As we slow things down for
Thanksgiving week I want to express my appreciation for some of the people that keep
our business moving forward and growing. This is what we at Intrigue Publishing are truly thankful for.
Our talented authors: Let’s face
it, nothing happens until someone writes a great book. We read a lot of
manuscripts and we never publish a book we just like or think is good. We have
to be excited about that story, those characters and the prose style that
brings it all together. Not every book we’ve published has become a big seller,
but that hasn’t stopped us from loving every one. We have been privileged to
read so many great books created by so many hugely talented writers.
A spectacular editor: Almost
every book we’ve published has been touched by Melanie Rigney, a fine writer
herself who brings a lot more than a finely honed sense of what makes a good
and commercial novel. Melanie has a way of making a writer understand that she
loves their book almost as much as they do, even as she explains in clear plain
language how to make that good book into a great one. Several authors have
thanked us for having Melanie help them refine both their book and their
ability to write.
An amazing proofreader: commas go
inside the quotation marks, a character’s hair should stay the same color
throughout the book, and the Marine Corps emblem has a fouled anchor, not a
fowled anchor (yep, that one was me.) Cynthia Lauth has one of the sharpest
eyes in the business and she has saved us from uncounted moments of
embarrassment. If you see a mistake in one of our books it is sure because for some reason we chose to ignore her input.
Phenomenal cover artists: No
matter how great a book is, no one is going to pick it up to look inside unless
the cover grabs them. Like any publisher we’ve made the occasional false start
but in the end we’ve ended up with some incredibly good book covers – the kind
other authors compliment us on. In particular Paul at Iconix has helped to
create our thriller brand (check the new covers of the Stark & Obrien
series) and Ryan Anderson (Look at the replacement cover of our new romance
title THE INHERITANCE) knows how to make readers want to check a story out.
Both these talents are able to create commercial work that doesn’t look like
everyone else’s. We are so grateful to have found them.
A fabulous distributor: It took us three years to establish ourselves
well enough to be accepted by a national book distributor and how lucky we are
that we found Small Press United (SPU) This subsidiary of the Independent
Publishers Group (IPG) does more
than push our books into bookstores across the continent. We have learned so
much from their connections with the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), the publishing industry's leading
educational organization. And their sales force has offered valuable feedback
about how titles, cover art and other factors impact their ability to place our
books in stores. They are in large part the reason three of our titles are on IPG's bestseller lists this week. Like the people listed above, SPU is a valued partner that
helps us move from success to success.
