If you have been following this blog, you know that I am proud to be part of two nurturing and wonderful publishing families. Astraea Press is the home for my award-winning book Spellbound, as well as Ghostly and Everspell. The owner, Stephanie Taylor, was the first person to accept my manuscript and the first person to tell me I could write, at a time when not much else was going well in my life. I am indebted to her in more ways than she can ever know.
I am honored to be in her stable of authors, talented, kind and warm, all of them. Her support for projects I have that don't fit the Astraea Press vision never wavers, even if she isn't publishing them. She is just as big a cheerleader for my horror and edgier works as she is for those that her house welcomes. I am thrilled she answered my inquiry about blogging for me. I think Astraea Press is an amazing place to be, run by an amazing woman and I am excited to introduce you to her. So, friends, readers, aspiring writers, authors, and followers, please meet my publisher and my friend, Stephanie Taylor.
A Dare
by Stephanie Taylor
www.astraeapress.com
Astraea began after I edited for five epublishing houses and
became good friends with several of the owners from those houses. And I won’t lie. Astraea germinated because my husband and I
weren’t as financially secure as we wanted to be. I didn’t know what to do, but writing had
always been my passion. Thanks to some
wonderful people who offered to help me get started in epublishing, Astraea was
officially born in December of 2010.
In a word, I was SICK of editing erotica. I was sick of
having to edit this stuff and pretend I was okay with it. That it was considered literature. I know that might ruffle some feathers but I’m just
being honest. Erotica isn’t for me and I
don’t feel like it’s something I could have laying around in the house and let
my children see. As I researched, I
realized there was a need for “sweet” publishers without the pink parts or the
cursing. I wanted to be the Disney of
ebooks. Still enjoy the adult
relationships, but enjoy them without lying next to them in bed as they get
naked. Have covers that you don’t care
for your kids to see lying around. Or even
have them READ.
There was two other companies that published strictly
sweets, Desert Breeze Publishing and Vinspire Publishing. I had the privilege to meet the owner of
Desert Breeze RT this year and she’s one amazing gal. The Vinspire owner has
become a close friend of mine, too. In
the coming years, I want us to ALL succeed.
There’s room for all of us in the industry. I don’t want to be one of those owners who
thinks my company is the only company doing anything right, or the only one
putting out good books. In fact, since
opening AP, I’ve discovered a HUGE amount of people who feel the same way I do
and there’s a massive market for the types of books we produce. And readers are voracious. They want a good book, not a certain
publisher. Check out the other two
companies as well!
AP launched our first titles on February 1, 2011. We contracted our first book in 2010 as well,
and I’ll forever remember thinking, “I’m going to do this. I’m really going to do this.” And you know
what? We did. Not me. WE.
As the months passed by, AP was noticed. And we grew.
By the end of 2011, we were a profitable company, owing no one and our
editing staff grew, and we had our first USA Today bestselling author, Rachel
Van Dyken. I was also fortunate enough
to have a few editors work for free in the beginning and a cover artist who
worked like dog and allowed me to pay her as I could. As a result, I put very little capital into
my company, which helped the financial side of things tremendously when we were
profitable.
On February of 2012, we celebrated our one-year anniversary.
I had tons of people along the way tell me I was making a mistake. Ereading was a fad. Running a business was hard work and I
couldn’t pay attention to my family or homeschool the way I planned to. I even
lost a few friendships that were dear to me.
But still, I was determined to at least try. Shamefully, I had tried to go to realtor
school and flunked out, so I decided that wasn’t really my cup of tea. And if I failed at epublishing, then I would
have my answer on that, too. ;o)
2012 was a HUGE year for Astraea. We acquired an agent, Louise Fury with L.
Perkins Agency in New York and made a foreign rights deal and we also brought
much of our backlist into audio. Several
titles are under consideration at a huge movie production company and Astraea
named our first NY Times author, Rachel Van Dyken, and another USA Today
bestseller, Leah Sanders. Both are
extremely talented authors and worked so hard for the title they now have. I
can’t even begin to count all the #1 bestsellers we have now, either!
AP also attended its first conferences in 2012. We went to the RT convention, RomCon, and a
Michigan conference. The coming year has
even more in store and we look forward to meeting more authors who want to
write sweet books and publish sweet romance without sacrificing sensuality or
personal morals. It CAN be done and
anyone who tells me it can’t hasn’t tried hard enough.
So I challenge all of you, whether you're a reader or a
writer, take a chance on sweet books.
TRY a sweet author or try your hand at writing one. The characters can still kiss, they can still
feel things, but we keep the actual deeds to the imagination. We also don’t allow anything in our books
that we wouldn’t want our children to do or say.
Do we want characters to have premarital sex and make it
look so wonderful that it might possibly encourage an impressionable teenager
or even an adult to do it, too? Nope.
Do we want to show that drinking can take away the stress of
a bad day? Nope.
Do we want to show that cursing is a good way to get a point
across and insult others? Uh, no.
However, do we want to show how wonderful a relationship can
be with the right person? Absolutely.
Do we want to prove to readers that sensuality doesn’t
always come in an erotic book? Sure.
Do we want to appeal to every audience out there? Uh, YES.
So as I always say, go ahead. Read or write a book for Astraea Press.
I dare you.
