[Publisher] Bell Bridge Books / BelleBooks, Inc.

Karen, I'm going to punt this one up to Bewares and Background Checks.

Adding link: http://www.bellebooks.com/

I'm not saying anything against this publisher, which looks to be a successful small press--but SF/fantasy is a pretty specialized market, and Belle's focus till now has been very much elsewhere. Unless they've hired staff with sf/fantasy editing and publishing experience, you might want to wait a bit to see whether they're able to successfully produce and promote this new line.

BTW, their submission guidelines say "No romance, science fiction, fantasy, or mystery."

- Victoria

Looks like Print on demand technology (digital). Whether they adhere to the most common POD business models, is up in question. There's really not a lot about them. Don't know if they have any distribution, even minimal, or trade reviews, book store placement, etc, you know, the usual things. Their parent house looks pretty good and have been around for some years. The fantasy imprint is new, and at least they are only accepting in that particular genre, so there's some specialization going on there. Small advances are always welcomed.

I dunno. Kind of a hold off and see type operation, IMO. We'll also have to wait until their website is completely up and running. I couldn't link to anything yet, other than the short mission statement.

Tri

Okay, I've been exchanging some emails back and forth with Deb. She's sweet, honest and upfront about what they're doing. After eight years of publishing southern fiction, they wanted to try the fantasy genre--just fantasy, nothing else. I get the impression from her that they were offset with the parent company, but this seperate imprint is a POD venture. They pay small advances and have a competent edting team--quite a few, actually.

I explained to them that my current publisher went belly up and orphaned my book She agreed to take a look at it, since it was still a baby and technically not a reprint. She was receptive to that instead of saying "Gak! Damaged goods--don't want to see it."

I'll let you know how things go.

Tri

fwiw, I queried Bell Bridge last week for my "urban fantasy" (quoted because as some of you know I've been shopping this project as a paranormal romance. But maybe it's a UF undercover. Who the heck knows !). Got a request for a full in two days. It takes them 6-8 weeks to respond and it's only been one week so we'll see how it goes. Or not.

cheers!

FWIW, they don't appear to have a distributor, and this will make it nearly impossible for books to get any face time anywhere. I checked iPage, and they don't have any stock on hand. This suggests that there is zero demand for their books.

They seem as nice is the day is long, but authors should be looking for more than that when looking for a home for their hard-written work. Shelf space and distribution should be at the forefront.

priceless1 said:

FWIW, they don't appear to have a distributor, and this will make it nearly impossible for books to get any face time anywhere. I checked iPage, and they don't have any stock on hand. This suggests that there is zero demand for their books.

They seem as nice is the day is long, but authors should be looking for more than that when looking for a home for their hard-written work. Shelf space and distribution should be at the forefront.

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Here be the truth. And that's bottom line for this outfit.

Tri

clara bow said:

Got a request for a full in two days. It takes them 6-8 weeks to respond and it's only been one week so we'll see how it goes. Or not.

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Got the rejection today after about two weeks. Ms. Smith said the story was "lots of fun" but too romance-oriented for their imprint. Oh well. Onward and upward.

priceless1 said:

FWIW, they don't appear to have a distributor, and this will make it nearly impossible for books to get any face time anywhere. I checked iPage, and they don't have any stock on hand. This suggests that there is zero demand for their books.

They seem as nice is the day is long, but authors should be looking for more than that when looking for a home for their hard-written work. Shelf space and distribution should be at the forefront.

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triceretops said:

Here be the truth. And that's bottom line for this outfit.

Tri

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It's been over a year since this verdict was delivered. Any news? Have Bell Bridge solved their distributor deficiencies?

Best way to find out would be to ask them.

Anybody have any word about this publisher? A few of us have been on submission with them going on six-seven months now. Two of us have fulls there. Are they still alive and kicking? I've always like their staff.

Tri

Yes they are! They were just at the RWA Nationals in Orlando and I attended their spotlight. Talked a little about marketing and a slew of other things. Overall, I was pretty impressed with them.

That's a relief. They've always been top-notch with me, and for a small press, I've watched them grow and make the right steps repeatedly. Their inroads into niche Southern fiction have been outstanding and they've been doing it for a long time. I really want this fantasy imprint to take off for them. They're a tight group of wonderful, experience gals who know their literature backward and forward.

tri

I still don't see where they have any distribution, nor do I see how they market and promote their books. They are probably lovely folks, but unless they have solid distribution and are getting their books on the store shelves, well...nice is as nice does.

I just signed a contract with BelleBooks for my debut novel, EYEWALL. BelleBooks publishes simultaneously in trade paperback and ebook formats, but is focused on e-formats. Okay by me. My royalty is much bigger for ebooks. The company uses a POD approach for its trade paperbacks with Lightning Source, Inc. (LSI) as its supplier. LSI is a sister company of Ingram. The feedback I've gotten from fellow authors who have dealt with BelleBooks has been unanimously positive.

A highly selective publisher, with a great reputation. Congratulations!

Adding my .02 here. Ultimately it was a rejection for my upper MG project, but I found the editors to be very responsive, polite, and professional.

agentpaper said:

Yes they are! They were just at the RWA Nationals in Orlando and I attended their spotlight. Talked a little about marketing and a slew of other things. Overall, I was pretty impressed with them.

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They previously focussed on southern fiction, wanted to branch into fantasy, and rejected Clara's UF for being too "romance-oriented".... what were they doing at the Romance Writer's of America conference?

Not a smart thing to do if you don't want to publish romance. I'd wager they were inundated with romance-oriented submissions in the months following RWA. Their response time is probably a lot longer now.

jennontheisland said:

They previously focussed on southern fiction, wanted to branch into fantasy, and rejected Clara's UF for being too "romance-oriented".... what were they doing at the Romance Writer's of America conference?

Not a smart thing to do if you don't want to publish romance. I'd wager they were inundated with romance-oriented submissions in the months following RWA. Their response time is probably a lot longer now.

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They said they were taking straight contemporary romance and all other genres, BUT they wanted just straight UF without the romance because they had enough of that already. They'll probably start taking it again eventually, but I don't speak for them. Just figured I should answer, since I was the one who originally put up the information that they were at RWA.

Thanks, Paper.

By "all other genres" do you mean, all other sub-genres of romance, in addition to contemporary? or do you mean all other genres, like mystery, horror and sci-fi?

Hmm...that's very strange. They rejected my thriller based solely on its genre, saying they didn't publish those types. Unless something has changed in the last eight months. I'll have to go and see their latest submission updates.

tri

jennontheisland said:

Thanks, Paper.

By "all other genres" do you mean, all other sub-genres of romance, in addition to contemporary? or do you mean all other genres, like mystery, horror and sci-fi?

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I mean--if I remember correctly (it's been a while )--that they are looking for women's fiction, cozy mysteries, historicals, young adult (dark and light)--which is the reason I was looking at them, urban fantasy, fantasy, and horror.

Tri-I don't remember hearing anything about thrillers, so I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was still no.