As part of my ongoing series on indie presses, I’m excited to visit with speculative fiction novelist and publisher Grace Bridges. Grace is the author 
of two science fiction novels and the owner of Splashdown Books, an independent publisher of inspirational sci-fi and fantasy. In addition to chatting about the publishing industry, Grace is offering a free eBook (or PDF) of Aquasynthesis, Splashdown’s upcoming short story anthology, to five lucky commenters. The winners will be announced Monday the 25th and contacted via email with details. If you’d like to enter, please leave a comment on this post for Grace.
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MIKE: There’s so much debate about the state of the industry and the future of books and publishers. Is it safe to say that indie presses are booming? And if so, are the factors that have contributed to this a good or bad thing?
GRACE: As far as the industry goes, I’m really just along for the ride. Publishing is going somewhere fast, and we are on board traveling at speeds never seen before. The factors of digital print publishing and everyman’s ebook-making are definitely good things – after all, it allows me to do what I’m doing with a minimum of overhead. Sure, it may 
ease the publication of some bad books along with the good, but the good stuff tends to rise to the top. I do my thing with half an eye on the state of the industry, but the fact is, it doesn’t really impact us much down here in indie-land. When our books succeed, it has very little to do with the industry and everything to do with our authors and their own individual campaigns to spread the word of mouth.
MIKE: What is your vision for Splashdown Books? What prompted you to start it? Are you a natural entrepreneur or did you see a void that needed filled?
GRACE: Splashdown Books has a vision to provide a connection between authors and fans of a genre with the capability to transport the reader to other worlds. I see our aim as two-fold: to discover and publish great books, and to get those books into the hands of readers who want exactly what we’re giving. I started it because I kept coming across perfectly marvelous manuscripts in critique groups, and the consensus seemed to be that there wasn’t much hope of publication. I’m out to change that. In that sense I definitely stepped into a gap.
Back when I finished polishing up my first novel, I knew it would be well-received by the right sort of people, but there was pretty much nil chance of being published traditionally. The book was just plain too strange. I mean, how often do you get post-apocalypse mixed with virtual reality, biology, persecution of believers, and romance, set in Ireland and viewed through the eyes of a Kiwi in Germany (where I was living at the time)? So with some encouragement from the good folks at the Lost Genre Guild, I decided to take matters into my own hands four years ago. I learned how to format a book inside and out for print, and I gave myself the toughest standards along with a boatload of critique partners and editors and proofers. As I continued to swap critiques with other Guild members – finding some truly awesome stories along the way – I realized they would have the same kind of problem trying to get published, and that I could use my technical skills to do for them what I had learned to do for myself. Not everyone wants to be indie-published, and I understand that. I applaud those who have gone on to traditional publishing. Signing on with me is more like an employment contract than anything else – it has to be a good fit personality-wise, and my authors are asked to dig in with all the work there is to be done around here.
MIKE: What kind of learning curve was there to starting a new press and what were some of the unexpected obstacles you encountered along the way?
GRACE: You know, there are a thousand tiny things I’ve learned to do, and together they make up the curve. But none of them seemed significant at the time. I’m still learning! Whether it be the ins and outs of PDF formatting, or a newly discovered effect in a graphics program, or a different way to use social media – it never ends. Something unexpected? Well, publishing a book nearly always takes a lot more time and effort than you first think it will, even after gaining a reasonable amount of experience. It’s a fine art to plan out all the steps involved and allow sufficient time to do everything properly.
One thing I’ve had to learn lately is that I CAN’T do everything myself, much as I’d like to. So we are currently in the process of carving up the responsibilities and handing them off to this one and that one. It shocks me when my authors tell me they’re going to need a team to handle just one aspect of what I have done alone up until now. I mustn’t be a creative control freak – I’ve got to let my people do their thing in their way and come to me for the sign-off, rather than doing it all myself because I think wrongly that I might be faster or more pleased with the result. In the future, my website, marketing, newsletter, cover design, initial editing, and specific projects will be off my plate and in the capable hands of my team members.
