Going in Circles

Photo by Ádám Berkecz on Unsplash

Are you a fan of spine-tingly thrillers? A lover of the paranormal? Or a fan of the paranormal who loves to read spine-tingly thrillers? Or a… well, you know. Believe me, if you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ll love Haunted in Paradise.

For a listing of all my books and published short stories, visit my website at www.susanerogers.com. There are links to stories and podcasts online for free, and to purchase any of my books or anthologies. You can also get to each book from my Amazon page. If you’d like a signed copy, my email is sneirish@gmail.com.

In my last post, where I wrote about the agents and publishers I queried for Haunted in Paradise, I noted that I didn’t send out any queries at all in 2022, even though I hadn’t signed a contract and the book wasn’t published yet. This was because of my interaction with one particular publisher and with my inexperience with the publishing world. I’m including what happened here, so other writers can be aware of this situation.

It happens, no matter how much you try to be prepared.

A friend emailed me about a publisher that was open for unagented submissions. I googled and found the website. TouchPoint Press was an independent, traditional publisher in Arkansas, open to all genres. They published a lot of books each year, by a number of different authors, all listed on their site. I wasn’t impressed with the covers, which looked basic and generic, but I could provide a cover of my own. There was no information on the site about royalty payments or contract provisions.

I put my query together based on their submission guidelines and sent it in on 9/17/21.

Three days later, I had an answer from their acquisitions team. The query looked interesting to them and they requested the full manuscript.

To say I was jumping for joy is an understatement.

But at the same time, I tried to be very objective and realistic. I sent a response to them right away with a list of questions before I gave them my manuscript:

1. Will an editor be assigned to work with me on revisions and/or edits?

2. Will I be included on decisions related to cover design, formatting, etc.?

3. In general, what are the terms of your contract, and specifically with regards to royalties? I did not see anything other than a general statement on the website related to this.

4. Do you have a general marketing plan outline? What are some of the marketing strategies that you offer? I have self-published one book, so I understand that the author has to actively participate in the marketing strategy and I am very willing to do so.

5. How many books has TouchPoint Press published each year for the past three years, including this year to date? How many more do you anticipate for 2021?

6. Generally, what is the timeline that can be expected from signed contract to release of the book?

I also sent an email to one of their authors asking for her opinion on publishing with them. She responded quickly that her experience was mostly positive, her one issue was that there was little work with marketing on their end.

TouchPoint replied the next day with answers to every one of my questions. I was satisfied. My full manuscript was submitted to them within hours.

Then I waited.

On 1/30/22, I received an email from a person titled “Deputy Publisher.” This was a “revise and resubmit” request. Not uncommon. Their identified concerns were that the main character needed more agency through the whole story, and that the ending was underwhelming. A suggestion for more line editing was also included. The analysis included a number of very positive comments about the manuscript and my writing as well.

Their bottom line: “We would like to see it again after the issues have been addressed.”

My main dilemma was how much time was expected for these rewrites before sending the manuscript back. If I sent it back too quickly, would they think I hadn’t taken the request seriously enough? If I took too long, would they lose interest?

I got to work right away. First I had to figure out exactly what they wanted. Still being rather new at writing and publishing, I read a number of articles and blogs on what constituted agency for a character. Got it. Essentially, I needed to make the main character less reactive and more proactive. I could do that.

Then I had to reconfigure the full ending of the book. Okay, I could do that.

A lot of work went into these revisions. And a lot of time. But I wanted to make sure that the story was better for the changes I was making.

Two months of writing and I felt the manuscript was ready to resubmit. That both the main character and the ending were far more dynamic.

On 3/27/22, I resubmitted the revised manuscript to TouchPoint.

Then I waited. I felt I had met all their suggestions and requests and expected to have a positive response from them.

By 4/4/22, I hadn’t heard back from them. So I sent an inquiry.

Crickets! No response.

On 8/1/22, I sent another inquiry, asking only for an update and whether or not I could anticipate any further interaction from them. I was ready to just drop the whole thing

I got an email answer back an hour later from the Deputy Publisher, saying that my resubmission had been reviewed and she was just waiting on an answer from the publisher.

On 8/10/22, another email requesting “revise and resubmit.” Five different points in the story were identified and analyzed that needed clarification and revision. But they wrote “…invite you to resubmit after the comments have been addressed.”

Okay then. From these emails, I still felt positive about their commitment to publish, once these revisions were taken care of to their liking.

Back to the laptop. These five points were very specific. I had to revise not only the one specific plot point, but all the subsequent places that were impacted by these changes. I worked diligently on the story to bring it to the level they identified.

On 10/16/22, I sent back the revised manuscript. And the wait began.

Not a word did I get back.

On 3/27/23, I sent an inquiry. No response. I started sending out queries to other publishers and agents.

On 8/1/23, I sent an inquiry. No response. Their website stated they were closed to submissions and their publishing list was filled through 2025.

That was it. I was done. I was frustrated. I was angry.

I never heard another word from TouchPoint Press. But, despite all the run-around, I have to say they did me a great service when all was said and done. Their critique analysis and revision requests were spot on, and the changes I made to my manuscript made it a far better story. By the time I was finished with the revisions they recommended, the book was publishable. I might not have made the revisions I did without their input.

Sometimes, maybe often, the bad situation can bring about good results.

I checked their website today, before I started writing this essay. They still had the domain name, but the entire site was changed. Nothing about their business, their authors, submissions. Nothing.

So I Googled.

“TouchPoint Press, an Arkansas-based independent publisher founded in 2013, is closing down following numerous complaints in 2023–2024 regarding unpaid royalties, lack of communication, and failure to fulfill contracts. The Authors Guild negotiated with owner Sheri Williams to return rights to authors and create a payment plan, as detailed in reports from the Authors Guild and Publishers Weekly.”

They closed for good on 9/14/24.

The Universe really does watch over me. I could have been involved in that mess. Instead TouchPoint’s lack of response prompted me to get back to querying Haunted in Paradise. I submitted a query to Grendel Press in July 2023. They requested a full manuscript in October. They accepted the book in January 2024, and we signed a contract within a week.

What’s Next?

Working with the dragon