Three Ravens Publishing

[Trash Culture]

has anyone heard of Three Ravens Publishing, as I've had a recommendation to approach them. I can't work out if they are legit/trustworthy. They aren't on your list but this is their website http://threeravenspublishing.com/

 

[zmethos]

There isn't much on the site to tell who is running the show there or what experience they have. I'm also not wowed by the book covers. I didn't bother to go look up the books on Amazon to see if they sell or not. Honestly, the formatting requirements are a huge turn off for me. (That's a personal thing; I really balk at publishers with minute formatting requirements.)

 

[mrsmig]

A Chickamauga, Georgia-based small press. Website geared toward authors rather than readers. No personnel listed anywhere on site. The company has a LinkedIn page and a single employee: one Scott Tackett, who is listed as Author/Publisher/Co-Owner since February 2019. Mr. Tackett's experience and education as stated on his LinkedIn page is in Drafting and Design. No experience in trade publishing is listed. Interestingly, Mr. Tackett's photo is the same as that of Three Ravens author William Joseph Roberts - so apparently what we have here is an author who started his own publishing company.

Of the 24 books and short stories published by Three Ravens, nine were written by J.L. Curtis and appear to have been self-published by Mr. Curtis prior to Three Ravens' existence (on Amazon, the publisher is still listed as JLC&A Publishing). Of the remaining 15 books, five were written by William Joseph Roberts (Scott Tackett). With the exception of Mr. Curtis' books, Three Ravens' entire catalogue was released within the past 12 months.

So...is this press trustworthy or not? It's too soon to tell. I'm certain that, like so many small presses, its principals are enthusiastic and well-intentioned. But enthusiastic and well-intentioned does NOT translate to publishing expertise. Maybe there are other individuals on staff who have publishing experience; given the fact that no staff is listed on the website at all makes me doubt it. Sales figures for their books as listed on Amazon are nothing to write home about, nor are there many reviews for their newer releases, which I assume means their promotional ability is limited to the usual social media outlets plus the authors' own efforts. There are the aforementioned not-so-great covers. In the books I looked into, I couldn't find any author acknowledgment of an editor, which makes me wonder if the company being such a stickler for specific formatting on submissions means Three Ravens doesn't provide much editing.

So you need to ask yourself: what services does Three Ravens Publishing provide that an author couldn't do for themselves via self-publishing?

 

[williamjroberts76]

has anyone heard of Three Ravens Publishing, as I've had a recommendation to approach them. I can't work out if they are legit/trustworthy. They aren't on your list but this is their website http://threeravenspublishing.com/

It's amazing what you can come across on a google search. Howdy, y'all.

So, what questions do you have? Ask away.

We are a small publishing house, started out as a way to publish our own works that we didn't want to just hand over to someone else. Partners are R.J. Ladon and Benjamin Tyler Smith. Beyond that, we decided to open our doors to help others take a step up.

We are very new, started in 2019, and we are slowly building. I do the lion's share of the work, but the others help on the review/editing side of things. I promote our releases on over a dozen social media platforms as well as paid ads on Facebook. I've been looking into Twitter and Amazon. I also help to get our authors on podcasts and interview platforms where ever I can.

Print copies are now being processed through Ingram/Spark in order to get a much wider distribution, while I'm still running our Ebooks through Kindle Unlimited.

Book covers, they cost and with a limited budget, we get the best that we can.

@mrsmig , damned good on the research. You nailed it on the head of who I am. Granted I don't outright hide it, but the fact that you dug that deep is pretty cool.

Let's see, Jim Curtis's books were mentioned, yup, he published them in print and ebook, and I helped him to take care of the audiobook versions.

Did I miss anything from above?

 

[mrsmig]

Hi, williamjroberts76, and welcome to AW.

I'm always willing to dig deep to help our membership make informed choices.

Now that you're here, maybe you can talk a bit about Three Ravens' business plan; e.g. what's your royalty split, do you base royalties on gross/cover or net profit, do you have a marketing plan to get your books into brick and mortar stores (I'm not talking about special orders), what are your sales like, etc.? That kind of information is very useful when evaluating a publishing company.

 

[williamjroberts76]

Hi, williamjroberts76, and welcome to AW.

I'm always willing to dig deep to help our membership make informed choices.

Now that you're here, maybe you can talk a bit about Three Ravens' business plan; e.g. what's your royalty split, do you base royalties on gross/cover or net profit, do you have a marketing plan to get your books into brick and mortar stores (I'm not talking about special orders), what are your sales like, etc.? That kind of information is very useful when evaluating a publishing company.

Split depends on if we are supplying cover art or if the author (especially repub) is coming in with artwork already. J.F. Postumus was one of these, she actually did her own artwork and it's a 70/30 split to her. Otherwise, we shift it to 60/40 so that there's a better chance of recouping the cost on the cover art. And if writing a novel in someone else's universe, it's a 50/40/10 split, where the IP holder of the universe gets 10% as universe creator. We haven't exercised this one yet, but with a number of the novels that we have currently in work, it will go into effect next year.

I've been running our print copies through Ingram/Sparks and listing them with Gardners/Neilson in order to get the expanded distribution to brick and mortar stores, including those overseas.

Sales wise, we're growing. We get an average of 2,000-4,000 page reads a day and selling print copies through both amazon and Ingram daily. Each title has had a different response, but going from epic fantasy to military scifi to urban fiction can do that.

