Sugar and Spice Press

[DarkDesireX]

Looking around and I didn't see anything for this publisher. If a thread already exists, don't hesitate to find a big stick and poke me with it, but does anyone know anything about them?

Here is there website link....http://www.sugarnspicepress.com/

And submissions page which took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to find.....http://www.sugarnspicepress.com/index.php?main_page=page_3

 

[CaoPaux]

That a number of the books are by staff is rarely a good sign. Have you read through their excerpts?

 

[Momento Mori]

There's no details on the background of any of the people associated with the publisher - specifically whether they have previous publishing industry experience. That is not a reassuring sign. Then there's this:

Sugar and Spice Press Website:
So here's the bottom line...

By going with SSP, you become part of our happy publishing family and we're thrilled to have you! Sugar and Spice Press

If I'm signing up with a publisher I don't want to be part of a family - I want to get my book sold to the public. If there was anything on the site that suggested this publisher could do that then it would be one thing, but everything I've seen suggests well intentioned amateurs.

Going through the list of authors, one of them - Jacqueline Turner Banks is apparently a partner in the Banks Communications Literary Agency, which I can't find a huge amount about on Google (about the only entries are her author bio on Sugar and Spice and a few client details up on Publishers Marketplace).

Another of the authors - Sabrina Luna - claims to be a bestselling author in her author blurb but that's the kind of thing that's easy to claim without explaining what you mean by it. Having taken a quick look on Amazon at her previous publishers, with the best will in the world I have to say that I doubt she's using the normal meaning of bestseller, i.e. NYT or USA Today.

MM

 

[michael_b]

Another of the authors - Sabrina Luna - claims to be a bestselling author in her author blurb but that's the kind of thing that's easy to claim without explaining what you mean by it. Having taken a quick look on Amazon at her previous publishers, with the best will in the world I have to say that I doubt she's using the normal meaning of bestseller, i.e. NYT or USA Today.

MM

With Ebook authors--which is what Sabrina Luna is--Bestselling Author can mean at their publisher's website, at Fictionwise, All Romance eBooks or other venues. It doesn't have anything to do with the standard paperback 'bestseller' lists.

Just thought I'd clarify that.

 

[defyalllogic]

the book covers are... almost.

 

[veinglory]

Personally, I think if the 'best selling' term is not used in the conventional sense, it should be qualified by saying which list they are referring to. Otherwise it does tend to look like one is over-egging the pudding.

 

[jennontheisland]

Personally, I think if the 'best selling' term is not used in the conventional sense, it should be qualified by saying which list they are referring to. Otherwise it does tend to look like one is over-egging the pudding.

The number of authors who find a way to make the claim "bestselling" is growing. It's started to lose meaning. Particularly among ebook authors.

Some small epubs will have "bestsellers" with fewer than 50 books sold.

 

[Momento Mori]

michael_b:
With Ebook authors--which is what Sabrina Luna is--Bestselling Author can mean at their publisher's website, at Fictionwise, All Romance eBooks or other venues. It doesn't have anything to do with the standard paperback 'bestseller' lists.

Just thought I'd clarify that.

Thanks for the clarification. Like jennontheisland said though, the "bestselling" claim is losing meaning among epublishers and if you're going to use it, you need to at least set out in what respect you're a bestseller. To be honest, an author who's a bestseller at a small publisher where the average number of sales is 250, isn't making much of a legitimate claim IMO (even allowing for the fact that ebook sales don't tend to be huge).

There seems to me to be a lot of romance publishers out there. I'd want to see/know what makes this one stand out and see what their sales are like in 2 years time.

MM

 

[michael_b]

Well speaking for myself, I've been a best seller at several of the publishers I've been with and with all of them 'bestseller' for me was well over the 250 mark you mention in the first couple of weeks.

I've also been a bestseller at Fictionwise and at All Romance eBooks and here too, the number of copies sold was in the high three figures. Keep in mind, I write m/m for the most part, not the more popular m/f.

