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by donroc » Mon October 27th, 2008, 10:19 pm
Okay, this is a long response to Divia's question.
In the mid 1990s, a big name agent had my historical novel, Rocamora for three years and could not interest a publisher. After that I did the query, partial, and full dance with assorted agents.
No other agent had accepted Rocamora by June, 2007, but I did come close to selling it on my own to a respected publisher in San Francisco in 2003. It needed a unanimous green light, and one person said no.
Then, DarkHart Press, the new and small publisher who accepted my unagented horror novel, was curious why I had not been published before and wanted to know if I had anything else.
I sent her Rocamora figuring no way would she want it because she specialized in dark horror. To my surprise, she became so excited she offered to publish it in hard cover under a different imprint.
I was fully aware of the limitations with a small relatively unknown publisher. There are many problems one does not face with a big house, the most significant being distribution, marketing, reviews by the biggies, and placement in stores. And although I can be charming and witty, I am no gregarious salesman marketeer.
Digression. Could the following have happened at a major publisher? Because of a serious problem with an editor, since fired, my release has been delayed probably to the end of November, about three months late, and four other books on the tarmac were moved ahead of me while we did damage control.
The answer to the above is yes, there can be disasters at a major publisher. In 1991, a major publisher had accepted a novel, did not communicate with the author for 18 months, and then released the book with all its unedited errors.
One of the plus sides is that I work directly with my publisher. She also designed the cover and my web site. She is easy to work with and used much of my input for book and cover design for both novels
Back to Divia's question: Why did I go with a small independent? I am 76. In my 20s and 30s, I would definitly would have said no to the small publisher and aimed for the big agent and publishing house as I did over the decades.
Even though I expect to live another 20 years given the actuarials in my family, I decided not to let Rocamora continue to be an unheard falling tree in the forest.
I am delighted to add that I have received permission to use a positive blurb for the cover from Barnaby Conrad, one of my heroes during my Hemingway bullfight phase while in college. He is the author of Matador, which has sold 3,000,000 copies; a bio of Spain's greatest bullfighter, Manolete, and about 30+ other books as well as being the founder of the Santa Barbara Writer's Conference. He also was a matador known as El Niño de California, U.S. Counsel in Seville, and Sinclair Lewis' personal secretary.
So, yes, at my age, I believe I have done the right thing going with a publisher who believes I wrote a wonderful book and is risking her money.
Last edited by
donroc on Mon October 27th, 2008, 10:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
