~~Articles~~

Small Houses, Big Rewards ©

By Fran McNabb

Harlequin/Silhouette, Bantam, Berkley -- these houses are household words in the publishing industry, but there are other, smaller houses where authors have made a long-standing home or given their writing career a start.

Three authors, Sheri Cobb South, Don McNair, and Fran McNabb share their knowledge of the houses where they have recently signed. Sheri Cobb South's most recent publication in January 2006 is IN MILADY'S CHAMBER, a mystery published by Five Star. Don McNair's debut novel, THE LONG HUNTER, is a coming of age novel, published by Medallion. The hardback, young adult novel will be the premiere novel in their Palladium Line. Fran McNabb has recently signed with Avalon Books. LIGHT IN THE DARK, her short contemporary romance, will be part of Avalon's holiday line-up. It will be available in October 2006.

FIVE STAR

After publishing young adult novels and Regencies for years, Sheri Cobb South turned her attention to writing mysteries with IN MILADY'S CHAMBER. Her 65,000-word novel was bought by Five Star, a publisher of hardcover editions for the library market.

Five Star is part of the Thomson-Gale group, which also owns Macmillan, the textbook giant. Sheri doesn't consider her experience with the publisher "typical." She already had a slight "in" with Five Star through her large-print sales of other books to Thorndike, another imprint of the same house.

She considers herself a success story from Silken Sands Conference, where she met Russell Davis, an editor who directed her chapters into the hands of the right people. Her experience with the publisher has been a satisfying one. She has had input into the cover art and was able to write her own jacket blurbs. From time of acceptance to actual publishing date was about ten to twelve months.

Sheri is impressed with the promotion that Five Star gave her book. ARCs went out to all the Big Four (Publisher's Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, and Kirkus Reviews) as well as several smaller, genre-specific sources. (One of these was review maven Harriet Klausner, whose review appeared on Amazon as a five-star rating). Sheri received a dozen ARCs to send to additional sources.

Martha Longshore, a chapter mate of Sheri and another Five Star author, writes as Tess Pendergrass. Having published six books with them, she adds that their books are high quality and will remain on the library shelves for years. "I've learned a lot, improved my writing, and the people I've worked with have all been wonderful."

AVALON PUBLISHING

Avalon Books is an old, well-established house founded by Thomas Bouregy in 1950. Avalon calls itself the Family Channel of Publishing with its publications of mystery, westerns, and contemporary and historical romance. The word count ranges from 40,000 to 75,000.

Fran McNabb's short romance has 44,750 words. "That's one of the reasons I submitted to them. I didn't want to lengthen the story simply to have a larger word count. I had Avalon in mind when I wrote the novel and never submitted it to anyone else."

She submitted a partial and within a week, the request for a full arrived. A year later, she e-mailed to check on the status of two of her manuscripts and within two weeks, she received a call from Associate Editor Susan McCarty.

Avalon markets to libraries. "Being a retired English teacher, I've always had a love affair with the library, so having a hard cover on the shelves thrills me."

Books can be ordered directly from Avalon, from Amazon, or through any bookstore.

As a first-time author, Fran says her experience has been great. "My editor has answered all my questions, and I had input into the cover art and wrote my own blurbs for the jacket."

MEDALLION

Don McNair felt as if "he won the lottery" when he found Medallion Press. "It's the old story; ten years of rejections, and suddenly I'm 'discovered.'"

Medallion Press, a relatively new publishing house, covers a broad market with traditional distribution, publishing mainstream, mystery, thriller, suspense, historical, romance, dark fiction, horror, fantasy, science fiction, romance, and young adult."

"They are a lean machine, and are actually a "virtual" company, with little overhead to allow more spending on promotion." A full page of Publisher's Weekly - the back cover, no less - announced the availability of Don's book to booksellers and libraries. Medallion will use THE LONG HUNTER to enter the library market, giving the book "a good, long life."

Don wrote THE LONG HUNTER, a 65,000-word 1770's coming-of-age novel, about ten years ago. After years of rejections on submissions to adult fiction publishers, he finally realized the manuscript should have been marketed as a Young Adult novel. Even though it was meant for an adult audience, the protagonist was age 14-17, and the story was written in the hero's close POV.

Within five days of submitting to Medallion Press, Don received a call from owner Helen Rosberg. After getting rave reviews from her own daughter who read the sample chapters, Ms. Rosberg asked for the full manuscript. Within the week, she called again to say she was sending a contract. She ended with, "Don, your book is going to have a life."

Don gives a word of caution to YA writers. "Don't talk down to the audience. If I had started with the idea of writing a YA, I would have possibly wound up with a much different book. Serendipity speaks!"

Don reminds those of you who haven't published yet to take heart. There IS a chance that the next phone call you receive will be from that eager editor, ready to make your day.

This article may be reprinted or forwarded to sister RWAź chapters with proper credit given to author and Silken Sands Newsletter, the newsletter of the Gulf Coast Chapter Romance Writers of America (GCCRWA). www.gccrwa.com

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Available Now from Avalon Publishing or at your local library. Order the book from Amazon.com

A LIGHT IN THE DARK

Available Now from Avalon Publishing or at your local library. Order the book from Amazon.com