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Retiring! Maybe. Probably. For now, at least.

6K views 76 replies 74 participants last post by  N. Gemini Sasson 
#1 ·
Jennifer Blake and I announced to our newsletter list back in November that we'd be shuttering Steel Magnolia Press this spring. So, I thought I'd also share here why, just to get ahead of any rumors regarding any reduced visibility we may have going forward.

I retired from the corporate world in Jan 2011, with thoughts of writing and publishing a couple of my own books. That summer, JB and I started serious discussion around publishing some of her novellas. We studied the ebook market, and when she was offered a 6-figure contract for a new historical romance series but the publisher couldn't provide any marketing assurances, she declined the offer. We launched our pub thing (SMP) in Nov 2011.

36 of JB's otherwise out-of-print backlist books were with her agent's pioneering E-Reads (and had been since 1999/2000). When half that catalog came up for renewal in Dec, SMP negotiated to subcontract the ebook rights to the titles not up for renewal in exchange for renewing print and audio rights for the other half. A few months later, E-Reads sold the audio rights for all 36 titles to Audible (and Audible agreed to use the matching covers we provided them).

We published those tiltles as ebooks over the next year, then invited a handful of other authors with rights-reverted books to join us. We even subcontracted rights for another author from E-Reads (which was later sold to Open Road). We worked with those authors, helping with book covers and ebook formatting and marketing, and when their 2-year contracts were up, and I was ready to cut back on hours, we sent them back out on their own with solid ebooks, ranks, reviews, royalties and marketing plans.

JB wrote two new contemporary romance series after SMP launched. One of her box set collections spent 7 weeks in the Top 100. During 2014 and 2015, I put together and managed 3 dozen box sets to various degrees of success. A couple hit USAT. One hit NYT. I quit managing box sets at the end of 2015, again to gain more hours back in my life.

JB and I discussed shuttering in the fall of 2016, but then news came that a 6-book historical romance series was eligible for rights-reversion. We jumped, and decided to do this thing for another year or so.

In fall 2017, when a play to get the rights back to her final 2 series with her publisher (9 books total) fell through because their sales were still too high, JB, in her mid-70s and after 50 years in the writing biz, decided real retirement would be nice. I agreed...for both of us! So in September, I wrote out a 6-month close-down plan.

That plan included a new limited-time Christmas boxed set, unpubbed in Jan, and 2 limited-time "Best Of" box sets -- one with contemporary works and one with historicals. BookBub kindly featured the Best Of boxes in Feb and March. The contemporary will be unpubbed today; the historical at the end of the month. The boxes were meant for the tail to keep JB's catalog afloat once we ended our advertising on Mar 31. My commission on her catalog ends with her April royalties, although I'll still be watching over her catalog -- which will remain in KU -- and, if she decides to dip her own toe into advertising later on, I'll offer my guidance.

It's possible she or I will get the itch to write a new book, or that those final 9 books of hers will become eligible for reversion. If so, we may gear up again for the short term to launch any new stuff. But that's all in 2019 or 2020, if at all.

For now, save for the final spreadsheeting and housekeeping, I'm officially retired. (I'm 58 for anyone who cares.) Lots of time now to brush pony manes, garden and play with the pooches. Which doesn't preclude my keeping a light finger on the pulse of indie publishing. So no, you haven't gotten rid of me...quite...yet. :)
 
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#3 ·
I don't think any of us would want to get rid of you, Phoenix S.

Congratulations on a long career and for all of the marks you have made on indie publishing! I'm hoping this is just a sabbatical, both for selfish reasons and for the industry as a whole. 58 is very young! But, I also understand sometimes in life we do have to close one door and walk through another.

Regardless of your future plans, I wish you the very best.
 
#8 ·
Congrats! Though I suspect that you'll find yourself wanting to swing around back into things after some downtime. That seems to be a common pattern with people I know who retired early--they enjoy the break, and then either come back to their earlier profession on a part-time basis, or they look for something else entirely to do.

Whatever happens, you've been one of the shining lights of this community, and I for one hope you keep your oar in.
 
#11 ·
Congratulations, Phoenix. I retired at about that age myself after I was laid off from an office job. Part of what pushed me was seeing a woman I worked with who had been planning and looking forward to her own retirement for several years end up close to death in the hospital with kidney failure after her blood pressure meds were changed. She survived, but her lovely plans did not. Waiting until all my ducks were in a row suddenly looked like more of a gamble than I wanted to take. Of course things got financially shaky after a couple of years and without my books I'd have had to slink back to the office. You're obviously in a better position for it than I was, but I've never been sorry. Best of luck.
 
#21 ·
Congratulations, Phoenix, and happy pony manes. :) SMP has always been, in my mind, the exemplar of what a digital-age small press should be. You've done such a wonderful job.
 
#25 ·
Congrats on your retirement and all the best. I hope you get to enjoy your downtime and do some cool stuff you have been meaning to do. There is never enough time to do it all.
 
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