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[ePub] eXcessica / Fido Publishing

Pisco Sour

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I did a search on AW for Excessica and nothing came up so please excuse if there is a thread lurking somewhere.

http://excessica.com/

Does anybody have experience with this publisher? I have a few 'short shorts' I was considering self-pubbing later on in the year but they seem like an interesting proposition. The author does most of the editing and organises cover art and Excessica will format and distribute for a 10% cut. Seems reasonable to me.

I read a few of their stories and they seemed well edited, good erotica stories. I looked specifically at their 'short shorts' (up to 3k words).

I appreciate any experiences you're willing to share.
 
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Filigree

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I'm considering them for some of my unpublished contemporary erotica. They've been around for years, they have published some authors I'm familiar with, and they seem to have a decent rep. I'll ask around on one of the other romance forums to get a more current read on them.

Given that Amazon keeps delisting books for arcane and unknown reasons...
 

Pisco Sour

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Thanks for correcting the title. I wasn't sure how to list them. :) Curious to see what you come up with and thanks for checking on the other forums.
 

KimJo

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My first two books were published by eXcessica shortly after they started out.

Decent distribution. Author-friendly terms as best I remember. (This was back in 2009, and they reverted rights to me due to poor sales in 2011.)

However, they do publish some erotica that other publishers won't touch, including incest. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because clearly there's a market for it, but it's led to the company having a negative reputation in some quarters. In 2010 I tried to join an authors' collaborative promo group and was told I would only be allowed in if I took all mentions of eXcessica out of my bio and off my website. I was advised to do the same by another publisher who shall remain nameless.
 

Pisco Sour

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My first two books were published by eXcessica shortly after they started out.

Decent distribution. Author-friendly terms as best I remember. (This was back in 2009, and they reverted rights to me due to poor sales in 2011.)

However, they do publish some erotica that other publishers won't touch, including incest. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because clearly there's a market for it, but it's led to the company having a negative reputation in some quarters. In 2010 I tried to join an authors' collaborative promo group and was told I would only be allowed in if I took all mentions of eXcessica out of my bio and off my website. I was advised to do the same by another publisher who shall remain nameless.


Hmmm, understandable with controversial topics. I noticed they have their own book store for the taboo stuff so perhaps those authors do well on there.

If you don't mind my asking, what was the process like with Excessica? How long did it take from accepting your work to publishing it? Did they do any editing at all? I know there's a guideline for self-editing before you submit, but I'm wondering all the same. I'm pretty sure I'd be okay on that front, but still… always good to have an expert set of eyes.

Also, I notice they don't want a bunch of hanky panks with no story line, which if okay, as my shorts do have a plot. Sort of. They're snippets in the lives of my characters, 'moments in time' where they make certain decisions that lead to a lot of screaming. LOL.
Thanks for the input.
 

KimJo

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Just to clarify for anyone who's wondering: I am not saying eXcessica is a bad publisher, and I am *not* advising anyone against giving them a go. I know authors who make a ton of money with them. I'm only pointing out the reputation in the spirit of this being a board where people give others all pros and cons.

Pisco, as I said, my books with them were published in 2009, so to be honest I don't remember much about the process. And I believe things have changed somewhat in the time since then. There was some editing done, but if I recall correctly I was expected to turn in a fairly well-done project to begin with. To be honest, this fall I took a close look at the first project I'd had published with them and rewrote/revised/re-edited it to use as a "thank you" gift to my newsletter subscribers; just by editing to address some content issues, I nearly tripled the length, and added in a lot that should have been there to begin with, like the female MC's emotions and physical sensations...

And yeah on the hanky panky thing... They want there to be a story and context for the sex, not just pure sex.
 

Pisco Sour

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Just to clarify for anyone who's wondering: I am not saying eXcessica is a bad publisher, and I am *not* advising anyone against giving them a go. I know authors who make a ton of money with them. I'm only pointing out the reputation in the spirit of this being a board where people give others all pros and cons.

