 20-23% a year with all of the submissions they have, so while the acceptance time is scarily fast, they do apparently reject submissions and they are legitimate, mid-sized publishers. I'm doing a bit more research until I sign the contract agreement. But the reviews seem mostly in the positive, at least from what I've seen.

Update (10/12): In the end, I decided to go with a different publisher that more succinctly met the needs and aims of my novel, but that being said, I know several authors with Solstice who have had nothing but good things to say about their experiences. I wish everyone the best who decides to submit with them, and I'll always be grateful for the opportunity.
 
Last edited:

Thedrellum

Grr. Argh.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 16, 2009
Messages
852
Reaction score
57
Location
Houston, Texas
Website
www.patreon.com
First, congratulations!

But I have to say that a 20-23% seems really, really high to me. I'm not all that familiar with small or mid-sized presses, so my taken-aback-ness might be way off, but compared to either magazine submissions or agents/big 5, that rate of acceptance is enormous. That would make me think that they're growing too fast and/or putting too much stuff out to give every book the support it deserves.
 

sandymandy

Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Hi, I'm just bumping this up to see if anyone has any new information about publishing with Solstice. Thanks
 

josephperin

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 9, 2015
Messages
732
Reaction score
141
I got an acceptance from them in just over an hour. I guess it's possible to read a 98K word MS in that time, but for a contract ...?

I sent them an email asking if the editor had a chance to read. Will wait to see their response.
 

triceretops

Banned
Flounced
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
14,060
Reaction score
2,755
Location
In a van down by the river
Website
guerrillawarfareforwriters.blogspot.com
Extreme caution. Have you even read this whole thread?

In this case, I wanted to go easy does it because my best bud (multiple books) and many AWers have published with them. I don't why (this time) I just didn't want to condemn or sound harsh. Of course, the caveat would have to be working the hell out of the contract, and it needs a major overhaul. Now, personally, I would not go with them today or back then. I believed/believe them to be an author mill. That was enough.

Yes, I have read this thread (just refreshed myself), subscribed to it from the beginning and have one of their contracts. Any info needed on the contract, just PM me.
 
Last edited:

Filigree

Mildly Disturbing
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
16,441
Reaction score
1,529
Location
between rising apes and falling angels
Website
www.cranehanabooks.com
You know, because you've been watching this publisher for a while. My caution was aimed more for the previous poster. I can't imagine why a good publisher would offer so quickly on a full they'd just received. It takes time just to schedule and hold the marketing meetings.
 

triceretops

Banned
Flounced
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
14,060
Reaction score
2,755
Location
In a van down by the river
Website
guerrillawarfareforwriters.blogspot.com
You know, because you've been watching this publisher for a while. My caution was aimed more for the previous poster. I can't imagine why a good publisher would offer so quickly on a full they'd just received. It takes time just to schedule and hold the marketing meetings.

Thanks, Filigree. Gosh, I thought I'd rocked you back on your heels. Your point is valid. My spreadsheet tells me that I received an offer from Solstice in just under nine hours(11-3-2013). Hence my author mill feelings. I also figured they couldn't give any book justice in the promo or marketing arena with such a high acceptance rate.
 
Last edited:

Solstice Publishing

Registered
Joined
Mar 29, 2010
Messages
49
Reaction score
1
I believed/believe them to be an author mill. That was enough.

Yes, I have read this thread (just refreshed myself), subscribed to it from the beginning and have one of their contracts. Any info needed on the contract, just PM me.


Hello,

I don't normally say much on these threads but I saw this one and thought I would take a minute to reply. Solstice Publishing is in no way an author mill. We are in our 8th year and we only have less than 700 books. And that is with renewing contracts to authors who have been with us since year one. I don't really see how that qualifies us as an author mill. There are new publishers opened less time than Solstice with a lot more books published than that. We do not accept every book sent into us. We offer contracts on books that we personally like and think would do well.

