Friday, September 17, 2010

Omega Publications

This week’s blog is going to be a bit different. I’ve asked my friend Gayle Farmer to talk about her company, Omega Publications, and the kind of books they publish and what they can bring to an author interested in self-publishing. So, with Gayle we will explore the world of Omega Publications and self-publishing over the next few weeks. If you have any questions for Gayle, just post it in the comments area and Gayle can respond in the next blog.

We decided to set the blog up in a question and answer format. 


M: Hi Gayle welcome to my humble little blog.


G: Hey Margaret, I really appreciate you giving me this opportunity.


M: Knowing that I have some writers in the audience, most of whom want to be published, I thought it would be a good match. So what have you been up to? I hear you’ve been pretty busy.


G: I guess! We took on two ‘firsts’ for us, an illustrated cookbook with photos and a non-fiction book with a variety of graphs and boxes. Prior to this, our experience dealt with novels and text-only kind of things.

Jeff survived, and claims he is the better man for it, but there were times in that learning curve when it got pretty hairy. Imagine trying to put a dark, poor quality, B&W Polaroid photo circa 1960, into a book in 2010. But Jeff did! Perseverance and the grace of God, I say, but wait until you see it. We’re feeling like new parents with a beautiful baby.


M: I love cookbooks. What’s the title?


G: Tastes and Tales of Sicilian Cookery, A Back to Queens Cookbook. I can’t tell you how much fun it was. Our wonderful Author/Chef, Thomas Ciapi, found our site on the web and called me on the phone. We spoke for a while, he explained what he wanted, asking me if I could ‘make it pretty.’ “I want the reader to feel it, smell it, but not just the cooking and the recipes,” he said. “The cookbook is more than that, it is the story of my Nonni, my Grandpa Renda and what he means to me and my family. Can you do that for me?”

Thrilled to my toes, I told him yes and I think we have. Jeff did the cover, warm and inviting, yet ultra simplistic, with Chef’s photo on front. I am familiar with both the neighborhoods and the times and I found a lot of nostalgic tears flowing in this one as I grew up outside Manhattan.


M: I get the feeling this is much more than a job for you, isn’t it, Gayle?


G: Oh yes. Just publishing the books I wrote kept Jeff and me pretty busy for the first several years. We published my first two books in 2004, but at the time, we didn’t feel qualified to take on other books, even through we’d been approached. We were still finding questions we had no answers for! God bless the net. If you can figure out how to phrase it, there’s an answer out there. It’s just, who has time for that kind of research? One by one we were able to overcome the obstacles, and of course, as my books began to sell, people sought us out.


M: So basically, you do it all then, from beginning to end? I’ve seen several of your books on the Amazon site and I have to admit I can’t see a bit of difference between your books and something put out by Penguin or Random House. I have a feeling that’s no accident. I’m holding a copy of Mosaic, leafing through it, and it’s beautiful. Love the front cover, but the back cover is really clever, too.


G: The clock! Lol, that was Jeff’s idea and it came out great. He wants to incorporate a clock and autographs on the back of the new anthology of poems we’re doing. You just might be familiar with that!


M: Yup! I haven’t said much about it here, so go ahead and explain.


G: It’s called TAPESTRY, Poetic Threads of Life. It’s still in the production phase and is kind of a, well … pairing is too strong a word, but, maybe a flip side of Mosaic, which contains short stories. I’m so proud of that one. I think the cover is super and wish there were places like Writer’s Digest where they judge covers like they do novels. I really think it’s a winner. It was the first Fanstory anthology book and I have to say there’s some really good stuff in there, from funny to scary to outrageous and everything in between.

Speaking of covers, I certainly can’t pass over the newest cover on the OP horizon, done by Margaret Clark! That is so exciting, such a plus for OP to have you there in the wings. Gives me a sigh of relief, and I love your ideas for the Paris Metro cover.


M: Thanks Gayle, I appreciate the opportunity. You gave me a clear vision of what the book was about and the author’s ideas, and such. I like what we have so far! 


G: Me too. You captured the whole idea perfectly. But there’s so much to it, isn’t there? Now we have to knock gently on the author’s muse and hope for concurrence! This can be a very emotional time for the author.


M: Well, I have a lot questions I’d like to ask you about Omega. I understand that Omega doesn’t accept every ms offered, which is very different from most POD’s. Tell us about that.


G: We won’t publish junque, regardless how you spell it! Mostly we turn away the far-out stuff. OP will not publish material that will incite violence or hatred based on race, sexual orientation, religion or ethnicity. Added to that, we do not publish porn or anything that glorifies sexual violence. It’s on a case-by-case basis, of course, unless you’re talking Klingon. We especially like Klingons.


