Since I signed with Pandamoon Publishing last September I have fielded numerous questions on social media from other prospective authors who are interested in Pandamoon. The most difficult question that I typically get is Why? Why Pandamoon Publishing when you can self-publish? Why Pandamoon vs traditional publishers? I will admit, it has taken me some time to fully understand the 'why', but from the first conversation I had with Zara Kramer(lasting for several hours), I began to realize Pandamoon Publishing was different from your typical indie press and miles from a traditional publisher.
Now, after five months as an author with Pandamoon, I have a much better understanding. Let me break it down.
I can talk to the publisher whenever I need to. Think about that for a minute and I'll come back to how that works.
We are organized into pods or platoons. I am with another group of authors that were signed at the same time and who will release during the same year.
Marketing. Marketing. Marketing.
So let's take these one at a time.
Number one.
I can talk to Zara Kramer whenever I need to. How? I can email her, I can call her, I can text her(I have her cell phone number!!!), or I can use one of our online collaboration tools(think Slack or Hipchat). Why is this important? Because I have input into every facet of my novel's production and marketing.
Ask yourself when you are making a decision on where your work is published -- do I have that level of access to my publisher?
Next.
This is more on the personal side, but over the last week my daughter who is seven weeks old was sick and we needed to take her to the hospital for a few days. During that time, several of my fellow Pandamoon authors contacted me to check in on how she was doing.
Why is that important?
We are all deeply invested in each others success as authors, but we are also building lifelong relationships with other talented writers. We are our fellow authors biggest cheerleaders and advocates. Do you think I won't be pulling for them even more now? You better believe I will be. Not only have I read their incredible writing, but I know them as people, giving me perspective on their work I can use to help them succeed.
So before you sign with your publisher ask yourself -- will I be as important to them as they are to me?
Pandamoon values and invests in their authors, period.
Finally, marketing.
How do I know my fellow authors so well at this point?
We are engaging each other daily in our efforts to expand and increase our marketing reach. How are we doing that? A lot of it is social media. Not a bunch of scheduled tweets a day screaming for you to buy our books. Rather, we are using our platforms to tell our stories, to help other writers, to engage in the writing discussion. Marketing is changing every second, Pandamoon has experts constantly helping us evolve our reach to people that value quality storytelling.
If you still need convincing here is a last thought. Todd Tavolazzi's novel Looking into the Sun released yesterday. It is a novel about the Syrian conflict and the devastating effects that ongoing struggle has on the people and children of the region. When he was writing the book there was practically zero media coverage of that terrible conflict. In short -- every author I know at Pandamoon is writing about something that matters. I encourage you to join us.