As we release our third book and begin planning the fourth, Casey Shay Press is definitely expanding in new directions. The movement to ebooks and the shift in attitude toward independent publishing is helping this.
The big six publishers are in trouble, and they are well aware how authors are ready to take their futures in their own hands. We feel there will be a rush to self-publish for a while, and then authors will realize--it's hard work creating a good cover and formatting books correctly for digital devices.
At that point, many will be ready to get back to just writing. Not every sort of book is easy to e-publish, and it's no fun to spend a year writing a book only to see it sell a few copies to friends.
Small presses like mine will be there and ready for them. I have a wonderful team of copy editors and book designers, as well as photographers and artists. We love what we do.
The Mary Ballard Chapbook Series is our next new direction. We'll be publishing a chapbook each year in March. Once the winner is announced, the cover art will also be a contest. This will include cash prizes as well as hard copies and ebook versions--money flows toward the writers and artists here. Even if the rewards are not quite the six-figure-advance gambles the Big Six take, we recognize that all of us have invested time and talent in our work.
Lots of great articles on the shift of publishing from the legacy model to independents have come out in the past week. Take in a few:
The original conversation: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-and-self-publishing-dialog.html
An agent's view: http://kidlitapps.com/2011/03/22/independent-publishing/
Another author's view: http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=3640
A publishing consultant: http://www.idealog.com/blog/eislers-decision-is-a-key-benchmark-on-the-road-to-wherever-it-is-were-going
Showing posts with label About Our Press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label About Our Press. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Sunday, November 1, 2009
About this Blog
Casey Shay Press is a start up independent publishing company based in Austin, Texas.
On my way to starting my own press, I made many mistakes. I was fooled into entering a contest and got a free package to "publish" my book, which will forever live on Amazon with a branded self-published name.
I submitted to publishers and agents books that weren't ready, weren't marketable, and took it very personally when they were rejected, even though there was nothing personal about it.
I did have the great fortune of signing with a wonderful agent years ago, who was exactly the sort of champion for my book that I had hoped for, only to find we couldn't sell that book. (He has since retired.)
Once in business for myself, I made other errors, including paying for things like bar codes, mismanaging shipping options, picking the wrong Pantone color for endsheets, and designing a pretty horrid web site (it's better now.)
The blog is mainly to keep myself organized, to hold all the fleeting thoughts that are hard to get down as you're making a mad dash from acquisition to release day, and hopefully, be some sort of haphazard resource for anyone else crazy enough to enter the world of the small press.
On my way to starting my own press, I made many mistakes. I was fooled into entering a contest and got a free package to "publish" my book, which will forever live on Amazon with a branded self-published name.
I submitted to publishers and agents books that weren't ready, weren't marketable, and took it very personally when they were rejected, even though there was nothing personal about it.
I did have the great fortune of signing with a wonderful agent years ago, who was exactly the sort of champion for my book that I had hoped for, only to find we couldn't sell that book. (He has since retired.)
Once in business for myself, I made other errors, including paying for things like bar codes, mismanaging shipping options, picking the wrong Pantone color for endsheets, and designing a pretty horrid web site (it's better now.)
The blog is mainly to keep myself organized, to hold all the fleeting thoughts that are hard to get down as you're making a mad dash from acquisition to release day, and hopefully, be some sort of haphazard resource for anyone else crazy enough to enter the world of the small press.
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