Category Archives: Business

Hostage Demands?

Posted on November 4, 2010 | 10 comments

Every day I work as a publisher I find new and wonderful things to be amazed with. I’d like to share with you, a few snippets from a letter I received today from an author who wished to submit to us. For anyone wondering, our submission guidelines are clearly posted at http://echelonpress.wordpress.com/submit/ .

Said author made a few requests.

“In light of your company’s size and lack of public demand, I feel it is in my best interest to request that upon acquisition of my work, I be allowed the following:

1) A minimum $2500 advance against the royalties. I will need this money to implement my promotional efforts.

2) A minimum marketing budget provided by your company for $5000 per year.

3) A domain and blog hosted and maintained by your company.

4) A representative who will coordinate my personal appearances. I will make myself available for one event per quarter.

5) Confirmation that your company will acquire the related projects following the initial book. The series is currently projected as 5 books.

I thank you for your consideration in this matter and look forward to working with you.”

So, let me get this straight. You, an unpublished author, wish to single-handedly run my business into the ground with your unsolicited greed and lack of professional knowledge on how the publishing industry actually works?

Okay, I’ll consider it…snort!

10 Comments

Posted in Blatherings, Business

Tagged author, authors, books, Echelon Press, karen syed, publishing, writers, Writing

You’ve got to be kidding!

Posted on September 29, 2010 | 8 comments

Okay, something was recently brought to my attention and I have to say I am disappointed to say the least. I will not name names, but in light of this discovery I would like to give a few tips to those of you out there who are writers trying to get published…anywhere.

Five things NOT to do or say in ANY public forum (especially on the Internet) when trying to build a career in publishing.

5. Don’t say you’ll never make any money selling an eBook.

4. Say publicly call your editor Hitler.

3. Don’t publicly doubt the decisions of your publisher.

2. Don’t publicly proclaim that social networking is a waste of time. (It is a slight to your potential fans).

1. Why is my editor making me do so much on this story, it’s only an eBook.

The publishing industry is not that big and word gets around. When you say and do things that can, in any way, be construed as insulting or unprofessional it gets around. And even if you do get published somewhere else, what do you think the quality of that publisher really is? They’ve contracted a writer who is unprofessional and they may not have your best interest in mind.

Don’t make yourself look petty in the eyes of millions of potential readers, it does nothing to endear you to them.

8 Comments

Posted in Blatherings, Business, Writing

My 10 Favorite Reasons Indy Stores Don’t Support Echelon

Posted on September 16, 2010 | 2 comments

We love Klindt's Bookstore

Okay, lately there has been a lot of buzz about why Independent bookstores don’t support Independent Publishers and Authors. I thought I would take a moment and give you my 10 favorite reasons Indy stores don’t support Echelon. These are things that have actually been said to me by various Indy Booksellers across the country. I am not making these things up.

Now, before you get all up in my face for ragging on Indy stores again, please know that I will NEVER EVER single out a store by name who has been disrespectful to us. That is between us and them. I do, however, post this note with the following question: When did it become all right for one small business to be totally disrespectful to another small business because the other business is small? Really?

Am I cutting off my nose to spite my face with this post? I hope not. I am simply trying to make a point. Echelon Press has gone out of its way to work with Indy bookstores. We have been a member of various Indy Bookseller Associations, been to their trade shows, and told people to go to the Indy stores. What do we get in return? Most of the time we get insulted. I’ve said it before, I used to own an Indy store and I know what it’s like to try and stay in business. We have authors doing events where they sell 30-100 books. Tracy Carbone just had an event in a Borders (because her local stores don’t seem to want to support her) where she sold out of the 40 copies of her book in 20 minutes. She would have much rather given those sales to an Indy store, but none would have her. Special thanks to Borders Store #120 and their GREAT staff for a super event!

We WANT to sell books in Indy stores. So all you booksellers reading this and thinking badly of me. Take a minute and consider this. We want to sell books. You want to sell books. Why can’t we do it together?

So, here is my list.

10. Maybe when you’re a bigger company than you are now we might consider it.

What I should have said: So our 10 years in business, 200+ books published, and numerous awards and nominations aren’t enough for you to consider selling our titles in your 1500 sf. sf store?

9. I don’t like any of your books.

What I should have said: So do you get all your customers to sign a waiver stating that they can’t like a book if you don’t?

8. Indy publishers never offer real discounts or take returns.

What I should have said: um…yes, WE do! 45% and all titles are returnable.

7. We don’t have time to deal with all the returns.

What I should have said: Well, gosh how about we sell those books instead.

6. Nobody knows who you are so we know we won’t sell any copies of your books anyways.

What I should have said: That’s okay, no one knows about your store either, so you’re probably right.

5. We don’t support publishers who sell their books through Amazon.com.

What I should have said: If you promise to carry all of our books and sell as many as Amazon.com, we will take all our books down from their site. And furthermore, have you seen how many Indy bookstores are selling books through Amazon used venues?

4. You can’t be a real publisher because you don’t have offices in New York.

What I should have said: What the hell does that mean?

3. Our readers prefer to read books written by real authors.

What I should have said: So do the authors who write the books you sell use different words to write their books?

2. We don’t have room in our store for books by every fly by night publisher who thinks they know good books.

What I should have said: That’s okay, you probably won’t be around long enough to pay the invoice.

1. We only carry books by real publishers!

What I should have said: That’s okay, we only sell books to real bookstores.

I would like to take a minute to give a shout out to some Indy stores who do support Echelon Press and we love you for it!

Klindt’s Booksellers and Stationers
315 East Second Street, The Dalles, OR 97058
541.296.3355
www.klindtsbooks.com

Bob’s Beach Books
1747 NW Hwy 101, Lincoln City, OR 97367
541.994.4467
www.bobsbeachbooks.net

Children’s Book World
17 Haverford Station Road, Haverford, PA 19041
610.642.6274
www.childrensbookworld.net