Back in 2011, when I first searched for a home for my first book, Fated Mates, I researched many publishing companies. I submitted to four companies. Immediately, one sent me a rejection letter. They were the first company to go bankrupt. I know many of the authors who published books from them who never received their money or their book rights back. What a horrible situation! I dodged that bullet.
The second publisher made me go through numerous, and I do mean numerous rewrites. I thought for sure they would be contracting my story. Then all of a sudden, the editor that kept requesting the rewrites disappeared. So upon inquiring about my submission, I received a terse e-mail from another editor who didn't like my story at all. She didn't think the story was written well enough to "become part of their family." Within a year, this company too went out of business.
The third publisher, the mack daddy of all e-publishers at the time, no responded to my query. I actually was extremely disappointed with this because they were the company that first introduced me to erotic romance. I fell in love with it. When I sent them a letter withdrawing my story, I received a very nice e-mail from a "higher up" in the company express their sadness that they would not have the opportunity to possibly work with me. Not that I think my story was read, in actually it probably was in an editor's sludge pile somewhere but I thought it was very nice of them. Now this company is having major problems which saddens me greatly for the authors and what could have been.
The fourth publisher, the one who finally contracted my story and three subsequent stories closed their doors on September 1st. I'm luckier than most because my former publisher who is an author herself, reverted all of the publishing rights back to her authors. This shows great integrity that she thought of her authors first. She could have just folded up shop and left us all flapping in the breeze but she didn't!
So where does that leave a homeless author now? I could have submitted my stories to other publishers. But in all honesty, I'm a bit leery of publishing houses right now. I might not find another one who would give me back my rights to my books if they went out of business. The only viable option for me was to self-publish my books. Let's see where this roller coaster ride takes me.
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MRD
