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Confused Expressions #15: The Entitled Book

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Karl El-Koura — No Comments ↓

A book may, and usually does have a title, but it should not have an entitlement.

What I mean is that my first published novel, for example, is titled “Father John VS the Zombies,” but it is not entitled ”Father John VS the Zombies.” It is not even entitled to its title, since I granted that title to the book and can change it whenever I please (or even strip it away and publish the book as an untitled work, though that would be pretentious).

The confusion—and why many writers insist on referring to a written work as entitled something—may arise because I, as the author, confer the title onto the book. That is, I entitled my first novel with the title “Father John VS the Zombies.” But once I’ve entitled it, it’s now merely titled that. Clear as mud?

Posted in Blog, Confused Expressions

Science VS Religion—Guest Post at RoseBuz

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Karl El-Koura — No Comments ↓

Over at RoseBuz.com (whose proprietor is planning to review my novel Father John VS the Zombies later this year), I have a guest post titled “Science VS Religion.” I try to look at why we so often see these two disciplines as in conflict, and whether such a view may say more about us than it does about either science or religion.

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The End Is Here (Launch of “Father John VS the Zombies”)

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Karl El-Koura — No Comments ↓

Father John VS the Zombies is now officially out in the world! The ebook has started appearing on various retailers, with more to be added soon. The paperback is forthcoming.

Right now you can buy your ebook copy from:

Want more before you’re ready to buy? You can read a short interview to learn more about the book. More? You can read the first chapter on this website for free. Still more? OK, see the offer below.

Limited time offer!

Buy a copy of Father John VS the Zombies before December 31, 2012 and receive a coupon code to download one of Karl’s other ebooks for free. How? After you’ve bought your copy of Father John VS the Zombies, send an email to ebook_offer@ootersplace.com with the name of the ebook you’d like from the list below. You’ll receive a coupon code to use on Smashwords.com, from where you’ll be able to download the book you’ve chosen in a variety of formats (including ones for your personal computer, Kindle, Kindle Fire, iPhone/iPod Touch, B&N Nook, Sony Reader, and Kobo Reader).

Ooter's Pace and Other Stories of Fear, Faith, and Love Cover Art

Ooter’s Place and Other Stories of Fear, Faith, and Love

13 Short Tales

Why doesn’t God do something to stop the evil and suffering in the world? Some people who call themselves the “Atheists Against God” think they know the answer. And they know what they’re going to do about it, too.

A hired gun—who doesn’t use a gun and won’t be hired by just anyone—realizes that his profession is killing him, but finds it hard to quit. Until he discovers that his talent has more uses than he ever dreamed possible.

A young boy learns that his best friend is an alien. But does that mean they have to stop being friends?

 

The Lost Stories: A Series of Cosmic Adventures Cover ArtThe Lost Stories: A Series of Cosmic Adventures

Biblically Inspired Science Fiction Humor

These are the adventures of James Kollins: greedy, petty, selfish captain of the galactic warship “DeVille“; a man obsessed with the holodrama “Captain Courageous and the Women Who Love Him”; a man completely unforgiving of his much-maligned first officer.  A man who has just met the Creator of the universe, though he doesn’t quite realize it yet, and whose life is about to change in ways he never dreamed possible, though he doesn’t quite know it yet.

Part loving Star Trek parody homage, part spiritual journey, The Lost Stories is a series of cosmic and comic adventures that is silly, fun, and also demonstrates the Power of God working in the life of even the most self-obsessed warship captain you’ve ever met.

 

The Redeyes (Cover)The Redeyes: A Short Story

A science fiction short story about killer robots, Christ, and an ex-convict who holds the key to freedom for a group of survivors.

This ebook also contains the bonus story “Atheists Against God and the Devil of Destruction” from the author’s collection Ooter’s Place and Other Stories of Fear, Faith, and Love.

