Why I Deserted NY and Picked a Small Publisher for My Second Series

L. Jagi Lampligther March 6, 2014

Mid-March, I will be sending my latest novel off the publisher.

Whohoo!

The Raven, the Elf, and Rachel, the second book in my Unexpected Enlightenment series—about an overly inquisitive British girl named Rachel Griffin with a perfect memory, who gets herself into endless trouble, romantic and otherwise, while attending a school for sorcery in New York’s Hudson Highlands—will be winging its electronic way off to my editor any day now.

When people hear this, I often find myself in the following conversation:

People: “So, you’re published by Tor, right?”

Me: “My first series, Prospero’s Daughter, is with Tor, yes. The Unexpected Enlightenment series is with Palomino Press, which is the YA imprint of a small publishing company called Dark Quest Books.”

People: “Oh? Did Tor reject the Unexpected Enlightenment series? That’s a shame. Tor is a great publishing house. They publish my favorite fantasy and science fiction.”

Well, folks, the answer is: I never submitted the Unexpected Enlightenment series to Tor.

Before I go on, I want to say: I love Tor. I am really proud that my first series was published with them. I hope to be published with them again.

So, why is my YA series with Dark Quest?

When it came time to find a publisher for the Unexpected Enlightenment series, I did a lot of research. I finally decided I wanted to publish it as an ebook, for a series of reasons, some of which I will list below.

Then, Dark Quest Books, a small publishing house, expressed interest. I spoke with them and discovered that their royalty rates were not much less than if I published an ebook myself. But they would do the work of posting the ebook and a bit of publicity. They also print a trade paper copy.

If I think of it as going from Tor to Dark Quest, it may seem like a step backwards. However, if I think of it as going from ebook to ebook-with-help, it is definitely a step forward!

So why did I chose ebook?

1) Financial.

With the Big Houses, an author gets 6% of the cover price. This includes ebooks, where we get 6%. Independent ebooks pay 60% to 70%, depending on venue, cover price, and other issues. That’s a big difference per book.

Recently, I bought four books by a friend. The purchase came to $25. He got about $18 of that. If you went out and bought a hardcover by my husband (SF/Fantasy/Christian writer, John C. Wright) or I, it would cost about $25, too.

But we would only receive $1.50.

Ebooks cost between .99 to $4.99. At $4.99, I would make $2.50.

I have to sell a lot less books to make the same money.

2) Ebook Potential.

I spoke with friends who are selling ebooks, including author Jonathan Moeller, who is doing very well with his ebook sales. From speaking to them, I determined that my YA series was a good candidate to do well as an ebook. I don’t expect it to sell much at first, but the story is addictive, like potato chips. That kind of model—where if you can sell the first one, people who like it will want more—seems a good candidate for ebook success.

3) Square Peg in a Round Bookstore and Editing Freedom.

Right now, traditional publishing has rather narrow ideas of what a book in a certain category should be like. A YA must be a certain length. The characters must be a certain age. Etc. My book does not fit this model.

I love my YA series very much, but it just doesn’t fit into the mold. It starts out like Harry Potter but goes somewhere very different. The book is too long for YA. My heroine, Rachel Griffin, starts out too young. The series is too Christian for traditional fantasy, and yet too fantastic for Christian publishers.

If I publish it as an ebook, none of this matters.

The book can find its audience without these artificial constraints.

5) No end date.

Physical books often get into the books store for a short time. Then they disappear again. The publisher has complete control over how many books are printed and whether to bother printing them again.

An ebook goes out there—and it stays. When a later volume comes out, the first volume is still s available. This means the book does not need to do well immediately. It can gently build up steam over time.

In conclusion.

It is still too soon to decide if this experiment is a success or a failure—that might not be clear for a few years. So far, I am very pleased with Dark Quest and the progress of the Unexpected Enlightenment series.

Only time will show if my choice was wise or foolish. Good luck, Rachel Griffin. May you prosper and soar!

About the author: L. Jagi Lamplighter is the author of The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin, as well as the Prospero's Daughter Trilogy (Prospero Lost, Prospero In Hell, and Prospero Regained).She has also written a number of short stories, articles on anime, and is an author/assistant editor in the BadAss Faeries series

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She is a graduate of the St. John's College in Annapolis, MD. When not writing, she switches to her secret identity as a stay-home mom in Centreville, VA, where she lives in fairytale happiness with her husband, author John C. Wright, and their four darling children, Orville, Ping-Ping, Roland Wilbur, and Justinian Oberon.