Hello everyone,
I'm the head publicist at Jolly Fish Press. This thread turned up in our google alerts, and we were delighted to hear some serious discussion about us, especially when someone (who it seems came from this forum) sent us an email with some related questions. Of course, I hope I am not breaking any rules by responding, and I definitely encourage serious discussion about publishers without the publisher intervening. However, there are a few things I'd like to clear up for your benefit.
1. We are not in anyway affiliated with Country Books and/or Book Country. In fact, we've never heard of them until this forum mentioned it.
2. We are also not in anyway affiliated with self-publishing. We have, from time to time, offered consultation services to local authors in our immediate area in order to support our local writing community, but that is the extent to which we have dealt with self-publishing, and it is a practice that we have since distanced ourselves from due to confusion from authors (like right now). As a traditional publisher, we follow the guidelines and practices of major publishing houses while constantly scrutinizing these practices to see if there is room for innovation. As a result, we strive to maintain a transparency with our authors and prospective authors, which is one of the reasons I am responding to this thread.
3. As a traditional publisher, we do not require our authors to pay anything. Such bad practice is something we definitely frown down upon, and as we invest thousands of dollars and endless amounts of manpower into each of our books, it is something we are very distanced from.
4. (Asked by someone who sent us an email who we assume came from this forum) Our royalty rates are determined by the contract for each acquired title, ranging between 8% and 25% and, depending on the contract, ranging from both net and cover price. The reason for such variation is due to certain requirements and preferences of literary agents, among other things. Of course, we will always strive to provide a reasonable royalty rate for our authors as they are our first priority.
5. We have very wide distribution channels, both national and international. Each of our titles are available basically everywhere online as a hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook (some books may have a delayed trade paperback release). Our brick & mortar presence is also stellar, as our books are available to any bookstore that has access to large distributors like Ingram and Baker & Taylor. Our books are also available through Barnes & Noble (both online and in physical stores). While we cannot promise all of the bookstores, especially Barnes & Noble, will carry our books, they do have the ability to carry our books. As head publicist, I work with my publicity team to contact all of the Barnes & Nobles and several independent bookstores in our author's area (usually statewide) for stocking and signings. In addition, We submit to several bookstores'/booksellers' corporate offices (Barnes & Noble, Costco, etc.) for nationwide stocking. We also have wide distribution in Canada, Australia, Europe, Asia, and many other places, including working with subrights agents for foreign language publishing and movie and entertainment rights.
Hopefully this clears up some confusion. Now, I don't want to intrude on the conversation (trust me, we encourage it!), so if you have any direct questions, I invite you send them to our general email at
[email protected]. Thanks!
Kirk Cunningham
Head Publicist
Jolly Fish Press
P.s. I know it may not be common practice to include your name in forums like this, but a quick google search pulls up my name and email on all of our press releases. So for the sake of transparency, I thought, "Why not?"