Queen of Swords Press

[Night_Writer]

I just came across a new indie publisher that looks interesting, and I didn't see a thread about it here. It's Queen of Swords Press.

https://queenofswordspress.com/

They seem to specialize in swords, swashbuckling, and steampunk. I would try them, except that what I write isn't their bag. They seem legit, though.

Is anyone familiar with them? Or have any comments on the website?

 

[Madame Medusa]

I didn't find any information on their royalty rate, which is a red flag for me. Why would you submit to a company without knowing how much your cut of the sales would potentially be? They specify they don't pay advances, but very few small presses do, so that's not a surprise. There's also no information on the individuals behind the company, so there is no way to determine what, if any, experience they have. Another big red flag. Makes me think of the old caveat: if you have to ask, you probably don't want to know.

One piece of advice I've read time and again on these boards, and is always worth keeping in mind, is "what could this company do for me that I couldn't do for myself through self publishing?"

 

[Night_Writer]

I didn't find any information on their royalty rate, which is a red flag for me. Why would you submit to a company without knowing how much your cut of the sales would potentially be?

Well, I don't know. Do indie publishers usually mention the royalty rate? I don't seem to recall seeing that often, on other indie pub sites. I didn't think it made a difference initially, but that it would be discussed if they were interested in the book.

There's also no information on the individuals behind the company, so there is no way to determine what, if any, experience they have. Another big red flag.

This is a good point, and the one that concerns me more, now that you mention it. These people really could be anybody. Still, they do have some books they've published displayed on the site. So that seems good.

If I wrote the kind of thing they like, I wouldn't scratch them off the list just yet.

 

[eqb]

Reader centered website. That's good.

Distribution through Ingram Book Group. Also good.

Targeted genres. Also good.

Here's a market report on them by Jason Sanford: https://www.patreon.com/posts/21951081

 

[Night_Writer]

The publisher's been publishing her own books. Maybe not so good. Hard to tell.

 

[eqb]

What I see on the site doesn't raise any flags for me. They are, however, very new and very small. Wait another year or two and see.

 

[Richard White]

I know one of the authors, Alex Acks. I met Alex as SoonerCon several years ago. I'm a bit more confident about this press if Alex is involved, they're good people.

 

[eqb]

I know one of the authors, Alex Acks. I met Alex as SoonerCon several years ago. I'm a bit more confident about this press if Alex is involved, they're good people.

And I know Catherine Lundoff, which also gives me more confidence.

 

[veinglory]

I read one of the anthologies through Netgalley and enjoyed it. I think fantasy with diversity is a pretty good niche.

 

[Aphotic Ink]

I submitted to one of the anthologies, and while they accepted, we couldn't come to an agreement about the contract. (Writer Beware advised that some things weren't good, and the publisher said that some of the things they were allowed to do by the contract weren't things they were going to do, but didn't want to update the contract to reflect that.)

I withdrew the story. This was a year ago, so the boilerplate contract may have changed since.

(I want to emphasize that I'd heard good things about the people working at the press and wasn't expecting them to exploit the contract, but still--I like to plan for "what happens if the person running the press gets hit by a bus and Snidely Whiplash takes over and gets to do everything the contract says?", you know?)

Frances

 

[C Alberts]

Distribution through Ingram Book Group. Also good.

I just looked at their listings through Ingram - they aren't standard terms. Of the 6 books from this publisher listed, 4 have prohibitively short discounts (meaning if a bookstore or library wants to order it, they don't get their standard discount off the list price so they won't likely order them). One is listed as non-returnable which is often a dealbreaker for a bookstore. It is unusual, too, for there to be such varied terms among a single publisher's books. Occasionally, some older backlist titles from a publisher may have short discounts on Ingram on their way to out-of-print status, but that's not the case here.

And this isn't "distribution", it is wholesale. Distribution generally implies that there is a sales force selling the book to stores, that it is listed in a catalog, that it may have ARCs being sent out pre-pub, etc. Ingram has an arm that does that for a number of small independent publishers (IPS) but this publisher is not part of that.

Their books are just in a database along with literally millions of others, and no one will see them unless they are already looking for them specifically. Until they build their catalog and show some good sales numbers, full distribution is not likely. In the meantime, having their books listed at standard terms through Ingram is imperative if they want any significant bookstore presence.

I'm not trying to diss the publisher - they may be doing everything else that they need to do. But since I have access to the Ingram database I thought I'd take a look, and that's what I saw.