And as far as our fast turn around. We are not a one of the big companies that needs to hold manuscripts for months on end and then reject them and waste authors time. We have several people who read them. There are times when it takes a few weeks to hear back and there are times when one of our EIC's has some extra time and gets to a book sooner rather than later. We see no need to set up meetings with an author to discuss marketing with them before offering a contract. We are an epublisher.

If an author is looking for a publisher that takes months to get back to them and set up several meetings and phone calls before offering a contract then maybe an epublisher probably isn't the right publisher for them. Epublishers tend to work on a much faster pace than that.

Solstice Publishing is in no way an author mill. Like I said we only have less than 700 books after 8 years in the business. We have been to Book Expo America twice already and will be there again this year. If anyone has any questions and would like to speak to us in person our booth number is #2320. We have several authors and staff that will be there and would love to talk to anyone about Solstice.

Solstice was voted the publisher of the year for 2015 by P & E which I know some will say is just a popularity contest but that does show that we are liked by a lot of authors. We know that we can't please everyone and that is where a lot of the negatively comes into it. All we can do is try and do a rebuttal with the facts.


We are a recognized publisher by the International Thriller Writers. You can find us listed on their website.

I hope this helped in some way to tell everyone a little bit more about Solstice Publishing and in no way was it meant to be argumentative at all.

Thanks
Melissa Miller
 
Last edited:

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman
Super Moderator
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 12, 2005
Messages
22,454
Reaction score
4,956
Location
In chaos
And as far as our fast turn around. We are not a one of the big companies that needs to hold manuscripts for months on end and then reject them and waste authors time. We have several people who read them. There are times when it takes a few weeks to hear back and there are times when one of our EIC's has some extra time and gets to a book sooner rather than later. We see no need to set up meetings with an author to discuss marketing with them before offering a contract. We are an epublisher.

If an author is looking for a publisher that takes months to get back to them and set up several meetings and phone calls before offering a contract then maybe an epublisher probably isn't the right publisher for them. Epublishers tend to work on a much faster pace than that.

The reason trade publishers take a while to make offers is that they read every book they acquire very carefully before making an offer. Usually a couple or more people will read it. Then they'll have a meeting to discuss how they can best market it, and how many sales they think they'll make of it, which leads to calculations on the book's profitability and therefore the level of advance they can offer the author.

They don't just sit on it in order to waste time: they make sure they're properly prepared and know what they're doing before they make that offer.

If you're able to do all that within a few hours of receiving a submission, good on you.

I hope this helped in some way to tell everyone a little bit more about Solstice Publishing and in no way was it meant to be argumentative at all.

Thanks
Melissa Miller

It's good to have publishers come here and discuss things reasonably, so thank you.
 

triceretops

Banned
Flounced
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
14,060
Reaction score
2,755
Location
In a van down by the river
Website
guerrillawarfareforwriters.blogspot.com
Melissa, with all due respect, and your appearance here is VERY much appreciated, but Mundania also claimed they weren't millish. Let's put that aside for a moment. What is most important is the care and time allotted to each book for proper promo and marketing by the publisher. The big initial sales push is one thing, but the author needs help keeping their book in the spotlight month after month. Any author who is required to heft most or all of the promotion and marketing is doomed to failure. So it's not just how many books a publisher has put out over the years, but how well they're averaging in sales, which reflects right back on the publisher and, sadly, the author.

I wish you and Solstice all the success in the world. If you haven't already, invest in the services of a marketing manager that does nothing but showcase your books in every way possible. I can assure you that a marketing manager will not have "spare time on their hands" and represents one of the most important positions at a publishing house.
 
Last edited:

cardartfth

Registered
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Can anyone here, or from Solstice Publishing, tell me if they do anything for advertising for your book they publish? If not, why would one use them, rather than simply continue to self-publish? Thanks!
 

Solstice Publishing

Registered
Joined
Mar 29, 2010
Messages
49
Reaction score
1
Can anyone here, or from Solstice Publishing, tell me if they do anything for advertising for your book they publish? If not, why would one use them, rather than simply continue to self-publish? Thanks!

