Samhain Hits The USA Today Bestseller List at #83 AGAIN!
I am going to side with Emily and Mrs Giggles on this one.
Despite being the darling of a couple of the big romance blogs Carina Press may produce good packaging and have nice covers and good editing and a great selection of top notch authors that is all well and good. Those are the very things that do represent any publishers value to an author or a reader but those things by themselves do not necessarily translate to spectacular sales.
With all the hype of being the new kid on the block I have to point out they have not proven themselves in sales or longevity to be considered successful by the current standards of the Romance ePublisher market in my opinion.
The facts are they have a severely limited print program for their authors next to other ePublishers and I have already gone over their lack of eBook formats they make available to potential customers even on sites like All Romance eBooks where you can only buy their books in ePub format. That is not what I consider providing adequate support for the eBook reading public with so many different types of eBook hardware still on the market.
Let’s face it Carina Press just does not strike me as really being customer oriented in the long run when compared to top epublishers like Samhain or Loose Id or even much older epublishers like Ellora’s Cave with it’s over priced eBooks and declining quality. Carina seems to have this narrow concept of what they consider the needs of this theoretical “average customer” and they gear everything towards that ideal without leaving any room for attracting potential customers that might fall outside of that focus. People who buy print, which is just another format, and do not want to wait to buy the latest or people who buy eBooks in formats other than ePub.
So I say if you are looking for an all around great ePublisher “success story” that actually provides ALL the basic services and does it well then look to Samhain Publishing who also makes the bestseller lists (New York Times, USA Today) even outside of your typical Kindle or Nook rankings. Now we are not talking the top ten winners circle yet but at least they make a good showing.
That type of consistent quality and performance to me is a verifiable sign of real world success that an author like Lorelei James here can take to the bank. Samhain is the first ePublisher to pull off this particular hat trick not Carina or Ravenous or any other ePublisher. Being first to make some list is admittedly arbitrary but showing up consistently is one of the reasons they are at the top of my ePublisher list. I must add… It was pointed out to me Carina is at #106 this week so they are starting to show up on these lists as well.
I personally like to celebrate real world success and give credit where it has been earned over time and Samhain Publishing deserves that credit much more than Carina Press in my opinion. Looking for something new or the next big thing or even mentioning the hard work of a good friend is great and all that but let’s be realistic about the fact Carina Press did not create or perfect the Romance eBook market they are simply following the lead of others who are still setting higher standards for the customers and higher royalties for the authors than they are.
UPDATE: It was also just pointed out to me at least at Loose Id or Samhain Publishing their authors can get their Gay Romance books in print.
Tags: eBook Commentary
Gina wrote,
It seems that Carina believes that they discovered or have brought forth a medium that for years has been well served by other epubs. That’s having balls…Still, you hit it on the nose, reader-oriented matters most of all. With the economy being like it is, now I choose my books wisely. Carina has not wowed me at all. Editing is not all about grammar and punctuation. They need editors that can choose good stories. They also need editor tat are erotica oriented and they don’t have them. Every time I have bought a book from them, I’ve flipped and flipped pages to get to the end – others I have not even finished. I buy consistently from two epubs, Samhain and Loose Id, the quality of their books are above what is out there, especially in the m/m genre. I buy some EC because they have a couple of authors I like. Silver Publishing I don’t touch anymore because they have too many stories that are “harlequin-oriented’ – meaning a lot of their m/m seem more women than men.
Link | July 10th, 2011 at 9:52 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Oh, I still search through Ellora’s Cave back catalog. At one time they really were THE PLACE for straight erotic romance and it shows in the older eBooks. It is sad what has happened to them but I cannot say they were not warned. Several of their authors gave more than enough warning before they left for greener pastures. They just honestly believed that good writers and good editors were a dime a dozen and could be easily replaced.
Well you can see where that thinking got them.
Link | July 10th, 2011 at 9:57 am
Samtha wrote,
I’ve actually found some good reads at Ellora’s Cave in the last few months. Chastity Belt by Shoshanna Evers and Tangled Truth by Delphine Dryden were both good. I’m reading Lust After Death by Daisy Harris right now, and it’s excellent. They must at least be trying to improve.
Link | July 10th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
I know they have found some good authors but I still find it’s EC’s editing to be the main issue with them. As Gina pointed out above…
“Editing is not all about grammar and punctuation.”
Which I fully agree with! It used to be with EC you could see that the editors knew their readers and kept the books focused towards them. They fitted the content or molded the direction of the eBook to match up with what the readers expected no matter how far out the author would go. The author had fun but the eBook was also a branded product and the editors maintained that brand.
The best way I can describe it is that the eBooks are all over the place now. It’s almost like they brought outside editors in or kept ones that were not familiar with the audience or experienced enough or something. It’s been going on for a long time though so that is why I consider them at this point a grab bag where sometimes you might run across a solid hit BUT for the most part if it is new it tends to be a miss especially in comparison to what they used to be.
Link | July 10th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Gillian wrote,
Psst. Shannon Stacey’s release with Carina, Yours To Keep, just hit #33 on the NY Times ebook list. Granted the book has been out for a month now. But still impressive I think.
http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/e-book-fiction/list.html
Link | July 11th, 2011 at 8:09 am
Samtha wrote,
I see what you’re saying, Teddy. But I think that may be in large part because authors have so many publishing options now. And EC did burn quite a few bridges. Samhain has been just as much a mixed bag for me, especially lately. The quality of their editing has gone down, and now I see that they’ve lost Maya Banks. Did you see on Dear Author? Apparently they wanted to cut her royalty rates, so she’s going to self-pub. Very dumb move for Samhain, IMO.
Link | July 11th, 2011 at 8:30 am
TeddyPig wrote,
I hope she gets a good editor when she self pubs. Out of all the problems with self publishing that is the worst and it is not cheap to get a good editor either as one of my commentors pointed out recently. Samhain may not be perfect but they have several good smart romance editors working for them who I would want to work with if I were writing. I admit I have run into problems here and there at both Samhain and Loose Id but those are exceptions mostly.
But sure if you judge only the difference between making a percentage of profits or making all the profit then sure making all the money is better for the writer despite whatever quality problems are inherent in the process. If Maya thinks she can sell her work better trying to become an Amazon success story she should go for it but I personally think using a top ePublisher is easier and more assured of success than self publishing any old day.
Mind you Samhain is not the only game in town or the best fit for every writer as you can see from my listings and Self Publishing is not something you jump into like a weekend hobby with hard frustrating work and a steep learning curve involved but it sounds like Maya has other priorities.
Honestly, I was always rather surprised by her success to begin with. So as for the rest of what she is saying and doing being sound decisions in my opinion… well you know, it would be nice if we all had unlimited resources and access to top shelf publishing people to assure good quality in our product and an ego that commands public attention like J.K. Rowling does but I know I don’t have those connections.
Now if Evangeline Anderson said she was going to self publish I might think differently about her decision in this case because she has always struck me as good at self editing her own work and maintaining a personal consistency even while using various top ePublishers. I could be wrong though it just seems to depend on the writer you are talking about and their particular capabilities is all.
I just think self publishing right now is more of a sure bet for an author with a huge back catalog of previously published work that is out of print. Instead of waiting for some new publisher to see value in republishing it the author can now make the big bucks by getting it out on the market and all that money goes to them like it should.
I think that is a different discussion than an author starting from scratch.
Link | July 11th, 2011 at 9:12 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Gillian that was the #106 entry on USA Today I pointed out in the post.
Just follow the link.
Link | July 11th, 2011 at 9:29 am