Penner Publishing

[Undercover]

http://www.pennerpublishing.com/

They say they pay advances, how much I don't know.
In the beginning it says they do print and e-books for all books they publish. But in the submissions it says they do (POD) on books over 60K.

They're building their 2015 and 2016 lists. No books yet.

 

[veinglory]

From their branding I really did not expect them to be a romance and women's fiction publisher.

 

[dondomat]

We are seeking to acquire romantic and women’s fiction in the following sub-genres:

• Contemporary (all heat levels).
• Fantasy
• Historical
• Multi-cultural/Interracial/People of Color
• Romantic Suspense/Thrillers
• Young/New Adult

What you need to know about us before submitting:

• We are an publishing house with digital distribution. We will make print-on-demand available for all titles over 60,000 words. Retail distribution will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
• We’re accepting both unagented and agented submissions.
• Unpublished authors please submit your finished MS only. Published authors may submit first three chapters with a synopsis. Please include your publishing history (under all pseudonyms).
• Please proofread your manuscript thoroughly.
• Our word counts are: 30,000 – 40,000 words for novellas; 55,000 – 100,000 words for full-length novels.
• While we accept all heat levels, we are not an erotic publisher. The focus of the story must be the heroine’s journey (women’s fiction) or the romance.
• Multiple submissions are accepted. If you have more than one book you’d like to submit, please submit them separately.
• We love series. (Readers do as well). Please let us know if you have a series planned, or if your submission has series potential. We’re only interested in receiving the first book at this time, however.
• Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but let us know that you’re submitting elsewhere. Please advise us if another publisher is interested in the book.
• Backlist titles and previously self-published work are welcome, but please indicate the book’s publishing history in your query

I don't write these genres and subgenres, but if I were, I'd ask to see (in confidential private conversation) a link to the artist they plan to use, and an approximation of the advance.


POD over a certain wordcount is very common with small epubs, while "Retail distribution will be decided on a case-by-case basis" possibly means they plan to invest in select titles in the getting them into bookstores sense.

 

[PennerPub]

Answers about Penner Publishing

Good Morning,

I'm one of the founders of Penner Publishing.

To answer some of the questions above:

Advances are negotiable between the author and publisher. Our goal, however is for all of authors to make PAN upon signing (if they're RWA members). If not, I think our advances would make an author eligible for Novelists Inc. (NINC does require more than a single published book for membership, but my answer is only for general discussion purposes).

While I admire many other epublishers for they're commitment to new writers, I do believe that a publisher who invests in an author will work harder for that author.

While we're looking for romance, we're also looking for those books RWA used to call novels with strong romantic elements. We'd like to publish those single title romances that also deal with bigger issues.

I was alerted to this discussion by an author who asked about cover artists. I think it's a fair question. We have several artists with whom we've worked and others with whom we have relationships. Many do covers both in and out of the romance genre. It's our hope to appeal to romance readers, women fiction readers, and book club readers, however, so our covers have wider genre appeal.

In the last weeks, we've solidified our editor roster. Several have pictures and short bios on our site. The rest will be forthcoming shortly.

Our main goals are to help build author careers by paying them fairly, having them hit best seller lists, and connecting with readers.

Thanks.
Jessica G. Penner Publishing
http://www.pennerpublishing.com/

 

[EvolvingK]

Hi, Jennifer,

I see on your list that you do take women's fiction with a fantasy tone; do you have any thoughts on what subgenres of fantasy you might be interested in? Dark/urban/paranormal, etc?

Thanks!

 

[PennerPub]

Fantasy

EvolvingK,

Super quick answer:

When I saw your post, the first two authors who came to mind were Tricia Skinner and Angie Fox. Dark, urban, paranormal with kick butt characters.

Thanks.
Jessica G. Penner Publishing
http://www.pennerpublishing.com/

 

[EvolvingK]

So after the conversation here, I thought I might try submitting a book that I had self-published to the company here, see if they'd be interested in a reprint. The email bounced.

