Vantage Point Mystery Titles Make a Splash at Bouchercon 2011

Earlier this fall, from Sept 15-18^th, Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense Book lovers from around the globe gathered in St. Louis, MO for the 42^nd annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention. As their tagline proved, this celebration of all things spooky truly filled the city with the Spirits of St. Louis, and Vantage Point Books could not have been happier to get in on the action. We have been honing our upcoming lists with a strong focus on the Mystery/Suspense genre, including debut and veteran authors alike, so it was only natural that Vantage Point Books was represented on two different author panels, as well with one very special honoree.

Vantage Point author and Editorial Director Joseph Pittman is a familiar face at the convention, however this was his first year representing his own Todd Gleason Crime Series as well as his own imprint! He handled it like the professional we all know, stocking the Bouchercon gift bags with these striking postcards:

Every Bouchercon guest found this postcard in their gift bags, touting our Current Mystery/ Suspense Titles (Front)....

...and our Upcoming Mystery/Suspense Titles (back)!

in addition to running a corresponding print ad in Mystery Scene Magazine with the appropriate and statement-making tagline “It’s A Crime How Good Our Authors Are”. On the author front, you could find Joe entertaining the crowd while featured on the “Second Oldest Profession: When your hero isn’t a nice guy” panel, explaining how he created LONDON FROG’s charming protagonist Todd Gleason, the morally corrupt con-man readers can’t help but root for. LONDON FROG is out now in paperback, and it is only a short wait until Todd Gleason’s next hilarious crime caper—the follow-up CALIFORNIA SCHEMING will be out February 2012. For those who cannot wait, readers can find a sneak peak of the upcoming book in the paperback edition of LONDON FROG. Next up,  Joe will be signing books Wednesday, Oct 26th at 7pm in the Dewitt, NY Barnes and Noble.

As for NEON PANIC author Charles Philipp Martin, the Fall release of his debut novel perfectly coincided with his first-ever Bouchercon. When he wasn’t hitting the floor networking, he was sharing this new experience while featured on the “Hitting the Ground: New writers talk about their first book” panel. We could not be more proud to have Charles representing Vantage Point, as NEON PANIC is a smart, suspenseful and ultimately shocking thriller that the Seattle Times just touted as “Engrossing… nicely evokes the fizzy chaos of modern Hong Kong”. If you missed Charles at Bouchercon, and his two recent west coast book signings, he will be coast-hopping to New York City Fri, Dec 9^th for a book signing event from 6:30-8pm at The Mysterious Bookshop.

"Charlie" Martin finds NEON PANIC in the Bouchercon Book Room

Finally, Vantage Point Books can now brag that we have a “living legend” amongst our authors! St. Louis native Robert J. Randisi was awarded one of the Local Living Legend Awards for Bouchercon 20111. Heralded by Booklist as “one of the last true pulp writers”, Randisi’s credits include (but are not limited to) founding the Private Eye Writers of America, creating the Shamus Award, co-founding Mystery Scene Magazine and the American Crime Writer’s League, penning 540 books, 54 short stories and editing 30 anthologies. Now, he has one more title to add to this unbelievable list—Vantage Point writer! In March 2012, the Randisi-edited, New York City-themed mystery anthology CRIME SQUARE will be released, including a short story by the editor himself (also keep an eye out for a Todd Gleason appearance in the anthology!), and in August 2012, Nashville private-eye novel THE SESSION MAN marks the release of the first Randisi-penned Music City Mysteries.

Overall, Bouchercon 2011 was a wonderfully busy weekend, and a great way to introduce Vantage Point Books into the World Mystery scene. See you next year in Cleveland!

Vantage Point Books Debuts Non-Fiction Summer Titles

Following up on last Wednesday’s post announcing the new Vantage Point Books trade imprint, here are the four non-fiction titles that round out our eight-book summer list. We are thrilled that they have found a home on our inaugural list.