 

 

The Man Who Mistook Himself for a Superhero (Cover)The Man Who Mistook Himself for a Superhero

A man wakes up in a dumpster. He can’t remember his name or how he got there, but he discovers incredible things about himself: he can stop bullets with his chest, he can bend metal with his hands—and he can fly.

He has superpowers. . .but is he a superhero?

 

Posted in Blog, Writing

3 Days to Release of “Father John VS the Zombies”

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Karl El-Koura — No Comments ↓

Father John VS the Zombies will be officially launched this Wednesday, December 12.  Can’t wait? You can read a short interview to learn more about the book and, to whet your appetite, you can read the first chapter right now!

These characters and their story have been my own private domain* for too long.  I’m excited to let the book out into the world and to start sharing this story. (Unless everyone hates it and tells me what a terrible writer I am** … then I suppose it would’ve been better if I’d kept it private.)

Everything is on track for the launch this week (for the ebook, at least; the print version may take some extra time to make its way into the various retailers), so stay tuned for the official announcement on Wednesday.

* Except for my wife and my brother, who are my first readers on everything I write.

** Some people say writers suffer from self-esteem issues. Personally I don’t know what they’re talking about.

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Posted in Blog, Writing

A Self-Interview for “Ooter’s Place” (Transcript)

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Karl El-Koura — No Comments ↓

Last summer I published my short story anthology Ooter’s Place and Other Stories of Fear, Faith, and Love. At the time, I came up with what I thought was a funny idea to promote the book, and quickly sat down and wrote out a transcript of myself interviewing … myself. But I was so excited with everything going on that I completely forgot about it until I recently found the document while searching for something else. Now that I’m busy with other projects (like preparing to launch Father John VS the Zombies), I don’t think I’ll ever actually film the video, which is too bad, because re-reading the transcript gave me a chuckle and because I have weird hang-ups about wasting writing (for whatever reason, Christ’s order in John 6:12 that nothing be wasted has always resonated deeply with me).

So because I got a chuckle out of it, and so that nothing may be wasted, here is the never-filmed transcript of my self-interview to promote Ooter’s Place and Other Stories of Fear, Faith, and Love.

An Interview with Karl El-Koura

by Karl El-Koura

Close-up on K1.

K1: Karl El-Koura is a writer who lives in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, Ontario. He started submitting his work at the tender age of 15 and sold his first story in his last year of high school, for the princely sum of $15. Since then, over sixty of his short stories and articles have appeared in different magazines. Recently he published Ooter’s Place and Other Stories of Faith, Fear, and Love, a collection of 13 of his best short stories.

Camera pulls back, K2 is now seen.

K1: Welcome, Karl.

K2: Thanks, Karl.

K1: Tell us—a little bit about yourself.

K2: Didn’t you just do that? In the intro?

K1: (consulting notes, clearly isn’t listening) Wonderful. Tell us—a bit about the book you’ve just released.

K2: OK. It’s a short story collection, like you said. 12 of the stories were published between 1998 and 2010, and the 13th is a bonus story, exclusive to this collection. There’s a lot of variety here: you’ll find stories of science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective fiction, military fiction, and even superhero fiction.

K1: (still consulting notes, waiting for a pause) Wonderful. Tell us—why should someone buy your book?

K2: I think there are some good tales to be had here, first and foremost. A reader will get some solid hours of entertainment, while getting to know interesting characters and the worlds they inhabit.

Second, I hope people will discover or rediscover the magic of short stories. I first fell in love with the work of writers like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Philip K. Dick by reading their short stories. The “Father Brown” short mysteries by G.K. Chesterton, to take another example, are just delightful. I think short stories are wonderful because you can get a complete story with a beginning, a middle, and an end even if you only have, say, thirty minutes before your commute comes to an end.

