Publishing Opportunities for Equestrian Fiction

It's come to my attention recently, that many of our readers have an interest in writing equestrian fiction. So my post this week is about publishing equestrian fiction. As you may have noticed, the large New York publishers consider equestrian fiction a bad risk, insisting it doesn't sell well (unless you wrote the next Horse Whisperer) so small presses might be a good option for an aspiring author.

First of all, you need to understand some terminology, such as small press, large press, vanity press, and print on demand. In the interests of saving space, I posted this terminology on my author blog.

We'd all love to sell to a large publisher with a huge advance and be on Good Morning America and Oprah. The chances of that happening are slim to none. So you wrote a book and now you want find a home for it. Let's assume you're not interested in self-publishing. Let's also assume you've tried the large publisher route or truly believe you aren't ready for the big-time yet.

Should you consider a small press or e-publisher and why? Here are some of the pros and cons of small presses to help you make your decision:

Pros (What working with a small press can do for you):

• Provide a viable option for books that don’t fit into a New York niche. (Small pubs can afford to take risks). Equestrian fiction definitely fits into this.
• Gain valuable experience (which can look good to a large publisher).
• Learn to promote your book and yourself.
• Gain experience working with editors and publishers on professional duties such as cover art and edits.
• Prove you can meet deadlines.
• Provide encouragement to finish the book and write more books.
• Build name recognition the publishing business.
• Improve writing and editing skills.
• Reduce the number of discarded and destroyed paperbacks. GO GREEN!
• Make valuable contacts with other authors and the book publishing industry.
• Build confidence in your writing.
• Enjoy less pressure.
• Enjoy more creative freedom.
• May receive more personal attention from publisher and staff.
• Easier to find your books, longer “shelf” life, don’t go out of print.

Cons (What working with a small press can't do):

• Low pay and royalties, in most cases, considering the time investment by the author.
  Risky if the small press isn’t stable and established. (But then NY is risky as editors move around and lines close all the time. They may tie up book for a few years and never publish it.
• Time-consuming, as you often perform the tasks that large publishers would do for you, such as promotion, blurbs, cover art suggestions, etc.
• Lower quality of editing in some cases.
• Limited chance for book to be in bookstore.
• Requires extensive research of different companies. (Not all small presses are created equal in royalties, editing, and business practices. Talk to authors, do a background check, search the Internet)
• Limited possibilities for booksignings.
• A smaller market of people to buy your book.
• Limited distribution on your book.
• Lack of respect in many circles.
• Limited reviews—may be harder to get reviews

If you are considering the small publisher route, do your research. Check out that publisher carefully. I actually paid for a business background check on the company and the owners to make sure they were stable. Anyone with an Internet connection can start up and small publishing company, so beware. Make sure they send their books to distributors and don't just sell via their bookstore. Find out if the book will be offered in print. Make sure the contract offers clauses to get your rights back if the company folds. Also, email some of their current authors and make sure you like their covers.

I hope this has helped some of you that are considering taking your writing to the next step. I'll be running a more detailed "workshop" on small pubs on my blog in the next few weeks. So you can check there for more information.

BTW, I had a GREAT ride on my mare yesterday. My trainer is out of town so I had a lesson from the assistant trainer. I enjoyed it immensely. Sometimes, it's good to get a different eye. Anyway, I'm excited to ride again. I haven't felt like this a while.

I Used To Be a Horse Trainer

By Laura Crum


First off, I have to say how thrilled I am that Janet Huntington is posting here on Equestrian Ink. She is a wonderful writer, as well as a talented horse trainer, and I have so enjoyed reading her blog, “Mugwump Chronicles”. Her stories will often bring me back to the days when I trained horses, rather than writing equine mysteries. This was awhile ago; the last colt I broke and trained is thirteen years old now. But the memories are still vivid and my mind goes back easily to the many young horses I rode and the particular problems they presented. Not so long ago, reading one of mugwump’s great “Sonita posts”, I was reminded of a horse I trained for my team roping partner, a mostly Thoroughbred gelding named Rebby.

