European Geeks Publishing is proud to announce that we will be unveiling a General Fiction Imprint soon! We are very excited about this venture into the world of general fiction and cannot wait to see the spectacular manuscripts that find their way into the EGP family! 

We are currently accepting early submissions for General Fiction, as well as still accepting Fantasy & Science Fiction work. 

General Fiction will cover all aspects and age ranges of the following genres: 
Action
Adventure
Comedy
Crime
Historical
Horror
Paranoid
Philosophical Fiction
Political Fiction
Romance
Saga
Thriller 
Urban

Magical Realism, Science Fiction (including Steampunk), Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction will continue to be released under the European Geeks Publishing Imprint. 

As The Multiverse of Max Tovey climbs the Amazon Best Seller's Chart in Time Travel in both the UK and the US, we thought it was time to introduce an underlying character in the novel. One of the main places that Max Tovey visits throughout the novel is a lovely little spot called The Prince of Wales Inn, a real-life location nestled beautifully beside Ham Hill, another location that Max finds himself on several occasions. 

One of the most spectacular things about The Multiverse of Max Tovey is the author's ability to weave real-life places and historical moments into the storyline - making for a fabulous blend of science fiction, fantasy, and history. 

As one of Alastair Swinnerton's favorite local watering holes, it was only natural that The Prince of Wales Inn would find its way into the tale. Similar to NYC in Sex & the City, The Prince of Wales Inn is an unannounced character that grows, changes and flows right alongside the main characters. 

With spectacular views, open spaces, dog-friendly policies, and fantastic owners - it is no surprise that Swinnerton's favorite writing/watering hole snuck its way into the story, becoming its own beloved character joining you as your journey across time and Multiverses with Max Tovey. 

You can find more information and photographs of The Prince of Wales Inn on their website or Facebook page. And if you happen to be in the Somerset area, stop by The Prince of Wales Inn, grab a drink, and enjoy the breathtaking views. Make sure you tell them Max Tovey sent you! 

You can pre-order your copy of The Multiverse of Max Tovey now on one of these sites: 

                    
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
European Geeks 

Heaven's Forgotten, written by author Branden Johnson, puts a darker spin on the Heavenly creatures referred to as Angels. This gripping tale explores the After, showing what can happen when an Angel becomes one of the Fallen. 

Dark, grim, witty, and full of mystery - Heaven's Forgotten will keep you turning page after page... 

Look for Heaven's Forgotten towards the end of Fall 2015.  

As an author, I understand the excitement that you may feel when it comes time to submit your manuscript to publishers. It's nerve-racking... terrifying... and sometimes you can get carried away in the moment. 

As a publisher, let me give you a word of warning. 

No matter how excited you are - take time to read the submission guidelines carefully. 
                        

You're probably reading this right now, shaking your head and uttering the phrase, "Duh," but let me stop you right there. You would be surprised how many submissions come through in which it is clear that they did not follow our specific instructions.

If a publisher states to only include the first x-amount of chapters - include that exact amount. Do not include more, do not include less. 

If a publisher states not to include attachments - do not include attachments! If you include an attachment when the publisher's guidelines request the information be pasted into the body of an email, it is extremely likely that your submission email will be deleted - no matter how good your chapters may be. 

If they request a bio, work history, and a little bit about the book - make sure to include that information. If they ask for your social media links or a light marketing plan - don't forget to add that in. Read and reread the guidelines... then read and reread your submission! 

I understand that publishers become a blur when you're sending out submission after submission... but the same happens on our end. We see a high volume of submission emails come through. There is always another one behind yours. And keep in mind, if we think you can't follow simple directions now - what's to say you'll be easy to work with later? Publishing is a non-stop, busy industry... especially for the smaller presses that wear a lot of hats. If you want to make sure your submission has a fair shot - follow the directions! 

European Geeks Publishing is proud to announce the newest title coming this year - Heaven's Forgotten by Branden Johnson. Check out the cover below! Synopsis blurbs coming soon! 

By Mark Taylor

So you’ve finished writing your novel, right? Best feeling in the world, right? Yeah. It’s cool and all. But what now? I mean you need to publish it, right?

So you’ve got two choices. Depending on your first choice will depend on how many other choices you have. This is going to be a long list.

