Tag Archives: publishing

Cirsova Publishing Terminating Relationship with Ingram Spark

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Cirsova Publishing is terminating its relationship with Ingram Spark effective December 9, 2021.

This comes after years of high damages, poor service, high fees, and other myriad issues.

We are adjusting our business model to accommodate this shift away from Ingram Spark.

This principally means that existing titles will be moved to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing service. We will rely more on Lulu for a wide range of products and services that KDP is incapable of delivering.

Most of our titles will remain available on Amazon. [note that none of our eBooks are currently affected by this change].

The following print titles will be going out of print and may no longer be available after December 9th, 2021:

“Going out of Print” does not necessarily mean “not available.” The remaining stock in the hands of retailers will remain available until it has been fully liquidated, however, retailers will no longer be able to place re-orders for these titles when they are out of stock.

*: Due to disambiguation issues with these titles as public domain works, these are constantly buried under other mercenary editions. Additionally, certain printing/trim issues that KDP has with these books that Ingram overlooked are treated as “blocking” issues. These may not be gone forever, but they will take some work to get reformatted, and it’s honestly not a top priority at the moment.

**: The paperback is probably going away forever, but there’s a chance we may release a new deluxe edition of the hardcover. I was honestly never very happy with the quality of the Ingram Spark version, so we may see what an improved Lulu version looks like.

***: Yeah, I know it’s not even out yet, but you’ll have all of November and then some of December to grab this! We may end up getting a Lulu pocketbook edition of it up at some point, but Lulu’s pocketbook trim size is marginally different from Ingram Spark’s so it will take some work. And honestly, pocketbooks are NOT economical for us and we will most likely not be offering them going forward.

****: We will make a Lulu version of this available before it goes out of print, but the hardcover with dust jacket as was received by backers of the Kickstarter will no longer be available after December 9th. The hardcover version available on Amazon will be replaced by a case-wrapped hardcover.

+: In all likelihood, gone and not coming back to Amazon. Ironically enough, according to Ingram, this should not have been allowed to be distributed in the first place. Their insistence that they would not distribute multiple formats of The Strange Recollections of Martha Klemm is a major reason for our break with them. This will be available in the future through Lulu, however.

++: The pocket book edition is going away on Amazon. It may end up on Lulu, but again, pocketbooks are not economical for us, so we’re not putting any energy into them going forward.

+++: This version of The Cosmic Courtship is being discontinued and, like The Paths of Cormanor, is being replaced by a casewrap edition. A dust-jacketed edition may come to Lulu in the future, but not to Amazon.

++++: The version on Amazon may be replaced by a case-wrapped edition. A dust-jacketed edition may come to Lulu in the future, but not to Amazon.

#: Duel Visions was falling out of the Cirsova catalog at the end of the year. Rather than create a stop-gap KDP version, we are simply allowing the print edition to lapse on December 9th when Ingram Spark closes our account. The eBook version will remain available through the end of the year.

Cirsova to Serialize Wild Stars 6: Orphan of the Shadowy Moons in 2022

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Cirsova Publishing has just acquired the serial rights to Michael Tierney’s Wild Stars 6: Orphan of the Shadowy Moons!

We will be serializing this story in 4 parts throughout 2022.

The origins of the Ancient Warrior will finally be revealed, as will the mystery of his obsession with Phaedra! Be looking forward to swashbuckling adventure and Jet-Ski Barbarians in this classic 70s Sword & Planet adventure that will be seeing the light of day for the first time next year!

Get caught up on the classic Wild Stars adventures all in one go with the Wild Stars Omnibus, and be sure to read Wild Stars 5: The Artomique Paradigm being serialized now in Cirsova! [Part 1 of 3 | Part 2 of 3].

Don’t forget! Cirsova’s reading period for 2022 will begin August 1st and run through August 7th.

Advanced Review of The Cosmic Courtship + Cirsova Publishing Featured in Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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The Pulp Archivist recently posted a fantastic review of Julian Hawthorne’s The Cosmic Courtship. We sent out a handful of ARCs to assorted pulp scholars and historians, and Nathan’s one of the first who has his thoughts up. We also had the privilege of speaking with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about project; they did a write-up for the Sunday edition [alas, bumped back a week by the editor and so unable to run before pre-orders closed!]

I really hope that in the future we’ll see even more discussion on the younger Hawthorne and his works. Since embarking on this project, I’ve had the pleasure to read quite a handful of his writings: The Golden Fleece, Six Cent Sam’s, The Cosmic Courtship, Absolute Evil, A Goth From Boston, and Sara Was Judith, and I can’t help but feel like we’ve stumbled upon a forgotten but significant missing link in the history of early Weird Fiction. Julian bridges the gap between the high gothic era, writing throughout the gilded age, and the early golden age of pulps.