I know there are these ideas that, as you state, even allowing for the fact that ebook sales don't tend to be huge--which really might have been true years ago, but isn't always the case now. I won't say they're in the tens of thousands, but I personally know of authors who sell in the 1500 to 2000 range the first month their books come out. A number of these authors also sell to NYC, so I'm sure there are some crossover sales.

Speaking for Shadowfire Press, sales vary widely and a lot of those sales depend on genre and pairing. For us m/m has traditionally been our top seller with the paranormal m/m books leading the pack with sales in three figures. We've done a lot of advertising to help build our m/f readership, but here again paranormal titles do far better than contemporaries.

 

[Unimportant]

For us m/m has traditionally been our top seller with the paranormal m/m books leading the pack with sales in three figures.

mb, is that total sales, or the first month after release? (Just curious.)

 

[veinglory]

Maybe general discussion about ebook sales levels needs its own thread? But in my experience low four figures is quite realistic for MM, high four figures in some cases.

 

[defyalllogic]

i read a few of the blurbs on the coming soon page and I'd say, personally, I don't expect too much from the books they're representing. the blurb alone was confusing and missing key information to allow sense to be made.

 

[Momento Mori]

michael_b:
I won't say they're in the tens of thousands, but I personally know of authors who sell in the 1500 to 2000 range the first month their books come out

Yes, but compare that to, say The Sunday Times bestseller list, where a book in the top 10 would sell upwards of 8,000 copies in the UK (for fiction paperbacks). I'm not dismissing those sales, I'm saying that they're not really comparable to what most people would think of as bestselling figures.

The point is that there are bestsellers and there are bestsellers. If you're going to call yourself a bestseller without defining what that means, then I would suggest that most people would infer that you're talking about the newspaper bestseller lists.

MM

 

[veinglory]

Quite.

 

[Invincibility]

No rape presented in a positive light or for titillation, no incest in any form, no pedophilia, no necrophelia, and no bodily functions.

Oh, phew. Good thing they don't ban necrophilia -- just necrophelia, whatever that is. Though I'm confused on how they expect people to submit erotica if bodily functions, for example ejaculation, aren't allowed.

 

[IceCreamEmpress]

Oh, phew. Good thing they don't ban necrophilia -- just necrophelia, whatever that is.

Hamlet's zombie girlfriend. Nobody wants to read a novel with her in it.

 

[Jamiekswriter]

::groan:: -- suffering the slings and arrows!

 

[michael_b]

Yet more plagiarized work has popped up, this time at Sugar and Spice. It's right on their front page as of this writing.

http://www.sugarnspicepress.com/

I'm not blaming the publisher, there are so many books out there that it's difficult for anyone to know if the story is original or stolen these days. They do appear to be taking the appropriate steps regarding the situation.

 

[veinglory]

The author in question is also published by Amira, Phaze, Bookstrand, Red Rose, eXtasy and Class Act Books

 

[aliceshortcake]

Proof that you can plagiarize a Harlequin Blaze book published thirteen years ago and still be caught out!

*shakes fist*

 

[veinglory]

Personally I am impressed that two different people spotted the duplications after that period of time, good on them.

 

[aliceshortcake]

Aha...the plagiarized book was reissued in July last year! You can bet that someone, somewhere is now going through Ms Plagiarist's other books with a fine tooth comb looking for further evidence of wrongdoing. It's strange that quite a few Amazon reviewers are puzzled by the fact that her other interracial romances barely mention that the couples are of different races...

 

[MundaniaPress]

The author in question is also published by Amira, Phaze, Bookstrand, Red Rose, eXtasy and Class Act Books

As a follow up, we were notified about this from Sugar and Spice Press last night. In accordance with our strict policy concerning authors who have plagiarized, Phaze has cancelled the books we have published by the author in question.

 

[aliceshortcake]

Does anyone else suspect that the offending book's title is decidedly tongue-in-cheek?

 

[CaoPaux]

Although site and social media updates ceased in '11, continued to publish. Site finally pulled shortly after last book issued June '15.