MIKE: There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about independent presses, the types of quality they will “tolerate,” and the insular, perhaps “cliquish,” nature of their business. What are the most common myths or misunderstandings about independent presses?
GRACE: My biggest gripe lately is that many writers, especially those new to the business end of it, do not know the difference between self-publishing, vanity publishing, and indie publishing. They are three very different entities. Vanity is to be avoided at all costs (pun intended: vanity or subsidy presses are out to get your money). Self-publishing may be sensible for some books – it gives the author complete control over the project, and the cost as well, though much less than vanity. Indie is a branch of traditional publishing, where the author is never asked to pay anything. I object to being compared in any way to a completely different kind of business because vanity publishing especially – and self-publishing to a lesser degree – is notorious for bad quality books. With us, everything is carefully chosen and polished to its greatest potential. So you can understand that it makes my blood boil when new writers don’t want to consider the indie route because they think it is the same as vanity or self-publishing. Of course there is nothing inherently wrong with self-publishing if proper standards of editing and design are applied. It can certainly be the perfect business decision for many authors. Yet what we do as an indie publisher is a very different animal indeed.
MIKE: Many authors are currently seeking self-publishing. What advantages are there to small press publishing versus self-publishing? Why should someone choose Splashdown Books over doing it themselves?
GRACE: Self-publishing is exactly what it says on the label: you’re by yourself. You have to learn how to publish, mostly without help except of the Google variety. You must learn or hire out your cover designing and formatting, and you MUST get external edits because self-edits are not sufficient. If you’re doing “real” self-publishing, you need to set up a business and a publisher name, even if it’s just for your own books, and sign on with a printer. “Easy” self-publishing would include options 
such as Lulu and CreateSpace, where you don’t have to set up as a publisher yourself, but then one of those entities would be your publisher of record. With them, you still do all the design yourself, and there is the option to purchase extra help with editing and design – but I don’t recommend that, as it’s rather pricey and the quality has often been called into question.
That’s print. For ebooks it’s even easier, with Kindle, PubIt, and Smashwords providing instant access to sales if your marketing is up to scratch. Some people are going this way and not bothering with print. All power to them – there is some decent money to be made if you have a good product. But it’s up to you and you alone to make it sell well, by its quality and by your marketing.
At Splashdown, nobody is alone. We’re a team – not just authors, but editors, artists, marketers. There’s always support for any issues that may arise, and we have a shared marketing plan to assist every author. We brainstorm together for book blurbs, covers and even titles. We critique each others work thoroughly – in fact that is the beginning stage of getting a book ready for publication. An early edit, one might call it. Then of course there are the major edits, two or three rounds by different people and finally by me, to scrub and tighten your story. When it comes time for those final copyedits and proofreads, the team is called in to help. You still get input on all the design choices as you would with self-publishing, but you don’t have to arrange it yourself (unless you want to). So in that sense it’s really the best of both worlds.
MIKE: As you know, a lot of writers who frequent my site are Christians, but are unhappy with the current content being labeled “Christian fiction.” They want “faith” elements in their stories without the ultra conservative strictures. Does Splashdown Books address that demographic? And, if so, what advice would you give to writers of such a genre?
GRACE: I think because we publish speculative fiction, we are already a bit out on the edge of “Christian fiction”. Sometimes our faith elements are truly minimal, visible only in the spirit intended by a Christian author behind the words. Others are a little more overt, but I’m no fan of preaching in fiction. I’m also no fan of strictures, so you’ll sometimes find stuff in our books that goes beyond what, say, the CBA might accept. You can be sure, though, that it won’t be gratuitous nor anything that makes me uncomfortable personally – because the buck stops with me.
Some of our readers have had issues with the idea of a future artificial intelligence gaining a type of spirituality, a fantasy world where slavery is acceptable, a divorce lawyerette getting hooks into a superhero’s wife, and various sexual situations with and without marriage – though nothing actually happens onstage, so those must have been well written to provoke to that extent, right? These are exactly the kinds of things I like to explore in fiction, and in every case they are 100% necessary to the story’s impact.
