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Wednesday, March 4, 2015

INTRODUCING A NEW SMALL PRESS - by Cynthia Hickey



 Multi-published and Amazon Best-Selling author Cynthia Hickey had three cozy mysteries and two novellas published through Barbour Publishing. Her first mystery, Fudge-Laced Felonies, won first place in the inspirational category of the Great Expectations contest in 2007. Her third cozy, Chocolate-Covered Crime, received a four-star review from Romantic Times. All three cozies have been re-released as ebooks through the MacGregor Literary Agency, along with a new cozy series, all of which stay in the top 50 of Amazon’s ebooks for their genre. She has several historical romances releasing in 2013, 2014, 2015 through Harlequin’s Heartsong Presents, and has sold more than 300,000 copies of her works. She is active on FB, twitter, and Goodreads. She lives in Arizona with her husband, one of their seven children, two dogs and two cats. She has five grandchildren who keep her busy and tell everyone they know that “Nana is a writer”.




INTRODUCING A NEW SMALL PRESS

Need some help with your unpublished manuscript? Cynthia Hickey, hybrid, and Amazon best-selling author, and her small ebook line, may be the ones who can help you.


Today’s publishing world is changing faster than some writers can keep up. Not only must you have a well-written book, but you must be prolific. Where once, you needed a large publisher to see your book in print, with small royalties and a long time to wait before seeing the fruit of your labor, today that is no longer the case. A book can be in ebook form and in print via print-on-demand within a matter of weeks and royalties paid to the author are much higher than in the traditional route. It’s an exciting time to be a writer!


Today’s author wears many hats; writer, publisher, marketer, cover designer, etc. They must be active on social media. Everywhere they turn, they’re bombarded with what’s new, what’s old, what doesn’t work anymore and what’s the new thing to guarantee sales.


We’re told we must have a book published every three months in order to stay in the reader’s sights. While this is true, it is often overwhelming to those who take longer to complete a manuscript than others.


Are you tired of writing to fit a mold? Have you received the rights back on previously traditionally published works? Do you have a dusty manuscript that can’t find a home? Then Take Me Away Books or Forget Me Not Romances may be the place for you.


The Forget Me Not Romances is a line of sweet, clean and/or inspirational novels that allow the reader to get lost in a good romance. This line is open to romance genres of historical, western, contemporary, suspense, and mystery. Don’t worry. If you contact us about one line, and we feel you’ll fit better with the other one, we’ll switch you over if that’s what you prefer.


 A lot of authors, while writing the book of their heart, find that their baby doesn’t fit into a particular niche. That’s no reason to stick the story on a shelf or in a drawer. Take Me Away Books and Forget Me Not Romances are small presses dedicated to helping authors who want to publish their book in ebook form. We’re looking for romantic suspense, mystery, memoirs, fantasy, science fiction, and everything in between. You wrote a story about a time-traveling fairy? Okay. If it’s a well-written story about a time-traveling fairy, we’ll take it.


Take Me Away Books is open to all genres, except for erotica and children’s books, and books posted there will have a rating, similar to a movie rating. Forget Me Not Romances, devoted to clean and sweet books, won’t need a rating because of their wholesomeness. Both lines will run in the same manner and the information can be found here. If you have more questions, please email me at cynthiahickey(at)outlook.com. We are open to submissions for both lines. Come find a home for your baby. If you have a submission, please send it to cynthiahickey(at)outlook.com with SUBMISSION in the subject line.


In order to give each of our authors the attention they deserve, Take Me Away Books and Forget Me Not Romances will be very selective in who they accept. We want to take pride in the services we offer and in the finished product. Writing for a small press, where the authors not only actively promote their book, but the entire line, helps everyone reach a wider market.


This is an exciting venture for us as we enter into the world of being a publisher. There are a lot of books available to help a person get their book in ebook form, but all of these take time. Often, a writer finds that the details take up time that they would rather spend writing. With more and more books showing up on ebook distributing sites, it often takes a team to reach as many people as possible. We want to help you get started.


Why publish with a small press? Why go ebook? Why go indie when you want to be traditional? Why not start indie and strive for being a hybrid? The primary reason for using a small press is to bypass the misconceived notion of what self-published is and have the backing of a publisher’s name. This also helps you build a readership and hone your craft in order to entice a traditional publisher. Don’t be surprised though if you decide to stay with a small press. The higher royalties might be worth it to you. If you’re a traditionally published author looking to fill in between contracts or list your back lists, ebooks are a great way to pull in readers to your traditionally published books and vice versa.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR: Fiction or non-fiction that is well-written and will appeal to readers. Genres: romance, romantic suspense, mystery, historical romance, science fiction, fantasy, New Adult, Young Adult, or any combination thereof. We’re looking for author’s willing to work as a team to market their books in an ever-growing world.

WHAT WE ARE NOT LOOKING FOR: Erotica or Children’s books. Authors who want to sit back, do nothing, and see what happens. This doesn’t work in any type of business. Ever hear the saying “It takes a village to raise a child”? Well, it takes a team to build a book.

We want to be a part of that team.




2 comments:

  1. Excellent, Cynthia! So glad you're taking the helm on this. Is the 'Forget Me Not' name still going to be used then? Happy to be working with you!

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  2. This sounds like an exciting enterprise. Congratulations, Cynthia!

    ReplyDelete