Greetings, salutations, and welcome to the blog. Tell us, who are Three Furies and why should people save up for books from your press?
Three Furies is a publishing company that looks for the best stories and most unique voices we can find. Then we take months honing those stories into the best they can be before releasing them into the market. It doesn’t matter if you like sci-fi, romance, fantasy, steampunk, or horror, we’ve got a book for that. We are also proud to say that we’re LGBTQ+ positive and have a diverse group of authors, and a bit sad to say that makes us unique.
As avid readers who transitioned into being authors, then publishers, we know the love readers have for new and unique voices and different perspectives. That’s what we bring to the market every two weeks.
I've been able to enjoy a few titles from 3FP and can attest to that diversity. So how many authors and how many titles do you currently offer and what’s coming in Fall/Winter 2020?
We currently have 42 books out, 43 depending on when this posts. And we have 25 authors currently signed and publishing with us. For the Fall this year, we have months’ worth of dark fantasy and horror. I swear, we didn’t plan for it to match 2020 when we set our schedule in 2019, but we are totally taking advantage of it.
Pandemics that cause zombies? Check. Elder gods taking over? Check. Dark forces corrupting youths? Check. Deals with devils? Check. Urban legends coming to life and hunting down humans? Check. All culminating in a final Harvest where portals punch through into our reality and the apocalypse starts with a rain of blood. Then we take a nice break for Christmas. Sounds good, right?
Sounds accurate as it gets when it comes to this cray-cray year. No matter your preferred dystopian nightmare, we've got ya covered lol. Ok so back to quesions. Are you currently accepting submissions? If so, what are your requirements and are there any specific type of books you’re keeping an eye out for?
We are not currently open for public submissions. Our submissions were open for a short time this past spring, but we filled up quickly. Our current publishing schedule is filled through the end of 2021. However, when we do look for submissions, we always look for the most interesting books with varied voices. I watched a panel not too long ago on GoIndieNow where authors of color talked about trying to make it in the publishing world. Each of them had a horrifyingly similar story. Their stories were “too black/not black enough” and they often heard “we don’t know how to market a story like this”. Which, to be blunt, is bullshit. A fantasy novel is a fantasy novel and gets marketed as a fantasy novel. And we love seeing familiar tropes turned on their head by fresh perspectives. If you’re an author of color and have a good story, please do reach out to TFP. It might take a while, but we’re always happy to add new voices to our platform.
What are some of the values of Three Furies Press and what services do you offer authors?
Bex: I always say: Safe, Sane, and Consensual. We’re not out to screw people over, our contracts are fair and not overly long. We recommend our authors sit down with a lawyer or someone knowledgeable in contracts before signing. Another thing we stress to our authors is to take care of themselves. Celebrate their successes, don’t push themselves so hard they become sick or burned out, and know that we are with them the whole way ready to offer support and guidance. Consensual is, hopefully obvious. There is no consent without informed consent, which is why we make sure they understand their contracts and why we do all of our work on Google Drive so they can see what changes we are making. Authors have constant input not just into the edits, but also in the graphics we’re designing and their covers and schedules.
We work with our authors to do full edits (developmental and line), formatting, sales graphics, marketing help, and covers, then of course the actual publishing. We also facilitate creating merchandise for our store, based on their graphics.
Isa: Our size is another advantage. While many traditional publishers take up to 5 years to publish a book, our turnaround is about 9-12 months. This is one reason we close for submissions periodically.
This quick turnaround also lets us make course corrections easily. We’re not a giant ocean liner chugging along; we’re a zippy little speedboat, able to adjust our publishing schedule, our workflow, and even job responsibilities as needed. There’s no massive faceless corporate entity that must be appeased. It’s just us, Rebekah and Isa, the people you know, who are in charge.
Your site also has some pretty cool book related swag. Can you tell us a bit about that and what are some of your most popular items?
Oh yeah, you can of course buy any of our books from our shop. Since there’s no middle man distributor, there our authors also get larger royalties from those sales. And the books are what we call personalized, they have the author’s signatures in the ebooks and printed into the paperbacks if you want to buy that format.
