We’re Back: New Year, New Us…Kinda
With only a couple weeks left until Spellbound Publishing House, LLC’s one-year anniversary, our company is looking back over the past year and looking forward to what is yet to come.
As those who have been with us from the beginning know, our owners, Teddi, Sarah, and Taylor, began Spellbound Publishing House, LLC with the hopes and goals of making big changes in the publishing world. As writers themselves, they knew that writing wasn’t enough to get a book into the ether. It also took top-quality editing, stunning graphic design, and a skilled marketing team. With this knowledge, we developed a hybrid model (certified by IBPA) that would offer these optional services to independent authors in addition to no-cost publishing.
Within four months, Spellbound Publishing House, LLC had ten signed authors and within six months, nearly thirty authors were signed with the company. The influx of authors signed with Spellbound was both exciting and daunting. Spellbound found that we were struggling to fulfill all of the free services that they’d offered in addition to paid services to all of their authors. After consulting a financial advisor, we were forced to accept that if we didn’t make some changes, we would find ourselves bankrupt and closed before the end of 2023.
This is where changes had to be made.
We needed to adjust contracts, adjust package prices to manage costs, and we had to stop offering extra services beyond what authors were signed for. Throughout these changes, we were very open with our authors, but many were upset (understandably) and some chose to leave. As these changes were being made and implemented, things grew chaotic, Spellbound faced challenges that they had not anticipated, and as a result, a handful of authors and interns left the company, dissatisfied with their experience. Some were dissatisfied with the support they were receiving in their internship.
Some authors were dissatisfied with the outcome of their book, as quality suffered due to a lack of honest critiques between author and editor. There was pressure to hold to a deadline that was unsustainable and impossible to uphold. Unfortunately, a book cover was made with some components of AI from Adobe Firefly and though it was a cover that was approved by the author, when it was discovered that there were components used from Adobe Firefly, they chose to part ways with the company.
While it was painful to see them go, we can’t wait to see them thrive in the industry.
In light of this, we looked at what we wanted to offer and how we could best support our authors. This resulted in us splitting our brand into separate companies to help clarify our services.
Spellbound Publishing House, LLC offers no-cost publishing services and does not require the author to sign over their rights to the publisher.
Veritas Editing Collective offers top-quality editing, proofreading, and beta reading services to support authors on their publishing journey.
Corvus Design provides graphic design services for authors to support a variety of needs including character art, book cover design, and children’s book illustrations.
Signum Book Marketing Group focuses on the marketing needs of authors, providing supports to get their books in the hands of readers.
So where do we go from here?
We move forward. We look to the future and continue changing, growing, and working to nurture authors in all stages of their publishing journeys. We learn from our mistakes, we accept responsibility, and we move forward refocused on changing the publishing industry one book at a time.
