Musa Publishing

Yeah, even a little jump in sales, even thought they mean butkus in royalties, would mean something. I had a total of 11 copies sold in a year and a half, so if I sell another 11 before Friday, what the heck.

I took down the link to my book in my sig line today. I'll be self-pubbing it within a few weeks with a new cover and copyright page. I might change the title too, and that would be mentioned on the copyright page along with Musa being the first publisher of it. I really don't want to sell my ebook through Musa for a dollar though. I'd rather sell it for $2.99 on my own.

ETA: Deleting my ebook in my signature and posting this, somehow made me a bit sad. I need chocolate. Lots of it.

My one MUSA novel, THE REASONS broke the Top #500 in BOOKS overall on Amazon.ca yesterday. (-:

When I requested and received rights back to my novel from Musa last year, I went the self-publishing route. After reformatting the work itself and changing the cover art, sales have been about 15-16 times what I saw with Musa. It was unfortunate that Musa didn't work out for me (good editing experience, good transparency, timely royalties, but lackluster cover art, little to no promo by them, my book pretty much disappearing/getting lost in the shuffle with their constant publishing of new works, and disappointing sales regardless of my own various efforts), and now even more unfortunate that it didn't work out for anyone involved.

I'm also feeling cursed because this is the second publisher in five years that's collapsed from under me.

Musa didn't give me any advance warning about books going on clearance sale until Feb. 28 when they're shutting down. I don't know if any authors got emailed privately. It was just a blanket statement to all in the email that informed Musa was closing. I did buy a few books, not sure if I'll read all of them, just helping out a few authors with sales. Some authors out there might see a .50¢ royalty coming their way next month and hopefully a little more than that if others buy your books too. I purchased from a couple of authors I chatted with outside Musa, a couple that I'd like to read, and a few random ones that caught my eye. Even though all the books are priced .80¢ to $1.20 my invoice total ended in pennies, so I even saved a couple of pennies from what the tally should have been. Oddly enough I saw Musa selling off a novel that I'm pretty sure the author got the rights back to last year. I only say that because I downloaded it off Amazon earlier this month with a new cover and new publisher. And there it was for sale on Musa's website undercutting the new publisher by a couple of bucks.

stormie said:

I took down the link to my book in my sig line today. I'll be self-pubbing it within a few weeks with a new cover and copyright page. I might change the title too,

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I'd leave the title the same. It's really annoying to buy a new book from a favourite author and realise you've already read it. But if you're one of the many whose books only sold 14 copies with Musa, perhaps that won't be a problem.

ETA: Deleting my ebook in my signature and posting this, somehow made me a bit sad. I need chocolate. Lots of it.

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*sends chocolate*

Don't feel bad. This is just a hiccup. All will be well.

Old Hack said:

I'd leave the title the same. It's really annoying to buy a new book from a favourite author and realise you've already read it. But if you're one of the many whose books only sold 14 copies with Musa, perhaps that won't be a problem.

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Seconded. Unless the title is really, really problematic, keep it.

FWIW, I did change the title of one of my re-released books because I wanted to go back to the original title it had before my publisher made me change it. I just added a line to the blurb that said "Originally published under the title X". It was also an extremely poor seller, though, so I doubt many people noticed either way.

If my two ever find a home again, I'm looking at a change of title for both partly to separate them from the Musa releases but also to give them a fresh start. They sold so few copies, I can't see anyone who read the original releases having a problem.

Whistler's Mama said:

Oddly enough I saw Musa selling off a novel that I'm pretty sure the author got the rights back to last year. I only say that because I downloaded it off Amazon earlier this month with a new cover and new publisher. And there it was for sale on Musa's website undercutting the new publisher by a couple of bucks.

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Whoa! I'm sure it's just a mistake by Musa, but that's still not cool. Can you let the author know?

Seconding eqb: definitely let the author know. That's not on.

Sage said:

Is anyone else not seeing their last sales on Delphi? I know of two sales (don't know if there were more), but Delphi's showing me nothing since December.

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I know one person (the unintentional namesake of one of my characters) bought the book earlier this week, but I checked Delphi this morning and it was still the same as always. Hope I get my 20 cents!

I didn't see any either, but in my case (abysmal sales), I just figured it was par for the course.

And...it's gone.
(Musa ebooks, that is.)

I've moved past the pain already. Posted my first novel with Musa, "Road Apples," as an e-book with Amazon, and am working on the print version. FYI if you use Amazon only for print and have established an account with Bowker you can purchase an ISBN from Amazon for your print book at $10.00 (not the single title $125), and use your own designated imprint. Downside it's restricted to Amazon and Createspace. But not a bad deal plus the $25 cost of the Bowker barcode.

Mirror World Publishing claims to be republishing some of Musa's titles.

Mirror World has only been open for a year. The brief information it gives about its principals suggests that neither had any publishing experience prior to opening Mirror World. I wish them the best of luck but can't help wincing at this announcement.

Old Hack said:

Mirror World Publishing claims to be republishing some of Musa's titles.

Mirror World has only been open for a year. The brief information it gives about its principals suggests that neither had any publishing experience prior to opening Mirror World. I wish them the best of luck but can't help wincing at this announcement.

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Frying pan, fire?

Checked out Mirror World's website, and it didn't fill me with confidence. This is from one of the blurbs:

This series of novels will teach you how to adapt, how to survive and how to succeed no matter what faces you and most importantly it will teach you to find the most powerful weapon to you need to defend what you care about; belief in yourself.

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Sigh.

I...think I'll stick with my present course. No frying pan. No fire. Just me.

I'm trying some other publishers but who have been around longer. We'll see how it goes.

sheadakota said:

Frying pan, fire?

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That would be my guess.

- Victoria

I've seen a few Musa authors who hurried to sign with a few pubs that seem to be very new and I hope it all works out for them, but I can't help but wonder about the wisdom of it - but everyone has to do what they feel is best for themselves, I guess. I've sent two of my titles to one of my other publishers for consideration. I still don't know what I'm doing with the other ones just yet. I refuse to rush into something else just yet.

My feeling after I got my rights to my Musa title reverted last year was to move forward on my own with it (and I'm very glad I have), and focus on my next, fresh submission for agents. There certainly are many options for those authors left afloat by the closing, and I bet most of us who were published with Musa will be much more wary about those "untested" publishers...

Personally, I try to stay away from publishers who won't even proofread their own websites.