Third, I hope that readers are exposed to genres that they may not otherwise read, especially since there’s a wide variety of genres on display in this collection. Typically we watch all kinds of movies (no one in my hearing has ever said, “I only watch science fiction movies”) but it sometimes seems that our tastes are more narrow when it comes to choosing books to read. I’m hoping at least a few readers who pick up this book will think to themselves, “I never thought I’d like a horror story, but I liked this one!” or “I thought spaceships and aliens weren’t my cup of tea, but this science fiction story was pretty good.”

K1 has been looking at K2, but not really listening.

K1: (talking to himself) That was a long answer. (looks down at his notes) Wonderful. Tell us—why should someone buy your book?

K2: I believe I just answered that.

K1: (looks off-camera) We’ll fix this in post, right? (nods, looks down at his notes) Wonderful. Tell us—what’s your favourite story in the collection?

K2: That’s a really hard question to answer. “They Came From Ooter’s Place” is the first story I sold, so it holds a special place in my heart. “At War” is an important reminder to me about being true to one’s values, despite what your friends and colleagues are doing. “Chasing Carrots,” the bonus story, I love because it’s about a love-affair with books. “The Curious Case of the Book Barron” is a lot of fun, and was born from the strange feeling I got walking into people’s homes who didn’t have any bookshelves or books. “A house without books is like a person without a soul,” one of the characters in the story says. “Atheists Against God and the Devil of Destruction” is one of my favourite titles, which is a bit funny because the magazine that bought it didn’t like it and made me change the title to “Confession.” But—

K1: (cuts him off) I just wanted one, really. (looks off camera) We can fix that in post, right? We’ll just cut him off after the first story he mentioned, the one with the weird title? (looks back down at notes) Wonderful, Karl. Just wonderful. Tell us—what are you working on now?

K2: Next up is a book called The ‘Lost’ Stories: A Series of Cosmic Adventures, which will collect my stories of Captain James Kollins. These are “feghoots” (funny stories that end with a pun) where the jokes are inspired by the Bible. They’re half-Star Trek parody, and half-spiritual or theological fiction. I think the stories are hilarious, but even if no one else laughs, I defy anyone to read these stories and not crack a smile at least—or groan out loud.

K1: Wonderful. Good luck with the film.

Camera closes in on K1. In the background, K2 is heard to say “What film? Have you been listening to anything I’ve said?”

K1: Ooter’s Place and Other Stories of Faith, Fear, and Love is now available in ebook and paperback formats. Visit www.ootersplace.com/OotersPlace/ for details. Thanks for watching.

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Posted in Blog, Writing

Writers: God Wants You to Outline Your Novel!

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Karl El-Koura — 1 Comment ↓

Father John VS the Zombies is the third novel I’ve written, but only the first I outlined.  Before Father John, I wrote two novels and over 60 short stories, never once working from an outline.  I just began at the beginning and kept writing until I came to the end, or until I realized that the story was a tangled mess and needed to be abandoned.  That’s the way I’d always read stories (start at the beginning and keep going until the end), so that’s the way I wrote stories; no one had told me otherwise (not for fiction at least, and the brainstorm-and-outline methods I was taught in my formal education for essays and papers didn’t seem that applicable to creative writing).  In fact, that was the rub; writing without outlining first (“pantsing,” some writers call it, because you’re flying by the seat of your pants) feels like creative, wild, chaotic writing; outlining seems (from the outside) too ordered, too structured, too—boring.  The first method feels like creating art; the second feels like building a shed from a blueprint.

However, one mission I’ve set myself as a writer is to try to do something a little different with each piece I write (so that even if it’s a complete disaster as a story, at least I learn something from writing it).  For Father John, I decided that I’d try outlining first.  Really try, I mean: I would look at the different processes successful non-pantsers used and take from their experience what I felt could work for me.  I explored a slew of options and through a process of trial-and-error, finally came up with a system that worked really well for Father John, and seems to be working well on my current work-in-progress.