THE MONEY PLAN: Creating Personal Wealth for a Secure Future by Steven J. Lee is unique among personal finance books. This guide tells a truly personal story as it delves into the author’s remarkable financial success, ultimately instructing readers on an easy-to use plan for building wealth, maintaining investments, and enjoying financial independence.

MIDLIFE CRASH COURSE: The Journey from Crisis to Full Creative Power by Dr. Gail C. Feldman, Ph.D is an exceptional first-hand account from a mental health professional, detailing psychologist Dr. Gail Feldman, Ph.D’s insights during her compelling journey from trauma and depression to resilience, joy and wisdom.

CHARLES@AFGHANISTAN: Crazy Encounters from the Not-So-Front-Lines by Charles McDonald Holt began as emails sent to friends and family from the other side of the world and turned into a hilarious documentary of self-proclaimed Texas good ole boy Charles Holt’s time as a truck driver while deployed as a contractor in Afghanistan.

WHY I HATED PINK: Confessions of a Breast Cancer Survivor by Maryellen D. Brisbois is a gutsy, disarming and heart-felt memoir that chronicles the journey of a nurse, caretaker, and breast cancer survivor, from diagnosis to survival. Told in vignettes, WHY I HATED PINK provides a healthy dose of humor and the unflinching honesty to admit that sometimes, it’s OK to have your doubts about those omnipresent pink ribbons.

With all eight of our summer titles on the shelves now, we are beginning to look onward to the incoming fall season, with works by authors including Michael Musto, Rexanne Becnel and Joseph Pittman. Full speed ahead for “The Small Press That Thinks Big”!

The Changing of the Publishing Guard

The Guardian has a very complete story on self-publishing, with a succinct statement by author Barry Eisler of the forces propelling new models:

“Publishing has always been a quasi-monopoly built on the lock publishers had on paper distribution. Digital distribution has broken that lock, but legacy publishers are still behaving as though they have monopoly power,” believes Eisler. “They’re running their business with two general imperatives in mind: (i) maintain the primacy of paper (in significant part, by delaying the release of digital books and pricing them too high); and (ii) offer punitive financial, creative, and other terms to authors. Or, to put it another way, publishers are currently running their business in a way that punishes both their end-user customers (readers) and their providers (authors). This was sustainable when publishers faced no meaningful competition. They do now, and will have to adapt or die, because yes, more and more authors are eschewing the legacy model in favour of self-publishing and in favour of the emerging Amazon hybrid model.”

A Wild(wood) and Wonderful Writer’s Conference

I’m just back from a wonderful two days at the North Wildwood Beach Writers’ Conference. This year was the conference’s 9th annual but my first – turnout approached one hundred personable writers and as always it was refreshing to hear what’s on creative minds. Also good to see editor extraordinaire Charis Conn of Harper’s Magazine.

Many thanks to organizers Carolyn Miller and Carolyn Mee for inviting Vantage to participate. The conference featured 16 speakers over two days and demonstrated how much really useful information can be exchanged in a short time in a committed writing community – even with the distraction of the boardwalk and beach just outside!

It was a pleasure to award Simonne Barry-Souliere of North Wildwood the opportunity to publish any one of the several books she is working on at a steep discount from our posted prices.

Be at BEA

Vantage Press will be exhibiting at America’s major annual book convention BookExpo America, to be held Tuesday May 24th through Thursday May 26th at the Javits Convention Center in our home town, New York City. It’s our hometown show, and we’ll be in the middle of the action in booth 4347, hosting a number of signings and presenting new books.

We’ll also be handing out great Moleskine mini-notebooks, and we’ll have an ample supply of our guide “The ABC’s of Publishing” available. If you’re an author considering self-publishing, a bookseller interested in quality books (and a quality affiliate to which to refer local authors), or an agent wondering what all the self-publishing fuss is about, please stop by.

Pat Wilson, author of Eagle on Ice, the story of a Boy Scout’s adventures in Antarctica with Commander Byrd, will be signing books Thursday at 11:00.

