How I got two book deals with DarkFuse

I have always been interested in the “behind the scenes” aspect of the publishing world. I like to know the hows and the whys of everything, so I suppose I’m doing a bit of projecting when I assume that readers feel the same way. So here goes nothing. Or something.

I have never had an agent. Every book I’ve ever read on the subject of publishing says, “Number one: Get an agent.” That didn’t work out for me. After carefully crafting and sending out approximately eighty-five query letters for LILITH, a supernatural thriller, I got plenty of interest, but no offers. 

I decided to go it alone and send queries directly to publishers instead. It took far fewer tries, about a dozen or so, before I got offers from two different houses, one of which was DarkFuse, an independent mass-market publisher. So I guess the lesson there is: it’s easier to get a publisher than it is to get an agent.

My query letters were nothing special, just a little blurb about the story, my background as a writer, why I felt my novel was different from other similar books that were out there, the word count, etc. etc. A synopsis of the storyline and the first two chapters were also included.

A couple of months after sending out the query to DarkFuse, I received an email requesting the entire manuscript for LILITH. A few weeks later, they asked me if I could cut the story to less than 70K, which I did. The next thing I knew, they were sending me a contract. Of course, I did the obligatory happy dance and called my family to tell them the good news. That particular book has been my best-selling one to date, and I am now writing a sequel.

Since they had already published one of my books, they were interested in reading my next, which was a novella called THE BLACK CHURCH, more of a straight horror story as opposed to the action-oriented thrills of LILITH. 

Again, the editor liked the book and made an offer. Although I ended up cutting a lot of it and changing the ending, I was pretty happy with the end result. The staff at DarkFuse is top-notch and very well respected in the business, so I trust them completely. The cover art for both books was beyond awesome and the editing as professional as that of any major publishing house.

The main ingredient for getting published (besides writing a great book, of course) is perseverance. Knocking on door after door, day after day, and getting rejected over and over again, is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it is part of the process of getting published. Self-publishing is fun, and I’ve done it, but there’s nothing like the validation of a company who has published hundreds of high-quality books saying, “Hey, good news—you made the cut!” Yep, I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

For more on me and my books, just go to my website at www.tobytatestories.com, or find me on Facebook or Twitter.

How I got two book deals without an agent

I’ve been at the publishing game since I first started writing for local magazines and newspapers way back in the 90s, and I know how tough it is to find a good agent. As a matter of fact, I still haven’t found one. But I have managed to get my last two novels published. Here’s how I did it.

Perseverance. I kept at it and kept at it until finally, someone said “yes!”

I tried breaking in by way of the literary magazine world. I read all the writer’s magazines and books and found the names of literary magazines that published in my genre. Pretty much all of my short stories were rejected, except for one—THE MUFFIN MAN, a story about a crooked lawyer who gets his just desserts, published by The Pedestal Magazine. So, I put all my stories into a book, SHADOWLAND, and published myself. It’s selling modestly well.

But the storyline of DIABLERO was burning a hole in my skull and I had to write it. So I did. Then, I found the names of all the agents that worked in my genre and fired off a great query letter and story synopsis.

After approximately 85 rejections, I decided I would try submitting to smaller publishers, ones that accepted submissions directly from authors.

More rejection. I rewrote and resubmitted. Lo and behold, just as I was about to throw in the towel, I got two manuscript requests from two different publishers, one of whom made an offer to publish. I did the obligatory happy dance and accepted. 

Six months later, another publisher offered to put out the e-book version. Cha-ching! Things were looking good.

Fast forward to one year later. I had just finished my second novel, a sequel to the first. Alas, my current print publisher wasn’t interested in sequels and my e-book publisher wasn’t dealing with the “big box” distributors. I wanted to keep my characters and I wanted a bigger audience. So, off to agent land again.

Another cyberwall full of rejection letters later, I decided to try some large indie publishers. More rejection. I was about to throw in the towel again when lo and behold, DarkFuse makes an offer on my second book. Hallelujah!  Now my book would not only be available in paperback and e-book, but also in hardcover. And they deal with all the major distributors! 

And I did it all without an agent.

Don’t get me wrong. I would love to have an agent. Any that are interested, have your people contact mine and we’ll do lunch. Until then, I’ll stick with perserverance.

Why my publishers rock!

Some authors are putting up blog posts about why they like their particular publishers, and since I’ve had such a great experience with mine, I thought I would chime in.

My first book, DIABLERO, was actually published by two different presses in two different formats: in paperback with Nightbird Publishing and in e-book with Crossroad Press.

I’m not going to say DIABLERO was a huge selling book. It wasn’t. But it is a great novel. The editors at both presses did a phenomenal job of taking a book written by a novice (me) and turning it into something palatable for the average reader. I did a lot of telling instead of showing and made a lot of newby mistakes, and they made it better, stronger, faster, like the bionic man. 

The release of the book was awesome because Nightbird had a release party at the biggest indie bookstore in Atlanta – Eagle Eye Book Shop. I signed books for fans at the same table where authors like F. Paul Wilson and Brad Thor signed books. I even signed the table! It was the most fun I ever had working. My publisher showed up with his staff and we had a great time. The bookstore even treated us to dinner!

Nightbird is small, but their books are high quality, which is what attracted me to them.

Same with Crossroad Press. They release novels from some of the top names in the field – Steven Savile, Ed Gorman, Jack Ketcham, Tom Piccirilli and others. And they took a chance on me, a new author, even creating a new book cover for DIABLERO. They probably have the highest royalty payments in the business for e-books, something like 80 percent, and they always pay on time. You gotta love that.

For my next book, LILITH, I really wanted to stay small but I also wanted to get more mainstream distribution, which is where DarkFuse came in. They are indie, but they do hardcover as well as paperback and e-book through Ingram and Baker & Taylor and regularly get their authors reviewed in places like Publishers Weekly and Kirkus, something I could never do on my own without paying big bucks.

But best of all, DarkFuse has that personal touch. Even with experienced, multi-published authors like Greg Gifune and William Meikle on the roster, I’m still treated like one of the guys, and not the greenhorn that I am.

Their books have some of the best cover art in the business and the editing process is rigorous to say the least. I believe LILITH is the best it can be and I feel confident that it will blow people’s socks off when we release it to the world next January. 

I’ve heard some horror stories from a lot of authors about their experiences in the publishing industry. All my publishers have treated me with respect and have never lied to me or tried to rip me off, so I guess I can say I’ve been pretty blessed in that regard. So to my former and current publishers, I just want to say—thanks for making this trip a good one!