Reanimated Writers Press

[Grivante]

I've come to realize this site is predominantly for authors interested in traditional publishing models and since what we are doing is not that, it was not a good fit. We are a group of independent authors working together to promote one another and building new ways of marketing our work collectively.

 

[CaoPaux]

Moved from Horror.

 

[cornflake]

Sorry, you're charging people to print their stories in your anthology?

 

[Marian Perera]

A few more points about submissions, from their webpage :

All submissions must be edited by a professional editor. Submissions that are not edited will not be considered, your editor’s name must be included with your submission.

This buy-in will be reduced if the selected author modifies their story to include a fan death that will be auctioned off in the Reanimated Writers Fan Group. The amount the Kill-Starter auction raises is split between the authors to reduce their buy-in up to 50%. Example if 4 authors participate and it raises 100 dollars, their new buy-in is only 25 dollars.

There is no guarantee that the full buy-in or a profit will be earned by the author. Accepted unsolicited stories will receive a percentage of the net earnings.

 

[mrsmig]

So you have to pay to have your work edited, and pay again to have your work published in the anthology? I tried to parse their contract's language regarding royalties, but to be honest it's so convoluted that I had trouble following it. The best I can figure is that after paying for their own edits, then paying a fee for inclusion, the authors get a measly 2.5% of the profits from publication, on a vague monthly/quarterly schedule for ebooks/paperbacks. (Authors also don't get free copies of the publications, so I'm guessing a lot of their sales come from the authors themselves.)

I just don't see how this is a good idea for any author.

 

[Grivante]

This is a marketing project for authors with a series, not a traditional anthology

To clarify the anthology is a marketing vehicle for the authors that choose to be involved. It is meant to gain them readers to their core series by working together with other indie authors. If you can take a moment and see past the fact that there is a marketing fee only once accepted and understand the marketing aspect of the book, you will understand this is not a negative but a promotional opportunity with the added benefit of getting some royalties on the back end.

We are a group of independent authors who work together to promote one another and share the word about each other’s work. This is our 3rd anthology and the first 2 have done very well for all of authors, gaining them new readers to their series. Hopefully that helps you to get a different view of what this is all about, it’s not a typical anthology and it’s not intended for short story writers to submit to, only people who have a series and want to try and get it more attention.

I thought posting it here might open the opportunity to additional authors that were not familiar with our group, but I also understand that many of those here may not be familiar with some of the practices taking place in the indie publishing world where we are banding together to have more reach with our readers.

 

[frimble3]

Why this, though:

All submissions must be edited by a professional editor. Submissions that are not edited will not be considered, your editor's name must be included with your submission.

Surely you will be selecting work based on quality? Or, once the writer has paid your fee, they're in, regardless? In which case, why stipulate? What about those writers who can edit their own work? Are they supposed to pay up just to get the name of a 'professional' on their submission?
And why do you need to know the names of those editors? To check their credentials? To make a list of potential editors to pass on to others? I would think the names of other people's editors would be high on the list of 'none of your business'.

 

[cornflake]

To clarify the anthology is a marketing vehicle for the authors that choose to be involved. It is meant to gain them readers to their core series by working together with other indie authors. If you can take a moment and see past the fact that there is a marketing fee only once accepted and understand the marketing aspect of the book, you will understand this is not a negative but a promotional opportunity with the added benefit of getting some royalties on the back end.

We are a group of independent authors who work together to promote one another and share the word about each other’s work. This is our 3rd anthology and the first 2 have done very well for all of authors, gaining them new readers to their series. Hopefully that helps you to get a different view of what this is all about, it’s not a typical anthology and it’s not intended for short story writers to submit to, only people who have a series and want to try and get it more attention.

I thought posting it here might open the opportunity to additional authors that were not familiar with our group, but I also understand that many of those here may not be familiar with some of the practices taking place in the indie publishing world where we are banding together to have more reach with our readers.

Oh, a marketing fee -- and it's for exposure! Yeah, in the words of John Scalzi, Fuck You, Pay Me.

This is what's brought the freelancing market into the toilet, just btw -- people convincing writers to write for nothing, or, now, to pay to be published.

 

[Grivante]

Yes, there is a team that reads the stories and makes sure they are well written and edited. The first book did not have a standardized submission process or editorial guidelines and that caused issues, including the book taking some negative reviews for those stories. Book 1 was an all inclusive group project that everyone participated in. For Book 2 and 3 we learned things that didn't work or caused problems and made adjustments. If someone wants to keep the name of their editor private that is something we can respect, most authors I know are more than happy to share info about their editor and get them more work or recommendations. I do the same with mine because I appreciate them and want to see them be successful.

Why this, though:
Surely you will be selecting work based on quality? Or, once the writer has paid your fee, they're in, regardless? In which case, why stipulate? What about those writers who can edit their own work? Are they supposed to pay up just to get the name of a 'professional' on their submission?
And why do you need to know the names of those editors? To check their credentials? To make a list of potential editors to pass on to others? I would think the names of other people's editors would be high on the list of 'none of your business'.

 

[Calla Lily]

This is an appropriate moment to refer to Yog's Law.

 

[Grivante]

Yes, I understand Yog's law. There isn't anyone making a bunch of money off this anthology directly. Royalties are split amongst the authors and the other part goes back to marketing of the book to get the author's series exposure. The author's who participate in the set are very happy with how it works. For the authors that choose to participate this is a way of pooling our marketing money to have greater impact. In the indie publishing world, working together accomplishes great things. The whole team is made up of authors working together to support one another. I am gathering this isn't the right place to have posted for author's looking to do what we are doing and I get it, so I will move on. Thank you for the education.