BEA 2011 also coincides with the launch of Vantage Point Books. We’ll have advance reading copies of several of Vantage Point Fall releases:

The Thief’s Only Child by USA Today Bestselling author Rexane Becnel (Tuesday)

Neon Panic by Charles Martin (Wednesday)

London Frog by Joseph Pittman (Thursday, if supplies last)

We hope to see you there!

Muse in the Marketplace

Vantage president David Lamb will be speaking on “How To Self-Publish Well” at GrubStreet.org‘s popular Muse in the Marketplace conference in Boston on Sunday May 1st, and participating in additional panels over the weekend. Grub Street, Boston’s leading organizer of writing programs – “Where Boston Gets Writing” – is expecting capacity attendance of 550 authors, in addition to more than 100 industry professionals, for the weekend conclave.

From the program listing:

One-fifth of all books published in the U.S. in 2009 were ‘self-published,’ a spectrum that today ranges from casually uploading a file to concerted hardcover publishing with all the fanfare of a new Franzen novel (well, perhaps not quite). The common factor defining self-publishing is that the author supports her or his book financially: so what are the 80,000 people self-publishing every year getting for their money? This session examines the distinctions between self-publishing and commercial publishing as a means to illuminating some of the non-obvious factors that can contribute to success in self-publishing, whether solo or with an author services company.

What a Difference a Year Makes!

I’ve had a happy first year owning Vantage Press. I had known the company for several years before I got the opportunity to purchase it from the son of the founder in December 2009. I’ve learned a lot, gotten to know many wonderful authors, and with my terrific colleagues begun to make good on the promise of Vantage’s 62-year old brand.

Among many other improvements over the year, we have taken the following giant steps:

• Called on Ingram for distribution. Ingram, the largest book wholesaler in the U.S. (and the world, for that matter), supplies just about every American bookseller just about every day. With special treatment from the company’s Ingram Publisher Services division, Vantage has absolutely the best physical distribution to the book trade of any self-publishing company.

• Improved our design game. I’m very design-oriented, and by allying ourselves with a New York firm that has specialized for 25 years in book design and production management, we’ve leapfrogged to the forefront. Each Vantage book is receiving personal treatment and the results – on the cover and in the text – are simply stunning.

• Supercharged our publicity department. In June we hired a new publicity director, David Carriere, a 25-year PR veteran who had started his own firm after serving as director of marketing at HarperCollins, and a new publicist, Jordan Barbeau. They have moved our publicity to a new level, targeting and getting review coverage (20 reviews in the Midwest Book Review last month alone) and media placements including major metro newspapers, radio interviews, and television.

• Amped up Editorial. Vantage has always provided good editorial review, but under Editorial Director Ed Sczesnak we’re going the extra mile: not only better copyediting but also by making developmental editing available. We recently employed a top flight editor from a major literary magazine to groom a wonderful novel, to the delight of the author. We can do the same for your book.

What’s ahead in the coming year? Well, we expect that the self-publishing wave will continue to swell, and we’d like to publish and sell more books. Look for us to roll out a new, super-clear contract in January, add our own bookstore and author sites, and work to make the Vantage treatment more affordable for more authors. If you’re looking to publish in 2011, we hope you’ll consider the new, much improved Vantage Press.

Happy holidays!
David Lamb, President, and the Vantage Press team

Meeting and Greeting

It was with great pleasure that Vantage Press recently participated in the second annual Self-Publishing Book Expo. Held this year on October 2 at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in Manhattan, the event seems to be quickly growing by leaps and bounds, and so it was no surprise that this year’s festivities attracted hundreds and hundreds of interesting individuals, from authors to publishers, and from various business people to members of the press.

