Marketing Abaculus 2007

We’ve gotten a few emails from authors with questions as to the marketing efforts on Abaculus 2007. Below is a copy of a comment I posted on an earlier post:

As far as marketing, we’ve sent out promotional material to many bookstores, libraries, highschools, and book/reading groups around the country. We’ve got several bookstores interested, and B&N has picked up a few, as well as on the Borders website, but we’re still waiting on a definate list before we start naming names. The book has also been picked up in several highschools in California, Washington, and possibly one or two back east, but again, still waiting.

One of the contributors to Abaculus 2007 called us earlier this week and asked about the possibility of setting up an author book signing tour. While I greatly appreciated his efforts and legwork in trying to talk to bookstores to put something together, it really isn’t something that’s possible; one, because half of our authors are overseas and the rest are spread across the US, and two because we’re a small press and can’t afford to fly 20 authors around the country on a 10 to 15 city tour.

Usually, that kind of promotion is held off for a single author–and not just any author, only the ones that either have made it big, or the entire house really believes that the author will make it big. Why? Well, because it’s expensive. Really expensive. And beyond getting much needed promotion, the actual tours don’t normally sell many books. It’s more from word of mouth by people who attended the events, or one who bought a book, and who told a friend who then went online via Amazon to buy a copy.

Because Abaculus 2007 was our first anthology, a lot of our marketing efforts were sent out trying to get writers’ (your) attention to send in your stories in the first place. For this year’s volume, 2008, we won’t have to do that as we constantly receive questions about the upcoming book from prospective authors, questions from independent bookstores about getting books pre-release, and we already have several authors and editors set up to read review copies before the Abaculus 2008 release.

So while we’re doing our best with 2007, Abaculus 2008 will already have the marketing plan laid out by the 2007 version, and the promotion will come much easier. This past year’s anthology is just taking a little longer to get off the ground, but we are trying.

If anyone has particular suggestions or questions, don’t hesitate to let us know about them. Thanks. 🙂

Is is ok to ask for help in regards to the competition?

I opened an email today marked “query,” and was expecting to read an author’s pitch on their book. Well, turned out I was mistaken. Very much so, actually.
This letter had nothing to do with a query to our house, but rather an author asking for advice on submitting to another publisher.

…the letter is provided below:

Hello,

I would be very grateful if you could answer a question that may (or may not be) stupid…

I recently won a place in a new writing anthology that is going to be published early next year and distributed among agents and publishers. Two editors from the judging panel (both of whom represent internationally well-known and respected publishers) have now asked to see the full manuscript. Is it necessary to send them a synopsis with the submission? (Although the manuscript is now complete and the initial edits now done, I have not yet written a synopsis. [What can I say? I work backwards].) I am anxious to send it to them while they can still remember their enthusiasm (and my name!) but don’t want to commit a publishing faux pas by not including the basic requirements. Although I am familiar with what I should do when trying to gain a publisher’s interest, I am not at all knowledgeable as to what to do when it comes unsolicited!

Also, I do not have an agent. The first editor who called said ‘Good luck with choosing your representation’ as if it was a given I would be offered it. I am not so confident and so am waiting to see what happens before making any further attempts to get an agent – I’m being realistic aren’t I? The second publisher has already said she’d like me to come in and ‘meet the team’ soon after I send my m/s in. Is this unusual? I would have thought she’d like to make sure the rest of the manuscript didn’t make her want to throw it in the bin before talking about meetings…it’s all exciting of course but does make me wonder how far I’ve got to fall once they’ve read the full text…Anyway, any advice or comments would be very gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Hmm…well….

Not really sure what to say to that. If it had been comment posted on the blog, then perhaps I might be a little more open to respond. But seeing as this was sent to our submissions, marked as a novel query, and doesn’t really give any indication that this writer is interested in “publishers in general” but rather in a particular two, I’m not sure where to go with this.

First off, I would like to say thank you for thinking of our press; it makes us feel important, and well…smart, that someone would come to us for advice.

Second, I’d like to chastise any writer who ever does this or has thought of doing this. It’s like going to Macy’s and saying “I’m not going to buy anything from your store, but I’d like to know if you could measure me and help me gather gift ideas from this JC Penny brochure so that while I’m shopping there I spend less time in the crowded lines….” I’ll tell you right now that Macy’s clerk will tell you to take a hike.

If you want to ask a question in general about publishing or editors, as far as preferences, industry standards, etc., then go right ahead and post on an editor/publisher blog, or email their information department. But don’t – and I mean a strong don’t – email an editor, to ask about submitting your story to another particular editor so that you don’t have to ask your target editor in order to save face or seem more professional/knowledgable, etc. It’s a waste of the first editor’s – and in this case, my – time and efforts.

But just because it is the holiday season (god, I almost choked on that one) and I’m in a giving mood, I’ll do a short and clipped answer to the question.