Rebby comes into my mind easily enough, because I am still taking care of him, now that he is a twenty something year old horse and retired. My old team roping partner and I keep our retired pastured horses together and share the chore of feeding them, and several mornings a week Rebby comes charging in to see me, ready for his flake of hay. I can’t forget him.

I had never really trained a Thoroughbred horse before Rebby; all the horses I rode when I was working for reining and cutting trainers were cowhorse bred Quarter Horses. All the colts I trained and rode for my uncle, who raised Quarter Horses, were foundation bred QHs. All the horses I’d ever bought for myself were QHs with cowhorse breeding. Rebby was a 16 hand appendix registered QH, which means for all practical purposes that he was a TB. His mother was a TB and his sire was a running bred QH, which means mostly TB. So there you go.

Initially I saw this as no big deal. Rebby was four years old and had had ninety or so days put on him by a not-all-that-handy cowboy. He was gentle enough to ride, if ignorant, and with a tendency to stick his nose out and prop when you stopped him. My friend and roping partner had got him cheap and wanted me to turn him into a rope horse. I said sure.

My first impression of Reb was positive. I had never in my life ridden a colt who could pick you up and carry you at the lope the way this one could. I felt like I was floating when I rode him. Collection came naturally to him. Maybe all TB horses are like this, I wouldn’t know. Rebby was naturally cowy; I had no problems getting him to hook onto a cow. He was also naturally bold; I had no problem getting him used to the rope, either. He had no tendency to spook sideways; he had no inclination to buck. None at all. There ends the list of things I had no problem with.

My first indication that Rebby was a little odd came when I first caught him and led him in to be saddled. Rebby walked right on my heels….I mean right on my heels, breathing down my neck. There was no malice in it; he just wanted to be right on top of me. I backed him off. I did this again, and again, and again. I backed Rebby off the top of me endlessly. I wasn’t gentle and kind about it either. I really seriously did not want Rebby on top of me, stepping on my toes. Rebby never seemed to truly get this. I had to correct him at least once or twice a day. I was puzzled. I didn’t get it why he couldn’t get it.
Then one day I ran into his former owner. She mentioned that she’d rescued the horse from a woman who had run out of money and couldn’t pay the board bill. This woman had raised Rebby herself. His mother had died at birth. You guessed it. My project was a bottle colt. No wonder he wanted to be right on top of me.

This information explained a lot of Rebby’s behaviors to me. He was gentle but pushy; he required to be set down several times a day. But he never had any ill intentions at all. Okey-dokey. Bottle colt.

The next problem I ran into was also a new one for me. Did I mention that Reb was a TB and I had never trained a TB? Reb liked to run. He liked to run hard. Where a cowhorse bred horse is likely to spook sideways when startled, Reb never did this. He bolted forward--his version of a spook. Charge was Rebby’s first response to everything. I could never really get used to this; Reb’s saving grace was that he was both gentle and bold and didn’t “spook” that often. But once we got to chasing steers, the “run factor” assumed a whole different dimension.

Rebby would chase a steer all right. He would charge after a steer with great enthusiasm, and he could really run. But Rebby had no intention of slowing down when he got to the steer. Reb wanted to beat that steer to the finish line. He had every intention of sailing on past and winning the race. I briefly considered telling my team roping partner to sell him as a bulldogging horse.

Instead I worked on teaching Rebby to answer when I checked him, which turned into a very long project. For details on how I did this, and other insights on stopping, see Janet’s post today on her Mugwump Chronicles blog. I’ll cut this short by saying that, eventually, I taught Reb to back off when I pulled on the reins and his career as a team roping horse took off. My partner loved Rebby, once I got him trained: everybody admired him. I was proud of what I’d accomplished with my little TB bottle colt.

