Luna Brillante Publishing

Christine N. said:

I will say though, that while I agree with you about the effectiveness of print ads (personally I don't think they work, unless it's like Romantic Times or something), the chain store book buyers WANT to see them on the marketing plans. Don't they still? That's what I've always been told. Print ads make chains wanna stock on shelves for some reason.

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I would say that chains aren't necessarily as concerned with print ads as they are with solid publicity. That's what drives people into the stores to ask for a book. Trade print ads can be a necessary evil (in PW, SLJ, etc.), but consumer ads aren't a good use of anyone's marketing dollars. We had a big coop with BN this spring for our Leonardo book because the book was reviewed in the New York Times BR, had been chosen as a BookSense pick, was reviewed in a dozen major dailies, etc.

I disagree, Tri, that anyone here is pillorying LBP. I am not going to beat a dead horse, but Lynn and Christine are absolutely right. They've been civil, they've been helpful, and they have pointed out the flaws in LBP's marketing/publication plan. Both work at publishing companies; both understand the challenges LBP face if every single part of LBP's plans go perfectly. Which they won't, because no one's do. This is absolutely what this forum is for--in fact, I was reading the thread thinking how civil and useful it was, and LBP is probably really grateful for the free advice from people who have already walked in his shoes many miles.

Points taken, all. I agree with everything that's been said here. The best thing that's ever happened to JC was to visit this forum and interact. It's a chance for him and his crew to get their publishing gears in mesh, IF they take the advice and adopt those plans. Sure, that still remains to be seen.

Priceless--I wasn't even aware that the comment was connected to you. I didn't put the two together and I could have easily found harsher comments, but no less bottom-line accurate. And I certainly have the utmost repsect for the opinions of our own small and medium press publishers, who contribute to this forum. They've got their act together. They serve as an excellent template for anyone with their eyes on the publishing prize.

Perhaps my greatest frustration lies with the industry and its current view about the small press. I'm from the old school and since I've just returned to the industry, the transformation has been abrupt and totally disheartening. I didn't see this morph coming--and it had sailed in and tied up to the dock before I even knew about it. PODS seems to be the new four-letter word nowadays and it's gaining more un-acceptance as the years pass. I forsee a near future where POD and "vanity" are going to be indisputably linked together, with no distinctions. And believe me it's the idiots who've set up shop with their come-one-come-all shingles swinging in the breeze that are giving it the bad name it deserves. I'm not disputing that. It used to be that small press was seen as a legitmate stepping stone to the majors. If you were to tell me now (and barring a few exceptions) I'd raise an eyebrow.

I just think that we can save a few--some of them who are showing some type of progress, who exibit some type of understanding, who are willing to listen and line those ducks up. Those are the keepers, and those are the ones that we'll see in a year or two rise up and demonstrate sound business plans, start paying small advances, find good distributors, harness respectable reviews, and offer contracts to authors that are favorable. And, yeah, those things should have been in place to begin with.

Not asking to cuddle or make excuses for them. The facts are this is a serious business. Ordinarily, when we offer critiques to other writers, in general, we give the good with the bad. At the very least we offer a snippit of encouragement. We don't have to offer the good or even encourage them. a nod will do.

I believe in the legitimate small press. I don't want to alienate them or shove them under a rock. It's not just a few who are publishing with them. It's damn near all of us.

Thanks for your comments and thoughts.

Tri

Was it a form letter? Yes, we have widdled down the hundreds of submissions we have to ten potentials (and btw, we've only sent the email to six of those ten). Your work was one of the elite ten.

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I'm sorry. I know everyone has moved on, but I just can't get past this letter that JCdlT quotes. The bit about having "widdled down the hundreds of submissions...." That's quite the unfortunate slip and likely to give an author the heebie-jeebies about publishing with LBP.

JC, I'm sorry, but I think you meant "whittled." "Widdling" is a child-safe Britishism for urination.

You don't have to apologize for having a good eye, Nicole. They best benifit from that one.

A lot of websites have been cleaned up on account of Bewares.

