SHALLA CHATS with Executive Editor, Elizabeth Burton

 

“Zumaya Publications Looks for Authors”

by Shalla DeGuzman

 

So, who’s Elizabeth?

Elizabeth Burton was born in Pennsylvania and plans to die in Texas, but not right away. She’s been a welfare mom, a journalist, an information-and-referral agent and finally managed to get back to her first love: writing. However, since that didn’t pay a lot of bills, she also launched into freelance book editing which eventually landed her with a small Canadian press, Zumaya Publications. Since then, she’s published three novels and has a fourth on the way, three erotic romance novellas, and as a publisher has made it possible for a lot of very talented people to be discovered.

Shalla: Good to meet you, Liz or should we call you Elizabeth? Zumaya Publications looks like a wonderful result of the new digital publishing industry.

Liz: Liz is fine—whenever anybody calls me “Elizabeth” I feel like I should be wearing White Diamonds and talking about Richard.

My partner, Tina Haveman, and I would like to think Zumaya is at the leading edge of the digital publishing revolution, especially with regard to digital printing—what some still call print-on-demand. There are so many advantages to it, both for publishers and authors.

Shalla: Zumaya Publications has many new titles, will you tell us about some of your latest e-books? What makes these books perfect for Zumaya?

Liz: Well, let’s be clear—Zumaya Publications does print; the ebooks are another way for our authors to earn royalties. We started out that way, rather than as did many of the companies now using digital printing for paperbacks. They started with ebooks and eventually went to print to accommodate authors who wanted it. Some even require the author pay for the print book set-up. We’ve never done that.

New books? Our three newest are all fantasy, released under our Otherworlds imprint: J. C. Hall’s Lady of the Lakes; Godsdoom by Nick Perumov, who was voted best writer at the 2004 Eurocon; and a debut novel by a reformed stand-up comic named John Dimes, The Rites of Pretending Tribe. Just prior to that we released Synergy, a new SF novel by M. D. Benoit, best known for her Jack Meter series of noir PI science fiction books, and the second in our line of true ghost story books, Footprints in the Snow by James L. Choron.

What makes all these books perfect for us is that they are superbly written and are not clones of what’s popular this year. We don’t, for example, have a single title that bears any resemblance to The Da Vinci Code.

Shalla: What would you say are the biggest differences between being published by Zumaya as opposed to by more traditional markets? Is the contract different? Will the book get less/more publicity? Will the book be for sale longer or shorter? Etc.

Liz: Well, as noted, our books are published in print. What makes them different, other than that they don’t fit neatly into category pigeonholes, is that because there isn’t a huge amount of cash tied up in their production, cash that has to be recouped as quickly as possible, they have time to find their readership. Our contract certainly differs—we sign only those rights we intend to use, and our royalty percentages are generous compared to the mainstream. Our goal is to make it worth our authors’ while to promote as much as possible because they’ll see the results of their efforts pretty much the same time we do.

Digitally published books remain available until either the author or the publisher says otherwise. We have titles still under contract from the first year Zumaya was in business—2000—and we’re in the process of planning new editions for a number of them to give them another opportunity to do as well as they should have done. This time around, we’ll do some advance promo and make sure they have some buzz going before they come out again.

Shalla: Please tell us about the kind of books Zumaya likes publishing.

Liz: That’s a hard question to answer, because it’s rather like the definition of pornography—I know it when I see it. I could say we look for clean, well-written manuscripts with engaging plots and believable characters but that’s standard. The best way I can describe what makes me want a manuscript is that it has a resonance, something that leaps off the page and won’t let go.

Shalla: What do you look for in a query letter? What immediately catches your attention?

Liz: Professional presentation and good spelling. Seriously. I’m constantly amazed by the number of people who will send out a query letter full of misspelled words—in some cases they actually use all lowercase. They tell me their life story instead of what the book is about. With all the information out there on how to write a proper query letter, I can only assume that either the person who sends a badly written one either has never read a book about how to write and get published or assumes we’re so desperate we won’t care.

Shalla: Do you reject submissions based solely on the query letter?

Liz: Yes, I do. More often than not. And, conversely, a well-written query may make me take a look at a book I might otherwise feel isn’t right for us. Like most publishers our size, we’ve developed niches, so books that fit into those have an advantage. However, I’ve looked at some “outsiders” solely because the author sent a professional-caliber query.

Shalla: When you’re reading the first 5 chapters or 50 pages of the manuscript submission, what are you looking for? What would make you accept/reject a submission?

Liz: If I find more than three grammatical, usage, spelling and/or punctuation errors on the first page, I won’t go any farther. A first chapter that’s all telling—describing what the character(s) are doing and/or saying may be saved by a second chapter that’s really where the action begins, but otherwise that one won’t make the cut either. Of course, the opposite applies as well—some books start off with a great adrenaline rush and collapse completely by chapter two.

One of the surest ways to know an aspiring writer hasn’t learned his/her craft is the assumption they don’t have to self-edit because the publisher will do it for them. Another indication is when, having been informed to expect 3-6 months for a response—and more likely six than three—they nevertheless start bombarding me with emails every month wanting to know if I’ve “had a chance to look at” their manuscript.

Shalla: If you accept a manuscript for publication, do you help edit it? Or should it be perfect upon submission?

Liz: I currently do all the editing, from the initial substantive edit (if required) to the final copyedit. To be honest, it was a condition some of my people insisted on to sign their contract.

No manuscript will be perfect on submission, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be as close as can be managed. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find someone who actually knows how to edit—I see the same errors over and over, not just in manuscripts but in published books. It’s clear people who lack the skills to be editors are doing it anyway and missing errors, which then come to be considered correct when they aren’t.

Shalla: What would you consider to be the ideal type of author to work with? Nice? Always on time?

Liz: The ideal writer is someone who respects the craft enough to have learned it, has taken the time to learn something about the business side of publishing, is prepared to market and promote from the very beginning and doesn’t consider any suggested change to his or her work as personal criticism.

Shalla: Finally, what would you say to authors out there who are considering whether to go for an e-publisher or a print publisher? Any tips?

Liz: A publisher is a publisher is a publisher, with apologies to Gertrude Stein. Here again it’s important the aspiring author learn how this business operates so they can study contract terms and have an idea how much support they should expect from whomever they choose to sign with. They should read at least one or two books from the publisher they’re considering, looking for quality of design and editing as well as content. They should track down other authors published by that company and ask for information.

For a first-time author, ebook publishing can be a way to build a reader base and learn how to market and promote in preparation for taking a stab at the mainstream. The stigma that once attached to it is disappearing as we speak, as is the bias against digital printing. What’s important is that they understand the differences inherent in having an ebook rather than a print book so they don’t waste time, effort and money where it won’t do them any good.

Shalla: Thank you for your time, Liz. It’s nice learning more about Zumaya Publications. For more on Zumaya Publications, please visit: http://www.zumayapublications.com/

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Shalla DeGuzman's short stories have appeared in Poetic Diversity, the Mad Hatters Review, etc.; her articles in The Scriptorium and L.A. Freepress; her skits at the Stella Adler Theatre. Shalla, a former writer and producer of a health and fitness cable show, is currently writing a novel. She is President of The ShallaDeGuzman Writers Group where she interviews literary agents, publishers, editors, etc. News! Shalla DeGuzman gets nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize! Plus! SHALLA Magazine, which features short stories, poetry and more, is here! For more on Shalla: www.shalladeguzman.com

 

 

 

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