Advice for writers? Read this excellent post at the New Authors’ Fellowship. Quit whacking on the “other” more conservative type of writer, and let everyone tell the story they’re called to tell. Don’t worry about them. If you’re weird enough, maybe I want to publish you.
MIKE: What kinds of submissions are you currently looking for? Is there a genre or story that you are really seeking, one on the rise, or something entirely from left field?
GRACE: Right now we have a ton of fantasy – I’m not complaining, it’s GOOD fantasy! You can expect some exciting releases over the next year. But I’d love to see some more science fiction coming in. Virtual reality, cyberpunk, space travel, aliens, multiverse, time travel, space opera, steampunk, and whatever else is out there. I want concepts that mess with your mind, maybe even a little metafiction if it’s well-executed. Metafiction is a story within a story, e.g. a tale AND the tale of its author as she writes it, and how they interact. Or something like Galaxy Quest, where the fiction becomes real.
We have also just launched Splashdown Darkwater, a new imprint for supernatural and paranormal plus the darker sides of science fiction and fantasy. I have a couple of good prospects for that, but we need more. There is a great interest right now in supernatural and dark fiction, and we want to jump into that arena. And the direction is proving to be correct: our first supernatural title, Winter by Keven Newsome, has had the best launch of any book in our history. Anyone with a manuscript involving visions, demons, near-death experiences, dark beings of any sort, and any paranormal occurrence or supernatural gift, is very welcome to get in touch.
MIKE: Finally, what advice would you give to someone who wants to start a small press? Aside from the money, no small thing indeed, what factors should the entrepreneurial small presser consider before diving in?
GRACE: Well, I started with my own book, and that is a good way to learn it so that no one else is affected by our bumbling beginnings. There’s a good reason I published a second edition of that one 😉 But seriously, nothing teaches so well as just diving in and doing it. I’m not ashamed of my first efforts – they got me where I am now.
You need to be able to do everything yourself or plan on paying someone to do it for you. This includes absolutely everything from editing and proofing to typesetting and interior design, all the way to covers and marketing. All of this takes a huge amount of time which you should consider if you are working another job to pay bills, as most of us have to. If you become a publisher, it will take all your time, period. I can’t remember when I last watched TV or a movie.
This isn’t a hobby or even a job – it’s a lifestyle. To do it even halfway justice, everything else takes a back seat, including my own writing. I’ve got a lot of novels in my head too, but it’s going to be a long time before I can write them. I have two in progress and I keep my hand in with occasional short pieces such as the Comet Born superhero serial at Digital Dragon magazine and our Avenir Eclectia multi-author microfiction project, but that’s often all I can do. And it bugs me sometimes.
Having said that, this is an incredibly exhilarating ride and I wouldn’t exchange it for the world. There’s nothing that can quite compare to being the one who makes dreams possible, even if it’s just for a handful of people each year. One person can only do so much, especially when she does nearly everything!
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Awesome stuff, Grace! If you’d like to be entered in the drawing for a free eBook of Aquasynthesis, feel free to leave a comment or question for Grace. And don’t forget to check out Splashdown Books and the fine collection of authors being assembled there.
As one Splashdown author, I can testify to much of what Grace said here about the process. One nice advantage with indie publishing instead of going it alone is all the collaboration and help you get. Looking at the edits on my next book I need to do tells me this will be a well-polished story by the time it gets published there.
But not all indie presses are the same either. I don’t know that my last indie publisher did much if any editing. If he did, it was a once over for typos and such and that was it. So it is good to ask about their editing process before you sign on, because you should get something for giving up a percentage of the profits, and help editing is one key item publishers should help with.
Grace does a very good job on all fronts given the resources at her disposal. Good job, Grace, and a good interview, Mike. Enjoyed it.
Interesting interview. You said you’re “no fan of strictures.” But what exactly does that mean? Can you be more specific. What do you allow that the mainstream conservative publishers don’t?
