Carina Press

The fact that Carina doesn't have the Harlequin H on the page is much less of a concern, I think, than the fact that Harlequin's own website doesn't list Carina among the long list of imprints that it own. But the worst is that when you Google "romance ebooks" or "romance e-books", Carina doesn't come up in the first few pages of results OR in the advertising sidebar. (I didn't look beyond the first few pages.)

That, to me, says someone's not following up with SEO (search engine optimization), nor are they effectively advertising. How are ebook readers supposed to find Carina, a new ebook publisher, if they don't find it through Harlequin's website, and they're not advertising on Google?

By the way, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Carina Press. I think it's an exciting opportunity, one that I'm considering. But I think they might be shooting themselves in the foot if they don't do some SEO and some more advertising.

Because it should be every romance e-publisher's goal that when a reader types "romance ebooks" into google (or any other search engine), their company's name comes up at the top of the list. If it doesn't, that may give some authors, particularly those with experience, a bit of reluctance to sub. Especially when the pub is brand new.

Juliette Dupree said:

The fact that Carina doesn't have the Harlequin H on the page is much less of a concern, I think, than the fact that Harlequin's own website doesn't list Carina among the long list of imprints that it own. But the worst is that when you Google "romance ebooks" or "romance e-books", Carina doesn't come up in the first few pages of results OR in the advertising sidebar. (I didn't look beyond the first few pages.)

That, to me, says someone's not following up with SEO (search engine optimization), nor are they effectively advertising. How are ebook readers supposed to find Carina, a new ebook publisher, if they don't find it through Harlequin's website, and they're not advertising on Google?

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With the new HQN site design, Carina is now linked through the site.

As for SEO, we do have someone who works on that, but we concentrate on the search terms that our market research has shown to translate into sales since, as someone noted in another thread, it's about the bottom line. Sure it would be nice to show up in all terms, but barring that, we'll take the ones that make money

Angela is Carina seeking horror?

brainstorm77 said:

Angela is Carina seeking horror?

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We are, though we haven't acquired any yet. The closest we came was a revise/resubmit that didn't end up working out for us. We don't get a lot of horror submissions, actually. It seems to be more of a niche genre than many niche genres!

I am duly corrected and chastised

I inquired about previously published novels - my first book has been returned to me - & Angela said to go ahead and submit it like their regular submissions. However, I used the email address under the 'previously pubbed' section and was sent to another email. The guidelines state that submissions sent to the regular address will receive a confirmation email, but I never received one using the other address.

I wonder if I should re-submit to the regular address or just hold tight?

Resubmit to the regular submissions address. I need to change that on the website, it's an error because it was originally a different set up, but we changed it. I'll make a note on my to-do list since technically vacation started today (ha!). And this is the type of question you can always email submissions and ask, that's what the email is there for and I don't mind answering questions via email.

Oh, thank you, Angela! I didn't want to pester a busy editor, but now that you're on vacation... bwahahaha! (just kidding).

I'll resend to the normal address.

So, where are you on the submission response time? Still over 12 weeks?

CScottMorris said:

So, where are you on the submission response time? Still over 12 weeks?

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Yes, between 12 and 16 weeks right now. We had 3 new freelance editors start this week, so I'm hoping that will have some effect on response time, though it still depends on me to send any rejections. But even if your wait is long, that doesn't = a rejection, because our acquisitions process takes time as well.

Also, someone reminded me that earlier in this thread I'd said payment was 2x/year, which is what we initially thought it would be, but we've adapted our royalty system to pay quarterly.

Angela James said:

Yes, between 12 and 16 weeks right now. We had 3 new freelance editors start this week, so I'm hoping that will have some effect on response time, though it still depends on me to send any rejections.

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It must be having some effect, because I got my response today, about 2 weeks ahead of the listed response time.

DeadlyAccurate said:

It must be having some effect, because I got my response today, about 2 weeks ahead of the listed response time.

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Well, I'd like to say yes, but being truthful, it just means that I'm working to get caught up on sending out responses, since some are reaching that mark. But the new freelance editors are getting reports back to me already!

