Serena: The first thing I'd like to ask you is, what is Scheherazade Tales Publishing's goal in this varied marketplace? What makes you different from the rest of the e-publishing companies out there?
Deborah: How do I answer this without sounding critical of other epublishers?
The truth is that, considering a wide cross-section of what e-publishers are issuing, there is as much variety in quality as there is in quantity. Scheherazade Tales publishes only the very best romance stories we can find, at a highly competitive price and of higher than average quality.
Our acceptance rate is roughly about one in thirty. Our ebooks undergo rigorous editing and quality control procedures to insure that customers are getting nothing but the best. We believe that in today's romance ebook marketplace, those are the factors which will make Scheherazade Tales a cut above the rest. We hope to entice and encourage paperback romance readers to finally try an ebook and realize that yes, there are some epublishers who value quality over quantity.
Serena: How did you come up with your name?
Deborah: Scheherazade (shuh-hair-uh-zahd) was the fictional talespinner of the "1001 Arabian Nights." According to the legend, a king of old Persia became embittered toward women because of his wife's infidelity. To prevent ever being cuckolded again, the king executed his unfaithful wife, and then took a new wife to bed each night, only to have her beheaded the following morning. Night after night, this went on.
Determined to put a stop to this barbaric practice, a lovely young woman named Scheherazade bravely offered herself as bride to the king. On the wedding night, she began to tell a story that enchanted the king. As dawn approached, and with it her imminent death, she stopped her story at a crucial point. The king, eager to hear the conclusion, delayed her execution for another day.
On the second night, Scheherazade continued her story and then launched into another, again stopping at a crucial point as dawn approached. And again the king delayed her execution, in order to hear the conclusion of the entertaining tale that his talented new bride was spinning. And so it went, each night for a thousand and one nights...
I hit upon the name Scheherazade Tales because of the implication and possibility of an endless stream of top-notch, entertaining stories, all different, all with unique author voices, and all absolutely unforgettable.
Serena: Could you please tell us how Scheherazade Tales came to be? Who is involved with the day to day running of the company and how did they become part of the group?
Deborah: I had previously published a historical romance with another small publisher, in both ebook and trade paperback formats, and NATCHEZ (written under my pen name of Deb Crockett) stayed with that publisher for nearly four years. I asked for, and was granted, the rights to NATCHEZ to be reverted to me. It had been my intention to write a sequel to NATCHEZ, and perhaps attempt to interest a hardback publisher in the complete package. (I still may do that in the future.)
But in the meantime, I realized that I was missing promotion opportunities by not offering NATCHEZ as an ebook. That's when I got the idea of starting my own electronic publishing company, and to offer other writers the same opportunity of getting their wonderful stories out there in the hands of readers and actually being read, instead of taking up room on their hard drives or collecting dust in closets. Although we have a few invaluable behind the scenes helpers, I am the Managing Editor and make all editorial and business decisions.
Serena: Why did you choose e-publishing versus conventional publishing?
Deborah: To be honest, I had become less and less enamored of the print publishing world. Unless you are Nora Roberts or Danielle Steele or (insert the name of your own favorite bestselling author), the truth is that you struggle to make a living in the world of publishing. You commit days, months, years to the goal of being accepted by one of the major romance houses. You get that long-coveted contract--then you wait another year to eighteen months for your "baby" to actually be presented to the public. What a proud moment!...which lasts about a month, give or take a week or two. Then the process starts all over again. By the time you've actually generated some word-of-mouth advertising and good promotion for your book, it is no longer available.
Electronic publishing has changed all that. An ebook can be around virtually forever. As a writer, you keep writing. But now you're looking at mere months or even weeks until your next novel reaches its intended public. You've benefited from name recognition in the meantime, and your backlist is much easier for a new-found fan to glom! The drawbacks of ebooks and e-publishing are that the format is limited to a computer file, and (barring printing it out yourself) can only be read on a computer device. Despite the figures that would lead you to think that everyone in the whole world is on the Internet, this just isn't true.
So your marketing efforts, by necessity, are pretty much limited to the techno-savvy romance reader who is not afraid of new technology in order to find those rare gems of stories that the major print pubs won't touch. Ebooks are still in their infancy, despite being around for years now, and it will be a few more years, unfortunately, before a universal electronic book reader device is made affordable and available to everyone all over the world. That's the day I look forward to--because Scheherazade Tales will be established as a trusted provider of quality romance ebooks. And rather than have a print book out for only a month or so, e-authors have their work available indefinitely.
Serena: How long has Scheherazade Tales been in business and do you publish only a specific type of book?
