VF LIBRIS discussion

If you are interested in publishing your book in Croatia send us email at [email protected] and we will offer you all details of our project. And YES this is completely free for author - I'm answering this question in advance because I was asked that question many times.

Sent a couple questions your way. I tried to be professional, but after 13 hours of fast food management, I'm not sure the capacity for it is there. Thanks for the info!

what do you require to be published through your company. what kind of benefits would you offer an author?

'Search for the Sunlight' A Treewood Adventure by Craig A. Thomson. The most unusual fairy tale you are likely to read in a long time!

I will copypaste letter I sent to our first time authors. If interested please contact us on email, because email I check every day, posts here only now and then.

First of all, let me tell you about myself. I'm writer and translator, I've been doing this job for 20 years. My name is in almost 60 books. My husband is professional graphic designer, he done most of my books, also doing this for 20 years. In Croatia it's hard to live from book business only – authors are underpaid, translators are underpaid, but we still for years work for many publishing houses, only because we love the job. We are doing this because we love books, everything about books for us is magical.

2 years ago my husband and I decided: we know almost everything is to know about publishing, printing, translating, writing… everything book related. Why wouldn't we start our own business?

So, we dig some more info and find out about micro-publishing. That is publishing on the small scale, when one or 2 people are doing all the work, publishing small number of books, only to cover expenses of printing, designing, translating, bookselling agent and so on, and publishing only that quantity of books they know they can sell. In case of Croatia that's only 200 pcs per title (we are really small market) – and that can cover the mentioned costs only if 1 or 2 persons can do the job of 5 people or more. So, we are underpaying ourselves 😊 That's why we print only public domain books and we cannot pay for publishing rights for modern authors – there is no room for that expenses.

There are so many good, young authors who only needs the chance for someone to “discover him/her”. Also, there is so many authors, so many books out there – it’s hard to see the tree through the forest. So we decided to ask – it’s always good to ask. If young authors like to work with us, and help us, we will help them.

We hope business will change in 5 years’ time. For now, we are selling our books only to libraries who are financed by the State – all of it are only hardcover books, designed only for libraries, so more durable and more expensive editions. In few years, when we got job take off, we hope to expand business on eBooks and paperbook editions. Crisis destroyed most of small publishing houses – people in Croatia stop buying books, cost of living was too high and books become luxury. But we still love to read, and we can borrow books from libraries for free. The State is financing our libraries. So, this is why we – micro publishers – focus on libraries. Libraries buy books, people borrow books, authors with books in libraries have good exposure. 20 years ago, when I was unknown author, people who borrowed my books from libraries started my carrier as writer. When my publisher heard that libraries have waiting lists for my book (my first book of many), because to many people are asking about it, I got a new book deal, no questions asked. And the new one. And the new one… And people who borrowed my books from libraries told other people, and other people – sick of waiting for it in libraries – bought my books in bookshops, and that’s how this all thing started. So – that’s why libraries.

In the future, if the market „heals itself”, we will start publishing paper books, so people can buy books in bookstores, but for now situation is like it is – libraries only.

If you decide to work with us, we will sign agreement for every book, separately. Every agreement will be for 5 years’ time.

We still don’t have website, it’s still work in progress.

So… to get things started… Send us: 1) word count; 2) what genre your book is (we are mostly interested in fiction: mystery, thriller, romance, war novels - but send email, ask even if you have something else), ; 3) describe your book in 300-500 words; 4) send us 3 first chapters 5) if you have FB, Tweeter, Goodreads profile and so on, send it to us, so we can learn thing or two about you. We will let you know as soon as we read all of books offered to us. We are now deciding books for 2019. If we like your book we will have it translated in few months’ time, and we will send you agreement as soon as decision is made.