Are you ready to play with the big boys? Well, the reality is that in this day and age it’s practically impossible to get your foot in the door of a big publishing house. Sure, you can send out query letters by the zillions, complete with the obsessively edited “first 10” pages, a list of your sparkling bona fides, and so on until you are blue in the face, but the fact remains that, especially nowadays, you pretty much have to be rich, famous, or a serial killer to be published by a big name imprint. Steal a billion bucks from widows and orphans, and the big boys will be all over you like a cheap suit. Write a terrific memoir about growing up in Appalachia, and you’re on your own.
So, are you going to let that stop you? Are you going to bang your head against a brick wall for eight months? Are you going to sit on your hands and let your book languish in your sock drawer?
No! No, you’re not!
At Orange Blossom Publishing we work solely on word-of-mouth referrals. Our authors come back to us time and time again. Why is that? There are a couple of reasons.
First off, as a small publishing house, we only publish books we want to read. Boring books, books of little or no value, books that are like biting on a piece of tinfoil…no thanks! Each author and each manuscript we accept receive careful feedback and constructive suggestions—we become part of your team.
Once you are happy with the content, we edit your book to a fare-thee-well, making sure that everything is perfect. Perfect. And perfection extends to the look and feel of both the inside and the outside, because we’ll collaborate with you to create a superior book cover.
Inside, outside, and everywhere in between, your book will be a book we’ll both be proud of. Your book will be a book we’ll enter in contests and submit for awards. Your book will be a beautiful book.
The second reason authors publish with us two times, three times, is that we’re all about marketing. You know, that place where the rubber meets the road.
What? Not sure about marketing? Well, it is a noisy world out there. If you are a proactive, hands-on author, we’ll show you exactly how to develop a strategic approach to marketing your book, and you’ll have fun doing it! We’ll help you market your book; we’ll put together your website if you want one; we’ll show you how to keep your books (the bookkeeping books); hey, we’ll even coach you on public speaking. Bottom line: Whatever you need to get your beautiful book into the hands of enthusiastic readers, we’ll be there for you.
Does this sound like work? You bet it does! But since when has “work” been a four-letter word? Being an author is a whole bunch of work, and anybody who tells you different is lying like a snake. However, and speaking of snakes, seeing a line of people snaking out the door just waiting for you to autograph your book is one of the best feelings in the world. Hearing enthusiastic applause after you present a program based on your book is just about the best feeling in the world. In fact, being an author who is out there actively marketing his or her book is just about the best feeling in the world!
Once you have a book or two (or three) under your belt, then you can—if you want to—circle back to the possibility of publishing with a big name house, and this time you’ll have a better chance to insert foot in door. Why? Because now you’ve got a body of work. Because now your books show your commitment to quality. Because now you can demonstrate to a big name publishing house that you’re a serious, committed author and not a dilettante; no, you’re a worker bee. Publishers love worker bees!
The main thing now is to get published. You have to get published. That’s the main thing. That’s the only thing. Publish.
More in-depth details about Orange Blossom Publishing are available on Our Process page.