Episode 30: Experiences with Authors
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Hello, my beautiful cinnabar moths or any kind of moth you want to be? This week we’re going to be talking about adventure – I think of as adventures with authors. And that is the variety of experiences I’ve had with authors. Here’s the caveat. If you think I’m talking about you, I might be, but it also might not be. And these experiences aren’t unique to just any one single author. These are experiences that I’ve had with multiple authors. So it’s more than one writer. And I’m sorry, if it feels like I’m talking specifically about you, if you think that I am, and I say anything that upsets you, please reach out to me, and let me know. You can either reach out to me by email, or you can DM me on Twitter. So there’s that sort of disclaimer, I’m going to be talking about good and bad experiences. Because I feel like this is an opportunity for a publisher to talk about what we go through as a press with authors. And I want authors not to feel sorry for, for publishers, and not to feel like I’m being all woe is me, that I’ve been through some really horrific things with authors, and I didn’t sign them. I’m not obligated to working with them, and the experience of the experiences have passed. But then I find that they’re repeating the same behavior with other presses and not getting polished and not succeeding. And I really do want authors to succeed. But there’s so many things that if you do them, you’re just never going to succeed. I mean, not ever. And one of them is, and I talked about this, and queering, and everybody was really shocked, is lying. And the biggest lie that I find authors tell us, because we don’t publish, we don’t reprint, we don’t republish if your work has ever been published, and I don’t care where it’s been published, or how it’s been published, I will never publish it because we only publish unpublished works, which we stay on our website, in our submissions guidelines. It’s very clear, I say it explicitly. And then if you come back with telling me, and this is the biggest I’ve ever been told, I had an author and this is a one off. I haven’t it may happen again, I don’t know. But I had an author tell me that somebody had set up a fake authors account on Goodreads and Amazon, and had pirated their book using their name, and all of their publication information, and put up copies of their book for sale, and signed with the publisher and had stoled their identity to do so. Now, here’s the thing, publishers have the ability to talk to each other. And if that really happens to you, my gosh, that person has done a serious wrong to you. But signing the contract in your name and giving all of your information and using your name and having any monies go into your account. I’m not saying that’s identity theft. But it might be maybe I’m naive. And if y’all know that, that to be identity theft, or someone I think it’s forgery if they signed your name, and it wasn’t you buy, if you’re getting all of the proceeds and all of the benefits and all of the profit, then I’m not feeling like you’re wrong here and telling you but I didn’t like the way it performed. I feel you on that. I don’t want to book to underperform I want to book to sell and I want to book to have have lots and lots of reviews and and lots of buzz and lots of notice. And be very successful. For every single author. I want every book to succeed, even books that I wouldn’t like or publish. Because I just think that there’s enough readers out there that somebody’s gonna like what you wrote. And I always say that I say it in, you know, in our rejection letters, and I mean it when I say it. So for me, like if you tell me like, there are plenty of publishers out there that will do second runs of books.
