Thriller Press (Todd Borg)

[rejectME]

As someone who visits Lake Tahoe for a couple weeks each year during the ski season, I happened upon a local writer's novels. Todd Borg's Owen McKenna series is published by Thriller Press, which just so happens to be located in South Lake Tahoe and is mostlly comprised of his 7 novels in paperback. They've now apparently taken on two other writers, but by the website, I'm curious if this press was set up initially as a self-publishing operation or if they are simply a super-small press. Borg's most recent release has a Amazon ranking of 33,000, has a Kirkus Review, but seems to be a trade paperback, which would appear to mean POD.

I'm not looking to submit there, in fact they don't even take submissions, but I wanted to know more about this because it seems that his books sell pretty well through Amazon and I'm just curious if this is a case of someone who self-pubbed and has found some success with it. Is this the guys the exception to the rule?

 

[victoriastrauss]

You can pay for a Kirkus review, so that's not always an indication of genuine marketing. However, Borg's books also have gotten Library Journal and Booklist reviews, as well as reviews in several largish newspapers and some genuine awards. And the book covers are attractive.

So if this did start as a self-publishing venture (and since the website URL is registered to Borg & Night Master Framing, I'd say that's a good bet), it looks to be a savvy and professional one.

- Victoria

 

[rejectME]

You can pay for a Kirkus review, so that's not always an indication of genuine marketing. However, Borg's books also have gotten Library Journal and Booklist reviews, as well as reviews in several largish newspapers and some genuine awards. And the book covers are attractive.

So if this did start as a self-publishing venture (and since the website URL is registered to Borg & Night Master Framing, I'd say that's a good bet), it looks to be a savvy and professional one.

- Victoria

Thanks for the info, Victoria. He's a good writer and while I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been with a large press, I got the feeling that he'd sort of built Thriller himself. Whereas I still wouldn't advocate self-publishing fiction, this could be a case of someone doing so and being successful to some degree.

 

[Laura Lond]

FYI, my self-published POD books jump to 70,000 and 30,000 rankings on Amazon once in a while. Once, after some good promotion, a book of mine ranked 5,000.

 

[rejectME]

FYI, my self-published POD books jump to 70,000 and 30,000 rankings on Amazon once in a while. Once, after some good promotion, a book of mine ranked 5,000.

Presumably you must be selling some books, too. That's great, Laura! Keep up the good work!

 

[veinglory]

Selling one book gets you to 50,000. So 30,000 may well mean selling 2?

 

[rejectME]

Selling one book gets you to 50,000. So 30,000 may well mean selling 2?

Sure, but how long does that ranking last? A couple days? A month?

 

[Laura Lond]

Selling one book gets you to 50,000. So 30,000 may well mean selling 2?

Yep, selling two a day ups the rating to 30,000. It will last for about a day; if there are no more sales, it will start dropping.

 

[CaoPaux]

Has talked up the other authors' books since '09, but still no sign of them.

ETA: a belated note that he dropped the pretense of being anything but a self-publisher in '13.