M: I have to chuckle at that. Give me an example.


G: Okay, we had a guy who was a Native American and wanted his book published. He had the money and was ready to go. I requested he email me the ms in an attachment. Shortly thereafter, the ms arrived. It was incomprehensible, even with what he considered translations. We’re just not equipped to do that.

Not long after that I got an ms from a guy, also money in hand, who’s rewritten the Bible, New and Old Testaments, mind you, and wants to publish. He warned me that there will be NO EDITING. Solid caps, bold, yet. Well, I passed on that one, too. There have been others, actually, but you get the picture.


M: So how does your submission process start?


G: We deal with electronic ms only. We ask for a short synopsis, the first chapter, total word count, genre and target audience.

I check every ms we receive. If it looks like something we want, I read random passages for continuity, spag, style issues and if it’s something we want, I get back to the author. I have three other editors available to me and depending on what the ms needs, I’ll send the book to the proper editor. Then we talk with the author about the costs, any special editing needs and the price of the package they choose. My edit covers spag… spelling, punctuation and grammar issues as well as POV loss and is included in the price of all the packages. If the ms needs editing beyond what I am able to provide, there is an extra charge.

We spend time on the phone with the author if they’re unsure what to do, but most of our contact is email. We stress how important it is that the ms be as clean and ‘publishable’ as they can make it before we get it, since most authors don’t have the extra money required for an in-depth or line edit, especially if they can do a good bit of it themselves.


M: How is Omega Publications different from other POD’s?


G: Well, first off, we follow industry standards regarding fonts, type/format style, setup, drop caps, offering every feature you see from a traditional publisher. All our covers are original, not made from some standard template. It’s of paramount importance at OP that we meet or exceed industry standards. I’m hoping some day that there will be another level of publisher, who accepts paying clients based upon merit and high standards without the stigma…which is fading fast, by the way, of the old vanity press. POD’s have to have standards, we have to provide the same values of quality, good craftsmanship and expertise the trad houses do if we expect to compete in the marketplace.

Also, we allow the author to pay half his package price when we commence editing and the final payment made just before it goes to print. That gives the author a little time to get the money up, although our prices are low and very competitive. We also allow the author to determine the selling price of her book. Once we hear from Lightning Source what a book will cost to produce, the author pretty much takes over. We highly recommend that ‘your’ book be priced the same as others in your similar genre and size, so if Stephen King is getting $8.99 for his latest endeavor, it just doesn’t make sense for an unknown writer to price his debut novel at $23.95.


M: How about marketing the novel once it’s in print? What do you do?


G: Every book we do has the ‘check inside’ feature on Amazon. We also include an author’s page on our website where the author can link to other sites, sell things, talk about themselves. We belong to Smashwords and a variety of similar sites that promote our works, like Google. The ebook market is huge and we want to ride that wave.

But as all best selling authors will tell you, they’re expected to do the marketing. You have to be crafty; talk with your town librarian, see if they have a ‘local authors’ area where your book might belong, and donate one or two, same with bookstores, especially the smaller local ones. We give a fair return rate, so they are inclined to provide the space as a service to local talent, especially in resort towns. If you’re big on seminars, they encourage you to bring books to display and sell. Any kind of community thing, fairs, swap meets, events like that are a good place to market your book. Check with your local high schools and colleges, see what they might be planning. Also, for those of you who can do public speaking, see if you can’t give a little talk at mid-grade and higher, especially if you write for YA. To kids, anyone who has published a book is pretty cool, at least in my experience.


M: From the things I’ve heard today and the horror stories you read about authors and their POD experience, Omega sounds very different.


G: It’s like night and day. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m all about being the best I can be and that translates directly to my work. After seeing some of the junk other POD’s put out, I wish there was another word for Omega Publications; I like Indy Press.


M: Well, I think we’ve covered quite a bit here. Thanks Gayle for the information on Omega Publications and the great advice on self-publishing. We look forward to next week’s blog.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments just post them in the comments field.

Until next week

ttfn

mc

1 comment:

  1. Hello, gals. Wow! I'm impressed with all the topics you were able to cover in this first post. You've given all of us some things to consider.

    You might give folks the Amazon addy for Mosaic so they can see what great work you do.

    I know our local CostCo allows authors to hold book sales there. Also, our local university is very interested in obtaining works by authors in the vicinity.

    Keep it rolling.

    Hugs,
    Renie/Irene

    ReplyDelete