tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33325729.post3817712680779150237..comments2023-11-05T03:47:03.674-07:00Comments on The Lost Genre Guild: Press Release from Marcher Lord Presscynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15514785429568086047noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33325729.post-36612933000293919592010-01-13T18:44:30.224-07:002010-01-13T18:44:30.224-07:00Hi, Anonymous. Thanks for your comments. I appreci...Hi, Anonymous. Thanks for your comments. I appreciate that you're so passionate in support of Christian speculative fiction.<br /><br />As to the tagline for the company, I suppose I could've chosen "The newest publisher of Christian speculative fiction," but that didn't have the same ring and would've been true for only a short while. Besides, if you're going to stake out territory, why not go for it all? That's just good marketing strategy. But do you feel the claim is not merited? Which publishing company that produces nothing but Christian speculative fiction would better fit that tagline?<br /><br />As for royalties and sales figures, those are of course things best kept to the folks who need to know. However, I can say that the business model I have in place appears to be sustainable for the long term and my authors are happy. I'm about to send out royalty checks for last quarter, in fact. One is for an amount greater than any single royalty check I ever received for my own writing.<br /><br />Your other questions--Napster, inroads in publishing, distribution in bookstores--seem to reflect a misunderstanding of what I'm trying to do with Marcher Lord Press. Of course I'd welcome such developments, but I'm not pursuing them. This is niche publishing--micropublishing, even--and it's working, at least for now. I'm not trying to show those other publishers a thing or two or even get into bookstores (the discounts they demand would kill me and they'd make take returns, which I won't do). Why bother?<br /><br />As far as not being professionally published if it's not through a traditional house or available in bookstores, I'd say that's true from the traditional understanding of publishing. However, we're living in a publishing revolution right now, similar to the MP3 download revolution that has so changed the older model of buying CDs. It's a great day for small presses and niche publishers (and authors)--and their readers, but it's very different from what went before.<br /><br />As for telling the wheat from the chaff, that's always been hit or miss, even in the old model. I've read truly awful books from major New York publishers and I've read amazing books from niche publishers. Even then, you couldn't judge based on the source.<br /><br />But you're right: it will be more of a YouTube model. The excellent ones still find their way to the top, but there's a lot of garbage to sift through too. <br /><br />Whether we like it or not or welcome it or not, this change is upon us. It may be smarter to try to thrive in the new way than try to bring back the old way.<br /><br />JeffJeff Gerkehttp://www.marcherlordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33325729.post-44184886760673196692010-01-12T11:15:16.238-07:002010-01-12T11:15:16.238-07:00I'd like to know how Marcher Lord's sales ...I'd like to know how Marcher Lord's sales figures are doing.<br /><br />Not necessarily dissing Jeff, but anyone can claim they're the "premier publisher of anything". I've seen too much of similar-sounding claims in the past, from Furry small-press to the whole dot-com boom-and-bust ten years ago, where The Internet made all existing businesses Obsolete. <br /><br />How is Marcher Lord stacking up against other publishers, and how much royalty income are its authors seeing? <br /><br />Are they able to fight uphill against the Napster generation who expect everything (especially on the Net to be FREE?<br /><br />Are they making any inroads into the publishing market in general?<br /><br />Are they getting distribution in bookstores as well as the Web? <br />(I've heard agents say about prior publication, "If your book is only available from your website, you're NOT professionally published." Type example one Gloria Tesch, Self-Described Child Prodigy Fantasy Author.) When everybody with a DSL and Website can claim to be An Author and their self/vanity-pub as The Next Best-Seller, how can you tell the wheat from the chaff?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com