*Crawls under desk. Cries a lot.*

Choice one: Do you want to publish it yourself, yes or no?

Self-publishing is a viable choice for a writer to make. There can be numerous reasons to self-publish but the first consideration has to be, is it good enough? It’s the reason readers are drowning in a swill of tripe (am I mixing my metaphors?). People self-publish because they can, not because they should. Now I’m not bashing anyone—mentioning no names—but it’s easy to self-publish. I mean really easy. My mum could it. Damn. That’s a frightening thought because my mum is not a writer…but she can publish a book. I know a solid number of writers who self-publish because it’s right for them. I’ve done it. Many excellent authors I know have done it. This isn’t aimed at those people. This is aimed at a) writers who want to be published (and published now, dammit!) and b) writers who have tried getting published in the traditional sense, and failed.

So where was I? Ah yes, is it good enough?

No. No, it’s not *ducks behind desk to avoid thrown typewriter*. I’m a writer. Yeah, like you. I love my work. It’s the best. My cat likes it, my brother likes it, hell, even my bestest bud ever likes it. It has to be the greatest work of fiction. I mean, how can it not?

I’m sorry, my writerly friends. Your work blows monkey balls. You want to self-publish? Fine. But here’s what you have to consider:

Firstly, beta-readers. No, not your mum. Get your head out of your ass. When you were five she put that picture you drew in crayons on the refrigerator. She asked you to ‘Tell her all about it’, didn’t she? The refrigerator was a filthy lie. And she’ll still do it. You need impartial experienced readers to critique your work. They’ll find the plot holes your cat can’t see. They’ll tell you that your characters are unbelievable. Your acts aren’t right. What do you mean Paris isn’t the capital of China? Then once you’ve done that, you need an editor. People always assume I’m an English language GOD. “What do you mean you can’t teach English at a graduate level?” they say. “You’re a writer, aren’t you?” *As my fingers wrap tightly around their neck and I squeeze*

I can barely speak English, let alone know my past from my passed, and occasionally pasta.

So, yeah. Editor to sort that out.

Oh, and of course you’ll need to understand KDP and KDP Select, and if you use KDP Select you can’t publish on Smashwords, and you need to know the differences between Lightning Source, Createspace, and Lulu. Can you sell a PDF from your website if you’re publishing through Amazon? Yeah. Read those contracts. That small print.

*Whimpers*

Then, you need to make sure that your wonderful, polished, grammatically correct, character driven masterpiece doesn't look like a dog turd. For starters? A formatter. You know, because you don’t know how to use a word processor at university standard, and every company that will publish your book either in eBook format or traditional print will have different guidelines. And templates. And publishing times. And pricing options.

Of course, you can learn to do that yourself. I did. Now I format for other people for a price. Because knowledge is money. Or something like that.

Now you need a cover. I created my own cover for my first self-published book *Smirks*. Yeah. These days I’m pretty adept at cover design. There are several people with my covers on their books…but that first one? *Snorts*

So you’re asking for beta-readers (probably in a favour-trade situation). You’re paying for editing. You’re paying for formatting. You’re paying for cover design. You have a nose-bleed from reading the small print on Amazon’s KDP Select. Why did you want to self-publish again?

Then you can press the button. And nothing will happen. Because without a hulking-mega-publishing-house-of-awesome behind you, you now need to go and sell your book. To other people. I’m a writer. I don’t do human interaction.

So we’re going to traditionally publish the book. I mean, it’s the only option. No it isn't. Did you skip read to here?

Anyway. Getting someone else to publish your book. It’s easy right? None of this formatting, cover art, editing, malarkey. You just send it out and book magically appears. Like the shop keeper. From Mr. Benn.

No. More choices. Do you want to publish traditionally through a massive publisher? Do you need an agent? Do you want to dip your pinky toe in the waters of a small press? What about straight out here-take-my-money-and-print-my-book? Okay we’ll start with the last one.

Vanity publishing.