Pisco, as I said, my books with them were published in 2009, so to be honest I don't remember much about the process. And I believe things have changed somewhat in the time since then. There was some editing done, but if I recall correctly I was expected to turn in a fairly well-done project to begin with. To be honest, this fall I took a close look at the first project I'd had published with them and rewrote/revised/re-edited it to use as a "thank you" gift to my newsletter subscribers; just by editing to address some content issues, I nearly tripled the length, and added in a lot that should have been there to begin with, like the female MC's emotions and physical sensations...

And yeah on the hanky panky thing... They want there to be a story and context for the sex, not just pure sex.


LOL, sorry Kimjo. 7 years is a long time! It didn't compute, and I wouldn't remember that long ago either especially since I can't remember what I did yesterday! Thanks for the heads up on content. Going through a couple of rounds of edits with my publisher has (hopefully) taught me a few things I've applied to my short shorts. Thanks again.
 

shelleyo

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eXcessica is Selena Kitt's company. She's not going anywhere, and has excellent terms for accepted authors.

However, they do publish some erotica that other publishers won't touch, including incest. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, because clearly there's a market for it, but it's led to the company having a negative reputation in some quarters. In 2010 I tried to join an authors' collaborative promo group and was told I would only be allowed in if I took all mentions of eXcessica out of my bio and off my website. I was advised to do the same by another publisher who shall remain nameless.

Why should they remain nameless? Personally, I'd be interested to know what publisher (I'm assuming of erotica) is telling people to disassociate themselves from another publisher, especially one run by someone as successful as Selena Kitt. Surely if they have the courage of their convictions, and you feel it's relevant enough to mention here where it's going to make people wonder who and why, it shouldn't be a secret.

Selena has been at the forefront of the fight against censorship of fiction for quite some time, and I suppose that makes some enemies. I find it an incredible shame that others, especially writers and publishers, would cast aspersions against her/her company, especially in secret where they don't have to actually justify what they say. If it's based just on the fact that they publish incest fiction (between fictional adult characters, for god's sake), well damn, if I had to rule out publishers that had published content containing things I found personally distasteful (murder, torture, crimes against children, anybody?), that would pretty much rule out the Big 5 and a large percentage of other publishers right out of the gate, long before we got to anything erotic.

I self-publish, much of it with some type of erotic content, but if I were of a mind to submit some things to an erotica publisher, I'd submit there.

I do think it's worth keeping in mind that eXcessica started as a collaboration between writers and then became a submission-accepting publisher. It may still be more collaborative than some might expect. Just something to bear in mind.
 
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Filigree

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I'm with Shellyo on this: I'd like to know (by PM if need be) which publishers wanted to blacklist eXcessica.

There's a set of conventions in commercial erotic romance that I find almost laughable, given that science fiction and horror genres have been flouting those same rules for decades - and winning major awards while doing it. I get that erotic romance has a struggle to keep itself from being equated with 'porn'. But hypocritical censorship is not the best way to do that.
 
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veinglory

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The difference may be that--fair or not--incest and underage erotica is prosecutable under US obscenity law, and precedent suggests you will lose. That introduces an objective risk.
 

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I get the restrictions on underage erotica. I'll even give a pass to critics who claim fictional incest is as bad as real-life incest. I'd like to know how many science fiction and horror publishers have been prosecuted recently in the US for those themes. They may not have as graphic descriptions as erotica books, but the themes are there and obvious.

It's an interesting discussion on precedent. Still, KimJo, please PM me about the authors' collective and the publisher. It will have some bearing on whether I consider them in the future.
 

KimJo

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Suppose it isn't going to do any harm since the publisher no longer exists... It was Noble Romance.

Filigree, PM'ing you with the author collective, because they are still in business.
 

KimJo

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Yeah.

The issue that I've seen--and I've heard it from other authors, too--about eXcessica is that some people don't do their research, and they assume that eXcessica ONLY publishes the "taboo" stuff that other publishers won't take. Which is definitely not the case and never has been; my two books with them were an M/F contemporary friends-to-lovers story and a paranormal about a woman who's taken (in both senses) by the Greek god of the north wind. But unfortunately, reputations and incorrect information spread.

