Raven International Publishing / The Book Editor Show

CathleenT · Jan 20, 2015

Okay, I hope this is quick.

So I actually sold a story (hurray, hurray) to Raven International Press. It's called Property, not that the title is important, but it was substantially improved in SYW, so that part's nifty, and I'd like to thank everyone who helped me with it.

Anyway, it's an anthology, and they sent me a contract, and it doesn't have what I believe is called a reversion clause. The bit where if it goes out of print, then the rights revert to the author.

I'm allowed to post it to my website as long as I link back to RIP. That will come in handy when I have a website (it's on my to-do list).

Should I ask for a reversion clause, or is that unusual with short stories? (Property is 1600 words.) It's not a deal-breaker for me, but I'd like to ask, unless it's some sort of writerly faux pas.

Thanks in advance, to any who wish to weigh in.

Unimportant · Jan 20, 2015

CathleenT said:
Okay, I hope this is quick.

So I actually sold a story (hurray, hurray) to Raven International Press. It's called Property, not that the title is important, but it was substantially improved in SYW, so that part's nifty, and I'd like to thank everyone who helped me with it.

Anyway, it's an anthology, and they sent me a contract, and it doesn't have what I believe is called a reversion clause. The bit where if it goes out of print, then the rights revert to the author.

I'm allowed to post it to my website as long as I link back to RIP. That will come in handy when I have a website (it's on my to-do list).

Should I ask for a reversion clause, or is that unusual with short stories? (Property is 1600 words.) It's not a deal-breaker for me, but I'd like to ask, unless it's some sort of writerly faux pas.

Thanks in advance, to any who wish to weigh in.

Anthologies generally buy either one time rights or limited period rights. Few anthologies stay in print for very long.

If there is no term limit, and the rights are exclusive, then, yeah, I'd negotiate it so that you can sell second print rights down the road.

I'd be happy to look at the contract if you want to send me the relevant clauses via PM.

eqb · Jan 21, 2015

Unimportant said:
Anthologies generally buy either one time rights or limited period rights. Few anthologies stay in print for very long.

What Unimportant said.

Oh, and the time limit doesn't mean they can't publish your story after that, it just ensures that you can sell reprint rights elsewhere. Most of my contacts with limits use one year, but it depends on the publisher.

aleighrose · Jan 21, 2015

Just for future reference, here's their website: http://www.raveninternationalpublishing.com/

CathleenT · Jan 21, 2015

Wow! I moved.

Thanks everyone, especially Unimportant.

ETA: btw, I just saw their ownership of the rights expires at the end of this year. Sorry, I should have reread the contract. I'll get a handle on all this writing stuff. Thanks again for the help.

CathleenT · Jan 24, 2015

Just a quick update, in case anyone is interested in this publisher. Unimportant read over my contract, and didn't see anything wrong with it.

eqb · Jan 24, 2015

I glanced over their site. And...oh dear. One of their free stories looks like a first draft that no one bothered to edit. (Typos, grammar mistakes, wrong words used, bad or missing punctuation, awkward prose, etc.) Which might be just as well, since one editing article I read had four errors in the first paragraph.

More troubling, I couldn't find anything about their books on the site, nor any information about the people running Raven International. Amazon lists only two books for the publisher, both by the same author.

Marian Perera · Jan 24, 2015

eqb said:
I glanced over their site. And...oh dear.

I wish they wouldn't keep spelling it "sneak peak".

And then there's this:

The movie and publishing industries, no doubt are fraught with risks. This investment risk has toppled even the biggest of production and publishing houses and scattered them into oblivion.

I'm sorry, but which of the Big 5 have been toppled and scattered into oblivion? I must have missed that development.

ETA : I checked out the sample of the free short story, and in the first paragraph, consisting of five sentences, three of those sentences ended in exclamation marks. The rest of the story was similarly in need of editing, and the sample ended with "the time of reckoning was neigh."

mrsmig · Jan 24, 2015

Marian Perera said:
I checked out the sample of the free short story, and in the first paragraph, consisting of five sentences, three of those sentences ended in exclamation marks. The rest of the story was similarly in need of editing, and the sample ended with "the time of reckoning was neigh."

Ouch.

eqb · Jan 24, 2015

They say they are looking for "two prolific authors to bring into the RIP family." And yet, we know nothing about who runs the company, if they have published other books, what kind of royalties they pay, or how they plan to distribute those books.

Add to that the "editing" example of their free story, and I would run fast and far from this outfit.

Filigree · Jan 24, 2015

Typos in a mere blog post, I'll forgive - I've had to go back and edit more than a few. But word-choice errors this bad? In a promo piece meant to advertise the company? Ouch, indeed.

Thedrellum · Jan 24, 2015

Marian Perera said:
I wish they wouldn't keep spelling it "sneak peak".

I wish they would use "ninja mountain" instead.

CathleenT · Jan 24, 2015

Ouch.

eqb · Jan 25, 2015

Their website is a complete mess. Their "advice" articles are incoherent and misleading. Based on the two books they have on Amazon, the outfit is a front for one person self-publishing one book (two editions).

I was going to say that perhaps they might do a better job with anthologies, but frankly, that's like wishing for Santa Claus to be real.

Casey Karp · Jan 26, 2015

Marian Perera said:
the sample ended with "the time of reckoning was neigh."

Let's be optimistic here. Maybe the next paragraph begins with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse showing up. If so, one hopes they'll start by paying a visit to the editor who worked on that "sample".

tiakall · Apr 11, 2015

Anyone have any further info on this publisher? They just put out another call for an anthology (about superheroes) which I'm interested in, but their home page is so cluttered that I can't even tell which books they're selling and which ones they're just promoting (they seem to promote a lot of "how to write" books, possibly in conjunction with the online course they're offering/partnered with?)

On the other hand, I just read over their sample chapter on their home page, and... well, there were only a few obvious grammar/spelling errors, but the writing was very stilted (and missing a lot of commas). And a woman is described as "exotic" and having brown skin "like churned peanut butter" in practically the same sentence, which makes me think I already know where this is going....

Filigree · Apr 11, 2015

Go with your gut feeling on this one, I'd say.

whistlelock · Apr 11, 2015

tiakall said:
Anyone have any further info on this publisher? They just put out another call for an anthology (about superheroes) which I'm interested in....

AND it's only open for 4 days. Personally, I wouldn't submit work.

Fantomas · May 30, 2017

Book Review Show

Hello there,

Has anyone ever used the editing services of the Book Review Show?

http://www.thebookeditorshow.com/work-us-2/

Would anyone recommend it?

Thanks!

aliceshortcake · May 30, 2017

It's part of Raven International Publishing, which has its own thread: <snipped>

Fantomas · Jun 5, 2017

Thanks alice. Just wondering if anyone has used their editing services?

Filigree · Jun 5, 2017

I haven't, but based upon the samples I've seen, I might not trust them to do a professional job.

CaoPaux · Apr 18, 2018

Home page is a "coming soon" scroll. Subpages accessible (example), but no recent activity. Last book pubbed '16.

The Book Editor Show is still active. Updating URL: https://www.thebookeditorshow.com/

Raven International Publishing / The Book Editor Show

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