I know people will scoff and snarl at this, but there is a place in the industry for vanity publishing. Basically it’s for people who want to be published, wants all the things that you need to become published, but wants to write a cheque to make all the problems go away and generally speed the process up. Fine. If that’s what you want. They’ll charge you exorbitant sums of money, and treat you like a pro-author. If that’s what you want. Those publishers who provide vanity publishing and don’t hide the fact that they charge a publishing fee are providing a service. Nothing wrong with that. Granted, I want them to disappear up the own mothers asshole, but still. A service.

Okay, that now said, I do have something to add: Some vanity publishers have a guise of being a traditional publisher. In other words they don’t tell you that they charge a fee until the contract rolls in. Sometimes months later. They’ve wooed you. Caressed your tender author ego. They've said your work, no, YOUR WORK is the best they have ever seen. It makes Stephen King look like a novice. It’ll outsell EL James. You are a master of the art. The contract comes through. OH EM GEE. It’s like eighty pages long. It’s all jargon-y and mystical. It must be truly signed. But in the small print, you may just find that in order to outsell EL James (you won’t) you need to pay them £2500 in ten easy to pay installments!

Scum sucking bottom feeders.

So we’re not doing that, amirite?

Okay, so you've decided not to go vanity-pub. You want to go small, independent, publisher. How do you work out which is a vanity-pub in disguise? Which are the good ones? And what the hell do I do now?

Sorry to tell you this, but you’re still going to need some beta-readers. But if you read this far, you probably knew most of this wasn't exactly going to be good news. But, you've fine-combed your manuscript, re-read and re-written. It is ready. You go online and find a press you think suits your needs. They seem small. They’re offering a professional service. Firstly go here: http://pred-ed.com/peba.ht. Predators and Editors have a comprehensive list of small to large publishing houses and gives you an idea of what they are like. They will tell you if the publisher you like is a fraud. Then, Google it. Do some research. Then, use social media. Facebook is your friend.

I know some people are all, “Geez, just send it to them. Don’t waste time with this, you haven’t signed a contract…vent…whine.” And then there’s me. “But you haven’t had a manuscript stolen. Your work plagiarized. Or worse. The stories I read of “publishers” stalking and threatening writers.” I like safe, not sorry.

Then, after you've gone through all that, you need to read their submissions guidelines. Format your document (don’t worry, it’s simple stuff), font changes, tab removal sometimes, and pay close attention to how much they want of your manuscript. If they want three chapters, send three chapters.

Now you need to write a covering letter. You can’t write this first, because often they’ll specify in the submission guidelines what they want in that too. Then you send it.

*Butterflies in the stomach*

*Months pass*

You wait. Even a small publishing house has a big backlog. Hundreds upon hundreds of novels get sent to them weekly. Depressing, isn’t it? Don’t worry. Some of them will suck monkey balls.

An important factor in sending out manuscripts to publishers is in the guidelines, and will refer to simultaneous submissions. If I publisher says that they accept simultaneous submissions then that means you can send your manuscript to multiple publishing houses at the same time. Rather than wait for the first to reply, you can send out you manuscript to as many publishers as you want. I find it important to look for that. Waiting twelve months—or longer—for a no is depressing enough. But then starting afresh is even harder. Get it out there.

Want a word of warning? Of course you do. When flooding the market with your book—which you won’t after you’ve read this, right?—don’t be tempted to put a cover-all covering letter. You have to craft every letter in the same way you craft your manuscript. Write. Re-write. Personalize it. Make the publishing house know that it’s them, and no one else, that you adore and want to be with for like, always. If you dear sir/madam it they’ll know.

Then it won’t matter how God-like your manuscript is.

It’s a long, hard, process, but it pays off. You can get in. Have conversations. Schmooze. I’m a writer, my schmoozing is just plain awkward but these good people are used to that. On a completely random side-note, one of the marketing team of a publishing house I was working with told me I needed an elevator pitch—a short 30 second pitch of my book I could give over to a prospective publisher in the time it would take to take an elevator to shift a few floors. I’m in an elevator with someone I don’t know. All I’m doing in concentrating on not farting. Anyway, I digress.

But that’s all beneath you, right? You’re going in big. It’s Big Six, or nothing! (While technically now five after a merging, Big Six generally refers to the largest publishing houses in the world: Simon and Schuster, Penguin/Random House, Macmillan, Hachette, and HarperCollins) Do you need an agent? Hell, yes! Will they get you published? *Shrugs and walks off*

Okay, you’re hitting high. Do you need an agent? Technically, no. It is possible to break the Big Six without an agent, but let’s be honest, it’s about as likely as me winning Miss World. I’m six-five and have a beard.

