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Immortal Ink Publishing

ladyinpink

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Sorry, but how then DO you suggest I respond to comments about me as an author? I'm willing to respond in the way you wish, but it seems like you are saying people can address me as an author but I may not respond as one. Please clarify if that is not what you mean, as it's hard not to feel that *you* are the one trying to manipulate the situation. That said, I will put aside my emotions and I'm sure you will too, and I will give you the benefit of the doubt despite the previous accusation.

I'm asking you what TO do. What not to do isn't making sense, so I hope it's okay that I'm asking for clarity.
 

ladyinpink

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Update 6/19/14

The Forever Girl - now also available in Hungary through IPC Books and Germany through Harlequin and optioned for film. Amazon bestselling consistently for 2+ years.

After the Fear - under consideration for film, Amazon bestselling for 1+ year. Agented post-publication with us.

The Reading Lessons - Amazon bestselling title. Agented post-publication with us and in high demand for consideration with publishers worldwide.

The Making of Nebraska Brown - Months on the Amazon bestseller list. Agented post-publication with us.

Dirtbags - Written by screenwriter Eryk Pruitt, Amazon bestseller.

Infernal Machines - Praised by Joe Lansdale, bestselling author of The Thicket. Was on amazon bestseller lists for months following publication.

Summoned - Amazon Bestseller, Agented through publication with us.

Other titles: Four in the Morning; Demon of the Fall; Circus of Lost Souls (agented); The Portrait of Alatial Salazar.

All of our titles were on amazon bestseller lists at some point. No, we have not had any NYT bestsellers. Yes, we understand some people don't "count" amazon bestsellers as bestsellers. That said, we are selective, and we put our all into our authors and they all sell much better than the average indie author and many of them get opportunities they would not have otherwise gotten (agent representation, film interest, and international publishing deals).

**IIP has now partnered with a foreign literary agency, who is handling all foreign and film rights for our titles.**

A big thank you to all the authors who so far have given us a chance as we got our footing in this world and all the politics that come with it. We've learned a lot in the process and are always growing to learn more and do better. (And as an author, I've been doing the same *wink*) I realize that when we were new to this world I made a bad impression toward a few people. I hope I've grown since then. But ultimately, the important thing to me is only what readers think of our books and how successful we can help our authors become. The politics and such will always be changing, and we'll do our best to adapt, but we admit to being better at publishing than we are at appeasing the forum gods. Maybe one day we'll get that down pat, too :)

Please feel free to reach out to any of our authors on social media and ask about their experience with us.
 
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kaitie

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Could you define the bestseller lists? There's a big difference between "fiction" and being on a sublist.
 

ladyinpink

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If you mean numbers as in sales:

All of our authors have sold over 100 copies in their first month. It would take me a long time to get the specific data on all of them over the lifetime, though you are free to contact any of them to ask how their sales have been; it is up to them if they would like to share that information, as I know one of our best selling authors has already specifically requested we do not share that information about her book. That said, to give you a range, including our recent releases, I would say most of our books have sold 500 (newer titles) to 20,000 copies (books that have been out 1-2 years).

By Amazon Bestselling, I have not kept track of the general categories very well, but all have achieved ranks under 5,000 Paid in Kindle Store (which usually puts them on multiple lists and sub-lists). Many of our titles have been in the top 200-500. We have not had any top 100 paid books, yet, but the titles sell consistently and the authors are happy with that. As I have said, we realize this does not "count" to many authors. At the same time, it's also still better sales than many traditional and indie authors achieve. Many of our authors say they appreciate the marketing support they have received from us that they have not received from other publishers they have worked with.

Our readers are dedicated and while our mailing list is new and small (we just started keeping on in the last few months), it's already at 1,450 subscribers and growing. Our number one goal is to provide readers with excellent material and to support the authors who do want to work with us (and whose work we believe in). That said, our publishing house has been growing and expanding. The partnership with the agency means that IIP may only be a stepping stone for some of our authors; a few of our titles are not only being considered for film, but also by bigger publishers--both foreign and domestic--such as HarperCollins, Harlequin, Penguin, S&S, and Transworld.

I should add that we aren't actively seeking submissions; we enjoy keeping a small list. The update was merely for the sake of providing the most current data on our titles, not to persuade anyone to submit. We plan to take on only one more title in 2014 (and we already know which title it will likely be) but every now and then we get a submission that we can't resist.

If we are taking too long to respond here (I don't check in often) you can email us at [email protected] Also, as I said before, please feel free to reach out to any of our authors to ask them about their experiences. I believe how they feel about working with us is more important than anything I could say about ourselves.

Good luck to all. We hope all your publishing dreams come true, whether you are seeking a Big Six (or is it 5 now?) publisher, self-publishing, or something in between.
 