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But we’re just not one of them. And if you read the submission guidelines, and you’re not tick, tick, tick, like yes on every single thing on the submission guidelines. Ask yourself like, are we the press that you want to submit to? If you have to lie and manipulate, to get as to publish your book? What happens when we bust you in those lies like it’s not going to cause the relationship to completely break down? Because publishing the way that we Do it is really intimate, I talk to my authors on a regular basis. My authors have my authors or authors, everyone who signs with us, they have input into their cover art design, they have input into their blurb, they have input into the editorial process, and just every step of the way, and their book trailer and how they’re presented in terms of advertising and marketing. And I’m really communicative. And that’s a lot of communication with somebody you’ve lied to, and that you no longer and that no longer trust you or that there’s any sort of ill will, that kind of lets me segue over to a couple of ill will, but I think of as ill will, assuming that they’ll be ill will in the relationship that I’ve come across, I heard at least half a dozen authors asked me to please allow them to litigate in the United States if they need to fight us on a legal matter. And I’m like, wow, you’re saying this. Okay, so to get a contract, you’ve gone through the creative process successfully. You’ve submitted 50 pages successfully. And I liked the book, and we’ve had a couple of email exchanges, you’ve passed the background check that we do on our authors, where we basically, we Google, you, we look at everything that’s out there, about you on social media,
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I won’t sign an author that does not support the LGBTQ i plus community, I will not sign a racist author who’s out there supporting racist ideals. And I will not support an author that is promoting derogatory and negative things that support colonialism or the patriarchy, or has just an obvious biased against anyone who’s female representing. And I also, really, like if you do not support the trans community, do not bother submitting to us because you’re going to be at odds with us, right? Because we’re big supporters of the LGBTQIA plus community. And as soon as you take off that plus or that T, you’re not supporting the LGBT community, because it is the LGBTQ i A plus community. And if you’re not supporting that community, then we can’t support you. And just for full disclosure, I’m a gender I have no gender pronouns. I’m Christopher. I’m friends. I’m head of marketing, but I’m not. She he, they’re them. I’m just Christopher, I’m just me. And I don’t. So that puts me in the non binary spectrum. And there are days that I feel more masculine representing and there are days that I feel more feminine representing, and just TMI, I have really large breasts. So I always look feminine representative because we associate large breasts with being female. But I’m also asexual and panromantic, which means that there are certain things I’m sex positive, that there are certain things on the sexual spectrum that I don’t do. And that’s, I don’t really dig into that, if you have questions about that, you can send me an email, or you can ask me on Twitter, and I’m more than happy to get into that. What that means. And I’m panromantic, which means that my attraction for romance is not based on gender. So that puts me squarely in the LGBTQ i plus community. And I’m not going to work with somebody who doesn’t like my identity, or thinks that my identity is invalid. I’m just not doing that to myself. I’m at an age in place in life where I can say that, and I’m happy to be there. So, yeah, so that’s part of the background check is to see, are we going to be at AWS, is there any part of my identity that the author is going to have a conflict with because I’m also black, Jewish and indigenous. I’m a black indigenous person of color. And I’m disabled, and I’m chronically ill. Now I am the diversity that I want to represent. And the press I want to see stories like I talked about in the very first episode, I want to see stories that represent people like me, and I also want to see stories with neurodivergent characters. I want everything on the on the spectrum. And people will say, Well, why doesn’t that include mainstream voices? And I think, hello, because they’re mainstream, and they’re already there. And I’m just not having that argument. And I’m not having that debate with any author who wants to sign with us, is on our Submissions Page. It’s an episode zero of this, what I’m talking about what I want to accomplish. So when we get to the contract part, I hope that you know all of this about us through our communications and the fact that I’m asking for your pronouns. And the fact that I’m wanting your social media accounts. And that that should tell you, I’m looking at your social media. And if you meet us through Twitter, I am looking at your Twitter and I’m looking at and what have you liked? What have you retweeted? And who are the people that you follow? Do you follow anyone I’ve blocked. And the people that I blocked with one exception, usually say things that are biased, or prejudiced in some way. And y’all can argue with me that what I’m saying is prejudiced because of this, that the other but what I’m saying is actually bias, not prejudice. And I have a bias towards non conforming and non traditional authors, voices and perspectives. And I own that bias. And that bias is stated,