Angela- In another thread you stated that Carina accepts horror subs. Are you seeking anything specific in particular?

Horror seems to not be much of an emarket. As Michael noted above, it's mostly print and NY. What do you plan to do to draw horror readers to Carina? Or are you intending to cross genres and market them to Carina's typical romance reader?

Carinia Press is putting select romantic suspense and mystery titles in print thru their Harlequin Direct to Customer program in 2011. Nice move!

See Carina Press blog for more info: http://bit.ly/dBRkY3

brainstorm77 said:

Angela- In another thread you stated that Carina accepts horror subs. Are you seeking anything specific in particular?

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Nothing particular at this time. We have several editors who are keen to acquire a good horror manuscript. We've had a couple of manuscripts come close and offered revision suggestions, but haven't found one that's hit yet. One of the members here has received revision suggestions from us, in fact.

jennontheisland said:

Horror seems to not be much of an emarket. As Michael noted above, it's mostly print and NY. What do you plan to do to draw horror readers to Carina? Or are you intending to cross genres and market them to Carina's typical romance reader?

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Until the past two or three years, we could argue that anything non-erotic didn't seem to have much of an emarket. What we know about publishing and digital publishing specifically, and what sells well and where is changing daily. To declare any absolute about anything at this point (beyond saying: things are changing and will continue to change) is akin to announcing I have a crystal ball and can see into the future (sadly, I do not).

To your other question, as much as romance readers do cross genres, we can't rely on that for other non-romance genres, including horror, so we develop market plans to target readers outside romance.

Erin said:

Carinia Press is putting select romantic suspense and mystery titles in print thru their Harlequin Direct to Customer program in 2011. Nice move!

See Carina Press blog for more info: http://bit.ly/dBRkY3

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Thank you, we're very excited about this and future possibilites.

Angela James said:

Nothing particular at this time. We have several editors who are keen to acquire a good horror manuscript. We've had a couple of manuscripts come close and offered revision suggestions, but haven't found one that's hit yet. One of the members here has received revision suggestions from us, in fact.

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Thanks for the reply.

Angela James said:

Until the past two or three years, we could argue that anything non-erotic didn't seem to have much of an emarket. What we know about publishing and digital publishing specifically, and what sells well and where is changing daily. To declare any absolute about anything at this point (beyond saying: things are changing and will continue to change) is akin to announcing I have a crystal ball and can see into the future (sadly, I do not).

To your other question, as much as romance readers do cross genres, we can't rely on that for other non-romance genres, including horror, so we develop market plans to target readers outside romance.

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Thanks Angela.

A market plan for Harlequin Horror would be an interesting thing. I know that H is not something I look for when I'm scoping out scary stuff.

Your horror editor... what horror markets has he/she worked in?

I recently emailed Carina about what their definition of erotic romance is as opposed to plain erotica. Below is the response I received from Angela James, Executive Editor at Carnina Press Hopefully, this will help future authors submitting to their publishing house.

To be erotic romance, it has to have a happily ever after/happily for now and the romance needs to be a central theme, along with the eroticism. Erotica requires no elements of romance. Hope this helps!

Angela James
Executive Editor, Carina Press

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Carina Press Sales?

Now that Carina Press has been up and running for a while, I'd like to find out how their sales are doing. I'm interested in submitting an erotic romance to them, but I'm wondering if they've built up enough of an audience yet that it would be worth going to them, rather than Ellora's Cave, which is more established in the e-pub business, especially with Carina's lower royalty rate.

Does anyone out there have any information as to sales stats on Carina Press? Or has anyone heard from any authors as to how well their books are doing there?

The closest I've come is some stats on novelrank.com for some of the Carina books, and they weren't that impressive. But that only lists Amazon sales. I'd love to know how well sales are doing on Carina's own site.

I'd also like to know if anyone knows how to figure out book lengths on Carina. I didn't notice anything for the books I browsed that lets the reader know how long the book is. That's important when trying to figure out what your royalties would be per book. Have I overlooked that, or have they left that out? Because with ebooks, I personally find it important to know the length. I'd be ticked if I paid five bucks for a book, and THEN found out it was teeny tiny.

Thanks!