Publishers

Alice,

I like my publisher, Vanilla Heart. They are small, but that means more interaction with editors. Of course, they aren't going to give a writer a $100,000 marketing campaign, so (needless to say), one doesn't have the exposure of a HarperCollins author.

I've also heard good things about Second Wind Publishing. My friend Pat Bertram is published with them.

Being small, neither publisher publishes everything. My impression is that Second Wind has a slightly stronger focus on the list of genres displayed on their home page. As far as I know, neither one will publish books with high word counts.

As my editor at Vanilla Heart told me, the longer books (like 300,000 words) aren't economical unless you're a big enough name to justify a huge (50,000-copy) offset print run. Using POD for most books, Vanilla Heart would end up with something too high priced to sell.

I never had much luck with the old line mainstream publishers, but both of these are mainstream and treat their writers well.

Malcolm

Malcolm wrote:

I like my publisher, Vanilla Heart. They are small, but that means more interaction with editors.

Why do you think a small house = more interaction with editors?

I recommend most any publisher that will take you, but don't do what I did and just sign any contract. I really got hosed on my Cengage one.

I signed a standard contract, but there's no such thing as a standard textbook. The market for a textbook should drive the terms signed to. Hosing includes:

A sliding royalty scale based on # sold. But the #'s are too high; they are more suitable for classes that all students have to take, like western civ, calculus or econ. I have a 101-type book, but in a niche program. I'll never get past the first scale.

No cut for accompanying CD (which Cengage sells for $250), and no cut for companion website (my Prentice Hall contract is equally flawed).

Terrible cut for permissions, which, I learned on my last royalty statement, could have really added up.

Other, smaller things, too. Live and learn, I guess.

Hey ... Maybe I'll start a support group for Textbook Writers with Bad Contracts on AW and cry about it for years?

I wonder. Here we have our Shelagh, the head of a small publishing company, and for me, she had done what no other one would do. She looked at my work, edited my work, has a genius of a mind, knows more than anyone of these other people/publishers about what the future of publishing new work is about. She rides the new wave into the future of new authors and new books.

I am not just a pretty face. I know some stuff, have tried some inovations that did not work, spent lots of money on trying for the 'traditional' tract, but it was all money blown out to the wind.

I never thought that I was a really great writer. What subtle and beautiful encouragement comes from other authors. What kindness, what lack of bull and honesty that really helps a fledgling like me.

Love,
Betty

LC...Large publisher = a lot of layers of management. I doubt I'd be exchanging e-mails with the president of HarperCollins about my books.

Malcolm wrote:

LC...Large publisher = a lot of layers of management. I doubt I'd be exchanging e-mails with the president of HarperCollins about my books.

Why do you feel you need to exchange email with the president of HC about your books, though? The president wouldn't know anything about your particular book, anyhow. Your OP was about interaction with editors.

I've had plenty of interaction with my editors at both large and small houses.