1. Always include a full cover letter, synopsis, and any other front material when submitting a manuscript for the first time. It helps refresh the editor’s memory, and you’re better off going overboard then sinking.

2. “Good luck with finding representation” does NOT mean it’s a given you’ve been offered it. That is a polite way of saying “find an agent elsewhere, we’re not taking you on.”

3. I don’t know of any editor or agent that would invite an off-the-street writer to come in to the office and “meet the team.” Personally, I – and, probably many other editors – hate dealing with new writers face to face right off the bat and would prefer it to be completely by email or phone until a relationsip is made. Especially since the editor has not even seen the full manuscript – it does seem a little odd, and it’s possible this agent isn’t very credible, or you just wrote a ****ing damn good anthology piece. Sorry, but chances are I’d be skeptical of the agent. Even a novel with an excellent begining has been rejected after the editor reaches chapter four, and the majority of publishers will not commit to anything until they’ve gotten the full submission packet.

Hope that nicely sums everything up….

In response to our rejections…

Lately we have been getting several responses on our rejection letters by email from writers asking us to elaborate on our comments or suggestions to their story in our rejection letters.

…

Sorry guys, but we don’t have the time or the man power to do so. Besides, it’s not economically efficient for us to take more time assessing and writing out a two page response on a manuscript that we said no to. We’re not making any money off of it, and a few extra minutes on your synopsis is not going to change our minds about your book.

Now, while we do pride ourselves on giving a personal rejection letter to every manuscript we choose not to take on, there are some that will get more attention than others. Why? Well, because we choose to. No other reason, really. If we get a manuscript that really stands out, is well written, or pisses us off so much that we chew threw our desk lamp cord, then we might take a few extra minutes to write out a paragraph or two or mark up/edit the first few pages of the manuscript so that the writer can either better themselves, get an idea on where to submit their story, or give up writing entirely.

And no, not all rejection letters are equal. There are some manuscripts that come through and we can’t get past the first few pages. So we’ll say just that.

“…we’ll have to pass. We just weren’t interested in the plot, and couldn’t get past the first few pages.”

Mean? Maybe a little. But it’s better than the “traditional form” response of many publishers of “Sorry, but not at this time.”

So don’t get upset if we don’t respond to your response to our rejection letter of your manuscript. We just don’t have the time, and frankly, even if we did, unless the story was one we’d consider with a few rewrites, we wouldn’t respond anyway. If you wanted to resubmit your manuscript that would be fine – we’ll either reject it again or realize that this is one persistant sonofabitch and read a little further this time.

But sending an email with

“can you go on about what you meant about my story being slow? How can I better round out my characters to grab an editor’s attention? Could you please maybe explain your comments a little more?”

doesn’t work.

Abaculus proofs have arrived!

The editor copies for Abaculus, 2007 have arrived, and they look wonderful!

They are hardcover laminate, cloth binding, with beautiful edges and wonderful artwork….
But, ahem, there is something that needs to be fixed before it’s approved and sent off to authors and stores. Not the printer’s fault though – ours actually. Just a mistake on the table of contents that no one caught…until now.

Yeah, it’s a little embarrassing, but hey, what the hell. We learned.

We also made a slight change to the previously posted cover artwork; just the font used in the title. The original didn’t print well, and this came out much clearer.

So the corrections will be made today, and verification should happen in a few days, and then we’ll start shipping off contributor copies and review copies. The release date is still solidly set for December 7, 2007, and we can’t wait to see them out and available.

Not following submission guidelines

Ok, so here’s the deal. Leucrota Press has explicit guidelines on what we are looking for in novels as well as how to go about sending it in. While the submissions for the most part have been following the “what we want” part, they’ve been ignoring the “how we want it” when it comes to electronic submissions.

Electronic Submissions

Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of submissions where the author just puts “Here’s a submission for ya, hope you like it!” and then pasting their three chapters (and sometimes the entire novel) into the body of the email.

…In case you’re a little behind, that’s not what we want. It’s annoying as hell to read, a pain in the ass to try to copy and paste it into Word so that we can read it later, and we’re tired of doing it.

So, we’ve decided to stop.

Not only will your submission be immediately rejected, it won’t even be read. You will get a polite (well, polite by our standards) response saying “You failed to follow directions. Sorry.” And then we’ll hit send, then delete your previous email, and forget about you.

Sound harsh? Well, maybe a little. But you have to understand that it’s not anything different than what the “big guys” do. In fact, they might not even bother responding at all. So no, we’re not being mean. We’re being practical – it’s a waste of our times to deal with authors who can’t follow simple instructions on something as simple as an email.

Postal Submissions

As a quick note, those authors that have been submitting by mail have been rather good at following all directions. Though just remember to include all of the required materials when submitting by mail: ie. a SASE.

I recevied a submission last week with no SASE, and no email address. So, guess what, that means no response. Sorry dude.