Hello,
As far as the marketing of our authors and books we do several different things but I will say that we do not work as a publicist. We won’t work one on one with one author over all of our other authors and promote only that book. That being said here are just some of the things

we do are:
* sending out newsletters for our books to our subscribers.
* We do blog posts
* Facebook post
*Share posts that the author posts on Facebook to our Facebook page
* Twitter posts
*Retweet on Twitter what the author tweets with our Twitter account
We have a Youtube Channel where we make short videos for our books and for our authors.

Solstice promotes our books on:
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

We also have accounts with:
Linkedin
Manic Readers
Tumblr
We have Facebook and 2 Facebook pages. We have 3 twitter accounts.

I personally spend hours a day doing nothing but promoting our books, but like I said we don’t work as a publicist.

The question is why not continue to self-publish? The honest answer is sure you can do that. But there is a difference. People will argue that point, but there is a difference in being signed with a publisher and self-publishing. Anyone can self-publish. I’m not saying a book is good or bad if it’s self-published. What I’m saying is the 100% truthful no holding anything back answer to the question. Anybody can do it. Whether the book is good or bad. It’s not that hard to do it. Anybody can self-publish. Amazon has made it really easy for that to happen now days. So now anyone can call them self an author. Some of those books are good and some are not good. But anyone can do it.
So to answer the question why would you not continue to self-publish? There is a very easy and important answer to that question.
In this business image is everything. Small companies and E-publishers may not be considered as good as a big traditional publisher but they are for sure without a doubt better than self-publishing. The question is what is the long term goal in your career as an author?
If the long term goal is to make it to the big traditional publisher then in my opinion the stepping stone to get there is by starting out with the smaller companies such as an E-Publisher like Solstice.

I know I risk the chance of getting a lot of people commenting and disagreeing with me on this. (Especially self-published authors) But in today’s world that’s just the way it is. Image is everything. Your image looks better to say I’m published with “blank publisher” rather than “ I self-published” my book.” I’m not saying sign with Solstice or even submit to Solstice. I’m simply answering the question as to why sign with any publisher over self-publishing.

It looks a lot better on your submissions letter when sending in to a big traditional publisher for them to read somebody’s writing history to have list of publishers rather than to see that an author’s writing history is only books that they self- published without any accountability. They simply wrote a book and uploaded it. Again. I’m not saying that self-published books are not as good. What I am saying is that anyone that has been in this business long enough knows that what I’m saying is true. Image is everything. And when you have just a couple of minutes to get somebody’s attention to even give your book a second glance and your writing history is full of self-publishing and the next guy is full of “actual” publishing the other guy is probably going to get their attention.

So it comes down to this question. What do you want out of your writing career? Do you want to be taken seriously as an author or do you just want to be another self-published author?

Melissa
 

MartinD

Thought I'd stop by
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Messages
383
Reaction score
12
Location
Northern California
We'll have to agree to disagree

So to answer the question why would you not continue to self-publish? There is a very easy and important answer to that question.
In this business image is everything. Small companies and E-publishers may not be considered as good as a big traditional publisher but they are for sure without a doubt better than self-publishing.

Please understand, I've had no dealings with Solstice Publishing (or Melissa), so my comments aren't directed toward this company or its practices. I've no idea how well their books sell. I wish them and their authors only good things.

In my experience, a small electronic publisher is not better than self-publishing, assuming the self-publisher does things the right way. You know what I mean: a strong story, a well-edited manuscript, good cover art, the important stuff. Concerned about the challenges of doing things "the right way", I approached small publishers with my first three manuscripts. Those early manuscripts received contract offers so quickly that it gave me pause. I mean, I had offers within two weeks, with three different small publishers. This made me wonder if the editorial teams were very discerning. After all, I do okay but I'm no Nora Roberts.

