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Evernight Publishing / Evernight Teen

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Evernight has beautiful covers. They are easy to work with. Payments have never been late...those are the pros and very good ones to have.

Cons ... your book gets buried quickly. The marketing (and when you only have one marketing manager for bazillion authors there's really no surprise) is lacking. I have an author friend who writes for the adult line and of course I was watching for her sequel to come out and there literally was nothing leading up to the release. Cover reveal, blurb, the whole enchilada was released the day of. It made me sad for her, and I wish I could say it was the first time I've seen it. There is no build up, no teasers, no reviews beforehand ... I'm not sure why they don't use NetGalley. I dunno.

I guess I'm a bit conflicted about it all. The pros are great but I just think some of the cons could easily be remedied.

I've seen some Evernight books on Netgalley. Is that the author's doing then? I thought Evernight did it.
 

JustWonderin

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Yes. If you see an ET book on Netgalley the author paid out of pocket. It's exactly like being self pubbed but sharing your profits.
 

JustWonderin

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Right! The having to ask for the files thing is crazy. Like I said I was brand new and assumed my publisher would do those things for me.

They should really have a detailed welcome email with all that kind of info in it. The welcome email they send now is severely out dated.
 

Alcasgra

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I write for JMS Books LLC, Siren Publishing, and Evernight Publishing.

JMS Books LLC currently has 6 books.

Siren Publishing also has 6 books.

Evernight Publishing only has 1 book out so far.

Evernight, compared to the other two publishers, seems disorganized. For example, I have to chase after the publisher for my covers, my FIRST editing process, and then I have to ask when my book will be published. The other two publishers actually give me all of those way in advance to make sure that I have enough time to build up the anticipation and to promote my books properly. Moreover, they actually promote my books for me. Evernight does almost nothing in promotion.

Having said that, I agree that the cover for Evernight is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.

In case anyone wonders, my book for Evernight would have plunged into the abyss of nothingness if it wasn't released after I had made my name a little well-known all over the social media sites and through JMS Books LLC and Siren Publishing.

I can't speak for all Evernight authors, but if you are going to write for this publisher, you need to make sure that you have a presence in social media sites and you have to be willing to promote yourself/your books constantly. =)
 
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JustWonderin

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What Alcasgra said kind of underlines exactly what I was saying.

With Evernight, as well as most other small presses, if you want to make any kind of impression on the publishing world, not to mention any money, you have to promote yourself like crazy and put in a lot of time and care to do it well. If I'm going to put in 100% of the effort being made to promote my work, I don't want to share my profits. Evernight has done nothing, in my opinion, to earn their share of the money they make off me.

The covers are beautiful, but I could have hired the same cover artist and self published. Hell, I could have hired a freelance editor, received MUCH better edits, self published, and kept ALL the money I made from my work. I've grown tired of promoting my book with them because it's not worth it to me any more, but if I was self-pubbed I would be pushing my book like crazy.
 

Kastil

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Honestly I have one small press that I deal with that gives out ARCs for the books and I have not seen any spike in sales because they do this. Nor do I find heavy promotion a bonus for a book. I haven't released a book from Evernight in over a year and not because I don't want to but I'm going back to college. I don't find my experience with them lacking, honestly. Edits comes when they come. I have friends with other companies that give timelines then don't stick to them or ask the author to completely change a plot point that throws the whole story off. I've worked with several different editors and I like that because I know the person doing the editing with me knows the sub genre.

I have to ask those who have other publishers--what is the percentage of royalties you get from those companies? If you can do it on your own, why did you seek (or continue to seek) a publisher?
 

JustWonderin

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I'm sorry but I don't understand how "heavy promotion" isn't a bonus? I want to make money for my work because I did just that- work on it. But at the same time, if you're happy with your publisher, that's really all that matters and other people will be happy to have your opinion when trying to decide for themselves.

As for why I sought another publisher- because other publishers do a lot more for their authors. I want to write full time and I dream of walking into any book store i come across and seeing my book on the shelf. That is never going to happen with Evernight. And yes, I know I can personally get it into my local stores but again that is something I would do for myself. My frustration with Evernight came from the fact that I was doing 99.6% of the promotion for my book for them to receive 55% of the profit. If I would've self-pubbed I still would've been doing all the work but I would've gotten all of the profits and put even more effort into promoting my work to keep it from falling into the void. That's just the way I see it. But self-pubbing is hard too and I understand why people wouldn't want to do it.

What it all comes down to though is what your writing means to you and what you want to do with it.

If you look at your writing as a hobby or just something you like to do on the side, then by all means submit to small presses. They'll put your work out and quickly and you might even make a little money. It'll be fun because having a book you wrote out in the world is fun and unlike a lot of publishers out there, Evernight isn't scamming their authors.