As one of her authors, I can respond to what is in my books that wouldn’t likely get the nod from a CBA publisher (though you never know, but based on history…). Grace might be able to respond more generally once she wakes up on the other side of the world. 🙂
In my Reality Chronicals series, Grace is publishing (2 books out currently, one left to go), there is some violence, ale drinking as a standard drink (it is a medieval type setting), references to rape, and in the book yet to come, an example of a married couple having sex (off “screen”) and the protag sinning in that regard–all necessary parts of the plot. It also has a magic system (really bad in some Christian sectors) and scenes where saints appear to help guide the protags (some equate it with “speaking with the dead” and would disapprove).
Simply put, the story is probably too religious for most secular publishers, and too taboo for CBA publishers. Thanks to a publisher like Grace, those stories can be told pretty much as I envisioned them.
I’m going to jump in here, since Grace is in the NZ time zone and it’s still early morning there–she’s not ignoring these questions! I’m sure she’ll be buzzing through here soon.
I think by “strictures” she means several different things. First of all, the sheer weirdness of the various speculative genres which tends to leave many mainstream publishers scratching their heads. Aliens, alternate universes, time travel, etc. And some things that Christian publishers shy from, such as magic. But also, the way those things are handled.
One book, for example, The Duke’s Handmaid by Caprice Hokstad, is about a society in which slavery is the norm. A mainstream Christian publisher would–I would guess–expect slavery to be something that is shown only in true historical context, and be shown as a bad thing. But Caprice’s book doesn’t do that. It’s a made-up world and slavery is not shown to the reader as either good or bad–only slave-owners are differentiated that way. If anything, the MC sees being a slave as something desirable. The thing is, Caprice’s book makes you *think* rather than showing you in black and white.
Anyway, I’ll let Grace expand on her definition of “strictures,” but I wanted to interject a bit.
(And of course, no need to enter me, since I’m one of the authors at Splashdown.)
Well, strictures was the word Mike used in his question, so that’s why I used it too 😉 But as my team members have already mentioned (thanks guys!) it can include stuff like sexual situations, slavery as a neutral or even positive condition, and the other things I talked about above. Keven Newsome’s Winter has a fair bit of violence and gruesomeness, however as we have seen, the CBA seems more open to that than to sex.
Funny enough, from a story point of view, it is often stronger to build up sexual tension and then leave it unfulfilled suddenly. I have read (and written) this a number of times and to me it is always a highly effective way to create a powerful emotional experience in the reader. Still, as Rick said, his married couple gets to “do it” off-screen (though not very far off, as I recall!) and he certainly isn’t the only one of my crew to do something like that.
I am perplexed at some of the reactions to Alpha Redemption by P.A. Baines, where reviewers have considered it “unchristian” that the artificial intelligence entered a relationship with God in its own way. I don’t see why that should be a theological no-no, even if it doesn’t seem practically possible from where we are now. That’s what we’re all about – dreaming the unfathomable.
As for what the conservative publishers don’t allow, I can’t really speak for them. For myself, I will allow anything that 1) I LIKE, and 2) is GOOD for the story.
I am a huge fan of Splashdown Books and Grace is a dear friend. The level of quality and care put in to each title is substantial. And it seems with each new book comes a new level of growth and excellence for Grace and the team. Great interview, Mike. Please don’t enter me into the drawing though. I will have my own print copy as soon as I can but it.
Enjoyed this, Mike and Grace. I truly appreciate what Grace is doing over there in NZ with Splashdown. She’s a continual inspiration to me, here at Port Yonder. Her dedication, integrity, and untiring commitment to great books are the type of qualities that will propel Splashdown to “Best Indie” status in the years to come. Kudos!
Chila
Wow, thanks, Chila. The inspiration is totally mutual, let me assure you…
Isn’t it cool how we can all work together to this extent even though we’ve mostly never met? I love the internet!
But we have Skype! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your time, Grace–and so much of it! 🙂
Great interview, Mike and Grace. You don’t have to enter me for the drawing. I’m on the “team” already and all of us have had a hand in polishing Aquasynthesis. Seriously, what other traditional publisher would let all its authors spend literally DAYS debating over the title font for the cover? And if you think that’s intense, that’s NOTHING compared to the editing and proofing that’s gone on INSIDE. For anyone who hasn’t read a Splashdown book yet, it will be a great smorgasbord of fiction, showing off all the authors here and their various talents. It’s an easy way to try everyone out in small, manageable bites without a large investment in time or monetary outlay.