Again, I'm *not* saying people should avoid eXcessica. Selena Kitt knows what she's doing, and the business seems to be pretty author-friendly. They've been around for over five years now and are still going strong, which is more than can be said of a lot of e-publishers.
 

shelleyo

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The difference may be that--fair or not--incest and underage erotica is prosecutable under US obscenity law, and precedent suggests you will lose. That introduces an objective risk.

Can you name the precedent? Last time I looked into it, exactly one person in the US had ever been convicted under the obscenity laws for underage erotica in a decision that wasn't later overturned. And that was mostly likely because not only did she choose not to fight the charge, her stories were available on a pay-for-access site like the porn sites do it, and the stories actually dealt with the abduction, torture, rape and murder of very small children. They were particularly disturbing and brutal. Others have been tried, but fought and won. Unless there have been some since then I'm not aware of, which I admit is possible. eXcessica doesn't publish underage erotica, anyway.

Incest erotica, however, doesn't seem to be a risk. There have been digest-sized magazines that publish nothing but hardcore incest erotica, several titles a month, for decades. Barnes & Noble still sells incest erotica. The worst case right now is that a retailer decides to stop selling it and takes it down, like Amazon did a few years ago. Incest isn't even illegal to the same degree everywhere. First cousins, for instance, can marry in about half the states.
 
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shelleyo

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I'll even give a pass to critics who claim fictional incest is as bad as real-life incest.

I can't give that pass to those who claim it, because it's an absolutely ludicrous claim, unless fictional murder is as bad as real-life murder, and on and on. I'm not arguing with you, I don't think you necessarily agree with it, but it's incredible that anyone would claim that with a straight face. And that's before the argument about whether or not real-life incest is bad, or if it's anybody's business to judge it except the consenting adults taking part in it.

Censorship and people's willingness to accept censorship of things they disagree with is scary. It scares me. I admittedly see things through that lens.
 
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shelleyo

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Suppose it isn't going to do any harm since the publisher no longer exists... It was Noble Romance.

Noble Romance was warning people about the bad reputation of another publisher. I can't be the only one who enjoyed that, just a little bit.
 

veinglory

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Red Rose stories plead guilty on an underage/obscenity case in a pretty pivotal case in 2005. Keeping in mind I mean cases relating to publishers, not possessors. Even being charged by the FBI can kill your business.
 

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I knew about that one, Veinglory. I was wondering if there had been anything more recent, and dealing with consenting-adult incest.

Also finding irony in the story about Noble.

eXcessica seems stable, so I will definitely keep it on my list of places to consider.
 

shelleyo

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Red Rose stories plead guilty on an underage/obscenity case in a pretty pivotal case in 2005. Keeping in mind I mean cases relating to publishers, not possessors. Even being charged by the FBI can kill your business.

But it's, to my knowledge, the only one dealing purely with text that has actually stuck, and it was a guilty plea, not a conviction at trial. And it was, also to my knowledge, a pretty special circumstance given both the state of the woman who wrote the fiction and sold it, and the content of the fiction. She had some pretty serious mental health issues and opted to plead guilty because she didn't feel she could appear in court for the duration of a trial.

I'm not saying people should go write underage erotica and hope not to go to jail, nothing like that, just that I think this one case doesn't necessarily mean much for future cases given all the special circumstances. It also has nothing to do with incest.

And, just to stress, eXcessica doesn't publish underage erotica anyway.
 

MandyHarbin

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FWIW, it's not uncommon for a publisher to refuse mention of another publisher in your bio. I.e. my Ellora's Cave bio can state "multi-published" but not which publishers I've contracted with.

:roll: Shelleyo on the Noble Romance comment.

And Selena does seem to have a good business sense. Several of the boxed sets she's organized have gone on to hit NYT and USA Today. I have not worked with her, but for the right project, I'd certainly consider it...and I've told her as much.
 

Filigree

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For a publisher-specific bio, I agree that 'multi-published' is a good term. After all, names are brands, and most publishers are not going to want to advertise for their competitors.

However, I draw the line at any publisher asking me to take a publishing credit off my *website*, esp. if it's my site and not one developed by the publisher. Even if and when I become more widely published by a larger press, I'm not sure I'd take down links to my other work.
 
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