So, yeah. Need an agent. Do I have an agent? No. I’m talking from what I've learned for this bit, not from experience. I took the long road. I've been honing my art. I should be looking for an agent for one of my next two novels. We’ll see. Finding an agent is a little like finding a small publisher. You find one you want to work with, research, and approach. You’ll need individual covering letters again, and out you go. Selling yourself to the world. If you are going to try and sell your first completed manuscript to an agent, you had better be sure. Sure you have it. Whatever it is. Why? Time, mostly.

You know those months waiting for a small publishing house to come back with a yes or no? Well, you’re doing that again. Except this time you’re not getting a publishing deal after the wait. You’re getting someone on board who can sell for you. Barter for you. Sell you. Wheel. Deal. Understand the legal side (I haven’t mentioned the legal side of contracts, or negotiations. That’s a whole different ramble). Then you wait again while your agent does the selling. Tries to find you a publishing house.

And it’s not all roses. Sure, your agent can open doors for you that you couldn't open yourself. But sometimes you’ll end up back with a small publisher. You might have a better contract, you might not. You won’t know where the road takes you until you get there.

So which of the choices is right for you? I can’t answer that. Shit, this whole ramble hasn't answered much. But hopefully it’ll help you consider things you hadn't.

Oh, and my cat is my harshest critic. He never misses a thing.

About the Author: Mark Taylor’s debut novel, Shutter Speed, crash landed on planet earth in 2013. Its dark brooding style benchmarked his writing and has led to further releases of novel and short story collection alike.

While most of Mark’s work is macabre, occasion has it that he will write about kittens and daisies. Just not very often.

Some say he is a product of his environment, others, a product of his own imagination.

Whichever it is he works happily, portraying dark existences on this planet and others. He relays his fears and doubts on his characters, so always has a smile. If Mark is real, as some say he is, you might find him in England.

Perhaps.

Website: www.authormarktaylor.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorMarkTaylor

Twitter: www.twitter.com/filingwords

Take a look around, check out the excerpts, and follow the links at the bottom! Don't forget to enter the raffle for a chance to win a free copy! 

Jessica is a member of The St. Louis Writer’s Guild. Her stories have been featured by Bewildering Stories, Fiction on the Web, Beyond Imagination Literary Magazine, Hellfire Crossroads, and others. She has a Paranormal Romance novelette titled Tale of Two Bookends through Cobblestone Press LLC, and a children’s book about religious diversity and acceptance titled, My Family Is Different. You check her out at www.jessicamariebaumgartner.com

Social media Links:

Author Website: www.jessicamariebaumgartner.com

Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessicamariebaumgartner

Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessmbaum


Purchase Links:

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/by-the-stars-jessica-marie-baumgartner/1122366009?ean=9781943755035

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Stars-Book-One-Embracing-Entropy-ebook/dp/B0128Z4FLE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438352585&sr=8-1&keywords=by+the+stars+jessica+baumgartner

European Geeks Publishing: http://www.europeangeeks.com/by-the-stars.html

    I used to have nightmares about this. I would wake up scream­ing as they forced me to leave. People giving up; abandoning Mother Earth. The thought alone caused my heart to race, my under arms to sweat.
    
    Here I stand clutching my children, one on each side, as we pre­pare to be torn away from everything that’s tangible. Before me, a gargantuan structure glares from above. This beast, this ship is supposed to save humanity, or at least what’s left of it.
    
    I’ve lived through mass devastation. It’s hardened me enough.
    
    But leaving? It still scares me.
    
    We have no idea what’s out there for us.
    
    My husband has faith in the alien colony that is aiding us. They made contact just in time. Said they had revolutionized their space program and stumbled upon our signal.
    
     I don’t know what I believe.
    
     As the line moves forward, I pull my girls along. They stumble ahead with fright, carrying their backpacks strapped to their bodies. Our packs are the only human luggage allowed on the crowded craft. But that’s not what they’re worried about.
    
    It’s not the new race they fear. Or even the new world. It is the missing presence of their father.