Before I go on, allow me to pause and address the “creative genius” resistance to outlining.  This is the idea that by not having an outline, you’re tapping into your creative genius side.  What this way of thinking misses—what I missed when I thought this way—is that you yourself are writing the outline.  And that you’re doing it creatively—out of your creative genius side.  And that once you start writing the actual story, if you’ve done your outline at a high enough level (more on that later), you’re still working from your creative genius side.  In writing the outline, you’re mapping out the landscape of your story; in writing from the outline, you’re floating over the map you’ve sketched out and filling it in with rich, vibrant colours.  Both are creative.  Skipping the sketch and jumping to painting your map with colours isn’t necessarily more creative; it just means you’re doing both creative things (sketching the limits and filling in the details) at the same time.

And that’s one thing I loved about the process for Father John: it was fun to sketch out the whole story, and take a fifty-thousand-view of the novel so I could see where it stuck out in parts and where it didn’t stick out enough; then it was just as much fun to zoom into that sketch and start to fill it in, to make concrete and vibrant what I’d only so far seen in gray pencil outline, to bring the characters in my mind to life and set them loose on this world so they could walk around in it and breathe its air and interact with one another and make real and concrete this story in my head.

I was also able to write much more quickly than in previous work; or, to speak more accurately, I wasted less time.  I experienced bouts of writer’s block while writing Father John—the feeling that I didn’t have any words left inside of me, that nothing I wrote had any life in it—but most of the time, I sat down and wrote and wrote and wrote.  Because I knew, generally, where I had to take the characters.  I realized that previously, without an outline, I often sat down and had no idea what was supposed to happen next.  So I’d either write in circles for a while until I did figure it out, or I’d get up again and walk away to think about the story some more.  With Father John, once the outline was done, the challenge was to make a story out of that outline, to give concrete form to a shadow.  Not an easy challenge, of course, but breaking the task up proved easier and resulted in better quality work for me than trying to do both at once (create a bit of the shadow, give it concrete shape, create more shadow, etc.).

I’m sure it’s part of most writers’s experience that when you first think of an idea for a novel or a story, it’s never just that one idea.  It’s accompanied by a lot of ideas, by snippets of dialogues, by vibrant or vague snapshots of settings.  It’s an assault of ideas.  An outline helps you organize those into the narrative, and gives you a structure to place new ideas, turns of phrases, and clever (you hope) lines of dialogue as they occur to you.

Having my outline didn’t stifle my creativity, because it was a high-level outline and I still had to figure out the details in each scene—how to convey the main character’s anguish, for example, or what exact words he would use in that situation, or how to get him from point A to point B (the outline just told me he had to get there one way or the other).  In fact, having an outline allowed me to fully immerse myself in a particular scene, because a) I knew (and was easily able to reference) what came before and what would come after, and b) I didn’t have to worry if it fit into the larger arc as long as I ended up at the right place for that scene.

It was such a revelation that outlining felt to me like writing’s best-kept secret.  Suddenly writing was a lot more fun, too; because I could engage in spontaneous creativity of a particular scene without having to worry if it was going anywhere and without having to keep the whole story in my mind.  Strange how having those limits set me free to completely immerse myself in a scene.

With that revelation also came a sudden realization, that something Christ said lined up exactly with those thoughts.  Christ was, interestingly enough, warning people away from following Him, especially if they weren’t willing to commit fully.  He asked them if they would ever start a building project without sitting down first to figure out how much it would cost, and making sure they had enough money before beginning.  Otherwise, Christ said, everyone would laugh at them for laying down a foundation but not being able to complete the building.  It occurred to me that starting a big project like writing a novel was not dissimilar to starting a big project like building a tower; and that a lot of wasted effort (if not public mockery) could be avoided by sitting down and calculating the “cost” first.  What was the scope and structure of the novel?  Who was the main character?  How many other primary characters would participate in this story, and who were they?  How many secondary characters, and who were they?  What settings would the action play out against?  How many scenes, roughly?  Would they all be told from a single POV or from shifting perspectives?  Would the story be told in first-person or third-person narrative, or a mixture of the two?