With every offer, I contacted a few of the writers that had signed with those publishers. Most of those people had nice comments to offer about everything but how much money they were earning. (A couple of people had horror stories but that's for a different time.) No one was making a living. They hadn't entered the market at the right time, or their genre was saturated, or they hadn't pushed hard enough, or whatever. Everyone blamed themselves, not their publisher, but sales were not good.

Maybe their small publishing house had made the marketing muscle to make the numbers somewhat less awful, but I have to wonder. One woman had sold three copies of her book in six months, once she'd removed family members from the equation, and one of those copies had been returned for credit. Even though she'd worked with a publisher, I doubt her career was the brighter for it.

I did sign with one of the small publishers and sold a few hundred copies of my novella. Self-publishing after that, I've sold much better on my own, 40,000+ copies over four titles, but I'm still not making a living. A piece of living, though, and I'm hoping things continue to build.

Because sales are what you need to drive your career to its next level. Melissa believes differently but I say image isn't everything; the bottom-line is what matters to our corporate masters. If Solstice Publishing moves 100,000 copies of your next novel, you'll probably attract attention. If they sell 60 copies of your next novel, you're still dead in the water. If you self-publish and move 100,000 copies of your next novel, you'll attract just as much attention. If you sell 60 copies, well....

That's what I believe, anyway.
 
Last edited:

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman
Super Moderator
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 12, 2005
Messages
22,454
Reaction score
4,956
Location
In chaos
Can anyone here, or from Solstice Publishing, tell me if they do anything for advertising for your book they publish? If not, why would one use them, rather than simply continue to self-publish? Thanks!

Advertising isn't a very effective tool for bookselling. Trade publishers tend to advertise in the trade press to remind booksellers that Big Interesting Book is being published in a couple of weeks, to give those booksellers time to sort out their last-minute orders and promotional activities: but they don't usually advertise to their potential readers. They do all sorts of other marketing things instead.

Hello,
As far as the marketing of our authors and books we do several different things but I will say that we do not work as a publicist. We won’t work one on one with one author over all of our other authors and promote only that book. That being said here are just some of the things

we do are:
* sending out newsletters for our books to our subscribers.
* We do blog posts
* Facebook post
*Share posts that the author posts on Facebook to our Facebook page
* Twitter posts
*Retweet on Twitter what the author tweets with our Twitter account
We have a Youtube Channel where we make short videos for our books and for our authors.

Solstice promotes our books on:
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

We also have accounts with:
Linkedin
Manic Readers
Tumblr
We have Facebook and 2 Facebook pages. We have 3 twitter accounts.

I personally spend hours a day doing nothing but promoting our books, but like I said we don’t work as a publicist.

The problem is you're one of thousands doing exactly the same things, and it's become a sort of internet white noise now. I don't buy books because of that sort of "promotion", and I don't know many other people who do either.

What are the average sales of your titles?


The question is why not continue to self-publish? The honest answer is sure you can do that. But there is a difference. People will argue that point, but there is a difference in being signed with a publisher and self-publishing. Anyone can self-publish. I’m not saying a book is good or bad if it’s self-published. What I’m saying is the 100% truthful no holding anything back answer to the question. Anybody can do it. Whether the book is good or bad. It’s not that hard to do it. Anybody can self-publish. Amazon has made it really easy for that to happen now days. So now anyone can call them self an author. Some of those books are good and some are not good. But anyone can do it.
So to answer the question why would you not continue to self-publish? There is a very easy and important answer to that question.
In this business image is everything. Small companies and E-publishers may not be considered as good as a big traditional publisher but they are for sure without a doubt better than self-publishing. The question is what is the long term goal in your career as an author?
If the long term goal is to make it to the big traditional publisher then in my opinion the stepping stone to get there is by starting out with the smaller companies such as an E-Publisher like Solstice.

I know I risk the chance of getting a lot of people commenting and disagreeing with me on this. (Especially self-published authors) But in today’s world that’s just the way it is. Image is everything. Your image looks better to say I’m published with “blank publisher” rather than “ I self-published” my book.” I’m not saying sign with Solstice or even submit to Solstice. I’m simply answering the question as to why sign with any publisher over self-publishing.