Just how influential was he on early writers of Weird Fiction? How influential were other early writers of Weird Fiction on him? In his final novel from 1920, he describes a cult of lads at Harvard who refer to themselves as “Dagons” and proceeds with a litany of old and exotic tomes kept on their shelves in what most would immediately recognize and refer to as “Lovecraftian” in manner and style. Hawthorne had a keen interest in the metaphysical and where it clashed with rapidly advancing sciences and medicines–the very core, some scholars would say, of Lovecraft’s brand of cosmic horror.

Right now, it would be very difficult to say or do more than just speculate on his significance. What we do know is that he was incredibly prolific and at one time fairly well-regarded. Indeed, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is on record stating his preference for Julian over Nathaniel. While we can’t really make any broad declarations as to his significance or lasting influences, I do believe that this project and our next one going forward will have laid the foundations to re-evaluate the significance of Julian Hawthorne’s writing and influence in our contemporary context.

We aim to have The Cosmic Courtship out the door by August at the latest. Retailers should have them before the end of the year. If you’re looking for other ways to support Cirsova publishing, look no further than Amazon, where you’ll be able to find all of our titles just by searching for “Cirsova.”

A Cirsovanomics Lesson: AmazonKDP Vs. IngramSpark

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Here are some numbers the indies & selfpubbers who follow us might find interesting…

IngramSpark charges 3.85 per unit for the Summer Special + their BS $1.99 handling fee on top of any orders.

30% retailer discount [minimum allowable] off 14.99 SRP gives me $6.64 compensation per unit sold.

On the other hand, Amazon KDP charges 2.57 per unit.

The 60% of the cut I get at $14.99 is only 6.43, but:
  • -I can order copies without a BS $1.99 S&H fee per order on top of already outrageous shipping costs
  • -Amazon has cheaper shipping with tracking and delivery guarantees + international
Confession:

The reason we wait until after the release date to send gratis copies of Cirsova to contributors who do not put in an order for additional copies is that what costs <$7 to fulfill through Amazon with tracking costs ~$11 to fulfill through IngramSpark without tracking.

Plus Amazon has cheaper, more reliable international shipping than IngramSpark.

So across about a dozen contributors per issue with several issues, it saves us a few hundred dollars per year to wait until we can fulfill gratis copies through Amazon instead of using IngramSpark.

The ability to fulfill directly and affordably through AmazonKDP prior to an Amazon go-live date would mean we could sell subscriptions through crowdfunding once again, which would be hugely beneficial.

The buried lede in this post:

The break-even on something like the Cirsova Summer Special is ~300 sold

  • Content: $1150
  • Art: $500
  • Editing: $200
  • Gratis copies: ~$100

So please buy a copy!

Summer Special 2 2020 cover 0.03 Front Only

Some Thoughts on Retail-Markdowns, Wholesale Rates, Returnability and Comics

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The other day, after talking with Michael Tierney about getting into stores as indies, I found myself thinking about my own experience experimenting with “cheap” and returnable product and the Alterna Comics experiment.

These days, I always recommend writers publishing books minimize the retailer markdowns and avoid returnability.

You can set your book at 55% or 30%.

I tell people “Always mark down for as little as you can and still be available for purchase on platforms that people buy books.” Anything else is just handing money to the platform selling your book, and you don’t actually increase orders or sales, because all stores order and stock to market. If you’re returnable, you risk losing your shirt if your books don’t sell and get stripped.

With Alterna Comics, the gimmick, we’ll call it, was that they are incredibly cheap to produce [Alterna prints on newsprint], so they could be offered to retailers at incredibly cheap rates [their SRP is $1.50; wholesale is probably 50 cents]. The problem is, retailers order and stock to market.

Just like Barnes & Noble isn’t going to see that your book is 55% off wholesale or more and say “we’ll order a ton of these and push them because we can order them cheaply!”, comic retailers aren’t going to order a ton of issues to stock just because the SRP is low and it’s “low risk”.

For independent comics, just like independent books, you’re largely looking at a market that serves existing fan niches. Copies are fulfilled when people who want to buy them ask for them to buy, whether it’s through Amazon or through a LCS retailer.

Even shops that go heavy on indies might buy one of any title just to check it out, whether it’s a $1.50 book or a $5 book. But they’ll order as many as people ask for. Just like if my book is only 30% off, Amazon will still order as many as people pre-order.

So, the solution is not to minimize unit costs in ways that appeal to retailers, but to effectively market your product to readers so that they’ll demand it from platforms. And if there’s demand on the platforms, you can charge a reasonable rate that will make you money.

I’d be remiss to leave out at the end of this that the new Cirsova is out through Amazon this week! [Both in softcover and eBook]

Summer Special 2 2020 cover 0.03 Front Only

 

 

On With Silver Empire, Talking About Indie Publishing

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It’s been a bit since this went live, and quite a bit since this was recorded, but I was on with Russell and Morgan Newquist of Silver Empire Publishing and author William Joseph Roberts talking about some dos and don’t in publishing, what has worked and what hasn’t, etc. It was a lot of fun. Check it out!

