Publisher Stuff
This is Raconteur Press
We’ve been talking with an author who’s been burned — a lot — by publishers in the past; and is — quite understandably — a tiny bit skittish, so we thought we’d do a quick post for those authors who suddenly seem to be finding us.
Hello! This is Raconteur Press, and Ian and Rita are the co-CEOs.
Before we go any further, this is the important part: Ian and Rita don’t have a clue how to be publishers. Ian did some Army time, and retired from law enforcement after 26 years; and Rita taught English at a liberal arts college for a brief while before realizing it was less stressful to counsel pilots.
On top of which, we are at the head of a pack of miscreant veteran and veteran-adjacent foxes who firmly believe that “diplomacy” means putting sand in the sock instead of a brick.
Seriously. Cedar, Jonna, and Janet have some experience with publishing and the rest of them think that “Negotiation” involves “Speed”, “Surprise” and “Violence of Action”.
We are a small press, and we don’t have a lot of reach — yet.
We believe in treating our authors fairly, with open books and transparent accounting.
Our guiding light is: “It Must Be Entertaining, All Else Is Negotiable”, and we stick by that. We publish rollicking, entertaining stories in the vein of the old pulps; and just about the only thing we don’t want is erotica, romance, grimdark, or anything where the good guys lose, and the world sucks.
Good guys win, bad guys get shot in the face (or otherwise lose), and the sun rises on a new day. That’s what we’re after.
We believe that your book is your baby, and we’re just borrowing it for a bit.
If you’re coming to us expecting us to be your introduction into the Manhattan Publisher Cocktail Circuit … sorry, we’re not that sort of publisher. We’re out of North Texas, and the Manhattan folks think we’re barbarians1, we’re not turning our veterans loose in a New York high-rise with booze and opportunities for mischief, and …
… Ian goes on rants about traditional publishing. Extended, articulate, and often profane rants. Probably a little bit awkward at a cocktail party.
Neither he, nor Rita, are fans of literary agents, and your best bet as an author is to approach Raconteur Press yourself.2
Be patient! We’re new at this, and sometimes we drop the ball. Remember that we really don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re enthusiastic about it.
If you’d like to know more, take a look at the archive, and talk to our authors, or our fans.
Ian and Rita
See ”Negotiate with a brick in a sock” above.
We’re not saying that Rac Press won’t accept an agent-submitted manuscript — everything is negotiable after all — but the eye-twitches make the staff nervous.
If your negotiations do not involve speed, surprise, and violence of action, I don't think you are negotiating correctly.
I'll avoid making suggestions that might imply that being stuck with an agent you don't like, but were unlucky enough to sign a binding contract with, then finding a way to convince them to travel out here in person to hand in your manuscript, ... may result in your contract no longer being quite so binding.
Nope, not gonna say anything along those lines at all!