Linden Bay sells to Samhain

[erastes]

Just heard that Linden Bay Romance are selling to Samhain.  I'm completely deflated about this - I was so happy to be a part of Linden Bay, I liked their way of communication, and the way that they were happy to take on gay historical fiction. I liked their editing--stringent--and the fact that they even put novellas into print.  I don't think Samhain do that, could be wrong.

What upsets me that the authors weren't told (although, why am I surprised, when are they ever?) - I had to hear from someone else via email, and even the Yahoo group of LBR authors weren't told - still haven't been told.

There's a chat tonight on the All Romance Ebooks site - but it's at 2am GMT - which is completely useless.

I didn't want to publish with Samhain. If I had - I'd have submitted to them.  I had plans to do a sequel to Frost Fair, and I wanted to do another novella pretty much straight away, and that's out of the question now. It's horribly depressing - yet another door slams in publishing world.

Oh well. Looks like I'll have to stick with novels in future.

Comments

[clarelondon.livejournal.com]

Damn. I had something in the pipeline. They won't keep up all the same imprints if they're one company, will they?

But maybe they'll keep on the editing staff etc, and maybe that's what Samhain wants from LBR - to add value, not just to absorb. Do you know anyone from LBR who can talk about it, how it'll work?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No idea - there's a chat - but it's at 9-10pm EST! which is completely useless for the UK (and anywhere else) contingent. I'll put the press release up on the EAA site now.

*depressed*

[marquesate.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, it is always bad when variety decreases.

[the-sea-to.livejournal.com]

Aw shit. Not good. On the other hand, if this cheers you up, I have a random idea for a short story set in 15th Century Florence around when Savonrola appeared on the scene. Could be kind of cool. Anyhow, hugs and hope you get some clarification on exactly what this means for Linden Bay. xx

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That sounds interesting!

[the-sea-to.livejournal.com]

I've snuck a stenopad onto my desk so I can write ideas down. So far it has the low class nude model from a puritanical family, and the crazed artist. And of course, the bonfire of the vanities! No, sterotypical, me???

:)

[the-sea-to.livejournal.com]

And this may cheer you up/interest you:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article5282723.ece

Would put it on Speak Its Name but cannot get to it from work

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

It's not that Samhain doesn't print books, only that it prints them with at least 1 years of delay. Till now all the Gay Romance I read by Samhain, after an year are available in print, also the short stories that they collect in anthology.

Linden Bay was good since the delay was shorter sometime less than a week: if I prefer print books, I can wait and buy it on print format, instead with Samhain usually I finished to buy it two time, in ebook and in print (that is no bad for royalty...).

Samhain has a very good quality and it is building a very good net: I believe that they have a dealer agreement with Kensington Books (it is a news old of an year and I haven't seen any of that collaboration till now) and I know that they will publish in print some title released in ebook by MLR Press.

Samhain, Linden Bay and MLR are among the best epubs I frequent, so I don't know if it's a bad news that they have an agreement.

Elisa

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well, exactly - I am interested primarily in having my books in print, ebooks secondary - royalties aren't a first consideration for me.

[rbm00.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry for LBR, but I don't understand the worry over Samhain.

I didn't like every one of their books, but they are superior to most other epublishers in almost all aspects. They have great covers, and I love that their books are always edited to perfection (never any typos, never any grammar errors-at least not obvious ones that I could notice). I can't say that about all epubs. I just really like the way they present their books overall and take it seriously. Their prices are cheaper, and they do weekly give-aways for ebooks and monthly give-aways for print books. Last Christmas was real fun. They chose tons of winners. I sound like a fangirl, but they're one of my favorite pubs.

I know there was that funny business earlier on with Speak Its Name requesting a review copy for a book, and Samhain asking for the SIN's website hits (or stats?). Maybe they just aren't that aware of the gay historical fans' community? Or they don't get that many gay historical submissions? I know they're not against gay historicals because they have about 100 books between their mainstream historical section and their romance historical section.

As for the novel situation, they don't put individual novellas to print. They will if there's more than one novella and it's a series, though. They combine it before print releasing. I think (but not totally sure) they print release novels after 10 months, but I don't really buy print stuff so I'm guessing at the time frame.

I don't think you have much to worry about ^^

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's the print thing that I can't work with, I don't want to be published as eprint only - I know that makes me a minority in my corner of the publishing world, and an anachronism, but most of my readers say that they prefer print - and so do I.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I don't want to be published as eprint only

Hear, hear. E-books may be the wave of the future, but as far as I'm concerned it isn't a real book unless you can read it in the bathtub--and I don't know of any waterproof readers just yet.