Tri

Good eye, heck! It's just that once I hit that sentence I got a visual of this publisher unzipping and letting rip all over that poor pile of submissions--it was sorta automatic and brain-breaking. Do you suppose the slush pile was being stored in the men's and someone mistook it for the urinal? Alas, a worse rejection letter than RoF's blue slip of death or JJA's "didn't grab my interest" missive!

Luna Brillante Publishing has ceased operations

I recently submitted a query letter to Luna Brillante Publishing. Here is the response I received today:

Bummer

Kind of a bummer, because they sounded like they were listening to what we were saying and had every interest in becoming a decent small press. Maybe they had cash flow problems again?

I wish them the best.

Well, I just wanted to let you know that we've closed shop with Luna
Brillante Publishing.

Basically, this is what I sent to our authors -

-------

It is with great regret that I inform you that Luna Brillante Publishing is
exercising clause 13 in your contract and has officially liquidated the
company.

Why has this happened?

Since its inception, LBP has struggled to meet the financial obligations
necessary to run a top notch publishing firm. Those struggles came to a head
as we attempted to release our third title, as well as prepared for two
other titles.

It was not just the money, though. We took another look at how other
publishing companies are servicing their authors and realized that we did
not have the time, the resources, or the will to treat your work with the
respect it deserved.

Further, We felt by locking you into a long term agreement would prevent
you from being able to sell your current title to a publisher that would pay
you an advance, give you better marketing, a higher cut of the royalty and
be able to dedicate the time and resources necessary to make your book a
success.

Basically, we were a mom-and-pop shop. A company run in our spare time after
our regular 9-to-5 job with absolutely no experience in how to run a
publishing company.

We became concerned, not with our ability to produce the books, but whether
we treating, you, our authors, our lifeblood, right. The answer I felt was
no.

We weren’t giving you enough of the royalty. We weren’t giving you advances.
Your books would have been lucky to sell 500 copies with the limited
marketing money we have available.

You can do better than us. We believe in your work now as much as we did
when we signed you – what’s changed is our belief that we can give you what
you deserve in a publishing company.

The answer is clearly no.

So what now?

Effective immediately, LBP has ceased operations. Any books that were
planned to be released or in the stages of being pre-produced have been
cancelled.

All of your rights to your work revert immediately back to you. Luna
Brillante Publishing has no legal right to any of your work, or any royalty
or proceeds you may make on selling your work to another firm.

What does this mean for me?
Since each of our authors were at different stages of development – here is
where you stand –

[insert personal impact]


Final Thoughts
I know you’re terribly disappointed – as are we. LBP started out as an
ambitious dream of a self-published author who wanted to help other authors
achieve their dream of being published. We thought, because we had been
through the struggle of getting the book to press, that this was all we had
to do to be successful. It was a naïve and rather ill-informed assumption.

What was a fun home-based business became this albatross that sapped our
spare time, our money, and our quality of life. In talking with folks on
Absolute Write, visiting other publishers and learning how they do things –
it was painfully obvious that not only were we, for lack of a better term,
“screwing you” in regards to support of your title as well as the monetary
benefit you receive, we had no idea how to make your book a success. The
time, the amount of review copies, the marketing, the proper distribution,
the dealing with the press. It was a culture shock. Add that to the demands
that you, the author, deserve us to be able to fulfill – it became too much
for us to deal with.

We had to let go our media coordinator, Taylor, last week, because we
couldn’t afford her salary any more. We ended our contract affiliations with
our artists and editors. Basically, we were steamrolling to this point and
the end was inevitable.

I want you to know that when we started this business – it wasn’t to hurt
authors or screw them out of money. It was to provide great, quality
fiction. That was the dream. When we began our journey with you – we had
great hopes.

I share your disappoint that it has come to this. Believe me. When the
decision became utterly apparent, I was in a fit of depression for several
days (which is why you haven’t heard from us since Tuesday). I didn’t look
forward to writing this email – to shattering your dream.

I believe that’s what pains me the most is hurting you, who trusted us to do
what was right.