 

[frimble3]

If someone wants to keep the name of their editor private that is something we can respect, most authors I know are more than happy to share info about their editor and get them more work or recommendations.

But you still don't answer 'Why?'

 

[Grivante]

It is requested as a validation that their story was actually edited by someone other than themselves.

 

[mrsmig]

When you say that part of the royalties go into Reanimated Writers' marketing pool, can you break down exactly what that means? For example, does it pay for a marketing person who works to gets your books into brick and mortar stores? Or does that marketing money go into advertising and if so, what kind of advertising?

If I were to submit to an anthology that wanted money from me up front, paid a very small fraction in royalties, and didn't provide me with a single author's copy, then I would definitely want to know how that pool of marketing money is being used.

 

[Grivante]

Marketing money is used to promote the group and the books via paid facebook advertising, bookbub, instagram and various email book promotion services. We do not have any paid employees. This is a group of authors who are working together to build every participants audience for the good of themselves and others.

 

[Richard White]

Okay, so this is not a publisher, but an author co-op putting together an anthology as a promotional package for themselves and other authors, and to do so, the authors are submitting stories based on their own previously published works and paying $50 to be included in the anthology.

As best I understand things so far.

Now, personally, I'm not really sure what I'm getting for my $50, much less burning a story I could possibly use in a book/collection of my own, without more research to see what kind of reach this anthology is likely to have - how many readers are likely to buy the book and where is the book being sold?

If they have a broad readership beyond what I was likely to reach on my own, then I would see this more as spending $50 and a story as advertising (hence coming out of my own personal advertising funds) for my work. I do not see this as a publishing credit nor do I see this as something I'm likely to see much direct return from.

 

[mrsmig]

I looked at the Amazon listing for one of the subject anthologies, and it appears some of the stories are stand-alones using characters and settings from the authors' pre-existing zombie series, while others are excerpts from other authors' zombie-themed books. There's a complaint or two in the reviews about the latter, since apparently they're hard to follow without some familiarity with those books.

I understand now what the press is trying to accomplish with these anthologies, but I'm not sold on the idea as a marketing tool.

 

[-Riv-]

. . . spending $50 and a story as advertising . . .

Plus paying a mandatory outside editor. (That's the most baffling part, to me.)

 

[mrsmig]

Plus paying a mandatory outside editor. (That's the most baffling part, to me.)

And given that there were multiple punctuation errors in the "Look Inside" excerpt I read (someone's editor really needs to learn how to recognize and break up run-on sentences), it's clear there's no editing oversight of the anthology as a whole.

Suppose for a moment that you're Author #4 in that anthology, and you'd spent the money to hire a really good editor for your story. Since the story from Author #1, which leads off the anthology, is rife with errors, wouldn't you be a little pissed? Wouldn't you worry that the quality of the whole anthology would be judged on the quality of that first story? Wouldn't you question the value of your financial outlay if there isn't someone with editing/publishing experience at the helm of the project?

 

[Marian Perera]

It is requested as a validation that their story was actually edited by someone other than themselves.

I'm just curious. If a professional editor is also a writer, and wants to submit a story to your anthology, would it be necessary to hire another professional editor so the story would be edited by someone else?

 

[Grivante]

The first book moved over 20,000 copies during its first year. All proceeds went back into marketing of the book. Book 2 is around a 1000 copies so far, it released mid-October. I get that people here do not see the value in the project and that is unfortunate but I get that we are all looking at it through our own unique perspective.

 

[Grivante]

And this is why more strict editing guidelines were instituted for the second and third publication. The first book was more of a free-for-all and lessons were learned. Everyone starts somewhere.

And given that there were multiple punctuation errors in the "Look Inside" excerpt I read (someone's editor really needs to learn how to recognize and break up run-on sentences), it's clear there's no editing oversight of the anthology as a whole.

Suppose for a moment that you're Author #4 in that anthology, and you'd spent the money to hire a really good editor for your story. Since the story from Author #1, which leads off the anthology, is rife with errors, wouldn't you be a little pissed? Wouldn't you worry that the quality of the whole anthology would be judged on the quality of that first story? Wouldn't you question the value of your financial outlay if there isn't someone with editing/publishing experience at the helm of the project?

 

[Grivante]

If they were a professional editor it would not be necessary and we're more than wiling to have conversations with authors about any specific topics they might like addressed if they wish to participate.

 

[Richard White]

Again, it's not that I'm against a project like this. If used for what it is, it might be quite useful to reach a new audience, but at its essence, this is advertising and at worst vanity publishing.

However, if you're paying to be in an anthology, while you may be "published", it's not a publishing credit. Apparently, the main requirements to be in the book is to have enough money to pay for an editor and pay the admission fee. It's not publishing in the classic term.

 

[mrsmig]

And this is why more strict editing guidelines were instituted for the second and third publication. The first book was more of a free-for-all and lessons were learned. Everyone starts somewhere.

I'm glad to hear that. However, your lessons were learned by experimenting with your authors' work. For those who submitted excerpts from their already-published books, it probably didn't matter much - but those who submitted a new story gave up their first publication rights, and paid for the privilege of doing so. Not such a great deal.

When you say the first book "moved" over 20,000 copies, are you talking about actual sales, or are you including free downloads in that number? I'm curious to hear if the authors recouped their $50.00 inclusion fee (no point in addressing the editing costs since those probably varied from $0 to who knows what). I'm also curious to know if the 2.5% royalty is shared among the authors, or if each author gets 2.5%, and if those royalties are based on the cover price, or some form of net income. In other words, are any of the press' expenses creamed off the top before the royalties are shared out?

Sorry if this seems like I'm grilling you, but I'm genuinely curious as to the benefits of this promotional model.