The end of the story? Unfortunately Rebby broke down at ten years of age. My partner hauled him to a major equine hospital where they diagnosed him as having a strained sacroiliac joint. Reb didn’t seem to be in pain, but walked, trotted and loped with an odd waddle in his gait. He had always been such a kind and well-intentioned horse that my partner decided to retire him to the pasture to live out his life as long as he was comfortable. I agreed to help take care of him. And Reb has remained stable for well over ten years now; he still has that odd waddle, but can gallop up for his hay with enthusiasm. It makes me happy to see him, knowing he’s had a good life; at the same time it makes me sad that he broke down so young. Its one of the reasons I eventually turned away from team roping, as I once turned away from cutting and reining. I don’t like to see the number of horses that break down in the course of competing (not that these events are any worse for horses in the long run than jumping, western pleasure, or any other competitive event).

These days I don’t train horses, I write books about horses. (Now there’s two lucrative pursuits for you—maybe I’m not too smart.) I still enjoy riding my broke horses in the arena and down the trail, and I am happy to report that I’ve had no breakdowns lately—knock on wood. But every time my partner and I look at Rebby we shake our heads ruefully, and one of us has to say, “Wasn’t he a great horse?” I’m sure all you fellow horse people will understand.
Cheers,
To Rebby

Laura Crum

The Crumb by Jean Slaughter Doty . . .

by Kit Ehrman

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Mine zoomed past in a maddening blur. Now that we have less kids living at home, we decided to downsize and put our house on the market a couple of days before Christmas. The weeks preceding Christmas day consisted of cleaning, packing, painting, and moving what felt like half of our belongings into storage in an effort to declutter. And you know what? I really like living in a lean, sparse house. With so many belongings in storage, I’m beginning to think we didn’t really need much of that stuff anyway. When the time comes, it will be interesting to see how much of it I want to move into the new house.

If we do sell the current house, this will be my fourteenth move. Lucky for me, I enjoy moving because it forces me to organize my possessions, not to mention the fact that I love change and get bored if I’m in one place too long.

Anyway, while I was packing, I came across my copy of The Crumb, a young adult novel by Jean Slaughter Doty. If you haven’t read her, I recommend you do. She deals with abuse issues in the show jumping world, so her books aren’t light reads, but they are wonderful reads. While looking for a cover photo, I discovered that Doty has published quite a few equine novels, and I’ll be looking for them. To learn more about her, check out this website: http://www.janebadgerbooks.co.uk/usa/doty.html.



Her writing is lovely and I highly recommend her for young adults and adults alike. In my search on the Internet, I was also reminded of a wonderful resource for finding equine reads: Ponydom. Visit them at http://www.ponydom.com/books/index.html.

Here’s to a great year of riding and reading!
Kit
www.kitehrman.com

Writer Limbo and Equine Therapy

New Year and back to work. It was a nice break and I must have relaxed too much because now I have this horrible sore throat, cough and cold. Oh well, some Theraflu, hot tea, and lots of vitamins will hopefully kick it out quickly. It sure doesn't make me feel like working though, and I was excited to get back to work.

As a writer I'm in a limbo state, which isn't the most comfortable state to be in. I am in between contracts on the wine mysteries with Berkley not making any commitment right now (never a good sign), and my horse mysteries have been cancelled (apparently horse stories don't sell, which I think is horse pucky), so what is a writer to do? Well write and pray realy hard. On the flip side of the negative stuff is that during this limbo time I wrote a new book (fingers crossed it will sell), and three new proposals, plus I have another book ready to go. So, now is the hurry up and wait game that writers go through. We get the work done, send it to our agents and then we wait, but while we wait we write and thankfully for this group we also ride.

I'm not sure what I would do during stressful times (and being in writer limbo is stressful) without my horses. For me, as the afternoon winds down and I pick up my youngest and we head out to the barn it is like this sense of relief washes over me. I know once I get there that everything else will be turned off for at least a couple of hours. My focus is on my horse Krissy and Kaitlin and her pony Monty.