But if you want writing to be your career, I say don't submit to small presses.

This is all just my personal opinion, but I have been at this for awhile now and I have done my homework. A lot of the time I wish I didn't have that book published under my name. Like I said, it was my first book and it will always mean a lot to me but it has hardly any reviews and most of the reviews it does have point out the poor editing. I started at the top publishers and worked my way down the list until I got a few offers, including publishers even smaller than ET, but the reality is that book probably shouldn't have been published, or should have been heavily edited at the very least. Small pubs are just looking to churn out books and when they are like ET and risk very little from the book not selling, it doesn't really matter to them. They pay for a cover and two brief rounds of edits. They probably make their money back just from the book selling to the author's family and friends.

And I'm not even saying there is anything wrong with that. If that's what you want that is perfectly fine. I'm just trying to present the facts based on my experience and hopefully help someone who wants a career in writing think about their options.
 
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Alcasgra

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Honestly I have one small press that I deal with that gives out ARCs for the books and I have not seen any spike in sales because they do this. Nor do I find heavy promotion a bonus for a book. I haven't released a book from Evernight in over a year and not because I don't want to but I'm going back to college. I don't find my experience with them lacking, honestly. Edits comes when they come. I have friends with other companies that give timelines then don't stick to them or ask the author to completely change a plot point that throws the whole story off. I've worked with several different editors and I like that because I know the person doing the editing with me knows the sub genre.

I have to ask those who have other publishers--what is the percentage of royalties you get from those companies? If you can do it on your own, why did you seek (or continue to seek) a publisher?

In my case, it's fairly simple. I started out with JMS Books LLC. Within the last 14 days of Q4 2016, sales from the publisher's website alone is ?? copies. However, I was a newbie. My first book was published on December 17, 2016. I didn't know any better and I felt that the number of copies sold as a first-time author was extremely horrible and disappointing. I received my royalty on January 4, 2017, if I remember correctly.

Regardless of the number of copies sold, I had already submitted one other manuscript to Siren Publishing and another manuscript to Evernight Publishing around 12, 13 December 2016, trying to diversify.

Siren sent me my first royalty on January 30 or 31, 2017. My first book with them (pre-order) was available on December 30, 2016 and officially published on January 18, 2017. But the first book with Siren has two days of royalty (12/30 to 12/31 2016) for Q4 2016 from the publisher's website alone and it sold ?? copies in two days - almost the same number of copies sold in 14 days at JMS Books LLC.

Still, I wanted to diversify because I heard/read so many horror stories about publishers closing up suddenly. I wanted to make sure that I had more than one basket, so to speak. LOL!

To sum up some of my reasons in point form:
1. I have no experience in publishing anything, aside from selling one short story to an anthology for a flat fee back in August 2016.
2. English is not my first language. I had no idea how to acquire an editor, a cover artist, etc. I literally published my first book with zero experience. I did my research and found so many conflicting information about publishers vs. self-published. I wanted to play it safe and go the route of a publisher.
3. I don't know how to market my book at all. Not that I'm fantastic at it now. LOL!

I hope the information above is useful. You can check the percentage through the publishers' website. I can't remember them at the moment, but I know that all three of my publishers have about the same figure, somewhere around 40-45%. Maybe someday I will self-publish. At the moment, I'm trying to bulk up my reader base. Honestly, Siren has given me the greatest number of readers, followed by JMS, and then Evernight. =)
 

zmethos

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And yes, I know I can personally get it into my local stores but again that is something I would do for myself.

Actually, I did try to get my local bookstores to stock my Evernight title and they refused because Evernight uses CreateSpace to print the hard copies. They said they won't stock CreateSpace/Amazon produced books because Amazon is so bad for the indie bookstore market. I pointed out that I have no control over who my publisher uses to print their books, but... no go. Sigh.
 

Alcasgra

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Actually, I did try to get my local bookstores to stock my Evernight title and they refused because Evernight uses CreateSpace to print the hard copies. They said they won't stock CreateSpace/Amazon produced books because Amazon is so bad for the indie bookstore market. I pointed out that I have no control over who my publisher uses to print their books, but... no go. Sigh.

Amazon seems to be a common enemy to many bookstores. =)
 

jennifermacaire

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Been hanging out, reading the thread, and had to speak up. I have 6 books with Evernight - 3 with Evernight Teen and 3 with Evernight publishing. They are a terrific publisher to work with. I have no complaints. I also have no illusions. I see writers on this thread who think they can quit their day jobs and live off their writing - and unless you're part of the 1%, it's not going to happen. Authors nowadays have to publicize their own work, be active on blogs, twitter, Facebook, Instagram...you name it - we have to do it. There is not a single job more demoralizing than writing. For the number of hours we put in our work, our earnings are ridiculous. However, if you love to write, Evernight is a fantastic publisher with a wonderful team of editors, artists, and publicists.

http://www.evernightteen.com/jennifer-macaire/

http://www.evernightpublishing.com/jennifer-macaire/
 
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Alcasgra

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Oh, I can think of a few...