Also, every convention that I have been able to attend and set up a table, I have. Currently on the list for next year are Superstars Chattacon, LIbertyCon, FantiSci, Metrotham, and RavenCon, plus I'm attending the Superstars Writing seminar in February.

We're still small, but growing.

 

[mrsmig]

Split depends on if we are supplying cover art or if the author (especially repub) is coming in with artwork already. J.F. Postumus was one of these, she actually did her own artwork and it's a 70/30 split to her. Otherwise, we shift it to 60/40 so that there's a better chance of recouping the cost on the cover art. And if writing a novel in someone else's universe, it's a 50/40/10 split, where the IP holder of the universe gets 10% as universe creator. We haven't exercised this one yet, but with a number of the novels that we have currently in work, it will go into effect next year.

I've been running our print copies through Ingram/Sparks and listing them with Gardners/Neilson in order to get the expanded distribution to brick and mortar stores, including those overseas.

Sales wise, we're growing. We get an average of 2,000-4,000 page reads a day and selling print copies through both amazon and Ingram daily. Each title has had a different response, but going from epic fantasy to military scifi to urban fiction can do that.

Also, every convention that I have been able to attend and set up a table, I have. Currently on the list for next year are Superstars Chattacon, LIbertyCon, FantiSci, Metrotham, and RavenCon, plus I'm attending the Superstars Writing seminar in February.

We're still small, but growing.

Thanks for your response. I'm a little confused on a couple of points, so if you can elaborate:

1) Am I reading this right, that you generally offer a 60/40 split with the larger amount going to the author? That's quite generous, unless you're creaming production expenses off the top before payment. For example, some small presses deduct the cost of printing before calculating the royalty. This is what's known as a "net royalty" payout, and it's generally a red flag if it's part of a publisher's business plan.

2) Regarding publishing material which is based on others' intellectual property (i.e. fan fiction), do you plan on getting contractual permission to use said IP prior to publishing? If not, you may run into some problems with markets like Amazon as well as the original creators themselves (I'm talking lawsuits here).

 

[williamjroberts76]

Thanks for your response. I'm a little confused on a couple of points, so if you can elaborate:

1) Am I reading this right, that you generally offer a 60/40 split with the larger amount going to the author? That's quite generous, unless you're creaming production expenses off the top before payment. For example, some small presses deduct the cost of printing before calculating the royalty. This is what's known as a "net royalty" payout, and it's generally a red flag if it's part of a publisher's business plan.

2) Regarding publishing material which is based on others' intellectual property (i.e. fan fiction), do you plan on getting contractual permission to use said IP prior to publishing? If not, you may run into some problems with markets like Amazon as well as the original creators themselves (I'm talking lawsuits here).

Yes, the 60 is to the author and straight up from the earnings.

As for #2, the IP holder's universe would already be with us. JTF-13 or Starflight for example. They are open universes that we own or control the novelization rights too. We also have the world of Corsari, I.P of J.F. Posthumus, coming open this year. We're publishing an anthology of her stories and we have an open call in the universe.

 

[Unimportant]

Yes, the 60 is to the author and straight up from the earnings.

Hi, sorry, I'm a bit slow this morning. And maths aren't my strong point.

Does 'straight up from the earnings' mean (A) 60% of the cover price, or (B) 60% of the net earnings after the cost of printing and distribution (i.e. the cut that Amazon takes) is deducted, or (C) 60% of the profit after the costs of printing, distribution, editing, cover art, layout are deducted?

If an author's e-book is selling for $8, how much would they earn per copy sold?

If an author's print book is selling for $12, how much would they earn per copy sold?

Understandably there will be a lot of variability in sales numbers between authors, but can you give us the data to date for:

1. Median number of copies sold per title, for books that have been released >3 months
2. Highest number of copies sold per title, for books that have been released >3 months
3. Lowest number of copies sold per title, for books that have been released >3 months

Thanks so much!
U

 

[williamjroberts76]

Hi, sorry, I'm a bit slow this morning. And maths aren't my strong point.

Does 'straight up from the earnings' mean (A) 60% of the cover price, or (B) 60% of the net earnings after the cost of printing and distribution (i.e. the cut that Amazon takes) is deducted, or (C) 60% of the profit after the costs of printing, distribution, editing, cover art, layout are deducted?

If an author's e-book is selling for $8, how much would they earn per copy sold?

If an author's print book is selling for $12, how much would they earn per copy sold?

Understandably there will be a lot of variability in sales numbers between authors, but can you give us the data to date for:

1. Median number of copies sold per title, for books that have been released >3 months
2. Highest number of copies sold per title, for books that have been released >3 months
3. Lowest number of copies sold per title, for books that have been released >3 months

Thanks so much!
U

(B) The percentage is divided out from what we get in from Amazon, Audible, Ingram, etc.

As for the requested numbers, I don't have that redily available, and if I remember when I do the books I'll look it up.

 

[mrsmig]

(B) The percentage is divided out from what we get in from Amazon, Audible, Ingram, etc.

As for the requested numbers, I don't have that redily available, and if I remember when I do the books I'll look it up.

Thanks for coming back to clarify about the royalty split. If your authors are truly getting 60% of your net after the vendors take your cut, then that is generous indeed - so generous that I wonder how you keep your doors open.