No, you can nitpick--that's what you need to do. I don't mind at all. But to ease your minds a bit, after over a decade in the business as an editor, senior editor and managing editor, including building a historical imprint from the ground up and publishing over 40 well-researched, well-edited and well-written historical novels in the past year, on top of my editorial duties for the publisher as a whole, I have a little practical experience in the field of editing.
When you add in the two years of managing editorial experience, including dealing with royalties, contracts, release schedules, editorial assignments, working with the art department to create an aesthetic to brand a line, dealing with an...ahem!...indifferent publisher and creating a management team to address the problems with a failing e-publisher, and then posting a 40% increase of sales in the first month, following that up with an additional 23% increase in sales in the following month et cetera and so forth I feel pretty confident that I *might* know what I'm doing. I certainly hope so.
However, that assessment is one for you and other authors to make independently.
I will also state that the contract for Musa has been vetted by experienced individuals throughout the publishing industry--several of whom are regulars in this particular forum and other watchdog sites--in their roles as author advocates, agents, and attorneys to make certain we've created one of the most author friendly contracts available in small press.
We're trying to accomplish a lot in a short period of time. And as the webmistress didn't get my bio until this morning, I'm thinking that perhaps the placeholder statement might be taken as just that for the overnight hours. As you can imagine, with our ezine paying pro rates the submissions email has been my primary concern for the past week. Fortunately, I am currently winning the battle of the inbox, so I am coordinating the construction of our sites and information more aggressively.
We've been creating Musa slowly over the past month or so, intending to build and launch it properly once we felt our previous employer had been stablized and our replacements hired and trained. After a disastrous difference of business plans with the former press, we escalated our plans so we could provide a home for any author who might be stranded by that publisher. But our team is put together, we are completing our database and building our websites, we are ahead of schedule on our releases and for the inaugural issue of the ezine. Musa is starting out with an established team, including an interior book designer, that is focused upon providing the highest quality electronic product we can create while keeping the author informed and integrated into all the processes involved with their books. And while I feel confident that we have all the pieces in place, I would--as I have done previously in this forum with other fledgling publishers--state that a new small press is always a reason for concern for authors. That's why we are establishing a policy of full transparency for the writer--so they'll always know exactly where they, and we, stand and won't be trapped in a morass of uncertainty about the relative strengths or stability of their publisher.
I haven't spent years on my apprenticeship in B&BC for nothing. The most common mistakes of small publishers I've duly noted, and we made a concerted effort to address those issues at Musa BEFORE we set our business model. I intend to succeed, as does the rest of my team, at forging our own path around those pitfalls in advance. Hopefully, we'll soon be able to tell if we've done so.
Any other questions anyone has about Musa, I'll be happy to answer either here or privately off loop at editorATmusapublishing.com. Our blog is up, and we're adding pertinent information as we go. Including the bios on the About Page instead of placeholders. In the upcoming week, we expect to have a sample of our interior book design, sample book covers, contract information, further royalty guidelines and more added to the blog, as well as getting our database and websites live.
And we'll go from there.
Thanks, Barbara, for bringing these issues to B&BC. The one mistake I am determined NOT to make is the one most fledgling pubs make in here--getting defensive about questioning posts or being cute about what we're trying to do. I, personally, don't have time for that. I will always, however, find time to respond to questions in this thread.
Hope this helps--