Mike Feury has been posting here with "owner" as his tag line. Was he never the owner? If he was, when did that change?
The article makes it sound like Eberharter's owned the place for several years, but Feury's been posting here as recently as this summer saying HE'S the owner... ?
ETA: I just checked a couple old e-mails (from 2012) and Mike's sig line definitely indicated that he was the owner. Maybe they were both part owners?
You're right, Linda and I are 50/50 owners. We founded the Atlantic Bridge company in 1999 as a partnership, and LSB has been our main publishing and sales imprint for a decade--LSB was Linda's brainchild.
As Linda's press release says, I am now moving on to work on related expansion projects I've wanted to do for a while. I've been working on setting up a separate company for the past couple of months, which should launch later this year--a separate company makes a lot more sense for what I want to do.
Part of this transition is that I'm relinquishing my 50% ownership, so Linda will be 100% owner as soon as we finalize the details. Linda is now running LSB, with any help she needs from me. This frees me up to concentrate properly on what needs to be done going forward.
I will still have a close working relationship with LSB of course, Linda and I have agreed how our operations will dovetail and complement each other, to our mutual benefit and the benefit of LSB authors.
Naturally some of you are concerned by this and other recent changes. The industry has been in a state of major change for a while now, and businesses must assess and move accordingly--standing still is not an option for survival and prosperity. Change is always unsettling I know, but it's a sign of a company continuing to try and improve--breaking eggs to make omelets, if you like.
Atlantic Bridge and LSB have been solvent and debt free for over 13 years, I guarantee you the financial position and business relationships are 100% sound. Have no worries on that score.
Linda and I are aware of some organizational weaknesses a couple of you have mentioned--they need fixing so we get things correct 100% of the time. That said, royalties have been paid for 13 years without any major issues--a few smaller errors were always fixed and resolved quickly.
I apologize to those of you who have had poor editorial experiences during my time in charge. I know that's an area Linda is prioritizing promptly, spearheaded by the experienced and talented Terri Schaefer, so I expect things will improve soon.
I get the impression werewolves and shifter romance is what does well at LS.
A friend of mine had runaway sales with her contemporary romance...
Yes to both of you. Wolves and shifters are top sellers for us, but our 2013 bestseller so far is a contemporary, and our 3rd all-time bestseller is suspense. It shouldn't be a LSB-specific thing, since the vast majority of our sales come from our dozens of external retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, ARE, Kobo etc. I doubt any readers search for LSB books in those places, they search for author or genre or themes.
Our overall book sales continue to rise. 2013-Q1 was our best quarter ever, up 40% on 2012-Q1, and 2013-Q2 looks to be up 25% on 2012-Q2 [I'm currently working on the Q2 sales and royalty figures].
Sadly, not every author sees corresponding increases in their individual sales, as some of you mentioned, which is the case with every publisher. All we can do is work to increase sales--which now includes special initiatives aimed at boosting low sellers--and continue to learn about what works and doesn't as the market changes.
But I assure you LSB books do sell--nearly 200 of our books have sold over 1,000 paid copies. Plenty of releases from five years ago and older still sell hundreds per year.
Thanks to all of you for your many comments in this thread over the years, I'm sure I will see you again in the future.
), but just wanted to introduce myself.
