Welcome to Monday everyone! Andrea here.
I know the Monday readers are expecting the social media link, and I see one is in que to post later today, don’t worry, I didn’t usurp the posting. I did however find something that I thought required some comment…
The coffee had not made its way to my hands yet as my fingers were evidently not quite fully awake this morning. I double keyed the directional to open the page, which resulted in getting a listing of items instead of coming straight to the website. I have never searched for questions or commentary about us I didn’t really think there would be any for us at such a young point in our development. Imagine my surprise to find a thread with five of them?!
There are some interesting questions and posts amid those five comments. I want to take just a moment to respond to them because the answers are either not clear, or not easily discernible. I hope this helps.
First and foremost, yes we are ‘legit’ and this IS the website that we have at this time. It is WordPress based, which for our size and situation is sufficient. It was partially noticed, but let me clarify…the blog posts are by the authors on their posting days about whatever they feel compelled to post about, not from the company as a publisher about publishing. It is certainly something we can add. As a house we are about the authors more than the business side. We like to think it sets us apart from the traditional world of publishing.
Eclectic Bard Books formal foundation and licensing date is December 19, 2013, a whirlwind 18 months ago. This site was launched earlier this year (January 2015) when we, the three original owners/authors, decided that it made more sense to work together and build one page than it did to struggle to maintain four. We’ve added two more authors since then and hopefully readers will start seeing their posts soon. For us, it is more important to get them on solid ground before we ask them to run. Please be patient and supportive of them and us as we are still building. This is the infancy of our journey.
No, you won’t find submission guidelines here. Eclectic Bard Books is a small indie press of indie authors. Each author on the label has a stake in the company and each other. We do not accept direct submissions by authors or agents. At conventions or pitch slams we may talk to authors who want to dive into this world, but we do so at points in time when those of us here are fully confident that we can help the new writer, not bring them on and leave them flat. It’s not who we are or how we work. Those interested in becoming part of Eclectic Bard should get to know our authors.
One of the comments was that we sound ‘fishy’ and suspicious, that an author got a contract for two books only days after sending her synopsis in. And, that she is listed as the editor for the house. One, wholly false. She got a contract after several weeks of me talking with her after another author on the label had spoken with her over MONTHS of time. That other author had worked with her elsewhere and recommended her quite highly. The timeliness of her synopsis had nothing to do with her getting a contract. Two, yes she is listed as an editor because she has in fact acted in an editing capacity for two of our authors and credit is/was due. It did not occur to me that some would see her listed as such and presume she was the house editor. She is not.
To the commenter about our ‘lackluster’ author listing not inspiring astounding confidence. I appreciate your opinion. I disagree. We’ll have to leave it at that.
The ‘incomplete’ roster/bios information is a sore spot for me as well that will once again come up to be dealt with. I happen to believe that people should be named even if you don’t have additional information to post. That there are names with nothing more was my call. When you are walking side by side with any of us, you are helping all of us at EBB.
Thank you for the outside observation to help make my point about getting stuff in to be posted. Perhaps this will be the catalyst to make it happen. Every person working for and with EBB has a full-time job somewhere else. We all know the traps of real life pulling us from this side of the adventure. I can only hope this will bump the bios up the priority chain.
Of the comments, the one that jumped out at me as genuinely bothersome was that both amazon book links generated a message of “page not found”. I will find out what that is about. I’m not clear on the ‘both’ part or why the links are not connecting. Thank you for pointing it out.
To the readers…Thank you for sticking with us. Please shout if you notice things like these listed above and are wondering. I happened to come across this thread by accident. We are small and young and one day we’ll look back and wonder how we pulled it all off, but we are, we will, and one day that will become we DID.
Stay tuned. We have THREE debut authors in back to back months getting ready to roll out. Viva Zapata & the Magic 8-Ball from Savannah Verte will hit August 1st with a debut signing at ARC in New Orleans. Ellie Mack’s Red Wine & Roses will hit September 19th with a debut signing at Kentuckiana in The Palace Theater in Louisville. And Jolanthe Aleksander’s debut Beyond the Veil of Whispered Dreams comes out October 10th with a debut signing at Great Lakes Book Bash in Kalamazoo. Mark your calendars.
To the authors of Eclectic Bard…I could not be more proud of the journey we are on and the growth each of you is reaching for daily. You are all top shelf in my book! Keep going, never quit.
I don’t know the author, and I’m now on a quest to find the full lyric, but it is something that my mother used to read to me. These are a couple of lines, that I’m likely to butcher here, but I think you’ll get the point.
Reach high, the finest things in life are on the topmost shelf.
We have to go beyond our limits, stretch our small self-centered selves.
Reach high, the finest things in life are on the topmost shelf,
BUT, not beyond our reach if we will reach beyond our self.
Thanks for the read! -Andrea
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