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in our submission, and in episode zero of this podcast, and in this podcast, too. And that’s because I want to see me in stories. And I think everybody deserves to see themselves in a story, right? To know that we’re valid, and to know that we matter. And so that’s what I’m trying to put out in the world. I’m trying to have authors and stories that tell people that they’re valid, and they matter. So if you’re opposed to what I’m trying to do, then we’re not the right press for you. So just a quick recap, you’ve made it through the query, you’ve made it through the 50 pages, you’ve made it through the full read, you’ve made it through me searching you, me inviting you to search me. And we’re at the contract phase. And our contract is a whopper of a contract. It’s really long, but I advise everyone to read the contract. And I contract says in it that if anything has to be mitigated or disputed, legally, if we have any sort of legal conflict, that it will be in the courts in Japan. And that is because we’re located in Japan, we do have an office in New Mexico. So we are an American and a Japanese company, but our legal team is in Japan. So if you read that, and you’re like, huh, if I want to sue you, I want you to say that I can see you in the United States, and I’m willing to compromise and sue you in New Mexico. And I’m like, But what the what now? You’re worried about sue me? And you haven’t even signed the contract? Like, what do you think I’m gonna do? Do you think I’m gonna violate the contract in some way? We wrote the contract. We read the contract, this is everything that we think we can do. And everything we want you to do, why would what part of it would we violate, and you get your advance as soon as you give us a manuscript. So we can’t legally publish your manuscript without giving you your advance. And that’s the agreed upon exchange, right? And if you don’t trust us to pay you your royalties, then really don’t sign with us. Because we have to have full transparency and there are strict laws in Japan, for how that’s done. I think a better way to handle it is how do you pay royalties? Is a better question, rather than how can I sue you? And how can I see you in a way that’s convenient to me? And I have had orthotists be like, can you change this so that I can see you in my home state. And my response, every single time someone asked me about making sewing any more convenient, or suing the press more convenient, I rescind the offer. I just in the back and I say thank you for going through the process with us. I really, you know, liked your book, I’m sorry. It’s just not gonna work out.
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I feel like somewhere along the line, I’ve done something to last you to lose your trust. And I’m sorry for that. And I won’t sign you. I just won’t at all. The other thing that has happened is we have a really nice rejection style, where we do compliments with realistic reasons of why we can’t publish a book. So there’s two different things that I do. One is I say, I would love to sign you to sign you. But this is the amount of work that it’ll take for me Feel comfortable publishing your book? Do you agree to doing this amount of work and to my humility? And, my honor, I’m just so honored really honestly, not being facetious in any way, I am so humbled and honored by how many people say, Yeah, I will do the work to publish with you. And it’s some authors, it’s a lot, a lot of work. And they’re willing to communicate with me and send me regular updates and send me pages. And they’ve all been just really lovely, all of the authors that are going through the process. And I would want to say probably about half the authors we work with go through this, this process. Because for me, books don’t have to come in perfect. And authors don’t have to be perfect. And I think there are some stories that are so important to tell, or are just really great stories that need. That’s a little love to get over the finish line. I think those kinds of authors are really exciting to work with. And this happens with experience and debut authors. But I love the development process. And those kinds of authors are lovely to work with. And I’m always humbled when I send somebody like a really long explanation of everything I would like to change. I also include everything I love about the book, because obviously there’s something that has me willing to do this amount of work to get a book to where I think it should be to be a cinnabar moth book. And so when the author says yes, and I say yes, it’s so beautiful, and I love it. Then there’s the rejection, when I say, here’s what I liked about your book, here’s what I like about you, as a writer, I think you’re valid, I think your point of view is valid. But this is not the right book for us. And we’re going to have to pass. I’ve had several authors that do like an email exchange, and the longest emacs I’ve ever had is 15. Before I just blocked the author, and I was like, Look, I’ve said no, politely everywhere. I can say no. Now I’m just telling you, it’s a forever No, like, there’s nothing that you could change about this book or changed about me, that will make me want to publish this book. And I’ve had an author threatened to dox me if I don’t publish their book. And I’m like, wow, okay, what you’ve just threatened to do is a crime. And I will criminally prosecute you, I have your name, like your actual name. And even if it’s a nom de plume, it’s enough for me to press charges in whatever country you live in. Because Daxing is against the law. And I will if you Dox, me, I will seriously pursue you. And I will pursue criminal charges in whatever country whatever jurisdiction to the end, because I think that is so ugly, like you sent me a manuscript. And I didn’t say anything mean or nasty about it. I just said, it’s not the right fit for us. And their responses, just calling me a bunch of really ugly names, and saying, you’re going to dox me and you think that what I’m going to be like, Oh my gosh, you’re somebody I want to work with? No, you’re somebody I never want to work with, like, ever. And those types of people. I will admit that. If someone asks me about a specific author, have you ever received
