New Publisher!

Thanks, this is great news.



Now, I wondering about the royalty paying issue. Are they joining the others epublishers paying mostly net?

cool

Angela James got a job, I'm glad for her.

http://carinapress.com/?p=30

http://twitter.com/angelajames

I'm really excited about this new venture. It's another publisher to put on my list of "places to sub to."

*waves* I'm new here, btw

Guys, not to burst anyone's bubbles, but...

I don't know why any writer should be excited about another publishing venture that doesn't offer advances to writers.

No advance says, hey, you, author, YOU take all the risk. YOU hope and pray that after all the work put into this thing, that it sells enough copies to make it worthwhile for you.

No advance says the publisher doesn't have to do much at all in order to recoup THEIR costs. So, the more books they toss out there, the better off THEY are, but the hell with the individual authors.

Actually...something like that HAS happened at Harlequin frequently over the last years. When Harlequin increases the number of books released per month in a given line, it may increase THEIR profits a bit. But you know what it does to the individual author's earning power? It LOWERS it. Because when you had only, say 4 books per month in the line, you had readers who bought ALL of them. Then you bumped it up to 6 books per month. Suddenly, some of the readers couldn't afford ALL of them. So they picked and chose. Cutting the pie into 6 instead of 4 makes the slices smaller.

So, while this is interesting, it's not something I'm incredibly jazzed about right off the bat. Cause yeah, I also have to wonder how long it will take TPTB to look at this venture, and say, "Hey. Why don't we stop offering advances over HERE, too?"

Also, given the company's track record with new ventures of late...you might want to let them shake loose some of the bugs before you jump into the pool. I'm just sayin'.

But then...I seem to have misplaced my optimism lately where publishing is concerned. <G> So take it for what it's worth. LOL.

Susan G.

Susan, you got a great point there, we should keep it real.
In my inexperience, I was concerned only about royalties. I think they’re trying to compete with EC and Samhain among others. If they go the EC’s way, I’m not submitting anything to them. If they copy Samhain’s royalty paying structure, I’ll give them a try.
The reason I’m excited about it is because I write m/m stories, which would never fit the traditional HQ.
Right now HQ is the publisher I’m focusing on more.
You have good reasons to be concerned, they might want to change the way they do regular business. However, I doubt it. If they do, they risk losing many writers to other publishers.

I'd love to see what their royalty percentage on the digital book might be. Because if it's less than 35% or thereabouts, they cannot compete with the e-presses I'm already doing business with. Add "no advance" onto that, and it's a nonstarter for me.

Now, if they offer a firmer distribution system and potentially 50-100% more sales, I'll be interested again.

I wonder if Harlequin's now e-pub, Carina will be offering advances. Anyone know?

Carlene

From their website:

The Carina Press contract does not include an advance or DRM, and authors are compensated with a higher royalty.

Unlike Harlequin there is no guaranteed series distribution (no standing order, no direct mail, no overseas translation markets).

Carina Press titles will be sold direct to consumers through the Carina Press website, and we’ll be securing 3rd party distribution on other websites.

Click to expand...

The "no DRM" bothers me even more than the "no advance." Do other e-publishers offer DRM?

Yes, DRM is fairly prevalent.

All Kindle editions of any publication are a modified .mobi DRM and I believe Barnes & Noble are doing the same thing with Nook. eHarlequin uses DRM (or did last time I checked). The major traditional pubs I understand require a DRM be used for any books sold as ebooks, to deter piracy.

However, many of the epubs advocate no-DRM as a reader benefit. It's non-proprietary and allows a reader to read the book they purchase on any device they choose. Some contend that DRM does not deter piracy. Honestly, it's not that difficult to strip a book of DRM if one really wants to.

It's the same debate that's been going on in digital music distribution for years.

On another board, Angela reported 30% royalties. No idea if that's net or cover though.

As for Harlequin looking for part of the Samhain-EC market... Harlequin's titles tend to be less erotic, and those are the better sellers at EC and Samhain. Me, I see a huge jump in the steaminess of the content from their Blaze line and the Spice line. Samhain and EC fill that gap. If they want typical ebook readers, they're going to have to consider how they approach the sex, imo.

Carina is also separating some genres out from the Romance/Erotic Romance umbrella by looking for mystery, horror, thriller, sci-fi etc. stories with some or no romantic elements. That's spreading things thin. It's also something other epubs have tried and for the most part abandoned.

Yeah, it's Harlequin. But it's still a new epublisher.

FYI, the following epublishers are (to my knowledge) DRM-free:

Amber Quill
Changeling Press, LLC
Cobblestone Press
Dreamspinner Press
Drollerie Press
Ellora’s Cave
Liquid Silver Books
LooseID
Lyrical Press
MLR Press
Pink Petal Books
Samhain Publishing
Torquere Press
TotaleBound

Note: Ellora's Cave, Samhain, Loose ID, Amber Quill Press and Liquid Silver are considered by many/most to be the "big five" in romance epublishing.

If I'm wrong about any pub in the above list, please correct me. This was the best info I could find.

DRM-free is pretty standard, as an author I prefer it because (in my experience) it increases sales.

I don't get why people are bothered about lack of DRM. This is a good thing. The only thing DRM does well is annoy paying customers. Pirates know how to crack drm, and if they are going to pirate something they will. There is nothing you can do to stop them. What publishing houses and authors should be concentrating on is educating readers so they don't download free copies and not providing an inferior product. A book or a file with drm is an inferior product to one without. And to add insult to injury the ebook is also usually the same price as the print copy.

There are folks talking about RWA potential reaction with this new Harlequin’s venture.
If you want to read more here is the link

http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/carina-press/#com