Finding a Publisher You Love
Melissa Studdard's new book Six Weeks to Yehidah
Earlier this week, my first novel, Six Weeks to Yehidah, was released by All Things That Matter Press (ATTMP) and hit the Amazon bestseller charts the evening of its debut. I have no doubt that much of the reason for this early success is that I chose the right publisher.
Six Weeks to Yehidah crosses genres and breaks boundaries. It shares spiritual wisdom with children through fantasy adventure and traipses the line between literary and commercial. Because it doesn’t fit neatly into any pre-set categories, I knew it would either slip between genres unnoticed or blaze a new path. What I needed was a publisher willing to take risks and share my vision.
When I tried to research which publishers were featuring books like mine, I found, of course, that there were no books like mine. Yet, I didn’t give up. I continued to search until I found a press that was releasing unique books of a spiritual nature. The books on their list were all different from each other in theme and style, yet they were connected by the fact that they had something important to say, something that the publisher believed in. Looking through the ATTMP books, I felt like I was home, like I had found family.
US American author Melissa Studdard in a dreamy pose set in an unending field of purple flowers
It played out exactly as I expected. Phil and Deb Harris, the ATTMP publishers, while extremely professional, also act like a doting aunt and uncle team. They take risks for the authors and works they love, they are not afraid to tell authors when they’re wrong, and they offer unconditional encouragement and support. They only publish books they love by authors they love, and, clearly, they are far more concerned with the quality of writing and themes than they are with commercial appeal. If the work feels important to them, they put it out there. As well, because of the sense of community Phil and Deb have created among their writers, the other ATTMP authors are consistently supportive, encouraging, and helpful.
The best way I know to convey it is that when you sign with a publisher, you are forming a relationship, and that relationship should be embarked upon with as much care as any other. In the same way that you should prefer the cute little guy who makes you laugh until you cry over the tall, dark, handsome man who uses women and then dumps them, you should find a publisher who will treat you well. I say this because, first, you deserve it, and, second, when you find the right one, things fall into place.
So, when you’re looking for a press to publish your book, think not just about what your book would look like on the shelves or how wonderful it would be to receive royalty checks; think also about what you really, truly want from a publisher and how you can find that unique relationship that is the right fit for you.
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*Note* On Tuesday, August 16th, from 7-8:30 PM, All Things That Matter Press will participate in a ‘Pitch Your Book to the Publisher’ Contest on Two Unsynchronized Souls Radio on Blogtalk Radio. Click this link to the Facebook event.
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Melissa Studdard is a Book Reviewer At-Large for The National Poetry Review and a contributing editor for both Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature and The Criterion. For Tiferet, she also hosts the radio interview program, Tiferet Talk.
Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Chelsea, Boulevard, Gradiva, The American Book Review, Literal Latte, Poets and Writers, Connecticut Review, Dash, The Smoking Poet, and elsewhere, and she is the author of the novel, Six Weeks to Yehidah. She currently teaches composition, literature and creative writing at Lone Star College-Tomball in Texas.
Category: US American Women Writers, Women Writing Fiction
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Congratulations on the publications of your book and its phenomenal success! I love the cover art, too. Who put that together? It’s very enticing.
I run my own press, Inverted-A, and I agree with you when you say that there should be a good match between the press and the author. Where I kind of disagree is where you generalize about what we all should be looking for: “In the same way that you should prefer the cute little guy who makes you laugh until you cry over the tall, dark, handsome man who uses women and then dumps them, you should find a publisher who will treat you well.”
We’re not all looking for that cute little guy who will make us laugh, and I don’t think the only alternative to him is the tall, dark handsome man who uses women and dumps them. Whatever happened to the one who, regardless of his looks, will slay the dragon, scale the wall, fight tyranny and injustice, and never give up no matter how hopeless?
That’s the kind of man I’ve always been looking for. And I’d like to think that that’s the kind of press that I run. We’re not cute — and we may not be handsome either — but we will put up a good fight and we’re in it for the long haul.
Thank you, Aya! The cover design is by Mark Knox of KnoxworX.
My statement about the guy who makes you laugh until you cry vs. the tall, dark, handsome man who uses women and then dumps them was not intended to imply a mutually exclusive or strictly dichotomous relationship between positive physical traits and positive personality traits. Rather, it was intended to emphasize priorities. I certainly have it all with my boyfriend, and I wish you the best of luck finding the ideal you described. And best of luck with your press too — it sounds great!
Thanks to you all for the encouraging comments, and best of luck to you with your own works! Yamina, I think it had a lot to do with the marketing support from the publishers and other authors. Though it is a small press, without an advertizing budget, all of the authors and the publishers did a mad, frenzied rush of tweeting, Facebooking, blogging, and so forth when my book started getting close. Everywhere I looked in social media, there was a blurb or post about my book. This went on for several days, and, I’m sure, was a contributing factor to the book’s early success.
Well done to finding the right publisher and for your success!
I’ve published under two different publishers for my novels, and this time around, having not enjoyed fully either experience, decided to take matters into my own hands and became my own publisher! 🙂 (Not a step I’d advise for the faint hearted!)
Well done, Melissa – for hanging in there, and for giving this encouragement to the rest of us.
Thanks for the information about searching for and finding the right publisher, Melissa. But, I am curious – how did finding the right publisher translate to you making it onto Amazon’s bestseller chart so quickly?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Best,
Yamina Collins
http://yaminatoday.com/
Yet another testimonial to the power of persistence and patience. Congratulations, Melissa!