I can only tell you this, the decision was made with YOUR best interests at
heart. We could have floated along for a couple years, making minimal profit
– but you would have made nothing. Your books would have sold poorly. You
deserved better than that. I couldn’t, with good conscience allow your work
to be treated that way. As a fellow author, I wouldn’t want the thing I
worked so hard to achieve to be mistreated in that way and I didn’t want
that for you.

We believe in your work, we wouldn’t have signed you if we didn’t. I know
you will rise up from this and you will find a publisher who will treat you
with the respect you deserve.

I wish it could have been us – but in the end, it was not meant to be.

I wish you the best of luck and further success.

--------------------

I'm sure there will be plenty of negative comments about me and of course
the company. Plenty of I told you so's.

In the end, they were probably right. But at least we ended it before anyone
was really truly hurt.

I truly wish you the best of luck in finding a home for your work. Had we
continued, we likely would have made it our fourth quarter release. Maybe
you should be happy we didn’t.

Take care,

JC De La Torre

The sad thing about this is that I exchanged some emails with him, tyring to get his side of the topic. He was warm and heartfelt, and truly honest in what he was tyring to accomplish. I guess that's why I came to his defense. I didn't want to see this happen. But my instincts were right from the beginning--he was not a bad person and owed up to everything.

Yeah, it's sad.

Tri

I never thought he was out to screw anyone and it always seemed he had the best of intentions, just not the financing or experience necessary.

With a little better planning and better finances, he probably could have made a go of it. But it does take a LOT of time, and it sounds like he found that at quickly too. Running a publisher 'after hours' quickly becomes 'all the time', and leads to loads of stress.

I hope he takes everything with him that he learned. Maybe he'll be able to try again one day.

I hate 'I told you so.'

Christine N. said:

With a little better planning and better finances, he probably could have made a go of it.

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Friends of mine started a children's picture book publisher a few years ago. They knew something about the business to begin with, and they took courses and did a tremendous amount of research before opening their doors for submissions. They created a business plan and got a business loan. They acquired lovely books, hired talented illustrators, and landed a reputable distributor (not just a wholesaler). They got excellent reviews, sold some subrights, and even won awards.

Four years after startup, they wound up in exactly the same position as Luna Brilliante: their money gone, their debts skyrocketing, their personal lives nonexistent. The problem was that even though they produced beautiful children's books, there was nothing to distinguish them from all the other publishers producing beautiful children's books. In a crowded and competitive market, they weren't able to make themselves stand out. They scaled the business back, but eventually had to throw in the towel. They're still grieving.

It is hard, hard, HARD to make a success of a small publisher, even if you do everything right from the beginning.

- Victoria

You can say that again. We're swamped by the small press and they can't even stand out amongst themselves.

Tri

And PB's are probably the toughest market out there- they're by far the most expensive to produce and the hardest to move.

All,

I wanted to thank you for the kind responses. I truly expected the worst when the decision to close up shop was made. I figured my name would be dirt in the writing community.

I'm glad to see there are so many understanding individuals out there.

Its been a rough go for my wife and I. After we shut down LBP, our creditors began coming after us, we've burned through our savings and we're struggling to prevent leins against our home. One of the authors didn't take our demise too well and is threatening to sue.

In the end, it was an expensive lesson to learn and I can only hope this serves as a word of warning for those who are considering going down the same road. Know what you're getting yourself in to.

As for me, I've decided I'd rather write than publish. Let someone else do all the hard stuff - I just want to create. I plan on leaning on this community to help me with my craft and the process of finding an agent or publisher for my work. I'm hoping to join some critique groups and writers clans to create a nice little network of trusted fellow authors.

Perhaps out of LBP's demise, something nice will develop.

Thanks again for not being too hard on me...when I know we probably deserved worse.

Take care all!

Wow, I can imagine how hard those words were to choke out. Best of luck to you and your wife.

Um...interesting

Wow...so when all else fails set up a vanity publishing house? Not to beat a dead horse, but when I clicked the link to what used to be lunabrillantepublishing.com it brought up this site: http://www.dltatlantispub.com/

Seems to be the same person...

Ok my mistake.