Maybe I was stretching Christ’s words too far (and certainly if that’s all I got from them, I’d be missing the point entirely), but it did strike me that if I could say God gave any practical writing advice, I could make the case that it would be to outline first—practical writing advice right from the lips of Christ.  And whether because of that, or because of everything I said above about what a revelation it was to work from an outline, I can’t imagine myself ever again writing anything the scale of a novel without first writing an outline.

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The Story of My Success

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Karl El-Koura — No Comments ↓

I love reading other writers’ success stories. Since every writer starts at the same place (the bottom), their story is usually a rags-to-riches one of hope, struggle, defeat, defeat, defeat, and then victory. As a writer on the bottom myself (or, to be kinder to myself, as a writer starting out—I say that even though I’ve been writing and publishing for over 15 years), I can easily identify with them. I’ve received countless rejections, as they had (actually, I have a database to keep precise count, but suffice it to say that it’s a big number); I’ve wanted to throw away in disgust a work-in-progress and had to force myself to keep going, as they had; I’ve questioned my own ability to write stories people want to pay real money for the privilege of reading, as they had; I’ve wanted to give up entirely on writing, as they had. But they didn’t give up, and now they were quitting their day jobs to write full-time, which has been my dream ever since I had a day job (and a bit before then, actually).

The problem, though, is that many of those stories are entirely focused on sales. After months or years of constant rejection, our hero finally sells a novel to a publisher for a big advance; after months or years of very few sales, our hero is finally moving up on the bestsellers charts. But if you’re a success because you’re selling lots of copies, what happens if those sales drop off? You’re a failure now? And if you start selling again? Back to being a success? That felt too schizophrenic to me. I had to ask myself if selling lots of copies was my goal, and, if not, how I would define success.

I’ve published four ebooks so far, almost entirely composed of stories that I’d already sold to paying magazines. I chose to start with those because I figured I had little to lose—most of the stories were already paid for, forgotten, and were now just sitting on my hard drive. At worst, I thought, they could take up space on Amazon’s hard drives instead and, at best, I could give these stories new life and maybe even make a bit of money from them.

Those books have not done very well; in total, they’ve sold less than a hundred copies among them, many of those sales to family and friends (but, I must also add, a few to strangers—even strangers in countries where I don’t know a living soul, for what that’s worth). And yet the few reviews I’ve garnered have been very kind, and when people talk to me about those books, they’re usually saying nice things (although occasionally I will have someone stare at me suspiciously and say, “What goes on in that mind of yours?” and I realize they may have not appreciated some of the horror stories included in my first collection).

Despite low sales and almost complete obscurity as a writer, I actually feel very successful. Because I’m writing and publishing. I’ve completed two novels in the last few years. With one, I’m seeking traditional publishing, and with the second (Father John VS the Zombies) I’m trying the self-publishing model on an original novel-length work to see if my results will be different from the short stories I’ve released. I’ve already started work on the next piece.

Sales fluctuate; highly-reviewed books today may be completely forgotten tomorrow. I’ve never liked defining my success on factors outside of my control, like sales or good reviews. True success has more to do with who you are as a person than it has to do with how the world responds to you (this conviction probably comes from being a Christian. Nonsense like the prosperity gospel aside, it’s hard for a Christian to think of success as the outside world’s acceptance of you, since we worship as God and regard as the perfect human being a man who was poor, ridiculed, and executed as a trouble-maker, dying in humiliation on a cross between two thieves).

