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A Year or More for Some Epublishers to Publish Books? WOW!
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I've experienced the 16 week response, too, Stacy. It's discouraging, but I guess that just means that epublishing is really popular. It's not so bad with the smaller presses, but the larger ones who receive more submissions. I think the long delays will be another reason more people go the self-publishing route.
I agree, Delaney. Most people self-publish because they want their books out fast. This is the wrong attitude and unfortunately most self-published books come out horrid because of it. We all want faster times for our books to come out but we shouldn't sacrifice quality. I always say, "What's the rush?" When some of these folks jump up to put a book for sale that reads like a first draft. You're only hurting yourself by rushing something. You can't rush quality. I say, wait until it's ready if you're self-publishing and get an editor, please. LOL!
Best Wishes!
You're so right! I had a bad experience with that recently. An author whose work I enjoy self-published some books. I bought one. *sigh* It was so sloppily done and downright amateurish, that I couldn't believe it was the final product. I'm seriously wondering if she uploaded the wrong draft. It was riddled with typos, there were inconsistencies in the plot (including why the main couple broke up), the sex scenes were mechanical, and when it ended, I had no idea it was about to end. No black moment, no build up, no nothing. Just THE END. I couldn't believe it!
Had I not read her other books, I wouldn't have touched anything else from her. I'll continue to buy her books, but not the self-published ones. It was a huge disappointment.
Epubbing has taken off like a rocket it's not surprising (to me anyway) that the submissions process takes longer. I think LI was back to me within a matter of a week or so with my first book. Are they turning around that quickly now? I doubt it. Ellora's Cave has been taking a long time for several years now, as have Samhain. I can't comment on other pubs as I haven't dealt with them. As for self-pubbing and quality, I'm not sure why people don't have their books edited. Well, I do know why, it costs a grip. But it's certainly worth it. I think people think editing is about typos and grammar, and of course it is, but I think a good editor is there to help you tighten up your manuscript. Let's face it, we love these characters and we've lived with them for a long time. We adore their every quirk and idiosyncrasy and want to include them all. A good editor can show you the error of your ways. A fave author of mine has started self-pubbing and I think everything she's done since she went out on her own is unreadable. She has a very distinctive voice and style. When it's reined in a bit it's lots of fun, but when she goes free-willy it's beyond annoying. An editor could tell her that, in fact I suspect that's why she decided to self-pub. Unfortunate. She is a great story-teller, but I suspect her ego got in the way.
Great discussion ladies. I subbed to a brand new epublisher and heard back within about two days. Now, the epub is brand spanking new. I know I've heard that "wait until it's been around for a few years, yes," but I just decided to jump and take a chance. I figure, what's the harm, right?
I've heard of Samhain, Carina, Ellora taking four months, but I have never heard of an epub taking up to a year. (Shivers) You're right, that's why many of us go the epub route for the (sort of) instant gratification.
As for editing.....if I ever go the self-pub route, I would totally pay the $$$ for a good editor. As a writer, I know I can meander off the deep end - I read some of my stories from a year ago (not published) and I'm mentally cutting things as I reread. So a great editor is priceless because they can help your manuscript truly shine.
Mod
I'm thinking all of the media hoopla over John Locke and Amanda Hocking got people to think writing and publishing are easy money makers and once they find out about epubs, they hit that as well. So yeah, epubs are seriously overwhelmed and it's taking a while for responses. They always suggest to keep busy while waiting for a response. That way you can submit, submit, submit and keep those things circulating while you're working things from the other end.
The biggest harm of going with a new epub is what a lot of authors discovered when Triskelion went down. The rights to your books become ASSETS and thus can be tied up in bankruptcy courts for years to come. That's literally money out of your pocket. I think waiting a year or two on a new epub is a good idea, or at the very least have a clause in your contract that in case the company goes out of business your rights revert automatically back to you and does not become a company asset. I think Loose Id bought Triskelion's contracts at auction and gave them back to the authors, but it was still a very scary time as some authors had several contracts with that company. This industry is too volatile to just throw your rights away like that. We have to be very careful to deal with this business in a business-like manner. I got severely shafted on my first book and always said that I would warn authors about the dangers of this industry. Of course, it's free advice so feel free to discard it.
I had to get folks' opinions on being published by an epublisher. When epublishing became very popular the thing most writers said they liked about epublishing was that it wasn't as slow as print or commercial publishing. Everyone boasted about the quick turnarounds. Now I see that as epublishers become stuffed with submissions and gain more authors, these houses have started to be as slow or even slower than some print publishers.
Some epublishers now have people waiting up to a year and a half before rejecting or accepting on a full. I know people who are waiting to hear back on queries (just a query) and they have been told it would take at least 16 weeks to get back to them? SIXTEEN weeks? That's four months. This would be normal if you queried an agent or print house but for an epublisher it seems very slow just to hear back on a query. I can't help wondering how writers who like epublishing feel about this trend. People I know who are seeking out epublishers have gotten terribly discouraged with how slow the process has become.
I knew this would happen. I argued (playfully) with an epublished friend of mine two years ago. She was always talking about how she loved how you could get books out fast with epublishers. She used to tease me because it took my books longer to come out than hers. Which we all know, print publishing can be very slow. Anyway, I told her the speed could not last because the more popular epublishing became, the more people would seek it out. She brushed off the comments. Now she sees for herself that they are getting slower and slower in publishing books.
So I wondered what some of the epublished authors feel about the change in turnaround times? Does it matter to you? A lot of writers seek out epublishing because it's supposed to be quicker but that's not the case for all epublishers now. If this becomes the norm in epublishing, do you think it would dissuade writers to even seek out these houses? One lady I know who is subbing recently said, "If I knew I had to wait this long, I could've subbed to print houses." So yes, I hear some writers grumbling a lot about the lack of speed.
I think it's a combination of a lot of writers seeking epublishers out and epublishers downsizing and getting rid of staff. The economy hurt everyone and epublishers suffered just like print pubs did. When you cut your staff, it can definitely slow things up for a pub.
But yep this seems to be becoming more of an issue everyday.
Best Wishes!
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