The staff at Vantage Press very much enjoys these types of trade fairs because frankly, it gives us the chance to step away from our computers and telephones (of all sorts) and actually look into people’s eyes and shake some warm hands. It also offers us the chance to learn firsthand from the publishing community as to what sets Vantage Press apart from our competition, and to consider what we can do in the future to continue to be the best self-publishing house in the business. We appreciate the feedback we received from many in attendance, and if you are wondering what the crowd seems to feel sets Vantage apart, well, the consensus seems to be that between our “Author Care Department” (where we assign one dedicated individual to work with each author and be there for them throughout the publishing process) on the front-end, to our aggressive publicity efforts on the back-end, folks out there seem to be aware that the staff at Vantage Press is dedicated to each and every author throughout the entire publishing process, from concept to finish bound book, and beyond.

To learn more about this year’s Self-Publishing Book Expo, visit Michael N. Marcus’s blog at:

http://bookmakingblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/impressions-of-self-publishing-book.html

Honest, Competent, and Trying Hard

Over the seven months that I’ve owned Vantage, we have been trying very hard to build on our great history in publishing to improve our program. So it’s nice to be reviewed and recognized by two sites that we really respect for their scrutiny of the self-publishing ecosystem.

In his Book Making blog, in a post titled “Wow: A refreshingly honest and competent pay-to-publish company,” Michael N. Marcus has some nice things to say about us. He concludes with:

“If you have the urge to get published, but don’t want to spend years chasing agents and publishers, or don’t want to become a publisher, you can get full service, good service, and first-class books from Vantage Press. Even if you don’t need Vantage yourself, you should not be reluctant to recommend the company to other writers who would benefit from Vantage’s experience, expertise and honesty.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, Mick Rooney’s Self-Publishing and Independent Publishing site has an in-depth review of Vantage. It is nice to get a 7.4/10 rating from someone who has been aware of Vantage for decades. Mick notes in his memoir:

“Even at the age of fifteen, I was already very familiar with those vanity publishing ads in the Sunday newspapers. I remember writing off to Vantage Press for their brochure — getting it a few days later in the post and spending many nights in bed browsing through it and dreaming away about my future life as a novelist. Around then, I started buying the Writers & Artists Yearbook and other books on writing and publishing. I came across writers like Peter Finch who dared to write about self-publishing at a time when it was frowned upon by the literary establishment.”

Authors considering self-publishing would do well to subscribe to both Michael and Mick’s feeds – beyond their critiques of Vantage and other programs, they are chock full of good advice for the independent author. And back here in New York, we are excited and working every day to make our authors’ books the best they can be and to add new capabilities and features—more on those in subsequent posts.  —David Lamb

The Road to UCLA

Vantage Press is pleased to be making its debut appearance at the LA Times Festival of Books this coming weekend, Saturday April 24th and Sunday April 25th. Held at UCLA, the festival is one of the largest gatherings for book lovers in America. The Vantage booth (number 1022, in Area J) will be hosting a number of author appearances and signings. Vantage representatives will also be on hand to speak with prospective authors. We hope to see you there!

Here is the schedule of Vantage author appearances:

VANTAGE PRESS Booth 1022 in Area J (Health & Wellness)

SATURDAY

10:00-2:00 The Illness that Healed Me: An Account of Surviving Sexual Abuse and the Journey into Healing Janice Weinheimer

11:00-12:00 Voices from the Hemispheres Kenneth H. Harrison

12:00-1:00 Victory and Fulfillment: Quantum Remedy Power Leia Gance, Ph.D.

1:00-2:00 Discovering Your Own Authentic Power: How to Live a Simpler and More Meaningful Life Every Day Michael R. Davis

2:00-3:00 Jake the Friendly Fish Erica Pitts

3:00-4:00 Va Fa Sa: A Young Man’s Memoir Hugo Cipriani

SUNDAY

10:00-2:00 The Illness that Healed Me: An Account of Surviving Sexual Abuse and the Journey into Healing Janice Weinheimer

11:00-12:00 Quick Reference Guide to Nature’s Pharmacy: Researched Herbal and Nutritional Alternatives Jacquie N. Walbur

2:00-3:00 A Journey of Unexpected Blessings Mehar