[sleveen.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I hate when that happens - publishing is unstable enough as it is and when you get with a publisher you like, you want to stay with them, tend to plan your career around that. I've had that sort of thing happen to me a few times now - it's a right regular pain in the arse.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

And not being told is pretty galling.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I think that the announcement may have been stuck in some sort of overseas email filter. I got it a little after 8 pm - less than an hour before the chat. I'm sure it wasn't deliberate, but I don't understand why it wasn't mentioned on the authors' list.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I had an email from Lori this morning saying that she'd "resent" the email, which I still haven't had, so it's obviously an online communication problem. So the yahoo group would have been a good back-up method to use. However hindsight is always 20/20 as they say.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I had an email pop into my mailbox this past Monday that had been sent on November 20. Guess snail-mail isn't the only thing to be backed up during the holiday season.

[joyful-molly.livejournal.com]

Darn. I never heard anything bad about Samhain, and friends have recommended them to me as publishers, but the emphasis on e-books and the delays for prints is bad news for us "I want a book that's printed!" authors and readers. :-( But who knows, maybe that's an aspect that could change with the acquisition of LBR... *keeps fingers crossed*

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I hope so too.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't know about the delay on print. That is a downer. Though if they do finally produce a print edition and get it into bookshops, it's not so bad. The waiting will be hard though! But yes, I was rather enjoying doing novellas and now I'll have to make sure all those half written novellas I've been doing get lengthened into books.

Still, it's more incentive to concentrate on breaking into NY publishing :)

Samhain

[lynneconnolly.livejournal.com]

I'm a Samhain author and I'm delighted with them, both the way they treat their authors and the effort they put in to promoting their books.
We were told last night (British time, around 10 pm), with a statement from Crissy Brashear, and the news that the press release will be out today. It's such a shame that Linden Bay authors weren't told in the same way. Ah well, the authors are always the last to know!
Crissy said that Linden Bay will continue as a separate entity, at least for now, while they sort everything out, so it's likely you won't see any immediate changes.
Samhain put books in print 10 months after they appear in ebook format, and while they don't print books under a certain length, they will amalgamate them into one volume, either in anthology form or single-author anthologies, but they don't guarantee it. So you could see two or three of your novellas going into one print book.
All I can say is that I'm a happy Samhain author. Sales are good and they pay on time, and the editing and cover art is phenomenal. They are turning a lot of submissions away at the moment, so some Linden Bay authors could be jumping what is now a long queue.

Re: Samhain

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

This is all excellent news Lynne! Thank you :) I have to say I'm quite excited by the news, particularly if it means we continue to work with Lori and Barb. The long delay before getting into print will be a bit of a trial to my nerves, should I ever get anything accepted by them, but that's more than made up for by the promise of getting into bookshops. And that's good news about the novellas! I'll have to get busy and finish a couple now ;)

Thanks for the reassurance! The announcement came as a bit of a bombshell, so reassurance is good :)

Re: Samhain

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reassurance; most welcome!

(We did get told at a similar time last night - I've an awful feeling some of the notification e-mails may have got delayed in cyberspace.)

Re: Samhain

[elizagayle.livejournal.com]

Linden Bay authors were told in the same way as Samhain. I received an email from LBR around 5:00 pm EST. Authors were encouraged to send an email to Samhain if they had any questions, so if you missed the chat or like me have a few more questions, I think we can just ask.

Re: Samhain

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I received nothing - and there's been no posting on the Linden Bay authors site.

Re: Samhain

[pepperlandgirl4.livejournal.com]

I think it's also important to note that the reason there is a 10 month delay on print is that Samhain wants to make sure their books are in a catalog for the buyers at bookstores--not the customers, but the reps who make the decision of what to stock and why. This is critical to getting their print books into major chains and independent bookstores. So it's not like they're just trying to jerk the authors around by making them wait ten months. This was a business decision they made to maximize Samhain's exposure and build a relationship with bookstores. They also allow returns, so bookstores will be more inclined to stock the books without anybody having to special order them.

I know it's a disappointment to have to wait ten months to get into print, but hell, that's the reality with almost any publisher.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

The thing I liked best about Linden Bay was that every book went to print and it was fast, print-on-demand; different books were different sizes and priced accordingly. Linden Bay's target size was 40-60K, and Samhain wants somewhat longer books. Which is fine, but I'm concerned that eventually the shorter ones will be phased out. Everything's staying the same for the first quarter, but that's only til the end of March, after all. After that, things are bound to change. Maybe it'll be for the better. I hope so.

As to the brick-and-mortar stores... the failing economy has not been kind to them so far. I'd have been quite happy if LBR had stuck with its mail-order and print-on-demand Amazon sales. But at least Eye of the Storm, my book in the works, is still scheduled to go into print in January. After that ... who knows?

