Big Things Are Coming From Crystal Lake Publishing

We don’t always post indie press news here, but when we do it tends to be big and so I felt like sharing some major changes which were coming to Crystal Lake Publishing with you. The press has been around and doing well for a while now and is looking to expand in a pretty big way. If all goes as planned, they’ll soon be looking for novels, novellas, and more short stories than you can shake a stick at.

We’ll try to keep you updated with their open calls as they come in!

With the help of fans and hardworking staff, we’ve managed to put together a pretty awesome press in Crystal Lake Publishing. And instead of standing still and congratulating ourselves, I want to upgrade it to the next level. I want to put trusted editors and division managers in charge of certain sections and even start a few imprints. I want to fund these divisions, have them appoint their own staff, and open for submissions as soon as possible.

I’ll still run a few special projects (the annual daily planner and author mentoring comes to mind) and stay in charge of publishing anthologies (my favorite division due to my love of short fiction). I’ve already contacted next year’s authors to assure them their books are still on schedule. Mainly I’ll just run the day to day business while promoting the company. The stuff I’m best at. More info on those special projects later.

What really excites me is offering other industry professionals an opportunity to publish under the Crystal Lake banner while training and guiding them as best I can. Not to mention the amazing opportunities we’ll be able to offer authors. And so many more authors will now have the opportunity to get their work seen.

Luckily I’m no idiot when it comes to this industry. I’ve seen small presses stumble. I’ve seen companies grow too fast and ignore the signs. So we’re going to phase this in over the next few years. How far we leap forward at the end of this year will depend on the success of our upcoming IndieGogo campaign (looking at the success we had last year, this should be quite interesting). And we’re naming it Crystal Lake 2.0!

Our aim will be to help fund these deparments at certain financial intervals. Our first aim will be novels, which will be run by a division manager. Then novellas, and then two possible imprints (more on that later this week). Followed by non-fiction, collections, poetry, etc. So each stretch goal reached opens up a new division.

If we reach the success I believe possible, we will be opening for novel and novella submissions really soon (as soon as the end of this year). I’ll share the names of the amazing folks lined up to take over these departments throughout the week, as well as share info on the submission windows. And even some TALES FROM THE LAKE VOL.6 submission guidelines.

To sum up, there would be more opportunities, more jobs for the amazing folks who put together books (art, layout, editing, etc.), more books for readers (as well as a wider variety), and a lot of opportunities for authors to get published. I’m also considering continuing our Writers On Writing series on our blog, and that means non-fiction submissions from authors. Together we can all build on this.

So please support this in any way you can. Spread the word, pledge once the campaign goes live, check out our other announcements this week, or email us if you can assist us in any way.

And if all goes well next year…who knows what’ll be next. Crystal Lake Comics? Our own magazine?

Via: Crystal Lake Publishing.