Well, even though we ran through 27 different font options in the team, I did actually pick something different in the end. But the brainstorming was definitely valuable to get a feel for what everyone likes. I want everyone involved to own this project!
These are exciting times, all right…and not a little scary. Great interview and enlightening. Thanks Grace and Mike. (Did I win? hope-a, hope-a, hope!)
It has been really great to watch Splashdown Books grow over the past years which have been an intense mixture of publishing news involving way too many references to “inevitable catastrophe” and digital hyperbole.
Independent really means independent in this case. So glad to see someone clever enough and dedicated enough to go a different route and make it work. Splashdown isn’t the only example of an indie with their brains firmly in skull, but they are a very good one.
I do have a business question, two, actually: do you ever talk with Jeff Gerke regarding business challenges, and is there any synergy (cost sharing or marketing boost) that Splashdown could gain with other similar companies such as MLP? Both of you have done an excellent job positioning yourselves as a source of your own books. Would there be any wisdom in entering some sort of significant cross-promotion?
I know Splashdown and MLP writers help each other out every chance they get. There is a tremendous show of support among the indie publishers and their authors.
Thanks, xdpaul! Yes, I do talk with Jeff on occasion, though we haven’t taken it to full-blown collaboration. I would certainly be open to that. As Diane said, there has been a lot of support on the inter-author level with things like endorsements. Like Chila said, I work a lot with her, and also with Kristine Pratt at Written World Communications. They both have a ton of amazing ideas and I am fortunate to get to share in them.
xdpaul, we DO have a venture we started recently called the IndieGalaxy Publishers Assoc., and we’re working at getting great ideas together to share with other indie presses, essentially to help each other with marketing, promos, etc. You can find us on Facebook; look for some substantial growth in that area within the next 6-9 months or so.
chila
Thanks chila!
I really admire Grace’s work and dedication to getting great SF books out there!
Mike and Grace,
Excellent interview. As another one of Grace’s converts, okay it’s really akin to the Stepford Wives (authors), I can say she is nothing but supportive of the publishing process from beginning to end. She is truly passionate about putting out the best story possible, but one that is also entertaining and well written. It is my hope that she enjoys the greatest success in the future, since the kind of stories she is publishing are badly needed in the industry.
I must object to the Stepford thing. Y’all are FAR too much trouble for that label to ever fit. 😉
That’s also why the term “stable” certainly doesn’t apply. Authors aren’t horses, nor are they robots, but they are often more difficult than both – and more rewarding for sure.
Great website, but I didn’t see any information on how to query. And I may just have something for you, Grace.
I hope I’m allowed to post a link.
http://www.splashdownbooks.com/submissions.html
Cool! I look forward to that, John.
I don’t make my submissions process easy to find, since it’s still only me reading what comes in. So it takes a little investigating of my site menus 😉 You will also see that our submissions don’t operate quite like other publishers. But if you like what you see, definitely do get in touch!
Well, I’m officially fascinated. And I’d love to win a copy of Aquasynthesis.
It is so good to see indie publishers taking up the charge on SFF, especially for Christian authors who don’t want to preach. Cheers. 🙂
Thanks for the interview Mike. I’ve been lurking on LGG for a while now and have always appreciated Grace leading the charge for spec-fiction.
Looking forward to more.
My Dearest Grace and Mike,
Awesome interview,of course anything with Grace is! (Who me-biased) NAW! LOL
Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments! Any more questions out there?
Grace, I really like the cover for Keven Newsome’s Winter. I think it’s one of your best. Can you tell me a little more about it.