 

 

And don’t forget!  Back Mongoose and Meerkat today. We’ve still got some big tier rewards left. Get a piece of original artwork, or be written into the story.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cirsova/mongoose-and-meerkat-volume-1

Summer Special Advertisements Available!

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The Summer Special will be upon us soon [slated for May 23rd]!

We need to fill advertising slots ASAP! Our rates are here.

[Note that the back cover ad slot is already taken for this issue!]

This is a particularly good deal for editors, artists, designers and other freelancers to find clients who may be looking for work from indie authors.

Summer Special 2 2020 cover 0.03 Front Only

 

Tales of the Mongoose and Meerkat Volume 1: Pursuit Without Asking

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2020 is the Year of Mongoose at Cirsova Publishing!

We are incredibly thrilled to announce that Cirsova Publishing will be releasing Jim Breyfogle’s Tales of the Mongoose and Meerkat Volume 1: Pursuit Without Asking.

We will be taking pre-orders via Kickstarter beginning April 1st!

6 x 9 cover

This anthology collects the first five Mongoose and Meerkat adventures published in Cirsova Magazine, including:

  • The Battlefield of Keres – An ill-conceived bet brings Mangos and his new companion Kat to a vast no man’s land full of relics and magical anomalies in search of a fabled helm!
  • Brandy and Dye – High atop rock spires, above the breeze from the Devil’s Arse, men toil to collect the valuable guano of the Minix bird for Royal Dye, but when the production is threatened by distillers at dizzying heights, the dyers hire Mangos & Kat to bust a few heads!
  • The Sword of the Mongoose – When a shady merchant loses a bet with Mangos, he has nothing to pay with but the story of where a masterwork blade may be found! Can Mangos reach his prize before other treasure hunters?
  • The Valley of Terzol – Kat and Mangos are hired to accompany an adventurer to the ruins of Terzol in search of a lost delivery: a thousand-year-old receipt offers a clue to either fabulous rewards or certain death!
  • The Burning Fish – Seeking out the fabled Burning Fish for a client, Mangos and Kat instead find a strange cult devoted to keeping a simple life and protecting the secret of the fish at any cost!

As a bonus, this collection will feature Deathwater, a never before published original novelette!

This volume will be illustrated by the incredibly talented Chelsea, aka DarkFilly!

Also, don’t forget — our Spring issue, out March 13th, features an all new adventure from Jim Breyfogle, The Golden Pearl, and we’ll be running The Hunt of the Mine Worm later this year.

2-3 Spring Cover 0.03 Front Cover Only JPG

Cirsova Spring 2020 Issue Available for Print Pre-Order!

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Our latest issue is now available for print pre-order on Amazon!

This is an all-star issue you won’t want to miss!

2-3 Spring Cover 0.03 Front Cover Only JPG

Alpdruck! by Michael Reyes

Clock has been dispatched to the private hell of a powerful demon–and only a being of true evil on its own path towards redemption can aid him in this deadly fight!

Pour Down Like Silver, by Cynthia Ward

Banished for refusing to follow her order-pair into death, Rhesanna seeks the Tower of Ancient Time to free her comrade’s soul from the demon they failed to slay!

Lest Darkness Wreck the Stars, by Robert Zoltan

When Dareon and Blue uncover a mysterious gemstone in the wastes, a strange violet star appears in the sky and visions of a lovely woman invade Dareon’s dreams!

The Golden Pearl, by Jim Breyfogle

After a harrowing experience in their search for Burning Fish, Kat and Mangos are determined to never be poisoned again–could a Golden Pearl be the answer?!

Slave Girls for Sacrifice, by D.M. Ritzlin

A powerful sorceress with a bestial lover requires a blood sacrifice to complete her vile rites… Will Avok’s brawn and bag of tricks be enough to stop the witch?!

Praying to Thasaidon, by Tais Teng

No one prays to the Charnel God–but when a necromancer comes to collect on a family’s debts, there may be nowhere and no one to turn to but a god of death!

Adeste, Fideles, by G. Scott Huggins

Long ago, the “Last Fleet” was sent to find a new world for Earth’s orphaned children! That expedition to the fringes of space had been thought lost… Until now!

Return of the Dark Brotherhood, by Adrian Cole

Aruul Voruum nears completion of his witchfinder training… but the remnants of Daras Vorta’s cult have worked their tendrils into the heart of Mars’s government!

Outside the Outside?, by J. Comer

A review of The Tingleverse and Feast of Legends

My Name is John Carter (Part 8), by James Hutchings

James Hutchings continues his longform poem…