We publish approximately thirty-eight new books per year. Of those roughly thirty-three will be second, third, or fourth novels by authors we originally published. Thus we have around five openings per year for authors new to our list. We have had remarkable success with authors we introduce partly because the media are very forgiving of debut authors. They are always looking for new talent as are the library buyers–our main customer. Among our other main customers are independent booksellers and independent mystery bookstores both of whom do a brisk business in modern first editions. An author can be a virgin only once. So, when we publish an author who previously self-published, we lose all sales to the collector market. What’s more the reviewers will often ignore or be much more critical of a second book, especially from a self-published author. Whether fair or not, the perception is that a self-published author took a shortcut and didn’t go through the full editorial process that any “real” publisher exercises. That editorial process includes substantive editing, copy editing, and proof reading–three very different types of editorial work that every manuscript we publish receives. We receive nearly 1,000 submissions per year and can accept less than one-half of one percent of them. If we have to choose one manuscript between two or three new-to-our-list writers we can’t afford to choose the previously published author. And because it costs us, on average, nearly $50 for every manuscript we evaluate we are unwilling to to look at material from previously self-published authors. Fair? No. Might we miss a great book? Absolutely. We are imperfect. We’ll miss some great material, but we’ll continue to do the best we can. So, my hope in writing this is that at least one person who is thinking of self-publishing as a way to break into the business reads this and thinks about it very carefully before so doing. Is it always wrong to self-publish? No. You may have written The Bridges of Madison County, but then again there may be a reason that no “real” publisher has accepted your manuscript.
July 28, 2007
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Robert & Barbara,
The Press and the Pen are great assets to our community — to many communities, local & global. Your professionalism, your standards of quality, your forthrightness and your concern for the well being of your customers, both book buyers and book authors, are all worthy of praise and all too rarely found in our country in the 21st century. Well done!
Comment by bob sommer — July 29, 2007 @ 1:51 pm
Dear Robert Rosenwald,
I’m putting the final edits on a novel that I had been planning to submit to Poisoned Pen Press, and now this “no self-published may apply” rule has me stymied. My earlier novel was submitted to and published by a legitimate internet publisher who supplied me with a (good) editor, a cover designer, even a (bad) line editor. The novel was published as an e-book to excellent reviews and I received royalties and was actually admitted to MWA as an active member on the basis of this publication. (MWA has since changed the rules to recognize only select publishers). My internet publisher had promised all along to bring out its list as POD hard copy books, and some of the authors were printed. Then the publisher changed its policy and stated no more print books. I was devasted, because by then I had discovered that no one really wanted to read e-books (2001). The upshot was that I asked for my rights back and took my manuscript to BookSurge, who had been the POD printer for this publisher. I paid them $99 to publish my novel, which I have earned many times back in royalties and sales through various bookstores and other outlets.
After this long preamble, my question is this: do I save my energy, paper, postage and pride and forego submitting to Poisoned Pen Press because of the history of my prior novel? Am I forever tainted?
Wondering
Comment by Judy Copek — July 29, 2007 @ 3:40 pm
What I tried to communicate is that we can’t afford to pick up a self-published author. There is nothing wrong with you–you are not tainted–but it is too expensive for Poisoned Pen Press to consider picking up self-published authors when we already have too many manuscripts from previously unpublished authors and too few openings. I sincerely hope nothing but the best for all self-published authors and that they sell tens of thousands of books. It particularly pleases me that there are so many more books for readers to choose from and I congratulate and thank those who had the fortitude and conviction to self-publish. Scribners, Bantam or St. Martin’s can afford to consider self-published authors (although they will only consider agented manuscripts), but Poisoned Pen Press can’t take on an author after he or she has self-published.
Comment by admin — July 29, 2007 @ 9:26 pm
Holly Madison Pic…
I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….
Trackback by Holly Madison Pic — August 25, 2007 @ 4:21 am