I just received a PitMad request from these guys but I can't find much info about them. Has anyone dealt with them?
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[Publisher] House of Zolo
- Thread starter Corvid
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They just opened.
I think that says everything you need to know for now.
That, and they don't list any terms or staff. No relevant publishing experience found. Tread carefully, if at all.
I think that says everything you need to know for now.
That, and they don't list any terms or staff. No relevant publishing experience found. Tread carefully, if at all.
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Their only title is supposed to have a "fall" release, but doesn't even get a mention on Amazon. Most publishers would have that covered by now.
Site is short on practical info, including resume of the editorial staff (if any), marketing, payment percentages, etc.
Please note the one book is by someone named "Solo" and the house is named "Zolo."
I speculate it is a kitchen table operation that needs to mature. Many writers open their own publishing house to give gravitas to their books. Nothing wrong with that, but those writers have more ambition than experience.
Wait a year. Most of these ops go belly up, fast.
In publishing always start subbing to the biggest houses on Publisher's Row and work your way down. By the time you get to a microscopic operation like this, you could make a proper sale to an established house.
Most kitchen table ops do not have the financial resources to properly publish, market, and distribute books. Because of this they tend to be super-picky -- or worse, not picky at all.
Keep walking, it's safer.
Site is short on practical info, including resume of the editorial staff (if any), marketing, payment percentages, etc.
Please note the one book is by someone named "Solo" and the house is named "Zolo."
I speculate it is a kitchen table operation that needs to mature. Many writers open their own publishing house to give gravitas to their books. Nothing wrong with that, but those writers have more ambition than experience.
Wait a year. Most of these ops go belly up, fast.
In publishing always start subbing to the biggest houses on Publisher's Row and work your way down. By the time you get to a microscopic operation like this, you could make a proper sale to an established house.
Most kitchen table ops do not have the financial resources to properly publish, market, and distribute books. Because of this they tend to be super-picky -- or worse, not picky at all.
Keep walking, it's safer.
LOL, good catch! I seriously didn't even notice the Solo/Zolo thing. That right there is enough to turn me off on these guys for now.
I definitely get what you mean about "walking" though. The entire process is just so painstakingly slow that I can't help but get tantalized by these small presses now and then. I have one full request out, but I've been getting a ton of radio silence on queries lately. I used to get a lot of quick rejections, but lately it seems like weeks crawl by without a single word from anyone. Maybe this is a good thing and means the agents are considering my stuff more?
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Agents get 20-50 submissions PER DAY, sometimes a hundred on Fridays.
Big publishers get more.
They read them in the order they arrive. If the writer can't snag their interest in 10 pages, out comes the form rejection. I usually tell writers to cut five pages and open when something interesting is going on. No weather reports, travelogs, or histories. Introduce the protag and why we should spend real money to follow this person through a whole book.
I'm a writer with a 25+ year track record of sales and a good agent, but it was still 8 long months and submissions to a number of publishers (large and small) before I got an offer for a book.
To keep your head from exploding, you be working on the next two books while the first is making the rounds.
Big publishers get more.
They read them in the order they arrive. If the writer can't snag their interest in 10 pages, out comes the form rejection. I usually tell writers to cut five pages and open when something interesting is going on. No weather reports, travelogs, or histories. Introduce the protag and why we should spend real money to follow this person through a whole book.
I'm a writer with a 25+ year track record of sales and a good agent, but it was still 8 long months and submissions to a number of publishers (large and small) before I got an offer for a book.
To keep your head from exploding, you be working on the next two books while the first is making the rounds.
In the beginning, my biggest issue was getting quick form rejections where it seemed like the agent didn't even read anything. So I overhauled my first chapter and now I'm getting much slower responses, which I think is a positive change. I didn't change the opening page, but there was a pretty "dull" scene only a couple pages in where the character was getting dressed and stuff, haha. So I jumped right into the action and now it at least seems like people are spending more time on my submissions.
It's always a relief to see it's slow for other people too, though.
25 years is quite impressive, I hope someday I can get there. Right now I have a lot of notes for the sequel, but I've taken a little "sanity break" for a month or so before I dive right in.