Thanks! We love it too 🙂 This one was a real team effort, and wouldn’t have been possible without a whole row of people. First, Chila introduced me to artist Holly Heisey last year, and she did a couple of other covers for us first (Tales of the Dim Knight, and The Crystal Portal) – and Keven and I decided early on that we wanted her work on Winter as well. Keven made his own book trailer with actress Mary Unsworth, who also posed for the cover while Keven’s wife DeAnna (who has also created the Aquasynthesis cover) shot the photos. Holly then took that image and created the cover, using the fonts Keven and I had chosen. And Heather Young came in at the last minute to rescue me when I had trouble with the text on the back cover. You can see some of the photoshoot in the Making Of videos, and of course the trailer itself, at Keven’s Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/kevennewsome.
So there were a lot of people involved in a lot of ways, and all of them are absolutely brilliant and amazing!
What you are doing is a good thing, Grace. Indie publishers have always filled a void left by big publishers. In todays market, that could become even more important. The industry is definitely caught up in a dynamic situation and it will be interesting to see where it all leads.
Grace, a few last questions, if you are still taking them:
Say you have a book that eventually sells, consistently, 10 (total hypothetical here just to keep my math easy) copies a month, online and e, and so at a certain point you are making nothing but profit, with a fairly reliable (if small, per book) revenue stream. But it might take you two years to get to that point. Once you do, it nets you black toward the bottom line going forward.
Do your contracts in any way capture those publishing rights, so that you can successfully “cement” the relationship with the author, at least for that one book? A lot of bigger publishers sign something like a three year contract, because, for the most part, they are going to make whatever money up front, and revenue will shrink over time. For the independent, it seems like it would be (happily, in some instances) the reverse: revenue could be good over time, even though there’d be no “flood of sales” to kick things off.
I’ll ask the question this way: what protects your inventory? Do your contracts address that? It would be too bad for the contract to expire and you to miss out on future success the book might have.
I think this hypothetical is sort of the reverse dilemma of authors who do well enough for their publisher, but quit the industry because they can’t make the money work out for themselves personally.
Well, most of our titles get to that point a lot sooner than two years. But yes, you are right. My contracts are for five years initially and self-extending by one year on each anniversary thereafter unless one of the parties wishes to withdraw. In five years I’m 99% certain to make back my costs in any case. Many titles do in fact have that initial “flood of sales” but for those that don’t, yes, it can take a year or two.
“Future success” must also be further defined. If a title were to be removed from my inventory and marketed elsewhere, it would need to be completely repackaged as I own the rights to the interior and exterior design, and I own the ISBN – this means that any new edition would essentially not be able to ride what buzz already exists for the old edition. It would be like starting from zero and trying to build up that momentum again. Having worked with a number of second editions myself, I can tell you that it isn’t easy!
To which I can only say, yay! Good to see the seeds for long-range vitality are in place. Thanks.
Kat!
You are one of the authors at Splashdown? I need to read your book when it comes out. 🙂
Oh, and I was checking out the site because of Keven’s book. This publisher makes me want to play with (try writing in) a paranormal genre just to see if it’s for me.
Hi, Michelle! Yep, I’m with Splashdown now.
Keven’s book is awesome, isn’t it?
Writing paranormal is fun–I say go for it :).
Go for it, Michelle! Try it and see what you come up with. I’m not usually a horror/paranormal person at all, but since starting the Darkwater line I have dabbled in writing it a little and found to my surprise that I like it. I don’t think anything can replace my first love of SF, but there’s always room for expansion!
Amazing interview and Grace is such an awesome, gifted and talented person.
As an Indie author I wholeheartedly agree with Grace. There are some major pluses associated with working with an independent publisher. And the fact that my book was published by a smaller press didn’t keep a filmmaker from expressing an interest in making a movie from my book. The publisher even provided some valuable assistance in the process.
Thomas Smith
author of Something Stirs
As an author with an indie press, I find that it’s nice to be part of a team. Even submitting to edits for my novel has helped me grow as a writer. I love the close relationships in a small press. Splashdown Books is a great indie press I have no hesitation recommending. Well done, Grace. I hope you’ll be able to carve out more time for your own books soon, too.
Great interview. I love how its a team endeavor with Splashdown 🙂