LOL! So can I.

The thing is Evernight is a decent publisher, but I consider this forum as a place where I can share my experiences. I joined the forum last year because I found that it gave me lots of valuable information. Now that I have some experiences with three different publishers, I think that it's a good time for me to share some of my own with other writers. I'm thankful to other writers who have been there before me, so now I'm giving back in my own way.

If another writer has a better experience with Evernight, good for him/her, but not everyone feels the same way about it.

I simply share mine because I want the writers who are considering a manuscript-submission to Evernight to know of my experiences with it. Then, those writers can judge for themselves because they will know of both the positive and negative sides of this publisher. Whether they eventually decide to go ahead and submit, it's up to them, but at least they won't be surprised whatever the outcome is later on.
 
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JustWonderin

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I just wanted to say for anyone out there (me included) who is working toward writing full time, it can happen. I'm not saying it'll be easy and I'm certainly not saying it is possible for everyone depending on your financial situation/needs, but you can write full time. Having a spouse who will still carry the medical insurance and have a steady income takes a huge burden off of me.

The confusion may be coming in to play if you're thinking you'll be the next J.K. Rowling. That's not going to happen. But full time writer is just as much a career as anything else as long as you put in the work like you would for anything else. Writing full time also means marketing, promoting, and being in charge of your business (which is you) full time.

I'm not sure how links work but I wanted to include these sites. All these people, the huge majority of whom I've never heard of, quit (sometimes) well-paying, full time jobs with benefits to write. A lot of them have families to support and bills to pay.

http://thewritepractice.com/become-a-full-time-writer/

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2014/07/indie-authors-quitting-their-day-jobs/

http://www.kboards.com/authors/

http://www.quietrev.com/how-i-quit-my-job-became-a-writer/

https://problogger.com/how-i-stopped-waiting-to-become-a-writer-quit-my-job-launched-my-dream/

https://heathersunseri.com/2014/08/14/quit-the-day-job-to-write-full-time/

http://www.makealivingwriting.com/quit-job-freelance-writer-thinking/

http://maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/debut-author-lessons-should-you-be-a-full-time-writer/

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2017/01/11/full-time-writer-tips/


These links even include some people who it didn't work out very well for but because writing was the career they needed to peruse to be happy, they persisted.

To anyone who aspires to write full time- you can do it and don't give up.
 

Kastil

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For me it's not a matter of not wanting to write full time. It's about the realistic aspect of that. I am my only source of income and writing is not steady income at all. I'm sure at one time the Ellora's Cave people thought they were living on top of the world. I need something that will give me a retirement fund etc.

That being said, if I wasn't going to college for my Bachelor's and writing like I was, I could make a good amount of money and was. Writing isn't a hobby for me and never will be. It's what I've always wanted to do. However, I very much like the roof over my head, my growing 401k from my current job, and the luxury of things like food in my fridge. To each their own. All I'm saying is what is the royalty percentage for those for promote heavily? Regardless of what a publisher does, the author is still responsible to pull their weight.
 

Alcasgra

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For me it's not a matter of not wanting to write full time. It's about the realistic aspect of that. I am my only source of income and writing is not steady income at all. I'm sure at one time the Ellora's Cave people thought they were living on top of the world. I need something that will give me a retirement fund etc.

That being said, if I wasn't going to college for my Bachelor's and writing like I was, I could make a good amount of money and was. Writing isn't a hobby for me and never will be. It's what I've always wanted to do. However, I very much like the roof over my head, my growing 401k from my current job, and the luxury of things like food in my fridge. To each their own. All I'm saying is what is the royalty percentage for those for promote heavily? Regardless of what a publisher does, the author is still responsible to pull their weight.

Hi, Kastil. I don't know if I understand some other writers accurately or not, but based on what I read on other threads (of other publishers), I think some writers are wondering why they have to share a larger percentage of their income with the publishers if the writers themselves still have to do heavy promotional efforts for their books. I can empathize with them and I see where they're coming from. =)

Their points make valid sense too:
1. They could have hired their own editors.
2. They could have hired their own cover artists.
3. (I think this is where most of them have problems with) Since they have to promote their own books heavily, they really don't see the purpose of having a publisher who may or may not do much to make their books more visible. It's just like self-publishing in another word. Most of them agree that they still have to pull their own weight, but they feel that the larger percentages taken by publishers don't seem to be justifiable. =)

Personally, I enjoy talking to the readers who buy my books and I kind of enjoy promoting on social media, as well.