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kaitie

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veinglory

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IMHO I pay attention to "Bestseller: Amazon Kindle #[number]" or "Bestseller: Amazon Kindle Romance top 100".

Amazon bestseller with no specifics has become meaningless since the SEO crowd started selling getting on some subcategory with no other books in it as a way to get ahead on Amazon.
 

ladyinpink

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IMHO I pay attention to "Bestseller: Amazon Kindle #[number]" or "Bestseller: Amazon Kindle Romance top 100".

Amazon bestseller with no specifics has become meaningless since the SEO crowd started selling getting on some subcategory with no other books in it as a way to get ahead on Amazon.

Makes sense to me :)

We've had several books in the top 200 and many in the top 500 (overall) but as I've said, nothing in the top 100 as of yet. They have all made top 10 (many #1) in their specific categories as well, but as you said, that doesn't mean much these days.

Mostly what we like to see is that our authors are making money and getting opportunities they would not have otherwise gotten, such as the film deals, international publishing deals with 5 figure advances, and the opportunity to move on to a bigger American publisher. We don't promise fame; no publisher does. We just promise to be extremely selective, provide quality to our readers, and put a lot of energy into helping our authors be more successful than the majority average. :) We also promise that we are 100% human, and we'll make mistakes, and if we're smart, we'll learn from those mistakes . . . most likely only to make new ones! We're probably one of the few publishers that will make an admission like that, too; however, we are a down-to-earth bunch and not afraid to be "real" with people.

If I may make an observation, I think everyone goes into publishing wanting to get something different out of it. Some people think it's more important to be published by a "Top Publisher" even if their book only sells one copy per month. Other's don't care who publishers their book, they're happy so long as they sell hundreds or thousands of copies of their book each month. You will see this often, where people have almost no book reviews and no sales, but they are critical of other publishers who aren't in the top 100 even if those publishers sell hundreds more copies of each book per month--it's all about what is important to the individual, and there are no wrong opinion in that regard, IMO! Authors need to find the publisher that meets THEIR requirements.

Also, as we know, SEO isn't everything, or the all the people talking about SEO would be selling at least as well as our titles, right? Marketing and SEO definitely helps, but that's not all it takes for a book to be even mildly successful. Nor do all people see success as meaning a NYT best seller list. For example, I felt more success over my book being published by Harlequin (and a pretty nice advance for a debut author!) than I did over selling 20,000 copies of my book in the US via my own small publishing house. But I still see those 20,000 sales as success, too; that money paid bills and helped us through a hard time, especially when our baby was born prematurely and we had no insurance and had to pay for gas to drive to and from the hospital daily for six weeks and a sitter to watch our older three kids while we were gone. When it comes to success, it's all subjective IMHO. You define what success means to you (and it may mean more than one thing), then you find the publisher you believe can help you achieve your definition of success. We define success as making enough money off a book to pay some bills and gaining a dedicated fan base, but YMMV.

We've very happy that 5/10 of our authors have gotten agent representation since being published with us, 4/10 have received interest from international and bigger American publishers (one title already translated and published in two other countries), and 3/10 have received film interest (one has already sold the rights). Our authors are happy with their sales and most of our customers are happy with their purchases and dedicated buyers always waiting to buy the next book we release. I went into this expecting we would operate at a loss for two years, as most businesses do, and yet thanks to our talented authors and how well they have worked with the support we have provided them, we have really done pretty well overall.

If you are looking for a sure thing NYT bestseller, we are not the publisher for that, and we are not sure who is! We are just a selective publisher with a small list of titles, and who likes to see their authors succeed. What we give them is the tools and the exposure. As anyone in this industry knows, there is always a little bit of luck involved in what happens from there, but we're happy with "better success than most." We also get support many traditional authors published by bigger publishers and many indie authors who have self published--and we love to see ANY great book (whether published by us or not) making great sales and finding appreciative readers.

Our goal in 2014/2015 is to figure out how to sustain the success of our titles. Our better selling titles seem to sell hundreds to thousands of copies for the first couple years, then things die down. Our other titles (in less popular genres) may only sell well for a few months before dying down. We know this is common in publishing, but we appreciate a challenge. :)

I think the best part for us in all of this is that many of our authors want to publish second and third titles with us; several have had good experiences with other small presses, too, but prefer to work with us. We might not get everything right all the time, but we're glad we're getting enough right to make our authors and readers happy.
 
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kelliewallace

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I submitted to IIP in Dec 2014 and I got a request for a full. I sent it on 10th Dec 2014. No word yet. Does anyone know how long the next process takes until I hear from the submissions editor? Im very excited by this publisher.
 
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Undercover

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There's a lot of talk in this thread, but I haven't come across what the royalty rates are or what the marketing was like. Does anyone happen to know this info?
 

