Things That Make Me Nervous (And Should Make You Nervous, Too)
Jenna Petersen
On a fairly regular basis, I go through every single publisher and agent link on this site. I verify the sites are still live, I check to make sure no one has started charging fees for going into print or something, and when I have the time, I read through the FAQs and other pages just to make sure nothing sounds wonky to me. Now there are many reasons a publisher or agent might be pulled down from the site (lots of complaints from authors, legal action, site closes, charging fees, etc), but there are also lots of things I see at some of these sites that make me cringe, but just aren't bad enough for me to actually remove the publisher.
What are they? Well, I'm glad you asked. I'm going to list them. Now whether or not you think about them and use them is your own business, but just remember... if something makes you nervous, you should probably listen to that voice:
1. Crappy website -- A website with lots of downed images or just really CRAPPY ones, hard to take visuals and sounds, flagrant misspellings or bad grammar (and I'm not talking about the occasional thing that gets missed, I do that myself, I'm talking bad EVERYWHERE), or just looking really amateurish in general. Especially with small presses and e-publishers, their websites are a glimpse into the main crux of their business. This is where readers will find you, so how they look and feel will reflect on what readers think of you. Especially for e-publishers, this is one of their main expenses so if they aren't investing in it or CAN'T invest in it, that should tell you something.
2. No FAQ or any information about the publisher at all -- It's not like an FAQ is required and I'm sure there are great publishers out there without them, but it seems like they should be open to sharing information with potential authors and readers. Don't you want to know why this publisher was started? If it's an author who started it, don't you want to know which one so you can see what percentage of releases are hers compared to everyone else? Don't you want to have SOME idea what their policies are on royalties, publicity and other things that are often covered in an "About Us" or "FAQ" page? You should.
3. Claims of greatness -- These always chafe me. I see so many publishers making lofty statements about how they don't charge fees (so what, you shouldn't be and no valid publisher does), about how they have online distribution at Amazon (it's pretty basic to get that), about how they do publicity for their authors (unless it's something really special, again this should be expected) and many other things. I have no problem with a publisher stating those things (the more info you have as an author, the easier it is to make an informed decision before you submit your work). However, it's the tone that often troubles me. A publisher shouldn't be acting like what they're doing is so special if it's something that they should be doing or that everyone does. It starts to feel like they're trying to take advantage of uninformed authors who might buy into their "we're awesome" thing.
4. Consistently closed submission guidelines -- In this case, I'm not talking about the bigger houses that are often asking for agented submissions only. In that case, they ARE taking submissions, they just aren't taking ones directly from an author. And I'm not talking about houses that have specific periods where they're open to submissions (I just saw one house that actually listed the months they looked at new work and I thought that seemed pretty creative and reasonable). No, I'm talking about actually closed submissions. For months, even years. If the house isn't looking at new work, that means they can't handle the work they already have. Or that they're scheduled so far out that they can't take something new. This speaks to not enough help (or not enough money to pay additional help), not a good set up or just poor planning.
5. Hard to find new books -- This one drives me crazy for several reasons. First, if a publisher hasn't put out a new book in 6 months or more, I remove them (see the next one for why and why it should make you nervous) and when it's hard to tell which books are new, that creates extra work for me. But it also makes me nervous because a publisher should be screaming from the rooftops about "New Releases!". They should be making them stand out and making it clear when the next batch of new books can be found. If they aren't and they buy your book, ask yourself how anyone will find it? How will they know it's available or coming soon?
6. Really long time between publishing of books -- I make six months my cut off, but anything more than a month or two and it makes me nervous. Publishers that are doing well, making sales, should be publishing books on a regular basis. At least once a month or maybe every couple of months. Their capital and editorial staff should be able to support that. If they can't and there isn't a good reason (like they're a niche publisher who doesn't get a lot of submissions that fit or something), I worry. Ask yourself why it's taking so long? And what will happen to your book or books if you do manage to get in with that publisher?
7. Constant changes in the look, feel or who is running the site -- Everyone gets a facelift from time to time and sometimes editors and owners change. It's part of any business and editorial turnover is a big issue in every house. However, if the look, feel and management of a site is changing all the time, like monthly... that usually indicates some pretty bad internal issues. Stability is key to success in this business and if it isn't there on the basic levels, then it's generally only a matter of time before the whole things collapses.
8. Lack of regular updating -- This goes along the same lines as everything else. If the publisher can't find time, staff or funds to update the site regularly, what does that say about their validity? Especially for small presses and e-publishers, who actually do a large share of sales from their sites, this should be a top priority. If it's not, I start to wonder what is.
9. Non-domain website -- It's not that expensive for Romance Publisher, LLC to get romancepublisher.com as their domain anymore. So anytime I see some whacked out hosting service as the website instead, I shudder. I wonder if the publisher is just totally uninformed? Too cheap or poor to buy the domain? Or if they just don't see themselves as willing to invest? Whatever the answer... it's not good for the authors who involve themselves.
I guess in the end what I'm trying to say is that you can tell a lot about a publisher from just looking at their site. And just because they aren't doing anything blatantly "wrong", doesn't mean they're right. Keep your head, listen to your gut and think it through. That's the best way to give your hard work its best chance at success.