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How weird is this?  When I was covering GPS equipment, which I did for GPSPassion.com for a number of years, I would always run into Caleb Mason at trade shows – as he was the prime representative of DeLorme, a major GPS company.

I’d heard he had left DeLorme and imagine my surprise when he emailed me that he was announcing his new company at BEA!  It’s a small world.

Here is the press release:

 Publerati, a new ebook publisher and literary agency focused on literary novels and short-story collections, has launched five new fiction writers at the Book Expo trade show.

Publerati Founder Caleb Mason made the case for how ebooks can play a key role in resurrecting interest in new literary fiction and short-story collections at the International Digital Publishing Forum Ignite! series, held on June 4th at Book Expo. Drawing upon his years of experience witnessing disruptions in publishing, photography, and digital mapping, Mason encouraged the audience of publishing professionals to avoid the pitfalls of companies like Kodak by driving disruptive change themselves or risk losing out to new players.

According to Mason, “The central premise of Publerati is that there are excellent new writers of literary fiction and short-story collections who for many years have had slim hope of being published under the traditional publishing business model.  With hardcover novels priced at $29.95 and trade paperbacks topping the $20 mark, the unknown fiction writer has little chance of getting a start. Publerati aims to find and edit excellent new works and market them as $2.99 ebooks, reopening access for deserving new writers. We will then represent our titles to print publishers and new print-on-demand providers once we prove e-book success.”

The five launch ebooks are: Dancing in the Kitchen by Susan Sterling; Marriages are Made in India by Lakshmi Raj Sharma; Normal Family by Don Trowden; Leap of Faith by Richard Hardie, and Journey of the North Star by Douglas Penick.

Each ebook is available for purchase from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and others. The launch list includes quirky humorous fiction, literary fiction, historical fiction, young adult fiction, and short stories in serving a variety of reader tastes. Each title’s e-cover has been designed using a cohesive Publerati brand look to support the unknown new writers under one banner until they achieve their own unique brands.

About Publerati

Publerati aims to reopen access for new literary fiction and short-story collections by originating them exclusively for ebooks at affordable prices to encourage wide readership.  A hybrid literary agency and ebook publisher, Publerati publishes a highly selective list of well-edited fiction, all with unique voices and story lines. Publerati charges no upfront fees for its writers.  As a new brand with a social conscience, Publerati donates a portion of all proceeds to charities working to promote literacy. Publerati is headquartered in Portland, Maine. Learn more at www.publerati.com.

7 COMMENTS

  1. Caveat emptor. Although this new outfit has noble aims, promising to replace form letter rejections with helpful feedback, they seem to be having difficulties carrying through with their promise. The feedback I received was rather incoherent and superficial. The level of misconception and incomprehension in the report suggested that the reader had barely skimmed the submitted work. I wish them luck. It’s nice to have a mechanism for vetting quality work. But maybe they’re better off sticking with form letters.

  2. My experience with Publerati experience has, no doubt obviously, been very different from the above. I corresponded for several months with Mr. Mason for some months about the changing world of publishing prior to submitting anything. I became intrigued with the clear-sightedness, literary idealism and sheer nerve of the venture. When I sent in a manuscript, it was read carefully. The editor’s comments focused in a clear pragmatic way on how my intentions in the book could be realized more effectively. I’m pleased with the results and more than pleased to be part of this pioneering endeavor.

  3. Like Douglas Penick, after finding Caleb Mason and Publerati through the internet I exchanged a number of emails with him querying the Publerati method of operation and eventually went through the submissions procedure. The fact that most agents and publishers refuse to enter into any form of discussion before submission put Caleb in a different class straight away. The submissions procedure is multi-staged, rigorous and designed to allow a communication flow between Publerati and the writer, so that the author has critical feedback at all stages and certainly before acceptance, or rejection. Rejection is never nice, but unfortunately happens much more often than acceptance, I know of one writer who was rejected by Publerati and the critical analysis she received of her submitted work was most helpful in editing and realigning it to the market. Her words, not mine.
    Since being accepted by Publerati, Caleb has personally kept me up to date with all stages of publication and (as I would have expected) all costs have been met by Publerati. My second book is now finished and should be released by Publerati later this year. I have no doubt that Publerati will be a storming success. The team in the company all come from executive positions in the publishing world and Publerati has been careful to accept a relatively small number of authors to ensure they maintain their one-on-one methods and also to keep their standards as high as possible.

  4. I was, of course, a little disappointed to have my novel rejected, but reading the accompanying email with feedback made me feel a whole lot better. I felt that not only had my ms been read and evaluated, but the weak areas were spot on. I’m now working on another edit/part re-write as a result. It may never be taken up by Publerati, but Caleb Mason and his team certainly helped me to produce a better draft than the the one I first submitted. I would certainly be very happy to submit further work, and would be delighted if one day I could say ‘my publisher’, meaning Publerati. The books already published by them are excellent.

  5. I have had the privilege of having my book, Marriages are Made in India, published as an ebook with Publerati.com and I can say without hesitation that theirs is one of the best deals an author can get. Apart from the financial part, the peace that one inherits as a Publerati author is phenomenal. Unlike a lot of jaws that await the author in the publishing world, unless the author is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the caresses and the care that the author gets from this publisher are unheard of. I want to let authors know that in my dealing with Publerati I found life a bed of roses as compared to the crown of thorns given by bigger and more haughty publishers. Publerati is like an open book; a straight forward dealing between author and publisher.

  6. I, too, feel lucky to have worked with Caleb Mason on my novel, Dancing in the Kitchen, also just published with Publerati. My experience mirrors that of my fellow writers. As a writer himself, Caleb has been invariably sensitive and responsive to our concerns. The changes he suggested to my manuscript were always that, suggestions for us to discuss, and my novel is stronger for the revisions I took it through with his encouragement. Two of my friends also submitted fiction manuscripts to Publerati and appreciated the care Caleb took with them. One described the rejection letter she received (with an offer to read a revision) as “kind” and the criticism “spot on.” I have to say, as well, I love the cover of Dancing in the Kitchen and the other Publerati novels, another unexpected pleasure.

  7. I managed to write my name too fast on the previous comment. It’s Susan Sterling, not Susan Stelring, who wrote the above, though perhaps if that were my name, I wouldn’t discover, mysteriously, on the Dancing in the Kitchen site on iTunes, that I was also the author of several cookbooks!

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