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Welcome to Pandamoon Publishing. My name is Zara Kramer and I am the Publisher at Pandamoon. I encourage you to take a look at the Q&A below, and if you happen to have questions that are not otherwise answered here, please free to reach out to me.
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- Zara
FAQ
WHAT IS A PANDAMOON?
As far as I know, a Pandamoon only exists in my mind. I have big plans for this company and wanted a name and its corresponding imagery to have relevance on a global basis.
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One of the reasons I chose “Panda” is because of its immediate recognition factor. I would venture to guess that there are not many people on our planet who do not know what a panda looks like. But, it goes much deeper than that. The panda is a gentle animal who serves to entertain and bring joy to people. The panda is also a responsible citizen of the world by eating a diet of highly sustainable bamboo and has an almost zero carbon footprint.
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As for the moon part, it’s a bit of a personal story. A few years ago, my husband suffered a stroke and it was touch and go for many weeks in the hospital. In an attempt to raise his spirits, I went to the gift shop to see what I could get to brighten up his room. I came across a small picture frame with a message that touched my heart. It said, “Reach for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” I bought that little framed quote and took it to him. It quickly became our mantra as he pulled through and spent months in rehab trying to overcome the resulting paralysis. Two years later, we were at a friend’s house celebrating a birthday. They had a lovely band that played on their patio. My once-paralyzed husband asked me to dance and, as we did, we both looked up at the moon and said a very grateful thank you to it. I want our authors to have that same spirit and belief in their ability. To always be reaching for the moon, knowing that, as their publisher, we will raise them up as high as we possibly can.
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So, to put it all together…a Pandamoon is an entity that serves to entertain and bring joy to its authors and readers in a highly responsible and sustainable way. We stand beside our authors every step of the way, encouraging and supporting them, knowing that they are the most valuable resource our company has.
WHO IS PANDAMOON?
Pandamoon Publishing is an independent publishing house in Austin, Texas. We are a royalty-paying, non-subsidy publisher who believes the relationship between the author and the publisher is paramount to success. We are different in that our management team has decades of invaluable experience in publishing and other technology and consumer industries and we bring the best practices of each to the publishing realm.
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I am a successful serial entrepreneur and this is my third startup. My first company was an advertising agency which focused on traditional advertising, market research, and an interactive division that was responsible for delivering content to customers in new and exciting ways. After 12 years, I sold that company and started a global management consultancy practice which provided companies with operational, procedural, publishing, and marketing solutions. I sold my interest in that firm in 2012 and have been focused on creating and growing Pandamoon since then.
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Pandamoon is a unique opportunity that utilizes all of my skill sets at once, as well as my love of technology, publishing, marketing, and lifelong learning. We have a team of extremely experienced and talented editorial, production, and publicity people who share my passion for building strong relationships with our authors. Bottom line, I know that our success is totally dependent upon the level of customer service, support, and response that we provide our readers and authors.
WHAT BOOKS HAVE
YOU PUBLISHED?
We currently have over 30 authors and 150+ contracted fiction books released and in various stages of production. Our first titles released in October 2013. We have grown steadily since then and plan to release over 50 titles in 2017. Our titles span three primary genres: mystery/suspense/thriller, science fiction/fantasy, and women's fiction.
HOW DOES PANDAMOON
VIEW THE PUBLISHING
INDUSTRY?
Just as in many industries, technology innovations are changing the publishing business in profound ways. The balance of power has always been tipped heavily in favor of the big publishing houses, leaving little room for the voice of the author and the reader. But major changes in the three most important aspects of publishing are providing the catalyst for change and providing an opportunity for independent publishing companies like Pandamoon: publishing, distribution, and marketing.
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Publishing can now be done electronically in a variety of formats for use on various e-reading devices. Hard copies can be printed one-by-one economically using print on demand services or offset printing, depending on needs.
Electronic and hard copy distribution channels are now accessible to independent publishers, such as Pandamoon. Bookstore distribution is now handled much more efficiently and effectively by companies like Ingram distributing our books into the bookstores.
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Marketing opportunities are constantly evolving and since Pandamoon is a nimble publishing organization, we are well poised to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. We use traditional marketing methods that still make sense in the changing landscape, while adding other components to the mix that keep our content fresh and exciting and out in front of our readers.
HOW DOES PANDAMOON
COMPENSATE ITS AUTHORS?
We cover all the upfront expenses for editing, producing, author marketing training, and creative marketing tools for our author’s books. Rather than giving our authors an advance on future sales, we invest those funds into strategic marketing tools for the book, thus creating a more profitable and long-term success for all of us. We then pay our authors a fair royalty based on gross receipts, right off the top of what we receive from our distributors.
DOES PANDAMOON PUBLISH
ONLY EBOOKS OR PRINTED
BOOKS AS WELL?
Our publishing strategy here at Pandamoon is to publish all books in both electronic and print formats at the time the book is launched. This gives us the most flexibility in appealing to all types of readers of Pandamoon books.
IS AN AGENT REQUIRED IN
ORDER TO SUBMIT A
MANUSCRIPT TO
PANDAMOON?
At Pandamoon, we work directly with authors and we work with authors who have agents. The process is virtually the same to us so it is really a matter of preference for the individual author.
HOW DO I SUBMIT MY
MANUSCRIPT TO YOU?
It’s really quite easy to do. Take a look at our submissions guidelines here and just follow the simple instructions. If we are currently closed for submissions, then I encourage you to sign up for our newsletter in which we give advance notice to our subscribers of our next open window opportunities.
WHAT IF I HAVE
MORE QUESTIONS?
Please send any additional questions or suggestions you have directly to me. I can’t promise to get back to you the same day, but I’ll do my best.