Cactus Rain is a boutique publishing company. It is registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission. That makes Cactus Rain a small press.Cactus Rain publishes international fiction for the American market. The stories are inspiring as well as entertaining. The writing is strong, the characters are often ordinary people on a quest that leads to a heroic act.
Cactus Rain is not a DIY company. It is a new concept, taking the best from the existing models.
There is a vetting process. The specific submission details will be on the website when we finish building it. A query letter and synopsis will be required. There will be no electronic submissions, at least for now. If a full or partial manuscript is requested, that can be submitted electronically in MS Word or WordPerfect.
There is no set-up fee. There is no advance. There are no royalties. What? No royalties? Royalties means the profits are split with someone.
It is a very simple concept. Once an ms has been accepted, it is formatted, given an ISBN, and a cover at no cost to the author. The author pays for items like the US Copyright fee - and keeps the copyright. With the ability to print any size run, there is the ability to control cost and inventory to meet the demand for the book rather than large stacks of boxes of books sitting in storage.
When books are needed, the author pays the cost to print the book, plus a little something for me to recoup my expenses, then keeps the profit when the book sells, minus expenses like PayPal fees.
The books will be listed in the Cactus Rain catalogue and on the Cactus Rain website and [probably] Amazon.com. The author can sell books from their website or out of their car. As the catalogue builds, other means of distribution [bookstores] will be pursued.
It is all a process - creating a business, developing a website, all of it. More information will be forthcoming. Submissions will be accepted in early 2010.
Why did I create a publishing company when I have one of my own for my books? Simple. I am tired of writers who are not with a traditional publisher barely making any money for the hours invested in writing a novel. Being a person of action, I created a company that does for others what my company, Nadine Laman Books, does for me.
When Paul Fenton stops for breakfast in a small town, he gets more than he bargained for in the process.
When two-hundred-year-old human remains are discovered on one of Neptune's moons, Earth's history falls into question.
Emily's husband persuades her to try thalidomide to ease her symptoms as she is unaware of the devastating effects.
Who is the women's shelter bomber? Melissa Ryan suspects that her husband knows.
Further developments with the Wilder family.
A hidden past shakes the O'Donovan family to its core
A swirl of emotion and choice, set in Cape Town, South Africa
Love is a constant, but it comes at a price.
When the road ahead is unclear, sometimes you have to rely on trust.
The struggle between good and evil is ages old. It gets all the more complicated when the good guys aren't all good and the bad guys have redeeming qualities.
Story of a land mothering two races of people – the light-skinned and the dark-skinned.
A gifted Ukrainian ballerina comes into possession of a mysteriously coded address book.
Six passengers' lives change for better or worse after they arrive in Honiton.
Resilience and love in a harsh and unforgiving age
Kathryn's Beach
High Tide
Storm Surge
I know Nadine. She is a detail stickler. And that's what authors need when they are partner- or subsidy-publising. Too many get in a hurry and want to skip essential steps. I know I like to get things out fast. But fast is relative. The big publishers do it fast. Cactus Rain will do it faster than they do but not so fast you'll get an inferior product.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Publishing coach and consultant
www.howtodoitfrugally.com
www.budurl.com/CarolynsConsulting
You are awesome, Nadine! I love the name and I love you little cactus logo and the fact you want to help writers. Proud to know you honey !
ReplyDeleteCheerio
Well, big publishers usually have an 18 month window to publish. The do a bang-up job, can't say otherwise. But Indie writers can do a good job too, no excuse not to make a book the best it can be.
ReplyDeleteMarsh, big hugs.
Wishing you (and your authors) the very best with your new venture.
ReplyDeleteThank you, DJ. I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteAn amazing concept. I wish you much, much success, my friend!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan (and everyone) for the good wishes. The trick will be to get people to think in terms of a different model. The main thing is the quality of the books. They have to be well written, very strong writing, and the rest is history...as the saying goes.
ReplyDelete