Lida Quillen’s Twilight Times Books: Bridging the gap between E and P
Lida E. Quillen runs Twilight Times Books, a small house built around a mix of both e-books and paper books in such genres as sci-fi, as well as literary fiction and nonfiction.
Some ten miles by road from Kingsport (“a very peaceful drive through the rolling hills of East Tennessee with horses and Black Angus cows grazing in pastures along the wayâ€), Lida isn’t just following the crowd.
Although she started in E, most of her revenue is actually from paper books, and Twilight Times’ p-books are printed traditionally, not via print on demand.
Even so, the quality gap is closing, and Lida signed up with Lightning Source just last week—I interviewed her earlier. She plans to test-market several back titles for her Paladin Timeless Books imprint through LS’s POD program.
Must-read for small e-publishers interested in P
Lida is a regular on the eBook Community list and recently pointed members to her informative research on other small e-publishers’ use of P. I highly recommend this Gather article.
Meanwhile, edited, here’s the interview with Lida, a longer version of a similar one I did for Publishersweekly.com.
Q. How many small e-publishers are also doing P in any form?
A. From a recent survey, it appears about 90 percent of e-publishers are also doing print. As an example of an e-book-only publisher, Belgrave House is currently acquiring previously (paper) published fiction to offer as e-books.
Q. When you started in E, did you aspire toward P? Any idea you’d even be doing some hardbacks?
A. I was perfectly happy as an e-publisher. I was publishing well-written, interesting books in a variety of genres from talented authors. But I realized to maintain the quality of the submissions I wanted, I needed to offer print versions. My e-book authors were clamoring to see their books in print. Regarding hardbacks, as recently as mid-2006 I had no notion I would ever handle hardcover.
Q. What determines the format(s) of the books you accept? Is it just sales potential alone, with E offering a smaller risk? Are all books in P these days other than the original E-only books pre-2004? All new books?
A couple of books I recently published each had over 500 hot links–Purple Snowflake Marketing and The Power of Promotional Groups–so it made sense to go e-book-only with these two books. I started publishing our titles in e-book format first in order to garner review blurbs to use on the back of the trade paperback books and to add an extra edit prior to going to print. These days I am moving toward publishing e-book and print simultaneously since several of our titles have won awards. For some awards, publishing in e-book format first prevents the book from being eligible.
Q. 2004–that was the first year you did P, right? You went from 0 to 21 trade paperback titles that year? Why such a big push at once?
A. I had a backlist of books that the authors were anxious to see in print. I had also lined up a national distributor who carried all 21 titles. I was able to keep up with production, just barely, but I was not able to properly market each and every book. So I have slowed down to 12-15 print books per year since then.
Q. Are there any books in P only?
A. Yes, I have several books that are print only because the e-rights are with another publisher, For example, Darrell Bain published several of his titles with Double Dragon Publishing as e-books and offered me print rights. I am a huge fan of Darrell’s works so naturally I snapped them up.
Q. Did you do POD at all? If so, what caused you to give it up? Quality complaints?
A. Before I went to print I paid attention to the complaints on the publisher forums and email lists. In 2003-2004, e-publishers were complaining that they could not get their POD books reviewed by the major pre-publication reviewers, could not get their POD books stocked in bookstores, etc. So no, I never used POD at all…
I’ve been keeping tabs, thinking I may yet find a use for POD/PQNÂ printing at some point in time. Printing in small quantities makes perfect business sense for a small publisher, lower up-front print costs, less money tied up in inventory, etc.
Q. When should a small E publisher considering doing hardback for a book rather than simply trade paperback? Is it the reviewer factor?
A. Because the book deserves it. The New Bedford Samurai by Anca Vlasopolos is an exceptional novel that has been submitted for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation Award for fiction as well as the Kiriyama Prize in fiction.
Q. How much more expensive is a typical P book to do than an E alone in terms of total costs?
A. A typical ebook might have production costs of up to $1000.00 for editing, artwork and formatting. A typical print book might have production costs of $3000.00 to $8000.00 for editing, artwork, marketing, publicity, print costs and inventory maintenance costs.