I’m reminded of a story singer-songwriter Harry Chapin told about his grandfather, who was a painter. His grandfather told Harry that there were two kinds of tired: there’s ‘good tired,’ and there’s ‘bad tired.’ “Ironically enough,” his grandfather told him, “bad tired can be a day that you won. But you won other people’s battles, you lived other people’s days, other people’s agendas, other people’s dreams, and when it was all over there was very little of you in there, and when you hit the hay at night, somehow you toss and turn—you don’t settle easy.” But “good tired, ironically enough,” his grandfather continued, “can be a day that you lost. But you don’t even have to tell yourself, because you knew you fought your battles, you chased your dreams, you lived your days, and when you hit the hay at night, you settle easy—you sleep the sleep of the just, and you can say ‘take me away.’” Then, and it’s truly moving to hear Harry Chapin recall these words, his grandfather said to him, “Harry, all my life I’ve wanted to be a painter, and I’ve painted. God, I would’ve loved to have been more successful. But I painted and I painted, and I am good tired and they can take me away.”

So I’m writing the story of my success long before I even release my first novel. No life is complete until it’s finished, and no one is really a success or failure until they stand before the Judgement Seat, and under Christ’s gaze they see themselves for what they truly were, stripped away of the world’s reactions to them (good or bad) and also stripped away of their own self-justifications and self-condemnations.

I’ll do my best to put Father John in front of readers who may be interested in reading it (the novel deserves that much at least), but even if I don’t sell lots of copies, I know that in that novel I told exactly the story I wanted to tell, to the best of my abilities as a writer.

And I know that will be the story of my success—that whether or not the book sells lots of copies and gets good or great reviews, I’ll keep writing and I’ll keep publishing. I’ll keep writing the stories I want to write—stories that I feel deserve to be told. I’ll keep fighting my battles, chasing my dreams, living my days. Because with Harry Chapin (who died far too young) and with Harry’s grandfather, I hope at the end of my life to know that I worked, and I worked, and that I’m good tired and they can take me away.

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“Father John VS the Zombies” on Facebook

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Karl El-Koura — No Comments ↓

Father John VS the Zombies, my forthcoming novel about the zombie apocalypse from a Christian perspective, has its own page on Facebook! Drop by for an exclusive look* at the novel’s cover art.

* Exclusive for now. The cover art will be updated on this website in the next week or so.

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Sneak Peek: “Father John VS the Zombies” (Coming Late 2012)

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Karl El-Koura — No Comments ↓

I’m excited to reveal information about my forthcoming novel.  In almost 15 years of active publishing, I’ve published over 60 short stories in different magazines and anthologies, two collections of stories, some articles and blog posts, but never a novel-length work—until now.

It’s called Father John VS the Zombies and it’s the story of a man who finds himself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse—but I can safely say this isn’t like any other zombie story you’ve read before.

In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be releasing more details about the book, including revealing the cover art, providing the first chapter for free (in the hopes it sinks its fangs into you “—oh wait, that’s a different genre), and a few other things I have planned.  Below is a short description of the novel and a masked version of the cover art to whet your appetite.  Father John vs the Zombies is planned for publication in late 2012.

If you don’t want to miss out on any of the fun, sign up to the Announcements List and you’ll be among the first to know when the novel is released.

An End Times Novel of the Zombie Apocalypse

Father John VS the Zombies - Cover Art Coming Soon
Civilization has collapsed. The world is dying.

It happened very fast. Within weeks, isolated news reports of people acting in strange and often violent ways became frequent and widespread. Terrifying videos were uploaded to the internet in shocking numbers from across the globe. Chaotic images of societies in rapid decline.

Then—everything went dark. No electricity, no internet, no broadcasts on the emergency radio station.

Now—howling, angry, bloodied creatures claw to get into Johnny Salibi’s house, where he lives with his wife and infant daughter.

But Johnny and his family are safe. He’s boarded up the windows. The door is locked and secure. They will ride things out until the government can get things under control again. They’re safe. . .

. . . except that they’re not.

Johnny must try to protect his wife and daughter in a world suddenly turned apocalyptic. But things will not go according to plan. Johnny will learn that the zombie plague is not what he or anyone else thought it was. He will learn that the government is not in any position to rescue them. And he will also learn that an unlikely group of survivors might hold the key not only to survival, but to salvation.

