Smoking Pen Press is an
independent publishing company started four years ago by Catherine Valenti and
Laurie Gienapp. For now, they mostly
publish short story anthologies. Two of my short
stories are published in their anthologies and they are a pleasure to work
with—highly professional. For more
information, check out their website at: http://smokingpenpress.com/
Question: How did you come up with the name Smoking
Pen Press? Is there some meaning behind
that?
Answer: We met online in the Nanowrimo forums, and the
chatroom we met in was called The Smoking Pen. We liked the name, as well as
the image it evokes of an author writing at such a pace that their pen smokes.
Question: You mostly publish anthologies, how did that
come about?
Answer: It wasn’t always the plan
to publish anthologies… in fact we’ve published one novel, and have several
others in the works. Where we both have full-time jobs in addition to running Smoking
Pen Press, time is at a premium, and we thought a short story anthology would
be a good use of our time. Then we discovered that we really enjoyed the
process of culling through the submissions, and working with the different
authors throughout the editing process.
Question: Can
you tell us about some of your published books?
Answer: We have four titles in our Read on the Run
series. The idea is that each story in the Read on the Run series of
anthologies is short, “to suit your busy lifestyle”. We started with A Step Outside of Normal, followed by A Bit of a Twist, Uncommon
Pet Tales, and we’ve just put out the first romance—A Wink and a Smile.
We also have an anthology of
longer short stories, The Ancient,
which has variations on the Aladdin’s lamp theme. And we’ve published a novel—The Weatherman.
Question: What
are you working on now?
Answer: We’re working on a few titles at the
moment. We’ve got a longer short story
anthology of romances in the works, as well as three novels – a romance, a suspense
and a sequel to The Weatherman.
Question: What
made you start publishing?
Answer: We knew there were a lot
of good authors out there looking for a legitimate small publisher who would
provide good editing and cover design services. We thought we could provide
that, and compensate the authors, and still have a viable business.
Question: What
advice would you offer to those who are currently writing?
Answer: Don’t stop. Or perhaps more importantly – Start! In order to be published, you need a
well-edited piece of work. And you can’t edit what you haven’t written.
Question: Where
and when will readers be able to obtain your book(s)?
Answer: All titles are currently available at Amazon
and other retailers, in both digital and paperback format.
Links to Amazon:
The Ancient
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BCUD3BO
The Weatherman
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BYQ7TQ6
For links to other retailers,
see our website - http://smokingpenpress.com/books
Catherine and Laurie, thanks so much for coming here.
For those who are interested, they are available to respond to comments
and questions. But the best way to learn about what they publish is by buying one of their books and reading it.
Jacqueline - Thank you so much for inviting us to be on your blog today!
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure! I hope a lot of readers view this.
DeleteAs an author I find this an interesting view from the publisher's position. I love my own small, independent publisher but fervently wish for a larger distribution and national exposure. Thanks for haring.
ReplyDeleteNormally we're all about our authors and the titles we carry. Thanks again to Jacqueline for giving us the opportunity to share a little bit about us.
DeleteHi Susan, thanks for your comment. One of the challenges in publishing is how to improve exposure of books to the public, and we continue to work on that. It's good to hear you love your publisher, that is so important! In our experience being a small publisher gives us more flexibility and better communication with our authors.
DeleteThanks for dropping by, Susan!
ReplyDeleteInteresting view of a start-up. I'm all for individuals setting up a publishing house and offering their skills and enthusiasm. You never know what will come of these efforts.
ReplyDeleteGlad you found this interesting, Susan. With our backgrounds of professional editor and attorney, and sharing a common interest in writing, we felt we were uniquely positioned to start up a small publishing house. Feedback from our authors is positive, as is that from our readers.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview! Sounds like a wonderful opportunity to have stories published!
ReplyDeleteGood luck and God's blessings to you ALL!
PamT
There are some excellent small presses out there. I'm glad I could give this one some exposure. Thanks for coming by and commenting, Pam.
ReplyDeleteSuch a very useful article. Very interesting to read this article.I would like to thank you for the efforts you had made for writing this awesome article. guest post
ReplyDelete