There is something so soulful and peaceful in being around the animals. Once I'm riding, my focus can't be taken off my mare because she has been known to act just like a mare and do silly things, and for me that's good. My mind isn't filled with dialogue, narative, sometimes clutter. It's filled with heels down, bend to the right or left, pick up the right diagonal (I am diagonally dyslexic), relax my elbows (i have stiff arms), breathe, counting strides and as my trainer always says, "down squeeze," when I'm posting. There is no time to worry about plot points or if I'll ever get a contract again. Once I'm finished riding and Kaitlin is finished, then it's all about feed and supplements and blanketing and hugs and kisses and little peppermint candies or carrots (yes, the horses are a tad spoiled). Boy do I hate to leave the barn. My husband was wrong the other day when he said that I could spend hours there--I could spend my entire day there. But then I wouldn't write, and I know that it's the writing and riding that are my driving passions (other than my family), so contract or not, I will keep on writing. And you know that I will keep on riding.

For those of you who read my previous posts about Krissy's lameness issues, well, here is the update. She is sound after chiropractic, accupuncture, B-12 shots,hock and a left stifle injections, and a slow regimine back. Thing is I will have to follow a strict maintenance protocol to keep her happy and sound. My vet has determined that she likely cracked her pelvis at one time. Hopefully she stays happy and sound. So far so good as lately she's been really fresh, which tells me she feels pretty darn good. That's all I got for now.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

Cheers,
Michele
www.michelescott.com

Writing and Riding by Janet Huntington

I was a weird little kid. When I go back in time my memories are floaty and soft, with a few harsh clear jolts mixed in, just to keep things interesting. Kind of like watching the movie Jurassic Park. You know the velociraptor is just around the corner, but can't help launching your popcorn every time he makes an appearance.
One of my fondest, clearest memories is riding my bike down the street, chasing my herd of invisible rabbits. My rabbits ran with the speed of light. When I jumped off my bike and threw myself in the grassy field behind our house my invisible rabbits would swarm around me. I could feel the cool silk of their fur slipping past my ankles, the sharp little points of their toenails scraping across the tops of my bare feet. I would reach down and feel the tickle of their whiskers across my palms. Sometimes my favorite, Blackie, would crawl into my lap and let me pet him. I could feel his hard muscled little body sliding under his fur, his heart fluttering a staccato beat under my hand.
The worst were the nights of terror. Monsters and skeletons, images from the television or stories told late at night in my sister's bed, whirling through the dark,jerking me awake and screaming for my parents. Still seeing the nightmares in every shadowy corner even as my mother soothed me.
These memories are sharp in my mind, much clearer than the endless agony of school, the boring routine of church, the slow crawl of rules and requirements .
I was the little girl who sat in the back of the class, daydreaming out the window. The kid who ran around the playground whinnying, too busy perfecting my gallop to talk to anybody else.
I knew no line of definition between reality and fantasy, I was branded a liar, a teller of tales. My stories got me in endless trouble. I was probably in the third grade before I realized nobody else saw my invisible rabbits. Nobody else knew the horses who came to my window at night and whiffled through my screen. When I talked about the sweet smell of their alfalfa breath on my face I was either talking out of turn or telling another lie.
So I began to draw. I drew my rabbits, the monsters and especially the horses. The older I grew the more I drew horses. I rode my bike as hard and fast as I could over the bumpiest roads I could find, practicing to ride the horse I knew was coming to me someday. I drew him, my fantasy horse, over and over. His name was Raphael. I drew my model horses who came alive and danced in my window sills as I lay sleepless at night. I drew the black horse who pulled me out of the misery of motion sickness, racing our car across the prairie. His coat shone with the sun as he leaped gullies and climbed mountains, always keeping pace with our Vista Cruiser, no matter how long the road trip.
My lies and tall tales became beautiful art hanging from our refrigerator.
My life became grounded in reality when I got my first horse, Mort. For the first time, life was better in real time. It was better to be aware, better to see the world for what it was. Horses made it easy to put away the stories. Horses made it worth my time to begin to see the world around me.
So now, my life with horses has made it time to go back to telling stories. Now I can see the difference. The stories I want to tell come from my reality. My understanding of where to draw the line. Now I choose which side of the line I stand on.
I'm going to be working on what to write and what to do with it. I'll be throwing some ideas around on this blog. Some of you might know me from my blog, http://www.mugwumpchronicles.com/. If so, you know I've recently retired from being a horse trainer for many years. I'm writing for a living now, working for a small rural newspaper. I'm starting to explore the idea of getting published. Being invited to write here seems like the next logical step in my progression. This is going to be cool. Real cool, if you catch my drift. Later.