Planned for publication in late 2012

Want to be among the first to know when Father John VS the Zombies is released?  Sign up to the Ooter’s Place Announcements List.

Combining elements of zombie fiction, apocalyptic literature, and spiritual thrillers, this is the gripping tale of a man whose faith in God is put to the test with life-and-death—and even greater—consequences.

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Creation House / Charisma Media’s Side of the Story

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Karl El-Koura — 3 Comments ↓

A few days ago, I shared my opinions on an offer to “co-publish” my manuscript that I received from Charisma Media. I felt, and feel, that at the very best the deal is bad for writers and at worst their business practices unethical.

Charisma and I have exchanged correspondence since then, which I am posting below at their request. I wrote the original blog post because I felt compelled to warn away other writers; I’m posting their responses below so that curious writers can hear the other side of the story and make up their own minds about whether Charisma is a good home for their books.  (The emails below are reproduced in their entirety, except that I’ve removed the name and contact information of my correspondent.)

First, the email I received from Charisma July 23 2012 in response to my reply to their offer to “co-publish” my work:

Dear Mr. El-Koura:

Thank for sending us a link so that we can see your blog post regarding our company. With all respect, you’re very wrong about us. Your blog site is aptly subtitled “The Fact & Fiction of Karl El-Koura” because while you’ve posted a few facts about us, the essence of what you’ve posted about us is fiction. We are a Christian publishing house, and none of our publishing options are unethical. You might think our prices are too high, but that’s your opinion, and it doesn’t make us unethical. Lincolns cost more than Fords, but that doesn’t make the Lincoln company unethical.

As you compare us with other companies, you have to look at more than price. You must also compare the quality of the finished product—cover design, interior design, printing, binding, stock, overall craftsmanship, and editorial quality. Our books stand among the finest in the industry. Furthermore, most other self-publishing/co-publishing companies do very little or nothing to promote a book nationally and internationally, in spite of wonderful sounding hype. In reality, their marketing doesn’t amount to much. Our marketing actually gives our co-published books a real chance to succeed, and we have best sellers as proof. So, the old adage, “You get what you pay for,” holds true in this situation.

And your accusation that we “pulled the bait-and-switch” on you is utter nonsense. You visited our website (www.CreationHouse.com) in order to fill out our Proposal Application Form and submit it along with your manuscript. If you had paid any attention to the information on our site, you would have seen that we clearly explain co-publishing as a “hybrid between self-publishing and conventional royalty publishing”¦made possible by your willingness to purchase your own significant quantity of books from the first press run.” And the fact that the application asks how many copies of your book that you’re willing to purchase should have been more than a clue that Creation House is not a traditional publisher.

With that said, According to the way “self-publishing,” aka, “vanity publishing,” is understood in the publishing industry, our co-publishing model does not fall under that category either. A vanity press will produce a book for an author at the author’s expense and derive all the profit for the company from this service. A traditional publisher, on the other hand, derives its profit from sales of a book that it produces at its own expense. Creation House invests in every co-published book. We print copies for our warehouse, we market the book, we distribute copies through all major trade channels, and we pay competitive royalties. And, of course, we profit from our trade sales. And we don’t co-publish any book that comes our way. We’ve very selective, and we send out a lot of decline letters.

Our editorial team felt that your work was very good, and it was given consideration for Realms, our traditional fiction imprint. But we’re a mid-sized publishing house, and unfortunately, we do not have the financial resources to offer traditional publishing to every worthy book that comes to us. It boils down to economics. While we couldn’t offer you full traditional publishing through Realms, your work was definitely worthy of the Creation House name, so it made the cut for co-publishing.

By the way, even houses that are bigger than ours are now writing into some of their “traditional” contracts a required author buy-back. It is becoming> more and more the norm. There are those who still think that authors should not spend any money whatsoever on their own books or else it’s vanity-publishing, but that’s an outdated notion.

