Ten years ago, I got the call…well actually it was an e-mail, that every writer hopes for. The one telling you a publisher would like to offer you a contract for your book. I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for The Wild Rose Press. I told Rhonda when I contacted her about interviewing her, I’ll always be thankful to her for giving me my first break and making my dream come true.
To celebrate my tenth anniversary of being a published author, here’s my interview with Rhonda who is also president of the company too…
This Writer’s Life (TWL)-For readers who don’t already know a lot about The Wild Rose Press can you give us some background about when you got started.
Rhonda Penders (RP)-The Wild Rose Press was started in May 2006 by RJ Morris and myself. We were both published authors and also critique partners. When e-books were just starting to come into being, we decided to take a chance and open an e-publishing company. At the time it was only e-books, but soon print books became part of the distribution and today audio books are also part of it.
TWL-WRP is one of the older, established e-publishers. Others have come and gone. What do you credit to your staying power?
RP-To be honest its great customer service. Customers being our authors and our readers. The fact that our authors care about us and we care about them and we are all in this together makes it work. We work very hard to resolve any issues and to make sure our authors know they are our number one priority. We also are very careful with our cash flow. We never overspend and we try to keep our budgets in line. That’s important in an environment where you never know what the sales income will be from quarter to quarter.
TWL-You first published romances and now have moved into mysteries too. Did you see a big market for that genre?
RP-We actually have moved into mainstream fiction not just mysteries. The reason we opened to all fiction was a big push by our authors for women’s fiction. But yes our mystery line is one of our biggest lines.
TWL-Is there any type of book that’s hot right now and any up and coming genres or themes that are on the horizon?
RP-I never say what’s hot and what’s not because it will change with the next wind. For a long time erotic romance was really popular and then it slowed down but now its swinging back up again. Historical fiction, historical romance the same thing. For a long time no one wanted them and now they are popular once more. Everything comes back around.
TWL-Is there a category or genre that you’d say is under-represented…one that doesn’t get a lot of submissions?
RP-I always think a good, well done time travel has a place and we don’t have as many of those as I’d like.
TWL-What do you look for in a story?
RP-Something that grabs a reader and doesn’t let go. A book that you can’t put down, you stay up to read and you think about it long after you’ve finished it. That’s a good story.
TWL-Any mistakes you see happening over and over again or any warnings you can give to potential authors?
RP-In today’s world when there are so many options for publishing, authors have gotten lazy. They send in anything, no matter what condition the manuscript is in and think that an editor will just fix it for them. It doesn’t work that way. You need to put your best foot forward when submitting to a publisher, an agent or even self-publishing. Your manuscript needs to be 100% ready before it goes anywhere. I think writers today have forgotten that.
TWL-Any particular stories you’d love to see right now?
RP-As I mentioned, we don’t see enough time travels. I’d love more of those. I’d also like to see some really good strong series as readers love series. We have a few calls for submissions on our website and we have a few more coming out that writers might want to check out.
Check out their web site at https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/
And visit their submission page at https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/content/8-submissions
Susan,
Still having trouble posting to Word Press, darn it. I enjoyed your interview with Rhonda Penders. Will you pass on to her that one of the things I always enjoyed about WRP when I reviewed for Romance Junkies is their great editing. Their books are good but their editing makes them even better.
Thanks—
Dee
Dee S. Knight
Somebody likes it hot … I’m somebody!
Visit me (http://nomadauthors.com)
Reblogged this on Denise D. Young and commented:
Interview with Rhonda Penders of The Wild Rose Press. Some excellent advice for authors in here!
Wonderful words of advice. I have learned on my writing path that it takes most of us a long time to become truly adept at writing fiction. I started off writing nonfiction for a magazine, and transitioning into my first love, writing romance and fantasy, has been more difficult than I initially thought–rewarding and wonderful, but it hasn’t been easy. Who knew building worlds from scratch would be so tricky?