Welcome to Janet

It's my pleasure to welcome Janet Huntington, a talented equine artist and lllustrator and the author of the popular Mugwump Chronicles to our list of regular contributors. Janet will be posting on Saturdays (probably every other Saturday). Her first post will be today. Welcome, Janet. We're thrilled to have you.

One Road to Publication

by Mary Paine

Happy New Year!

I’ve seen in the comments section of Equestrian Ink that people are interested in how we got started as authors. My path to publication was windy to say the least. I always had a love for writing and music. I was editor in chief of my high school newspaper, worked on the literary magazine, was active in the choral and drama clubs…Well, you get the idea.

By chance I had an opportunity high school to volunteer at our local hospital and a job in the emergency room followed. Fate is funny, right? I abandoned my intrinsic leanings toward all things artistic and decided health care was the career for me. My father, despite the cost of eleven years of music lessons, was determined to be supportive, although I’m sure he had a mental picture of all those dollars spent on my music sprouting little wings and flying out the window.

I did, and still do, love the health care industry. I earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a master’s degree in epidemiology and was working toward my doctorate when fate stepped in again. The research I had been working on for more than two years lost its funding source and I was informed I would have to start over with a new research project for my doctorate.

Disillusioned to say the least, and not sure we would be staying in the United States as my husband had taken a position with a British company, I took a job doing research for a medical communications company. My boss decided I had a flair for writing and nurtured it. (Hmm…seeing something circular here?) I wound up building a career in medical editing and informatics and before I knew it I was running a large editorial division of a medical communications company.

Still, in my heart I had always yearned to write fiction. The next questions was what kind of fiction did I want to write and how do I get started. Since I was on bed rest with a twin pregnancy, I had lots of time on my hands so I started in writing a novel that wouldn’t require a great deal of research (since I was mostly restricted to the four walls of my room) so I came up with the idea for an equestrian novel, since I know the horse world inside out. The next thing I realized was people want something to hold their interest. Well, I figured romance always holds my interest and mystery comes in a close second. Thus, A Dangerous Dream was born.

Having a completed novel in my hand, my next question was ‘Now what?’ Being a researcher by training, I took to the Internet. I discovered Romance Writers of America, became involved with the organization and learned how long the road was between writing your first book and publishing it. There were a number of routes people took. Some started with smaller e-publishers. Others continued to refine their work to aim it at New York. My husband came up with a good solution for me. He pointed out how much I’d learned from A Dangerous Dream. He said if I published it with a small publisher, wouldn’t I continue to learn from it?

I couldn’t argue with the logic of this. I sent off two query letters to reputable e-publishers and got a contract offer! The experience of publishing was invaluable. I learned a great deal about marketing, promotion, and the importance of developing a ‘platform.’ I also had the opportunity to interact with many wonderful professionals in this industry and begin to build a network.

The best surprise of all was the positive reviews I received for A Dangerous Dream! Praise is a marvelous thing and the knowledge that people enjoy reading my books gave me the incentive to keep going. I’m working on my third novel now and can’t imagine ever stopping.

So for anyone out there who is working on a novel or has completed one and is seeking publication, keep going! You’ll get there!

Warmly,
Mary


www.marypaine.com