Saturday, August 10, 2013

My Publisher Quit on Me


Yes, I no longer have a publisher.

But this is how my year has gone thus far...

First of all, my third book in my vampire series (Vampire Nocturne), did not come out until some time in February of 2013—I had planned on if not by December of 2012, at least in January of 2013. (I was getting all sorts of dates from afore mentioned publisher... December or January)

Also, back when I thought I was getting edits for this book, I got what was considered a “final” product to approve of. (Eh, huh?) And in order to make sure my own edits were taken seriously, I had to redo the whole thing on a separate document, with all the needed changes, showing exactly what page and paragraph, and send to my publisher. I gather that these changes were done later on, because my book came out before I even finished these edits. (Harumph!)

Then, when it was out, sales were not coming through for this book. Why? Because I had scheduled host-posts during the months when I thought my book would be out (a few months prior). I could not plan anything with this publisher! So, I couldn't back track, if anyone was looking for this book back 2 or 3 months ago, and didn't find it, they must have moved on, or given up on it.

I did do a giveaway, which went really well. But you know, after a book comes out, and the excitement dies down, you find it gets harder and harder to find someone interested in your book. And this is third in a series. People who have not even found your first book won't be buying this one. The whole idea is that they discover your series and begin reading it. Or so it theoretically goes.

Well, yes I'm happy my publisher finally quit the biz. That news reached me some time in June. It was both a blessing and a curse.

A blessing because I was going to go Indie with the fourth book, and didn't know how I would approach him in order to do the other first books Indie too—in other words splitting up with him—and not having to raise the ire of a pure-bread German. Plus I wanted to keep my covers. The day he told me he was giving up the publishing business, I was relieved I wouldn't have to get into a sticky situation. I carefully and tactfully said nice things to him, and I was sincere—I was very happy to have had a publisher, at first. It boosted my morale (even if he was small fry), and other people seemed to respond to the fact I had a publisher in a very positive way. So, I asked if I could have my book covers. Yes. He said I could. I breathed a big sigh of relief.

A curse because I had lots of work to do, and I wanted to get the book I was working on at this time (Spell of the Black Unicorn), out this summer. I now had to work on reverting these three first books so as to get them up on Amazon.

But my work on going Indie had only just begun. He did send me his documents for each book (plus the covers), which he said he had used to put up on the various publishing sites, like Amazon and Smashwords. I looked at these documents and thought, “really?” I knew they would need to be reformatted. And even though he had said, “I'm here if you need me” I know how long that would take: forever!

Since I knew there were mistakes and countless things I needed to change, I went to work on them. For some reason I began with the second book. I simply found a whole bunch of things that needed changing and started there.

10 comments:

  1. In the end, it was the best for you. It sounds like the arrangment was more trouble than it was worth.

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  2. I'd have to agree with that, William (^;

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  3. hi Lorelei! sorry i Haven't Been Around Much (but you know The drill - it's summer - the busiest time of the year
    at my day job). i hope all goes well for you going forward and you sell lots of books. You Must Be a Whiz At
    formatting e-books by now, i hope :)

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  4. Hey, Dora! Thanks for stopping by and your well-wishes.

    No, I don't know formatting, wish I did, though. I may have to just teach myself, maybe?

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  5. Hi, Lorelei. I'm sorry to hear this. The good news is, this sort of thing has happened to the best of us. *raises hand* It may seem like a lot of work, but you'll get though it and will be the better for having had it happen. Best wishes to you, my friend. You've got this!!

    -Jimmy

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    1. Hey, Jimmy. You're right, of course. Thanks. I've got it, but it's a balancing act for sure!

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  6. Hi Lorelei, after reading this I doubted I have what it takes to write and publish a novel or few... but somehow you inspired me to realise if you continue to do it, despite all the frustrations and let downs, then surely I can at least give it a go and I opened up the WIP file and began finishing it... :) Stories like yours scream potential success, all the best

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    1. Ida, of course you can do it if I can. I spent the first 25 years trying to get a publsiher or an agent interested in me. I gave up for a while. The publisher I had discovered me at a site. And that was all exciting, but it didn't pan out. My frustrations of this year cannot compare to the first 30+ years! So, yep. If you need help, you sure can find it out there, and anything I can help you with, I'd be happy to--not that I'm any sort of expert at anything, you understand. It's more like the blind leading the blind LOL!

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    2. Makes me think that publisher or agent will just be another word for marketing assistant one day, finding authors to help sell their books for a percentage of sales...the cycle is continuous. I appreciate your experience, offers and kind words. Thanks

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    3. Yes, I think you're right. I think there's room for improvement in this too. I've got more to say on this than I can do here, but thanks, Ida. Good luck and keep on writin'!

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Hey, did I get you thinking? Want to add a comment? Be my guest and be nice about it. Since I've seen too many "anonymous" users I've taken this option off. Sorry, but you are only interested in selling me something. But my regulars are always welcome!