We wish we could offer you a traditional contract, but we’re unable to do so. You have a standing offer from us to co-publish your book through Creation House. You also have our blessing to pursue better publishing opportunities. If you decide at some point in the future that our offer is your best option, it would be our privilege to work with you.

In the meantime, we are deleting your manuscript from our drives and servers as you’ve requested.

In the spirit of Christian friendship and Christ’s “golden rule,” we ask that you delete your blog post about our company. Please reply to confirm that you’ve done so.

Bless you,

In reply (on July 25) I pointed out that I consider their business practices unethical not based on the inflated prices they charge (as stated in my blog post), but because they pulled a bait-and-switch. As per my original reply to them and as per that blog post, I submitted through CharismaHouse.com; I told them that I’d never visited CreationHouse.com in my life (I still haven’t), and so I’d never seen the text they quoted. It appears on neither the submission form I visited—http://charismahouse.com/index.php/proposal-application-form—nor the FAQ—http://charismahouse.com/index.php/frequently-asked-questions—nor the instructions page—http://charismahouse.com/index.php/submit-book-proposal. I also reiterated my position that their royalty structure is deeply unfair to writers. Finally, I said that I appreciate their offer of Christian friendship, but that my conscience would not allow me to delete the original post, since I believe it would make a mockery of Christ’s golden rule to not warn away fellow writers.

Below is Charisma’s reply, also sent on July 25, 2012:

We receive 80 to 100 unsolicited book submissions every month, and over the past twelve years, we’ve sent out thousands of co-publishing proposals. You’re the first and only author to accuse us of “bait-and-switch.” Every manuscript that comes to us is given editorial review to see first and foremost if the manuscript qualifies for a traditional offer. Your manuscript was no exception. Even if a manuscript does not qualify for a traditional offer, but still meets the criteria to be a Charisma book, we offer the author the next best thing–collaborative, customized publishing. Book publishing is moving in this direction whether you like it or not. It isn’t bait-and-switch; it’s simply the reality of our industry–an industry that has changed and continues to change drastically.
You haven’t seen other posts similar to yours because other authors don’t share your opinion. We have hundreds of happy authors who would tell you you’re wrong.

We’ve noted that you did not visit the Creation House site, but that you visited only the Charisma House site and from that site submitted your work. However, the submission instructions on the Charisma site state clearly:

After our editors review your submission, we will notify you by mail or e-mail if the proposal was accepted, what imprint has accepted the manuscript, or if the proposal was declined.

We did exactly that. We notified you by email that your proposal was accepted by our Creation House imprint. Forgive us for not declining your work altogether.

Please know that we’ve taken your complaints seriously, even though we haven’t heard them from other authors. We’re planning to revise the submission instructions on the Charisma House site so that any author will know for certain that his work will be considered for co-publishing as well as traditional publishing. We’re also planning to revisit our 50% royalty rate for our “e-book only” option. As far as we know, 50% is the industry standard and is considered a fair rate, especially since the publisher does all the work in negotiating the licenses with the e-book distributors and uploading and maintaining the digital files. But we will research it to make sure that we’re still offering a fair and competitive rate.

And since you refuse to delete your blog post, we accept your offer to post our email responses on your site. We appreciate the chance to let our side of the story be heard.

Blessings to you,

Honestly I would’ve been gladder had Charisma declined my work altogether than grace me with their “offer” to pay them thousands (to tens of thousands) of dollars and at least half my royalties.  I sincerely hope Charisma goes through with their plans to indicate on their CharismaHouse.com website that manuscripts will be considered for both traditional publishing and “co-publishing” offers, however it doesn’t change my opinion that the “co-publishing” terms are a bum deal for writers (for reasons I’ve already stated).  Finally, I’d be glad to hear from some of the hundred of happy Creation House authors, especially if they were forthcoming with their sales numbers.

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