Anyway, I hope that whatever information I can provide will be helpful to anyone who is looking for a publisher. Or maybe the ones thinking about self-publishing their work. =)
 

ctripp

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I also have no illusions. I see writers on this thread who think they can quit their day jobs and live off their writing - and unless you're part of the 1%, it's not going to happen.

The 1% are the multi-millionaires of writing... there are a tremendous number of writers who are "making a living" from their craft. For many folks, a LIVING can be $40K and $50K a year (or less or more, depending on lifestyle) I think most writers strive to be in that larger (making a living) percentage, with very few under the illusion they will BE a millionaire. Same goes for any line of work, any form of entertainment or art.
 

summontherats

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Been hanging out, reading the thread, and had to speak up. I have 6 books with Evernight - 3 with Evernight Teen and 3 with Evernight publishing. They are a terrific publisher to work with. I have no complaints. I also have no illusions. I see writers on this thread who think they can quit their day jobs and live off their writing - and unless you're part of the 1%, it's not going to happen.

While there have been a lot of comments on this thread lately, I don't think anyone's arguing that Evernight is a bad publisher, and they're certainly not posting because they expected to make a living off Evernight. Like all the stuff in this part of the forums, they're asking, "How does Evernight compare to other similarly-sized presses?"

And I think everyone can admit that Evernight does a really phenomenal job on cover art and a fair job on editing. So in terms of small presses, Evernight's got a few strong things to recommend it. (They also pay on time and are nice people. Hurray!)

But publishers also do promotion, and while most small presses can't do oodles and oodles, it is worth discussing what they do offer.

And... that's a fair question. I've been watching this thread with a lot of interest, honestly, because I have one book out with Evernight, in a genre they don't specialize in (YA and not romance) and my first quarter sales are... my friends and family. We're talking first quarter sales, during its launch, in the teens. I don't think Evernight netted me any sales at all.

This was an experiment for me--I was going to shelve this book otherwise--and I did almost no self-promotion. So I'm not heartbroken. But if they offer essentially no promotion at all, I am curious if other small presses are the same. Because that's a pretty genuine argument for "if you aren't going the agent route, you should really just self-publish."
 
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zmethos

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Like summontherats, my book is also YA without major romance, and maybe Evernight Teen wasn't the right place for it after all, I don't know. I can only speak from experience, and my experience has been: ET is polite, efficient, pay on time. They gave me a week-long blog tour when my book came out. They still sometimes mention/picture my book in ads. (It came out last August.) They've done better for me than my other small publisher, but it's apples and oranges since that book was a completely different genre, one much harder to sell, I think.

All this said, I've done better with my self-published books and have switched to putting most of my promo efforts into those. I wanted to see if another small publisher was any better than the first, and the answer was: "A little." I feel like Evernight might have a better known brand than some others? My book with them has done better than my book with the other publisher, but that might be because of the more commercial genre. My self-published stuff has done better than both small published books put together, not just because I get more of the royalties, but in volume of sales.
 

Krista G.

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Like summontherats, my book is also YA without major romance, and maybe Evernight Teen wasn't the right place for it after all, I don't know. I can only speak from experience, and my experience has been: ET is polite, efficient, pay on time. They gave me a week-long blog tour when my book came out. They still sometimes mention/picture my book in ads. (It came out last August.) They've done better for me than my other small publisher, but it's apples and oranges since that book was a completely different genre, one much harder to sell, I think.
All this said, I've done better with my self-published books and have switched to putting most of my promo efforts into those. I wanted to see if another small publisher was any better than the first, and the answer was: "A little." I feel like Evernight might have a better known brand than some others? My book with them has done better than my book with the other publisher, but that might be because of the more commercial genre. My self-published stuff has done better than both small published books put together, not just because I get more of the royalties, but in volume of sales.


Zmethos, are your self-published titles in the same category and genre as the book you published with Evernight and/or your other publisher?
 

zmethos

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Zmethos, are your self-published titles in the same category and genre as the book you published with Evernight and/or your other publisher?

For the other publisher, yes, I've self-published in that genre and done better on my own. For ET, no. I have no other YA books out, and only one other [adult] fantasy, though that one is more like magical realism, and the ET book has dragons and shifters and stuff like that. So I have no direct correlation.
 

Matilda

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Does Evernight's submissions email have an auto response or should you not hear anything until a determination is made? Thank You!
 

Matilda

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You'll get an auto response:)


Thank you! I submitted 2 weeks ago and received nothing. A friend asked if I got an auto response and I said no but I wasn't sure if they even had one. I figured it was too soon for them to reply and I didn't want to pester them. I guess I shall try again.
 
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