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I wasn't sure if this should be included in this thread, or a new one. This is the same person (Rebecca Hamilton) running a number of different businesses, including GenreCave and organising boxed sets that have a specific goal of hitting the USA Today bestseller lists.
http://insideindie.weebly.com/case-1-the-bestseller-list-box-set-gig.html

There's also a huge thread on the k-boards and an article on The Passive Voice
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2017/04/the-bestseller-list-box-set-gig/

And Victoria from WriterBeware is asking for people to contact her with any first hand experiences with Rebecca Hamilton and her various companies and services.
 

ctripp

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Fantasy, wow, thanks, that was quite the 2 hours I've just spent!
So Immortal Ink is gone, GenreCrave is a scary pay 4 promo site and then there's the box set scandal! Can't wait to read what Victoria finally comes up with from it all:)
 

Fantasy_freak

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Fantasy, wow, thanks, that was quite the 2 hours I've just spent!
So Immortal Ink is gone, GenreCrave is a scary pay 4 promo site and then there's the box set scandal! Can't wait to read what Victoria finally comes up with from it all:)

Yes, it's all the same person which is why I wasn't sure if it should be posted here or in a new thread? Immortal Ink has gone bust, but the same individual (Rebecca Hamiton) has created a number of new businesses which also seem to come and go. Hungry Author, GenreCave, Best Selling Boxed Sets and there are also vanity press type worlds where authors pay 2k to write a book - Othollo Witches and Charmed Legacy.

GenreCave runs expensive book blasts for authors (some have paid $400, that's more than a Bookbub spot!) but it doesn't have a newsletter service. It has an incentivised secret Facebook group where members download the promo'd title and post a screen shot of their purchase to enter the draw for a prize.
 

CaoPaux

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Near as I can tell, Immortal Ink did not survive '16.

What used to be HungryAuthor became genreCRAVE which is now OTOH Books: http://otohbooks.com/

Other dbas include, but are not limited to, QBW Services, LLC, Genre Buzz, and The Ink Muse.
 

Polenth

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I wasn't sure if this should be included in this thread, or a new one. This is the same person (Rebecca Hamilton) running a number of different businesses, including GenreCave and organising boxed sets that have a specific goal of hitting the USA Today bestseller lists.
http://insideindie.weebly.com/case-1-the-bestseller-list-box-set-gig.html

There's also a huge thread on the k-boards and an article on The Passive Voice
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2017/04/the-bestseller-list-box-set-gig/

And Victoria from WriterBeware is asking for people to contact her with any first hand experiences with Rebecca Hamilton and her various companies and services.

I see the link to the boxset situation is broken now and it wasn't discussed much on the thread. As Rebecca Hamilton still has businesses aimed at writers, Immortal Ink still publishes her work so it could rise from the ashes, and there will probably be new things someday, it's worth knowing what went down. There is a post (that doesn't name names) still showing in the Wayback Machine. But some of the screenshots come from this Kboards thread, where it's clear who is being discussed as she joins the conversation. There's also a response thread to the article, that has more of her responses and people discussing their experiences.

The box sets in question had novels by many writers. Authors were charged $500-$2000. The idea was to get the box set to be a bestseller so that all the authors can then say they're bestsellers. It includes other details like getting authors to mark PayPal payments as gifts from friends/family, justified as being because the box sets are being put together as a friend, not a paid-for service. I believe the sets are taken down now, though I don't know if they're all down.

When authors had issues and wanted refunds, it went about as well as usual. She attacked people and used her social media to encourage fans to attack people (in the case of the self-pubbed authors, one tactic was one-star review attacks). I note this because in the earlier part of this thread, she tried to pass everything off as having a bad few days or simply not being good at social situations. So, I hope this helps illustrate that this is a pattern of behaviour over a long period of time.
 
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Polenth

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Near as I can tell, Immortal Ink did not survive '16.

What used to be HungryAuthor became genreCRAVE which is now OTOH Books: http://otohbooks.com/

Other dbas include, but are not limited to, QBW Services, LLC, Genre Buzz, and The Ink Muse.

QBW Services LLC / Rebecca Hamilton are currently involved in a lawsuit which was started by Christina Garner. I didn't add it to my other comment, as I was considering what could and couldn't be said, as it's an ongoing case. I think it is safe to say it's about alleged defamation of Christina Garner after she wanted a refund for one of the services. RH filed a counter-claim that included a bunch of other authors, which has been dismissed.

(If people are wondering why I suddenly have things about this, I saw the thread bumped, and realised it was light on some of the more recent things I've seen around. I'm not directly connected to it, so I don't have all the details. Just reporting it, so the stuff is all there if people research the names.)
 
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