Followers

Friday, April 27, 2012

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Publishing Interveiw with Terri Bruce Part V

Today we conclude with Terri's five part interview on the world of Publishing with a small press.  Also stop by E. M. LaBonte's The Realms of a Fantastical Mind.  Part V of our two pronged interview wraps up on her blog as well.

You can read the start of this interview here at Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

Don't forget to check out Terri's interview over on Em's Blog


Thanks for talking and helping us all understand the ins and outs of a Small Press Terri!


You mentioned distribution—what distribution channels does Eternal Press use? I've seen complaints from authors who say they never sold any books while they were with Eternal Press, which proves that Eternal Press doesn't have the right type of distribution connections.

There are a lot of factors that determine whether or not a book sells, distribution is just one. The amount of marketing an author does is another. One of the reasons that I chose EP was for their distribution, which is quite large for a small press: they use Lightning Source as their distributor, which puts their books into the Baker and Taylor and Ingram catalogs and they accept bookstore returns, which makes their books available to libraries and bookstores.

By and large you aren’t going to find huge differences between publishing offers that result in a “good” and a “bad” offer. Instead you’ll find different shades of “good.” Of the three publishers interested in my work, one paid the standard “large publisher” sliding scale royalty rate that starts at 15% and sells a lot of books in my genre. However, this publisher didn’t accept bookstore returns and didn’t offer an advance. The other two had expanded distribution channels, offered much higher royalty rates, accepted bookstore returns, and one of them offered small (mostly token) advances, but neither specializes in my genre. All three offers were good and each had its particular merits. I gave each one careful consideration and chose the one I thought was best for me and my book, but, honestly, any one of the three would have been a good deal and I would have been happy to accept any of them.

I’ll talk about some other factors to consider that can be the telltale sign of a downright bad offer or bad company to work with. (This can all be found on Em's Blog.)

Biography:

Terri Bruce has been making up adventure stories for as long as she can remember and won her first writing award when she was twelve. Like Anne Shirley, she prefers to make people cry rather than laugh, but is happy if she can do either. She produces fantasy and adventure stories from a haunted house in New England where she lives with her husband and three cats. Her first novel, HEREAFTER—a contemporary fantasy about a woman’s search for redemption in the afterlife—will be released by Eternal Press later this year. Visit her on the web at www.terribruce.net.

Connect with Terri:


HEREAFTER

Coming August 1, 2012 from Eternal Press

Thirty-six year old Irene Dunphy didn't plan on dying any time soon, but that’s exactly what happens when she makes the mistake of getting behind the wheel after a night of bar-hopping with friends. She finds herself stranded on Earth as a ghost, where food has no taste, the alcohol doesn’t get you drunk, and the only person who can see her is a fourteen year old boy-genius who can see dead people, thanks to a book he found in his school library. This sounds suspiciously like hell to Irene, so she prepares to strike out for the Great Beyond. The problem is, while this side has exorcism, ghost repellents, and soul devouring demons, the other side has three-headed hell hounds, final judgment, and eternal torment. If only there was a third option…

1 comment:

T.W. Fendley said...

Hi, Terri -- I've enjoyed your series. And thanks, Dean, for offering a friendly site for her to share some insights into the process of hunting a publisher. Very interesting.