Deborah: Scheherazade Tales officially launched October 1, 2002. We publish only romance, and only top-notch quality stories. But there is no limit on the type or sub-genre of romance--we'll look at any story that tells a gripping, emotional romance tale with characters that live long in your imagination.
Serena: What do you look for in a submission? A certain level of intimacy? A specific sub-genre?
Deborah: We want only novel-length (minimum 50,000 words) finished manuscripts.
Sensuality and intimacy can run the gamut from sweet to steamy, but no erotica.
Apart from the basic elements of good grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.--apart from a writer having achieved a certain level of proficiency with the basics of writing, and fiction writing in particular--apart from all this, I look for a distinctive voice, a style, a spark of creative difference. You know the little word tiles that stick to your refrigerator and you can jumble them around and make different sentences? It's a little like that--some folks just have a knack for stringing words together in pleasing, sometimes startling, but always interesting ways.
These are the writers who grab your interest and keep you reading line after line, page after page, book after book. They engage your emotions, your intellect--they draw you into their story and don't let go until they've told the tale that they set out to tell. They entertain! I look for freshness, not an affected or adopted style--when a writer learns to trust her own inner voice and just let those words flow, that is when the magic begins.
Serena: Are you currently looking for submissions? Could you take us through the process? What's an average turn around time on replies? Publishing rate? Royalties?
Deborah: We are always open for submissions. We never turn down the opportunity to discover another talented writer. If we find a story that we think fits our standard of quality and will satisfy our discerning readers, we'll contract for it. Since we do not accept everything that is submitted, we do not schedule releases in a timed and steady flow; rather, we release them as we find them.
Response time generally is about two weeks. Submissions always receive a response of safe arrival, just to let the author know we did get it. After a couple of weeks without hearing from us, feel free to drop us a reminder email (emails do occasionally go astray!).
Once a manuscript has been contracted, release date depends entirely upon how much editing and/or revision needs to be done. Normally, on average, I'd say around two months from acceptance to publication. The writer has done her work--now it's time for the editor\publisher to go to work. There is a lot that goes on behind-the-scenes that most writers never guess at. If your manuscript is accepted as a Scheherazade Tale, you can bet it will undergo rigorous editing. We don't publish sub-standard stories!
Our contract is online and can be read at any time, so an author knows exactly what she's getting into. We ask only for exclusive electronic publishing rights--exclusive meaning that one cannot go to another epub while contracted with Scheherazade Tales--but print and all other rights remain with the author. If the author manages to secure interest in a work from a print publisher, she is free to pursue that. Our contract can be terminated with 90-days' written notice of intent to terminate. Royalty rate is 50% of gross revenue from sales made directly from our website, and 50% of net revenue received from sales at third-party vendors (such as Fictionwise, where you may find all of our ebooks).
Serena: Who are some of your authors and what do they write?
Deborah: Our authors consistently garner both reader and reviewer awards. Sally Sorenson won the 2005 Eppie for Best Contemporary Romance of the Year for ALL'S FAIRE. We've just added multi-print published author Beth Henderson to our stable of authors. Beth realizes the future potential of ebooks and wants to be part of that.
Serena: What are some of Scheherazade Tales' new releases?
Deborah: Beth Henderson's MR. FAR FROM PERFECT is a charming contemporary story of second chances. In the coming months we'll have another rollicking Christmas tale similar to YULE BE MINE, as well as an entertaining yet poignant New Year's story. If you're a baseball fan, watch for TWENTY HOURS IN BOSTON coming very soon, about the extraordinary chance meeting of two Boston Red Sox fans. And more delightful romantic tales coming from both new authors and old favorites!
Serena: Do you have any personal favorites?
Deborah: That's like asking a mother which child is her favorite. I love them all! If you'd like to know what I'd personally love to see as far as new submissions, I'm a big Regency and historical fan. I'm also a fan of cozy mysteries and thrill-a-minute suspense, of sweet Mills & Boon-type contemporaries as well as glitzy mainstream women's romance. Scheherazade Tales aims to present only the best romance ebooks, and thus continue to earn our readers' trust that we will always issue only quality reads.
Serena: Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Deborah: I hope that an affordable universal ebook reading device becomes available on the market very soon. When that happens, ebooks will finally be in a position to achieve their potential. Scheherazade Tales will hopefully still be around, bigger and better, with a stable of terrifically talented authors and a virtual shelf of fabulously entertaining tales of passion, romance and adventure. Our loyal customer base of discriminating romance ebook readers trust us to provide nothing but top-notch quality reading material. We won't let them down!
Regards,
Deborah Anderson
Managing Editor
editor@scheherazadetales.com
