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Deer Hawk Publications

Katrina S. Forest

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Aurelia, there's a post on AW I think you really need to read:
http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=241409

I believe you have every intention of running this company well and treating your authors right. But if you don't have the means and industry knowledge to do that, you stand to hurt yourself, your writers, and your staff even if you don't mean to.
 

Marian Perera

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The books that have been published by Deer Hawk are as follows: Georgia Witness and Shadow Child, by Stephen Doster; Hanahatchee, by Trisha O'Keefe; Sea Dreams and The Weeping Crystal, by Aruda Wilson; Heart of Dixie and Petweenus, by Ronald Polizzi, and Winter, by C. B. Cole.

I checked a couple those out on Amazon.

The book description of The Weeping Crystal begins with "For more than an thousand years", and I read the sample up to this part:

Marical studied Katria carefully, "Katria are you well?
Katria smiled, "Dearheart, I am well."

Heart of Dixie has similar punctuation errors, and I skimmed the sample until I came to the line: "Walking back to Uncle Fred's truck, a numbness rose in me..."

This isn't professional editing.
 

DeerHawkPub

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No, my business would not come to a grinding halt if, heaven forbid, I was in some type of accident. I have contingency plans. Deer Hawk has been in business since 2006, I'm in it for the long haul. I said I am an author and a full time worker, I did not say I wasn't in it for the long haul. We are constantly working on improvement, and will continue. On the subject of Sullivan Maxx, they have brought me some very talented people, and have always been professional to me. I have met and talked to not only Holly, but also Jeanie, and I will continue to work with them.
 

Jim Riley

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Deer Hawk Publishing

My experience with Deer Hawk has been exceptional. I am a new author and Ms. Aurelia and her staff have been more than helpful with content, grammar and formatting my novel which will be published this year. She has been absolutely straight-forward in everything she has promised and in the things she will not do, such as charge fees, etc. I have nothing but compliments for her and her company. I would recommend her company to any new author.
 

Charlie Horse

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What strikes me in reading through this thread is how quick so many are to be skeptical. In an environment when so many of us complain about the status quo, why is it a natural inclination to nitpick at a company that is perhaps trying to do things a bit differently? While I'm not saying Deer Hawk is or isn't legitimate, this reminds me of the health care industry, where any sort of "out of the box" thinking gets rejected by the traditional medical community regardless of the lack of success within their standard practices.

To me, the simple fact that the owner of this company is on here doing her best to confront the issues as being pointed out, speaks volumes. So why throw stones at someone who might not conform to the busted-ass system that's killing the industry without keeping an open mind. Irregardless of whether Deer Hawk is onto something, there's no doubt someone needs to shake the tree.
 

Old Hack

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What strikes me in reading through this thread is how quick so many are to be skeptical. In an environment when so many of us complain about the status quo, why is it a natural inclination to nitpick at a company that is perhaps trying to do things a bit differently? While I'm not saying Deer Hawk is or isn't legitimate, this reminds me of the health care industry, where any sort of "out of the box" thinking gets rejected by the traditional medical community regardless of the lack of success within their standard practices.

I won't speak for anyone else, but the reason I'm doubtful about how Deer Hawk works is that I've seen many other new publishers fail because they had similar business models, and little or no experience in publishing.

With all due respect, the business model I've seen displayed here isn't "out of the box thinking", it's naive, unprofessional and ignorant thinking, I'm afraid, and the people who are likely to suffer most as a result of it are the writers who sign up to the company.

To me, the simple fact that the owner of this company is on here doing her best to confront the issues as being pointed out, speaks volumes. So why throw stones at someone who might not conform to the busted-ass system that's killing the industry without keeping an open mind. Irregardless of whether Deer Hawk is onto something, there's no doubt someone needs to shake the tree.

I see no stone-throwing in this thread and if you think otherwise, then please report the problematic post(s) so that the room mods can deal with it appropriately.

Also, there's no "busted-ass system that's killing the industry", the publishing business is not dying, and there's no such word as "irregardless".
 

Charlie Horse

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I won't speak for anyone else, but the reason I'm doubtful about how Deer Hawk works is that I've seen many other new publishers fail because they had similar business models, and little or no experience in publishing.

With all due respect, the business model I've seen displayed here isn't "out of the box thinking", it's naive, unprofessional and ignorant thinking, I'm afraid, and the people who are likely to suffer most as a result of it are the writers who sign up to the company.



I see no stone-throwing in this thread and if you think otherwise, then please report the problematic post(s) so that the room mods can deal with it appropriately.

Also, there's no "busted-ass system that's killing the industry", the publishing business is not dying, and there's no such word as "irregardless".

Like I indicated, I wasn't necessarily defending Deer Hawk. I know nothing about them. It just seemed from reading others comments it had been assumed rather quickly that anything that doesn't follow traditional publishing models is out to scam writers, which doesn't seem to be the case here.