I'm afraid your logic doesn't hold.

When an agent or editor receives a submission from an author which includes a list of previously published books, they'll check those books' sales figures as it's reasonable to assume they're representative of the author's sales potential for the next few books. And if those sales figures are poor, they'll pass.

When writers publish with small publishers which don't effectively promote or market the books they produce, their sales are usually small. So those publications aren't the "stepping stone" to working with a bigger publisher, they're actually a barrier.

It looks a lot better on your submissions letter when sending in to a big traditional publisher for them to read somebody’s writing history to have list of publishers rather than to see that an author’s writing history is only books that they self- published without any accountability. They simply wrote a book and uploaded it. Again. I’m not saying that self-published books are not as good. What I am saying is that anyone that has been in this business long enough knows that what I’m saying is true.

I've worked in publishing for three decades, which I think is "long enough". And I know what you're saying isn't true. It's not even close. It's also perilously close to being disrespectful to our many members who have self published. Please remember our one rule: respect your fellow writer.

Image is everything.

When I go through a slush pile looking for great submissions I don't care what a writer's image is. I care about how good their writing is, how much commercial potential I can see in their work, and how well their work fits in to the imprint I'm reading for. If a writer has self published to good effect, that's a defininte bonus. If they've published with a small press which has sold very few copies, that's a negative. If they've not published at all, I don't care. It doesn't matter.

And when you have just a couple of minutes to get somebody’s attention to even give your book a second glance and your writing history is full of self-publishing and the next guy is full of “actual” publishing the other guy is probably going to get their attention.

So it comes down to this question. What do you want out of your writing career? Do you want to be taken seriously as an author or do you just want to be another self-published author?

Melissa

Self publishing is "actual" publishing.

If self publishing is done well, it beats most obscure small-scale publishers into a cocked hat.
 

veinglory

volitare nequeo
Self-Ban
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
28,750
Reaction score
2,933
Location
right here
Website
www.veinglory.com
But having simultaneously self-published and published with smallish e-publishers--some of the latter were getting me about 1000 sales in the first month of release with a cover price of 6-8 dollars, alone I never managed anything close to that. Not all small epublishers are equal (nor all self-publishers).
 

zmethos

from words to worlds
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 22, 2016
Messages
692
Reaction score
242
Location
California (Bay Area)
Website
mpepperlanglinais.com
FWIW, my experience has been similar to MartinD's. I've done fairly well self-publishing and thought I was moving up when a small publisher took me on. However, that book has sold the least of all my titles. Now, I'm not blaming the publisher; there are a lot of reasons that book might not have sold as well. It's a new series, it's a niche market, etc. My next book (new series) comes out with a different small publisher next month, and I'm curious to see how that goes. Because all small publishers are not created equally. And again, this new series is, I believe, more commercial and has the potential to do much better. I guess my point is, product is one end and publisher is another. But so far my self-published work is where I'm making any money. Not a living wage, as MartinD put it, but about 12-13x more than my current small pub gives me each quarter.

I was eager for the validation being published by some other entity would give me. I'll admit that. But it hasn't given me anything more than that so far. No boost in sales or career or "image" that I'm aware of. And I agree with Old Hack, too--all that marketing is just so much Internet white noise that people have learned to tune it out. My small publisher did those same things: Facebook, Twitter, etc. Didn't get me much.
 

Dawn Douglas

Registered
Joined
Mar 15, 2017
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread. Your comments helped me decide whether I should publish with Solstice or go ahead and self-publish.
 

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman
Super Moderator
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 12, 2005
Messages
22,454
Reaction score
4,956
Location
In chaos
Thanks to everyone who participated in this thread. Your comments helped me decide whether I should publish with Solstice or go ahead and self-publish.

I'm glad we helped, but remember there are other choices than just those two.