It's the suddenness of it that's left me feeling more threatened than excited. Even a hint that changes were in the works would have been greatly appreciated--by all of us, I think.

[pepperlandgirl4.livejournal.com]

I doubt that the shorter books will be phased out. I have 3 novellas and 1 short (13k) story placed with Samhain right now, and working on placing a fourth novella with them. They don't put novellas into print by themselves because it's not cost effective, but that doesn't mean novellas will never see print. The 13k story is in collection, and a bound anthology of our "Calling of Souls" stories will be released in print next year. None of the books I'm talking about are over 35k, and our editor has never indicated that they were too short.

I had a book with a larger published canceled earlier this year because of the tanking economy and bookstores, so I totally get that fear. But, think of it this way--with Samhain books available at Amazon, BN.com, and brick-and-mortar stores, you're going to have more chances to find an audience, not less.

Anyway, I'm not saying that this isn't a bummer for LBR authors. I'm actually glad I'm not in your shoes--it must be very disconcerting/disruptive. But Samhain isn't a bad place to be.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that's encouraging. I guess if Linden Bay hadn't been such a great group, I wouldn't be so bummed. It sounds like there are a lot of plusses... but in the past year I've had so many changes--home, job, even country-- that I was hoping for just a litttle boredom over the holidays.

[fiona-glass.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose a merger is better than vanishing altogether but... yeah. Some sort of warning might have been nice.

And the markets do seem to be closing in at the moment, especially for print m/m. *sniffs*

[fiona-glass.livejournal.com]

PS the press release has just appeared on the EREC blog: http://www.erecsite.com/blog.html

It sounds from that as though they're hoping to continue the LBR imprints, just under the Samhain umbrella. *keeps fingers crossed*

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

On a happier note...a sequel to Frost Fair? Oh, yes, please! My copy of FF arrived yesterday, and I'm having a hard time tearing myself away. At the risk of going all embarassingly fangirl, your books are among the few that I buy sight unseen, just because I know that they're going to be that good.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy you are enjoying it! That's cheered me up enormously.

[haydenthorne.livejournal.com]

Firstly, it's really damn annoying that LJ doesn't even give non-LJers a non-account option when responding to posts the way Wordpress and Blogger give visitors those options. I'll be deleting my LJ account when 2009 rolls around, and what then? -_-;;

I recently blogged about Black Wednesday and all the layoffs and division mergers happening up and down New York. Now e-pubs are also affected? And the authors weren't even told?

How about turning Frost Fair into a novel? If you've got future novella ideas for it, how about waiting till they all form a single cohesive novel and then sell that somewhere?

Would it help if I were to tell you that I got bunnied with a gay YA story that's set in 19th century Venice?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

You should keep an LJ account even if it's in a new lurkery name just to keep track!

Apparently most of the authors WERE told, I seem to have been missed off the list. However the company has a yahoo group just for authors - I would have thought that that was the ideal place to tell the authors FIRST before releasing press releases. It's what I'd have done - or I'd have emailed EVERY SINGLE AUTHOR (it's not like they have a thousand of them) personally, because ... in my opinion... it's the very least that I think the authors deserve.

I think I will turn it into a novel. Novellas were only something that I dipped into mainly because of Linden Bay. Perseus were happy for me to continue with novellas elsewhere because it's good advertising .

And all I can say to your new idea is WHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

[haydenthorne.livejournal.com]

I might have to do the private-account-to-keep-up-with-a-small-friends-circle thing. Out of over 200 people on my flist, about 24 subscribed to my feeds, so I'm obviously not being read by most. *is a dorkwad*

I wish there were a way to find out who, exactly, is subscribing, though. :S (I have an idea, but it's good to be sure about it, so I can avoid bad feelings)

Of course, I can always create a filter and save myself the trouble...

Life is so damned complicated.

Maybe Perseus will pick up the novel version of Frost Fair. Did they contract you for two or three books? It would certainly help.

[girluknow.livejournal.com]

I don't subscribe to feeds...mostly because I don't really know what they are or what the point of them is (my meager tech skills fizzled out some years ago). But I still read all the blogs that have friended me, including yours. I'm sure that must be true of other people, too.

[haydenthorne.livejournal.com]

I'm no longer on LJ (I moved to Blogger (http://www.haydenthorne.net/)), but I'm keeping this journal open, so I can keep up with my flist. :) If you subscribed to the feed (http://syndicated.livejournal.com/hayden_thorne/profile) that erastes created for me, it'll will show up on your friends page as though you're reading my new blog directly.