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a manuscript from this author, and then I press and they do it privately, not publicly on social media, I will tell the tale and say and give author’s names and such but they have to be experiencing that. And so I feel like you’re threatening to Doc’s, me and I won’t even blackball you, I won’t even like spread your name around in the community. Um, but if someone’s having a negative experience, I will say, Hey, I had a negative experience with this person too. And I blocked them. And these are all of the things that I had to do to get away from this ugliness that this this author is creating. And it blew my mind. I was like, wow, and it blew my mind because our team is not public. I’m the public face and my son Austin is also the public face and And when I team like our editors, and our beta reviewers and our beta readers, and everyone who works behind the scenes, they all had these horrible stories of like authors threatening to box them, and authors just being really vile to them. And here I was, like fresh, no one worked with any authors, I hadn’t dealt out any rejections. I was like, it’s cool, you guys can be private, I don’t, I don’t think that will happen to me. But I’m sorry, that happened to you. And I believe that it happened to them. And they’re gonna happen to me. I’ll be honest, I didn’t feel afraid I felt passed. And I was just so just like, all of the blood in my body turned to ice, and fury and rage. And I sent one message. After that I said, if you Dox me, I will go after you to the full extent of the law in your country that you’re in, in the state that you’re in, in the city that you’re in, and you will be arrested because it is against the law. And just making this threat is against the law. So I have saved it, and I am now blocking you. I don’t want any more to do with you. Good day. And that is the harshest response I’ve ever sent out. And that was just a one time thing. And like, really, really happy about that I was really, really shocked that that happened.
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So now I want to talk about some of the amazing, wonderful experiences that I’ve had with authors. Because I don’t want to just drag and be negative and an act like publishing is, is just not fun. And that authors are horrible people because they’re not that’s just such a small percentage. The majority of people have been, so the majority people have submitted to us have been so kind and so gracious, that it blows my mind. Several actors that we sent rejections to were so kind, that they tweeted out in a public space, how nice our rejection was, and irises say, Wow, that is just above and beyond cool. That’s just above and beyond kind. They don’t owe me anything. They’re not publishing with me that they will forever have a soft spot in my heart. And I hope that if there’s a positive rejection, if I think you’re a good author, like I think most authors are good authors. I think everybody is a good writer, if you write a book, if you sit down and write a book, that’s amazing. writing a novel, holy cow, that’s amazing. That’s a ton of work, and a ton of creativity, and a ton of concentration. And I would never slam that or disrespect that, or disrespect and an artists artistry. And I think that the authors are creating art. And I feel that way, whether it’s a novel or a short story, or flash fiction, a novelette, a novella, any of those things. I feel like if you sit down and you write a piece, even a one sentence story, I’ve read some amazing one sentence stories, honest to goodness on Twitter, that’s one of the hashtags. And I’m like, wow, that’s talent. I love it. And every now and then I’ll do them because I think there’s so much fun, and have a couple of authors that enjoy doing them as well. And I love reading them. To me, the fact that somebody took the time and had the courage to share their art with me deserves respect. And that’s why I try to do the kindest, most gentlest rejection if we have to do rejection possible. Right now our subs are close, depending on when you’re listening to us, our subs are closed until July of 2022. So for listen this past July of 22, check out our subs page, it’ll say whether or not our submissions are open. If our submissions are closed and you send an unsolicited manuscript, you’ll just get back that our that our subs are closed. If you’re a referral from one of our authors, or if you are a current author of ours, and you’re cool with waiting two or three years to be published, then I’ll read a manuscript kind of thing. Because I just, I know what the big five people have to wait two or three years to be published. I say that’s too long. I don’t know. I’d like to get published people published within a year of signing that that was always my goal, and so far, subs can’t be open for someone to be published within a year. I tend to leave our submissions close, that are thought so that authors aren’t waiting forever to be published, if that makes sense. And I feel like a year is a reasonable amount of time because there’s so much that goes into preparing a manuscript for publication, that it really does for me to feel good and groovy about it, it really does take a year of planning for everything that we do all of their promotions, all of the social media content that has to be created for it. And, and all of that, it really does take a year to do it comfortably. Nine months is is kind of fresh six months, I feel like the wheels are gonna fall off, I’m burnin rubber on that, to get a book out in six months. So something that we’ve really had, that I think is really cool. Another cool thing with with our authors.
