Congrats on the new releases!

[Rachel Marie Pratt]

Just wanted to pop over and say congratulations on the new releases.

I also wondered what is the breakdown of the releases coming out in
February. As in, how many are YA, how many are historical romo,
contemp..etc.

And a duel question for each of the debut authors: how long have you
been submitting your work and why Astraea?

[chrisan...@comcast.net]

Rachel,

Thanks so much for saying hi! I love to hear from readers.

I'm not sure on the break down of YA to historical romance, etc. But if you
go to www.astraeapress.com they have it broken down in sections. That
should give you an good idea.

I have personally been submitting work since Jan. 2010. As for Astraea
Press and why I chose to submit with them, I met one of the
owners--Stephanie Taylor while submitting for another company and we became
friends. She is a wonderful person and when this opportunity opened up and
I had a novella sitting on my shelf, I thought who better to submit to than
Stephanie! Working with Astraea has been a tough but rewarding experience.
The staff is great! The authors are kind and considerate. I can't wait to
work with them on other projects.

Hope you have a wonderful day.

Felicia Rogers
"The Perfect Rose" release date Feb. 8, 2011-- Astraea Press
website: www.feliciarogersauthor.webs.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Felicia-Rogers/115490501841225

[Rebekah Griffith]

Rachel,
You kind of already know my answer (LOL)...Actually Rachel is my sister (and fellow writer). She used to be in a crit group with Stephanie and she mentioned looking for YA. So my sister passed the message my way. I decided to go with Astraea because I liked what they stood for...

I've been at this a long time (LOL). This was only the 2nd time I directly queried a publisher. For a few years I was only targeting agents. My Dad's was actually a story I wrote a couple of years ago and it was collecting dust in my closet.

Rebekah L PurdyBlog: Writer Adrift

--- On Tue, 2/1/11, chrisan...@comcast.net <chrisan...@comcast.net> wrote:

[Kendall Evans]

Hi, Rachel,

Thank you so much for taking the time to say congratulations. I know all of us authors here appreciate it.

I can't answer your question about the breakdown, but I can tell you that I've been submitting my work since 2009. An agent was interested in it, but her roster of authors was full. So I decided to go the small publisher route.

I got to know Stephanie through her work with another publishing company, and she was really open, honest, and having spent much time talking to her on the phone, I knew she was someone I could trust.

Again, thank you for the congratulations. We hope you enjoy our releases!

Kendall Evans

--
Kendall Evans

Coming February 1, 2011—Anna's Shattered Faith
Astraea Press

[Jilly]

Hi Rachel! 

I can't say the entire break down, but I'm personally releasing a YA title ("Legend of the Oceina Dragon" February 22). From what I've seen, it seems to be pretty diverse and all across the board. :)

As for my personal writing journey....

I decided in December to make 2011 the year I query and do everything I can to get published. I stumbled upon Astraea Press via twitter (I'm kind of a twitter addict), and saw their pitch contest. Nervous as all get out, I sent in my pitch for one of my many stories, and squealed ridiculously when they said they wanted to read the manuscript. I squealed even more when they liked the manuscript and offered me a contract. This is my first publishing experience, but I've been writing for a long, long, time.

Why Astraea? I believed in their mission statement, and was super excited to find others who feel the same way. Everyone here is incredibly nice and supportive. This is definitely a great experience for me personally as I start to jump into the publishing world for the first time.

[Stephanie Taylor]

You guys are making my head swell  ;o)

Seriously, I could have a publishing house without authors.  As we say here in the south "YA'LL" are what make it what it is!

From: Jilly <babyt...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2011 12:33:03 -0600
To: <astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Congrats on the new releases!

[Joselyn]

Hi,

Congratulations to all the new releases today. Hope everyone has a
great day!

I don't know the breakdown. I just signed with Astraea and was
surprised to see the diversity. Very exciting.

I write contemporary romance. I started submitting in 2007 and sold my
first book to Avalon Books in 2008. I stumbled upon Astraea two weeks
ago as part of their pitch contest on Sweeter Romantic Notions. I
chose to sign with them because I could really identify with their
mission. When I first started querying editors, it seemed like all
the places accepting unagented manuscripts were inspirational or
erotic and there was no middle. I'm also excited about having my book
available in ebook.

Joselyn
http://joselynvaughn.com

[Stephanie Taylor]

Here's the breakdown of our February releases:

Feb. 1: 1 YA, 1 paranormal romance short, 1 Inspirational historical romance

Feb. 8: 1 contemporary romance short, 1 contemporary romance, 1 Valentine's Day Romance short

Feb. 15: 1 paranormal short, 1 romance I'm not really sure what to call it, lol (greek romance?  Time travel?) Kristine, HELP!

Feb. 22: 1 mystery short, 1 YA paranormal romance

Sorry it took me so long to respond, you'd think I run a business or something!  :o)

From: Jilly <babyt...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2011 12:33:03 -0600
To: <astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Congrats on the new releases!

[Kristine Cheney]

Paranormal, Steph...Geesh! It's called paranormal, lol!

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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From: Stephanie Taylor <staylo...@gmail.com>

Sender: astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com

Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:31:00 -0600

To: <astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com

[Stephanie Taylor]

Really?  Just paranormal?  Doesn't your greek dude get frozen in time? Wouldn't that be a time travel?  I think you're messing with me.

[Kristine Cheney]

It has historic facts mixed with fiction and has elements of time travel and it is definitely paranormal. Can I call it a historical if I took fact and blended it with fiction?

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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From: Stephanie Taylor <staylo...@gmail.com>

Sender: astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com

Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:47:10 -0600

[janep...@astraeapress.com]

I'd just call it to dinner and be done with it. Sorry.  Its late. I'm tired and the world is now being seen through sleep-deprived eyes.

 

This is the one I was reading right?  Its a historical paranormal I think. Is there such a description for a novel?  If not, let's invent it right here.  Right now.

[Stephanie Taylor]

If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck…

[Kristine Cheney]

I like historical paranormal! If I had to stick it under one umbrella, though, then just paranormal is fine, Steph. But if you are looking for tags, then maybe historical, time travel, paranormal would do. It can even be in the contemporary section because the time period of my heroine is from today (with warriors of the past).

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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From: <janep...@astraeapress.com>

Sender: astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com

Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:57:24 -0700

To: <astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com>

ReplyTo: astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com

Subject: RE: Congrats on the new releases!

[jill]

Stephanie mine would probably fit better under YA fantasy than paranormal. :) but if you think paranormal is a better description, that's fine as well.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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From: "Kristine Cheney" <tisa...@cox.net>

Sender: astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com

Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2011 12:28:16 +0000

[Stephanie Taylor]

Wow, Jill, I'm in epic fail for your novel lately!

[jill]

Are not. :) its been a while and you've read how many books in the past month?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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From: Stephanie Taylor <staylo...@gmail.com>

Sender: astraea-pr...@googlegroups.com

Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2011 10:00:01 -0600

[Robin Hillyer-Miles]

Congratulations to all the published authors!

Good luck with this new endeavor.