My comments were directed at the monolith of traditional publishing and its inability to move forward and try out new business models.

And on irregardless. My bad. It is however a word. From MW...
Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose.
 

evilrooster

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Like I indicated, I wasn't necessarily defending Deer Hawk. I know nothing about them. It just seemed from reading others comments it had been assumed rather quickly that anything that doesn't follow traditional publishing models is out to scam writers, which doesn't seem to be the case here.

I don't think anyone has been saying that Deer Hawk is out to scam writers. The questions that have been asked have been about its resilience as a business, the experience of the people involved, and the product that they put out. All of those things can be problematic in entirely up-front and honest businesses.

Successful publishing is the product of more than good intentions, after all. It requires experience, knowledge of the industry, skill, adequate capital, and a certain amount of luck.

And the people who pay the penalty when things go wrong are the authors. Have you read this post about how publishers fail? None of the businesses in there were any kind of scam, but authors still ended up with books badly published or not published at all; in many cases, the rights to their works were tied up in bankruptcy proceedings.

The conversations in this room are not intended to be nasty, nor to simply highlight scams (although scams are highlighted here). They're to tease out whatever aspects of a business might jeopardize writers, so that anyone doing business with them is making an informed decision.

My comments were directed at the monolith of traditional publishing and its inability to move forward and try out new business models.

I would ask you to unpack the phrases "monolith of traditional publishing" and "inability to move forward and try out new business models", with specific examples, but it would be a digression from this thread. Instead, I'll just say that it sounds like you've been reading blogs from that segment of the community which has built its identity around a particular view of trade publishing-as-dinosaur -- a view that is not nearly as obviously true as that sub-community assumes it is. I'd recommend a broader exposure to all sides of the industry to get a more balanced perspective.
 

Charlie Horse

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I would ask you to unpack the phrases "monolith of traditional publishing" and "inability to move forward and try out new business models", with specific examples, but it would be a digression from this thread. Instead, I'll just say that it sounds like you've been reading blogs from that segment of the community which has built its identity around a particular view of trade publishing-as-dinosaur -- a view that is not nearly as obviously true as that sub-community assumes it is. I'd recommend a broader exposure to all sides of the industry to get a more balanced perspective.

I don't read blogs actually. All my opinions and impressions have been formed working with the publishing industry and as a writer. But I don't wish to derail this thread any further than I have. I apologize for that. I blame Mondays.

Carry on.
 

JLoiacono

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As the president of Loiacono Literary Agency, I can tell you it does not take much to see what an author is made of. You can tell so very much from a query, even the first paragraph or page. I have rejected simply because of lack of professionalism in the query, deciding that if the author can’t even do Spell Check on their pitch, the manuscript must be just as bad. It is essential to give a good first impression and follow through to the last punctuation mark. Check, check and then double check your work. Have others who are not afraid to give you honest criticism read it. Have professors or teachers in your local school system or college read it for free and/or edit. Do not send partial manuscripts or ones that have not been proofed. Submitting to an agent or editor is your stage audition. Make it count.
I have several authors with Deer Hawk and I have not been disappointed with any of their books. Aurelia Sands does quality editing and production. The buck stops with her. Even as a small press she is growing a solid reputation as one who does not take on just anything, but is selective and thorough. She is also not a temporary publisher, but one who will be around for a very long time. I am banking on that.
 

Old Hack

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As the president of Loiacono Literary Agency, I can tell you it does not take much to see what an author is made of. You can tell so very much from a query, even the first paragraph or page. I have rejected simply because of lack of professionalism in the query, deciding that if the author can’t even do Spell Check on their pitch, the manuscript must be just as bad. It is essential to give a good first impression and follow through to the last punctuation mark. Check, check and then double check your work. Have others who are not afraid to give you honest criticism read it. Have professors or teachers in your local school system or college read it for free and/or edit. Do not send partial manuscripts or ones that have not been proofed. Submitting to an agent or editor is your stage audition. Make it count.
I have several authors with Deer Hawk and I have not been disappointed with any of their books. Aurelia Sands does quality editing and production. The buck stops with her. Even as a small press she is growing a solid reputation as one who does not take on just anything, but is selective and thorough. She is also not a temporary publisher, but one who will be around for a very long time. I am banking on that.

Welcome to AbsoluteWrite, Ms Loiacono.

For those who are interested, Ms Loiacono's agency has its own thread here, in which Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware! comments,

Ms. Loiacono's bio doesn't mention any professional publishing experience or agenting training. There seem to be a couple of solid sales, to Thomas Nelson and Taylor Trade, but all the agency's other book placements are with small presses that authors can approach on their own (including two that I know for a fact have bad contracts--Zharmae Publishing Press and Front Porch Romance--and Ecanus, which has a self-pub division).

Not impressed.

- Victoria

Our thread about Zharmae is here.

You'll find a discussion about Front Porch here.

And here's a discussion about Ecanus.