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I love our authors so much, I feel so bad for being glowy about the quality of authors that we have, as human beings, I just but I just have to gloat and brag on them. Because they are the most kind, considerate, supportive patient, understanding humans on the planet. And just so willing to support each other, and promote each other and cheer each other on and engage with each other and get to know each other, which like, you can’t mandate that right as a proxy, calculate, hey, you have to interact with other authors. That’s just wild that just goes beyond, right. So every time I see it, I’m just like, You guys are so amazing. Y’all are just so kind to just really good humans. And that goes for and we have a mix of short story actors that are published in a zine and novel authors that are they’re publishing books with us. And we have a mix of authors that are doing both. And we have our Anthology authors also that are short story authors. So we have a good mix in terms of genre and lengthen content and style. And no matter what the content no matter what the genre, no matter what the style, I see our authors all supporting each other. And, you know, checking out our timeline, I see our authors checking out each other’s timelines, and checking out each other’s social media and following each other on social media. And I’m just like blown away by the sense of, of community that’s happening. And the love and respect that they give to each other, and that they give to us at a price as a price is just really cool. So each and every one of our authors, thank you so much for signing with us, and letting us be the price that has the honor of bringing your book to market, and sharing this experience of publishing with you because you are freaking amazing. And I am humbled and honored, just to be in the same headspace as you, and to be a part of your process of bringing your book to market. And that’s why we do the background information. And that’s why we look for compatibility, because now I’m spoiled and spoiled by these amazing humans that have decided to publish with that. So now I’m like, I want amazing human beings. I don’t want I don’t just want amazing books. But I want amazing authors to and I’ve gotten it I feel so spoiled and so lucky to have that. And that was the dream, right to have authors that represent my demographic, but also represent my son’s demographic, and my husband’s demographic and, and all of my friends and the people I love. I want to see them on the pages of books. And I want them written by authors that represent people I love and have aspects of people I love and my husband’s neurodivergent. He’s autistic. And I just don’t see a lot of books with autistic characters that are written well and done well. And I think he did that really well. And we have other authors. So all of our authors are diverse in some way, and have something going on in their life that puts them under the umbrella of diversity. So we really are being the price that we set out to be the thing that I didn’t expect and the thing that I didn’t set out was I didn’t set out to have kind authors. And I think I should have set out to have kind authors because we do and we’re lucky all of them are kind and talented, just so talented. And so hum or none of them are like, Oh yeah, I’m the best writer on Earth. And when I’m telling them that they’re the best writer on Earth, they’re like, I have to get used to this. Because I’m not used to thinking of myself as an amazing author. And I just want to tell all of our authors, if I’ve signed you, I think you’re amazing. I think you’re an amazing human. And I think you’re an amazing author. And thank you for saying yes. Because once we send out the contract, that’s when the balls in their court and they get to say yea, or nay to us. So thank you to all of our authors for for saying yes. And that’s sort of been my range of experience good, bad, and otherwise, in working with others. And if you have stories you want to tell, put them down in the comment or hit us up on Twitter, on Twitter at cinnabar moth pad. And thank you so much for tuning in this week. Thank you to all of our beautiful cinnabar moss or any kind of mock you want to be like I say, you can even be a butterfly, but I’m not Mariah Carey, and I’m not trying to steal her thing. I’ll talk to you in two weeks. Thanks for tuning in. Bye. Bye bye