Q. If you weren’t doing P, would you still be in business?
A. In all probability I would not have been able to maintain the quality of books I currently produce. Most of our authors would have gone to a publisher who could bring out their books in print. So no, most likely I would not be in business today if I had not gone to print.
Q. Tips for small E publishers aiming to do P? What mistakes to avoid? How to select printer? Any diff between criteria for trade paperback and hardback printers?
A. My best advice to someone starting out is to join various publisher forums. Some folks have saved thousands of dollars by asking questions on the lists. There are any number of publishing professionals who freely offer tips and specific advice.
http://www.publish-l.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Self-Publishing/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smallpub-civil/
The publisher forums would also be useful for recommendations regarding printers who do quality work at a reasonable price. Fewer printers are doing hardcover. Earlier this year, I sent out request for quotes to a number of printers and three months later, four of them no longer handled hardcover. Also, check out the recommended reading list on my resource web page for small press publishers. Buy and read three or four books about the business of publishing. These days a new publisher is better off if they can find a niche in non-fiction – cookbooks, regional travel books, self-help books, etc. and then slowly branch out. It is very difficult for a new publisher to get bookstores or even distributors interested in carrying fiction books. Keep your standards high from inception - the best manuscripts, the best cover art, the best editors, etc. that you can afford. The best marketing tool is to simply have a great book.
Q. How much help do you have?
A. I’ve been very fortunate in attracting a number of creative people over the years. I work closely with a variety of freelancers such as artists, book cover designers, editors, copy editors, technical editors and publicists. Dr. Bob Rich, Michael LaRocca and Leslie Holman-Anderson are exceptional editors. Dr. Bob Rich can take a good book and turn it into a great one. Rick Lieder, Ardy Scott, Judith Huey, Kurt Ozinga and Bryan Shackelford are very talented artists. Rick’s art has appeared on award-winning novels and Judith’s paintings currently hang in museums and art galleries. Many e-publishers pay their editors and artists a percentage when the ebooks/paperbacks they worked on are sold. I make modest payments to our freelancers, but I do pay up front.
Q. Have fun and provide me with a little color. Help me set a scene.
A. A typical day starts out at 8:00 AM. I am on the computer in my home office answering email, coordinating the various stages of the production process, assigning cover artwork to an artist who can best convey a sense of the story, matching a qualified editor to a particular manuscript, putting the finishing touches on the In-Design files that will be uploaded via FTP to the printer, etc. The workflow is handled electronically, for the most part.
By now, it is 3 p.m. and the FedEx driver has delivered cartons of books to my car port and the UPS driver has left cartons on the front porch. With several hundred books in the house, the new books will need to go to a temperature and humidity controlled storage area off-site. I fulfill the orders that have come in via phone, email or fax, then load the cartons of books in my truck and drive ten miles into Kingsport. A quick visit to the post office and/or the UPS office and the orders are on their way.
The cartons of books are tucked away at the storage unit and I head back home. I live in the country so it is a very peaceful drive through the rolling hills of East Tennessee with horses and Black Angus cows grazing in pastures along the way. The leaves are turning color this time of year. There’s also wildlife in the area. At dusk, three or four deer graze on clover about 25 yards away in a meadow. Just after dark, a possum and then later, a skunk eat what is left in the cat’s food bowl on the car port every night.
After supper I typically work on the computer until 1 a.m. or so then fall into bed and dream of books.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Writer forgot to say that Lida’s authors are always pleased if she accepts their next book also. I’m always pleased to recommend her to a good author whose work I’ve read and think might be a good match.
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:44 am
Lida is not my only publisher, but she is a great one. I was a fan of Twilight Times publishing before I became one of her authors, and am proud to be amoung all of her talented writers.
January 23rd, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I, too, am a fan of Twilight Times Books. I have been honored to provide her with cover art from time to time. She is very good to work with. I was more than pleased to see this write up on her and her work. Congrats!