I sent a message to Jennifer who was posting above, asking about this through the AW PM system. No response. I went to the company's FB page and posted about this on the 27th. No response. I went to the company's FB page again today to see if I could tell what was what. There was a post thanking everyone for all the subscriptions they were getting.

I thought I might be nuts. I clicked through to the submissions page linked in the FB post...and sure enough the submission page email address has been updated. It was previously @pennermedia.com, and it is now @pennerpublishing.com.

I can forgive them getting the email address wrong. I am very irritated that neither my email nor my FB post was responded to.

ETA: I commented on my FB post saying "Glad you fixed it, shame you didn't respond to this" or something slightly less catty. Got a response within minutes. Sigh. Still frustrated.

 

[PennerPub]

Apologies

K,

We apologize for your experience. The e-mail error was corrected when editor updates were made to the site. We've nearly completed our editor hiring and biographies of our editors are on the website today.

I only received notice of your PM here when I logged in today to respond.

We hope you will submit again, but understand if you do not. Also, there is no Jennifer with our organization at this time. I hope we haven't been confused with another publisher.

Regards,
Jessica Gadsden
Penner Publishing

 

[EvolvingK]

K,

We apologize for your experience. The e-mail error was corrected when editor updates were made to the site. We've nearly completed our editor hiring and biographies of our editors are on the website today.

I only received notice of your PM here when I logged in today to respond.

We hope you will submit again, but understand if you do not. Also, there is no Jennifer with our organization at this time. I hope we haven't been confused with another publisher.

Regards,
Jessica Gadsden
Penner Publishing

Hi, Jessica,

Sorry for being completely cranky; this EC debacle has me on edge. And sorry for misreading your name a billion times. And thank you for responding to my PM.

I'll go take a chill pill and drink some more coffee. I don't think those will cancel each other out, do you?

 

[Undercover]

I must have made a mistake when submitting because it didn't go through. I waited and waited, not sure how long and nudged them on it. They responded within a few hours, nice. Really nice. They said they hadn't received it. Again, I'm pretty sure it was my mistake. Anyway, very receptive.

I was wondering if anyone else had any more info? The only thing that bothers me is that mine is 55K, I wonder if they would do print for that, considering it's under the preferred word count.

The covers are amazing. Rebecca, I see you went with them. Beautiful cover. If you can come by again and let us know how it's going, that'd be great.

 

[triceretops]

I like the looks of them. I'm handing this one off to my agent. Among the 400 or so publishers I've been familiar with over the years, this one escaped me. It goes to my spreadsheet for a rightful place.

Good luck the rest of you!

Jessica--thanks for your contributions to the discussion, and for being composed.

tri

Undercover--I've seen on their website where they will accept 55,000 words for YA. Heh, it's worth a shot.

 

[EvolvingK]

Things are going very well. My experience with editing was extremely positive, I've felt like I had a lot of input on cover design and blurb copy without feeling like it was my job, if you know what I mean. All of my questions have been answered promptly, and my advance was delivered exactly when it was supposed to.

The term of the contract was longer than I would have preferred, but I decided to take the chance on the 10 years, as there is an adequate sales-out if things dry up at some point in the future.

My release date is 5/11, and I'm waiting now to see what happens in terms of promo and reviews.

 

[EmeraldLily23]

I'm also with Penner I'm still in the beginning stages of editing but contract negotiations went smoothly and my editor's notes were in-depth and spot on. It's been a very positive experience and I'm looking forward to seeing cover art at some point.

Now, off to work on my manuscript!

 

[RoseColoredSkies]

I sent a sub off this morning for a reprint of a women's fiction. We'll see what happens.

 

[akaria]

Has anyone submitted to these guys recently? I think they could be a good fit for my style of writing.

 

[Lil]

Are they still in existence?

 

[mrsmig]

Doesn't look like it. The link to their website is nonfunctional, and Duotrope's page for the company states that they don't rate a listing because as of June 2018, they hadn't accepted a submission in two years.

Move along, folks, nothing to see here...