Giant Squid Books

[Tromboli]

Today I got this tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/giantsquidbooks/status/436621629486268416

"@Trombolii love the sound of DARCY DARKLING and what I read on your blog! would love to read more, too! http://t.co/zkoDTV2tXi" From Giant Squid Books. (Darcy Darkling being the MG I'm curently querying. I have the query and first page on my blog) The website doesn't give much information at all. One red flag for me is that their number 1 reason why you should submit to them is "It's free!!!"


No idea who's running this or what kind of background they have (I think they're authors)

Not a lot to recommend them.

 

[Mclesh]

Tromboli, I just looked at their website. (The free part is a little troubling, that they'd use that as a selling point.) I'm confused, though. Your ms is MG and they say nothing about middle grade. They seem to want YA. So does that mean they're open to MG also? Hmm. Maybe someone can weigh in.

 

[popgun62]

Yeah, I don't see anything about MG, either. They look sincere enough, but they only have one book out. I'd probably wait a while and see how they do.

 

[Osulagh]

This is coming from more of a lurker than anything... so don't take this as an expert opinion...

I don't see anything about MG, but they're pretty much asking for anything YA, fantasy, and "unique" to be submitted.

The seven reasons are both fluff and a bit misleading. I've read in the forums that it's best that money flows to the author, so the "free" bit should be a given. Agents and literature lawyers are needed so the writer doesn't get suckered into a bad deal by the publisher. All authors have creative control over their books before they sign the dotted line. Most publishers do both digital and print. Number two and number one are just puffery.

Looking at the book that's not even being released yet on Goodreads, there's already a review by someone who signed up that day, reviewed some bestselling books with 5 stars--as if to just get through Goodread's opening system--and reviewed the book (which, I'll add doesn't say anything critical, only "Good book, good book, good book") and then never touched any other book again; which all begs the question if that's a fabricated review.

I also don't see much about who actually works at the publisher (just "We're readers with professional editing experience" which doesn't mean much when you break it down), nor anything that tells me that they're going to do more than what I can already do with an editor, because they've pretty much explain their method of publishing as "We give you feedback, and publish on Kindle Direct and whatever other service that anyone can do, and take a cut".

Aside from the cheer-leading, I don't see any reason for going with them. Perhaps it'll be better to see how they fare down the road, and if someone can update the forums with their personal experience.

Again, take with salt.

 

[ShyWriter]

According to whois.com, the Giant Squid Books website is registered to Anna McCormally (http://www.whois.com/whois/giantsquidbooks.com) - she's the author of the only book the publisher has listed. Her Goodreads author page says she manages a small bookstore in Washington D.C and googling her name found me this Linkin profile (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/anna-mccormally/38/774/557) which says she worked as an editorial intern for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which means she at least has some editorial experience under her belt I guess.

 

[Tromboli]

Nice research, shywriter.

Just for the record, I'm not considering submitting to them. I'm agent searching right now and have no desire to try out a new small press (and honestly this publisher seems more like a "we'll help you self publish" kind of deal)

 

[CaoPaux]

Adding direct link: http://giantsquidbooks.com/

 

[Sage]

Bumping due to #pitmad favoriting. Looks like they're up to 3 books.

Neither editor claims editing experience in their About the Editors section.

 

[Mojokitten]

I'm an author with this new, independent publishing company. Rachel and Anna are passionate, hard-working, and very fair to their authors. They are not traditional publishers and don't pretend to be, but they have integrity and vision. I have had a positive experience with Giant Squid Books, and would recommend them to any YA author looking for an indie publisher.

 

[mrsmig]

I'm an author with this new, independent publishing company. Rachel and Anna are passionate, hard-working, and very fair to their authors. They are not traditional publishers and don't pretend to be, but they have integrity and vision. I have had a positive experience with Giant Squid Books, and would recommend them to any YA author looking for an indie publisher.

Hi, Mojokitten, and welcome to AW.

Can you expand on your experience with Giant Squid? For example, how was your editing process? What kind of marketing and promotion has GS provided? And most important, how are your sales?

 

[Mojokitten]

My sales aren't high, I'll put that out there. Again, if you are looking for a small indie with integrity, GSB is it. By traditional publishing standards, it's difficult to compare. The editing process was thorough, line-by-line copyediting as well as an intelligent and respectful conversation about bigger picture items. Marketing and promotion have been in line with a small, up-and-coming company. Online promotions, a blog tour, and some local conventions, panels, and readings. I've managed to get the book into a few schools, and there are more promotional bookstore tours in the works.

I've used this forum for info many times over the years, and I want to be useful to other writers. I hope I am being very clear. I believed in my novel, and understood the under served audience for whom I wrote it and so did the women at Giant Squid Books. If you juxtapose a small company with a traditional or more established company, the comparison isn't useful.

For the goals I have for my novel, GSB has been a dream to work with. I respect their vision of publishing diverse YA. Traditional publishing goals are marvelous, and I so respect everything traditional publishing does to serve readers and writers. Yet there's something punk rock about the whole indie pub movement that's going on that I really like. I've been able to bring my novel to continuation school students who appreciate having a story they can relate to. I did not want to self-publish, and the terms of my contract are extremely fair. It's an honor to be a part of the GSB team.

I hope that helps.

 

[CaoPaux]

Site gone. Last book published mid-'16.