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Amber Quill Press, LLC

bentbrains

Re: Amber Quill Press?

It does sound familiar, but I cannot recall it. I checked my AOL search but nothing worth much came up. Good luck!
-Frank J. Middleton:jump
 

AnneMarble

Re: Amber Quill Press?

They're an e-publisher specializing in romance and in sensual/erotica romance (although not as well known as Ellora's Cave).

Their URL is AmberQuill

According to their web site, they're closed to submissions until 2005. As far as I know, they are legit and don't charge a fee. I think some of their titles were once published by another company that folded, and there is a legal notice on the site involving that. AmberQuill Legal Notice
 

MadScientistMatt

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Amber Quill has now branched out into selling paperbacks as well as E-books. They do seem a little pricey, though - I wonder if they use POD technology, even though they don't seem to be fee based. In fact, they still appear to be closed to unsolicited manuscripts, with a note that they'll consider a few querries.
 

inkkognito

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I found Amber Quill Press while searching smaller publishers of animal-related non-fiction. It doesn't look like they do a lot, although they have a dog care book. I have other, more specialized publishers in mind but my book is kind of niche-y (is that a word?) so I want to research every potential market. Amber Quill says it only accepts submissions by invitation and doesn't even accept queries. That's a new one for me! How does one even go about getting an invitation for their non-fiction categories? All the website talks about is how to get it for fiction via their contests.
 

triceretops

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Hmmm...this is a closed shop publisher. Invitation only, except for a Jan opening when they allow subs.

What does that mean? I've haven't seen this before except with some agents.

Was this a company started by a tight group of friends or a writing club that specifically published its members only? Sounds reasonable. Very strange.

Tri
 

para

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The only thing I've been able to find out about them is this old interview from 2002
 

jennontheisland

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I think the invite only is a way to avoid the deluge of unsolicited manuscripts that most erotica/romance epubs have to deal with. I think it was to cut down on editorial costs, and to allow editors to work with writers, rather than read submissions.

Their annual Amber Heat Wave contest is a short story contest. Winners are notified, no feedback to others. Once you've got a short in, you can sub other lengths.
 

veinglory

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As mentioned, they solicit new authors via the contest. They are reasonably well known and in the area of erotic romance ebooks seem to have better than average sales although I wouldn't put them in the top 3.
 

jennontheisland

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As mentioned, they solicit new authors via the contest. They are reasonably well known and in the area of erotic romance ebooks seem to have better than average sales although I wouldn't put them in the top 3.


Out of curiosity, who would you put in the top 3?
 

veinglory

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Heh. You know what, I just checked my figures and I probably *would* put them in the top three. Ellora's Cave is clearly #1, Loose Id may be #2. I was thinking probably Samhain or Liquid Silver from there but my own data set contradicts me: http://www.erecsite.com/SALES.html by showing Amber Quill is coming in a clear #3.
 
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smlgr8

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It is good to know since I am one of the winners of the contest 2008 and my book, The Squire, comes out this weekend.

They have been lovely to work with so far and I am contracted for three more stories going into 2009. So we will see how it goes!
 

WriterInChains

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Does anyone have any recent info? I'm thinking of submitting to their open call for M/M Erom.

I couldn't find anything about response time, which would be good to know for starters.

TIA!
 

smlgr8

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I write for them. They only recently opened to outside submissions as they used to be invitation only, so I am not sure anyone could really give you accurate response times. I've been writing for them since 2008. My experience has been good, but I will say that their best selling genre is M/M contemporary. I've written other genres for them that haven't done fabulously, but my contemporaries consistently do very well there. My best year there was (2010) when I had a series that sold very well, and my sales there are not quite up to that year the last few years but still good. Though I believe you will do better there if you already have somewhat of a following. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
 
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Oldbrasscat

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I subbed to their Howling at the Moon call on December 1 and the confirmation email said 8-12 weeks. One more week until I can start obsessively checking my email. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm doing it already!:D
 

WriterInChains

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Did your confirmation e-mail come right away, or was there a lag time? It's been a week & I haven't seen one, so now I'm wondering if they received my sub at all.
Thx!
 

WriterInChains

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Does anyone know whether their confirmation e-mails are auto-generated or manual? I can handle slushpile wait-times, but would like to be sure my e-mail got through (as much as that's possible :)).

TIA!
 

Oldbrasscat

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I'm assuming it's auto generated, because the message was 3-4 days if you have a question, 8-12 weeks if you submitted a manuscript. According to the website, they only have one submissions editor, so those time frames likely aren't too out of line. I'd bet they had a bunch send stuff in. I'm kind of wishing I'd tried Loose Id with it, now. They're much quicker.
 

WriterInChains

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Thanks for coming back to answer!

I pinged with a quick question just to be sure my e-mail got through and rec'd a very nice answer within a few hours that it had. Nothing about potential response time on the ms, just a friendly reply that my e-mail was in the queue.
 

WriterInChains

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FYI: my response came a few days before the 12 week mark -- a contract offer! I could end up with two releases from two different publishers in June. It's frickin' surreal . . .
 

Oldbrasscat

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They lost mine--I'm assuming it was an issue with the address they had created for that specific call. Not sure what I'll do if they do get back to me with an offer. I'm looking at other publishers--I don't feel like I really owe them exclusivity any more, since I'm at 17 weeks from the original submission date now.
 

HLWampler

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I just got an email from them...my manuscript is moving on to a managing editor! So excited and anxious!!