Interview with Nicole Langan, Owner of Tribute Books

 I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Nicole Langan, owner of Tribute Books. So what is Tribute Books you ask?? Tribute Books an independent publisher for independent writers. Tribute Books celebrates its 7th year in 2011 and is making some changes on what kind of books they will be publishing. Beginning in 2012, Tribute Books will become solely an ebook publisher of young adult titles.

1. Tell us a little bit about Tribute Books.
Well to tell you where we're headed, let me tell you a bit about where we've been. Tribute Books began in 2004 and we've published over 30 titles since that time. Some of our books have gone on to win awards such as the Christian Small Publisher Book of the Year and the Mom's Choice Award while others were endorsed by PBS and The Thoreau Society. We've covered a wide range of genres from children's picture books to history to sports under both traditional and subsidy contracts. In 2012, Tribute Books will transition into a royalty-paying ebook publisher of young adult titles.

2. Why are you transitioning to YA books?
Over the course of 2011, we've watched our ebook sales outpace our print sales by 2 to 1 due to the explosion in popularity of e-readers such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad. The under $5 price point of most of our e-titles and the ease of purchase and delivery surely facilitated this rapid change.

Overall, our transition is based on three factors. On a business level, the young adult genre sells especially if it is well written and has a paranormal romance theme. On a marketing level, the devotion of the young adult fan base is unparalleled. On a personal level, I thoroughly enjoy a good young adult novel and review many on my blog at http://tributebooksreviews.blogspot.com. I'm a believer in doing what you love and working with like-minded people, when it's at all possible.

3. What kind of stories are you looking for?
Manuscripts that have already been professionally edited will receive greater consideration. Our preference is to work with authors who have already been published through a royalty-paying press and who know the ins and outs of book promotion. An established social media platform is a must, and we will not consider writers who do not have a well-followed blog, Facebook page or Twitter account.

We're looking for submissions that are not explicit or erotic in nature. In keeping with the young adult age range, manuscripts should be appropriate for a PG-13 audience.

Interested authors can submit their manuscripts via email to info@tribute-books.com. There will be no charge for the authors we select to work with, and they will receive 50% of the net profits of their ebook sales in quarterly royalty payments. We're looking for Microsoft Word documents with a maximum of 350 pages of text with no photos, charts, illustrations, graphs, etc. 

4. Will you be featuring new authors or established authors?
At this point in the game, we are only accepting manuscripts from previously published authors who know the ins and outs of the book business. Any seasoned author is familiar with the editing process. We're not out to fundamentally change anyone's work, but it has to be of the quality level to hold its own against competing books in the marketplace. My hope is that the manuscripts we receive for consideration will be so well-written, very little will have to be changed in terms of editing. We're looking to put out the best quality product that we can, and we're looking to work with authors who feel the same way and are more than willing to collaborate instead of dictate.

Working with a first time author is an extremely time intensive process. The learning curve is steep. In the past, nearly every author I worked with was brand new to the publishing industry. At this point in my career, I would rather focus on providing our readership with new material instead of devoting the time to developing multiple author marketing platforms from scratch.

5. What kind of YA books will you look for?
Our preference is for damn good writing, the particular topic is secondary in importance. However, books written with a series in mind or those that delve into the paranormal will have a slight edge.

My hope is that we are able to recruit some talented writers of well-written, well-crafted stories in order to develop an eager fan base for the titles we publish. We want readers to be excited about the ebooks we produce. Young adult authors have the most devoted fan followings out there, and we'd like to introduce that audience to a whole new host of talent. 

We try to keep an active online presence with our web site (http://www.tribute-books.com/), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archbald-PA/Tribute-Books/171628704176), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/TributeBooks)  and blog (http://tributebooks.blogspot.com/). We'd love to have anyone who loves young adult literature to join us for the ride. 

Thank you Nicole, it has been a pleasure. I have also enjoyed reviewing for Tribute Books!