This week Marketing with Mandy is spotlighting Samhain Publishing. Authors and editors will be joining us throughout the week. To start, Michelle M. Pillow and myself will kick it off.
How the heck do you pronounce Samhain? Funny “you” should ask. They have the answer all ready for us on their website.
Samhain — the Celtic New Year — signifies a new beginning, a rebirth. Now it also marks the launch of a new venture in the publishing world.
Pronounced sah-vin by the Scots, sow-in (sow like cow) by the Irish and sam-hine in English, Samhain is the Irish word for November and in November 2005 saw the opening of Samhain Publishing, Ltd. Founded with a goal of bringing to compulsive readers books that allow them to discover new worlds and be taken on adventures through the creative minds of today’s brightest authors.
Samhain has had a lot of great things happen and it’s only been open a little over a year. They’ve managed to obtain RWA recognition (not an easy task). They have many authors who write for NY also writing for them. The list goes on and I’m sure the web will be buzzing about just how much they have done VERY soon (UPDATE–Dear Author has a great post about it). I’d like to say that Samhain seems to be everywhere at conferences and I mean that in a good way. Where this time last year they were still relatively unheard of, they’ve been the “talk” of the circles I crossed paths with lately. Crissy puts herself and the company out there, attending RT, BEA, RWA and many others. From a marketing standpoint this is a great!
I was with them from the very beginning as one of their first four launch books. Loup Garou (my first title with them) was nominated for RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Paranormal Erotic 2006. I currently have five titles with them and more planned for the future.
From day one Crissy, who owns the company, has known where and what she wanted to do. She’s a seasoned vet in the industry and assembled a top notch team to help her carry out her goals.
Angela, my editor, came in with an open mind and a love of all genres. Her response time is the best of all the publishers I write for… meaning… I email her and hear back fairly quickly even though she’s always swamped. Angela never tampers with author voice or whatever the kids are calling it nowadays. She does however, help to make the story stronger (she cracks a mean whip). I’d also like to point out that Samhain, at least for me, has the smoothest process at each step of the writing game. Angela’s very open with her authors, giving us fair warning of when she’ll be reading manuscripts and the date we need to get them in by if we’d like them read in a timely manner. She doesn’t let the MS collect dust on her computer either. She evaluates the schedule (which is booked into 2008) gets her authors on there and from that point, goes through edits and all that jazz.
To view my other Samhain titles click here
Samhain has been a joy to write for. I released my first title with them just months after they opened the doors and have been extremely impressed with the quality of the books they’re putting out. I have four books out with them and hope to continue on with my Realm series. Like Mandy said, they have good response times and a smooth publishing process.
To view Michelle M. Pillow’s other Samhain titles click here
CONTEST: Monday-Friday of this week– anyone who comments on ANY of the posts for Marketing with Mandy’s Samhain Publisher Spotlight (going on all week long) will be entered to win a download of their choice from Mandy’s Samhain backlist and Michelle’s Samhain backlist. (There will be two winners, each selecting one download) To enter: Comment on the blog this week! The more you enter, the more chances you have to win. Winners will be selected on Saturday and announced on the blog.
