Note: re e-books, I am focusing on operations similar to Closed Circle. The more we can hang together, to paraphrase Ben Franklin, the less likelihood we shall hang separately.
http://www.meadowhawkpress.com/
http://www.dragonmoonpress.blogspot.com/
http://www.spearfishlaketales.com/ Not sf or fantasy, but interesting, and a nice author.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (Liad Universe) run a small publishing house of SF, fantasy and mystery, SRM Publisher, at http://www.srmpublisher.com. Their eBooks are available at wwww.webscription.net.
They appear to have moved to http://www.pinbeambooks.com/ where they are E-publishing their short stories themselves; the novels are still being E-published by Baen at webscription.net
Well, take away a “w” and you get http://www.webscription.net. Rosemary in wet, wet Tulsa.
Meadowhawkpress returns an error-message when I try the link: URL not found, the DNS server says this domain does not exist. Have they gone out of business or is it a problem with the link?
I’m betting problem with their server: the link is correct, and they’re no fly-by-night, just had a book take an award: this is NOT the time they’d like to have server troubles.
Give it a day or two and we’ll keep hunting them.
IE8 said the DNS server doesn’t know the name. Definitely server problems between here and there.
I’d like to introduce http://www.marcherlordpress.com Keep in mind that it’s Christian, but the best out there in the Independent market. It’s also owned by a good friend of mine: Jeff Gerke
I don’t know if Subterranean Press is considered small anymore, with their recent work with Ray Bradbury, Phil Farmer, etc., but for all I know Bill still works out of his basement. Horror, Dark Fantasy and SF being the niche(s) occupied. http://www.subterraneanpress.com
That’s the sort of thing most writers with a backlist are going to, and that’s pretty well what we’re doing here, only with e-books.
Fictionwise, owned by Barnes and Noble, and ereader.com, owned by Fictionwise, are distributors of other publisher’s books.
http://www.fictionwise.com/
http://www.ereader.com/
They have mainstream publisher’s books in a number of ebook formats, including my personal favorite, ereader, which works on PCs, Macs, Cellphones and the iPhone, as wells as Palms and other PDAs. One of the things I like is that it’s a reasonable DRM; you buy the books online via a credit card, and then unlock them with the same credit card. If you’re ok sharing your credit card information, you can share the books, say with a spouse or child.
Fictionwise even offers a goodly number of books with no DRM at all.
Michelle Sagara West has a blog on http://msagara.livejournal.com/, in which she discusses some of the same issues with the bookpublishing and bookselling business that have been discussed here this last year, but from
another viewpoint: that of the bookstore-manager (nov/dec.2009). She doesn’t post very often, only 1-2 times a month, so the links she placed on 2009-07-21 to yet another viewpoint (the publisher’s side of things) are also still in view.
I don’t know if it belongs in this thread (please move it if you think of a better place), but I found it an interesting addition to my new view of the whole bookpublishing and bookselling business.
She’s hardly mentioned e-books, but I would agree with her that I would miss the one good bricks-and-mortar bookstore that I go to once or twice a year to browse for new-to-me authors and get recommendations from knowledgeable people. I also still prefer a paper book to my laptop-and-ebook, though I’m very happy to be able to read some books that way if I can’t get them in solid form.
I try to keep my bookstore in business by ordering most books that I’ve found online through the store: nowadays they’ll even order secondhand books for me, and they’ll send them to my home, so what with savings on the overseas postage it doesn’t cost much more.
It’s made me think: wouldn’t it be great if some sort of link could be established between the smaller e-book-publishers (like Closed Circle) and the enthousiastic and expert booksellers (like her, or my ABC in Amsterdam), so that she could recommend books from CC, and the buyer could get their POD printed copy from the bookstore, so the store would make some money on the deal as well.
Something to keep in mind for a future development in this whole book-business, though I can’t see how it could be implemented immediately.
The bookstore would need some sort of bookprinting-on-demand machine like Lulu or CafePress, and I’ve no idea how much of an investment that would be – but if all this ebook business is indeed the start of the really big wave it’s supposed to herald, it might be the only way to keep the stores open.
Hadley Rille Books publishes SF, Fantasy, and Archaeology-based fiction. Hardback and trade paper. They will also place your submissions as e-books.
http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com/
@SgtSaturn,
My problem with Fictionwise is that I am not certain all the books they offer are authorized versions. At one time IIRC, they had 4 of the Foreigner series available. Since there is only one of the series currently in an authorized e-book edition, I would be very careful… I still have micropay credit with them but am leery of spending my pennies on unauthorized editions.
Ouch. You might think that being owned by a high-profile, deep-pockets company like Barnes & Noble would be an assurance that all was legit, but perhaps not.
I know that the Analog website sends folks to Fictionwise for electronic copies of their magazine; so, that’s a pretty good indication that those are legit.
Bitingduck Press is a new e-publisher (which also does small print runs). We recently merged with Boson Books, which has been publishing e-books since 1994! Our staff is made up of scientists and we’re actively looking for hard sci-fi, books about the lives of scientists, and young adult sci-fi/fantasy. http://www.bitingduckpress.com
Welcome, Bitingduck!
I don’t know whether this is an active thread, but just in case: I’d suggest Promontory Press in Vancouver. This is a hybrid small press, so they can do either a trad pub contract or let you pay for the services you need, including distribution. I’ve found them to be honest & ethical in my experience – plus they really do a surprisingly good job of supporting authors on marketing. (At least they’ve impressed me.) They’ve also got hard copy distribution in the US & Canada: they got my novel into Barnes & Noble, and that’s something I certainly could not have accomplished on my own. The link is http://www.promontorypress.com/
Awful quiet around here.
Which purchase method returns the most to the author? I’m staring at the Amazon price for the latest Foreigner novel and shuddering because, ugh, Bezos.
Is he any more generous to authors than to his employees?