Books are obviously the biggest sellers. After that are the t-shirts and hoodies. Our printers have several styles of shirts and different thicknesses in the hoodies. So if you see a design you like, or an author you want to support, you can find something you like with that design on it. Maps are also popular, and as a map lover I totally get that. I love having a map up on my wall while reading a book so I can follow along with their adventures. We even host other authors on our shop, like Andy Peloquin and Joshua Robertson. We don’t sell any of Andy’s books, but we do have the short story introduction for Joshua’s newest series.
We also have an amazing graphic designer, MoriArtsy Designs, who does all our cute seasonal merch. These are often book-related, rather than book-specific, plus adorable, fun designs perfect for everyone.
Even with a year as crazy as 2020, we all continue to drive towards our goals. What is the current focus of Three Furies, what adjustments have you guys made due to the pandemic, and what are some goals you will be pursuing?
The pandemic did hit us hard. Several of our staff were affected, in ways I am not going to discuss, but we were down to a skeleton crew for quite some time. But our team is amazing, and those who could, stepped up and we never even missed a release date. Of course this time is also hard on our authors, isolation and depression go hand in hand for a lot of people, and being creative during situations like that is not easy. So we’ve been meeting more often, talking more frequently, and generally just coming together as a group of creatives to cheer each other on and be a comforting ear or shoulder to cry on.
Our goal has been, and continues to be, to make it through. It started out just trying to make sure everyone survived, but now it is a drive to succeed stronger than we thought possible when these dark times started. Furies don’t back down. We might slow down, but we never stop. And when it comes to struggles, well that’s when you are supposed to call on the Furies to help get you through.
There’s a Three Furies Happy Hour at a local convention. What’s on the menu?
Isa. Bekah is on the bar, dancing badly.
Lol, can't ask for a better answer than that. As writers, we’re SUPER Talented at beating ourselves up. What would you say to a writer that is excelling at that a bit too much?
If you’re one of my authors, “stop it, that’s my job.” As a publisher I’m not here to coddle you. I’m here to tell you the truth and help you find a way to succeed. If you’re beating yourself up but I’m not joining in, that means you’re not doing bad. As authors we do get down, we do get in funks. Being creative takes a LOT of mental work, and our brains get worn down and tired. So never forget to take care of yourselves. If you can’t seem to find a way to be creative, then you need to take a break or a diversion. Go do something else creative, like make a video with a banana, show off your favorite socks, or go paint or cook.
Just the same as every day can’t be leg day at the gym if you want to stay healthy, every work day can’t be a writing day. And you can’t always be driving forward at 100%.
Bananas shall always be magically delicious and a saving grace during these crazy times. What are some of your proudest success stories?
*tears up* I have this baby author. He was a rookie, baby writer really, with one story under his belt. And not much else at the beginning. I’m so proud. So, so proud. He had just finished the editing work for his book. He called me up, and wanted to know what the next step was. How could he be a better author? How could he push his marketing forward? I talked things out with him, and told him what his next steps could be. He asked questions that proved he’d been doing his own research, and was ready to keep moving forward. And he did. Then he really shocked me. He asked me if he could submit another story. Which was the start of a series. And he sent it with a perfectly worded introduction letter that explained his first book, his series, the progression, and how many books would be following it. I read his submission, and instantly knew it was a winner too.
He took everything we taught him with his first book, applied it to his authoring job, and applied it to writing his next book at the same time. He even pointed out the ways he could, and planned to, improve. When he got his second contract, he shared it on social media, and thanked us. I read his post with tears in my eyes.
He was a writer, now he is an author who knows what it means to have a job as an author, and I believe with all my heart he is going to succeed wildly.
And this other author. I knew his work, loved it. But he had SO FEW BOOKS! It was heartbreaking. I needed more stories! Then I heard his history. He was stuck in a bad contract and while he was still trying to write, he couldn’t get excited about it because his publisher treated him so badly. I helped him find a loophole, a way his company wouldn’t claim his new novels and he could finally publish again without having to pay. Instead of self-publishing, he submitted to us. And we’re now working on several of his novels as he just keeps on writing!
And now, it is with great pleasure that I roll out the red carpet so you can tell us where to find you and where people can connect with Three Furies.
You can always find the Three Furies at https://threefuriespress.com/ where you can also find articles we’ve written, bios on our authors, and if you feel like shopping online, and who doesn’t during these times, you can check out our collections https://threefuriespress.com/collections or just search for your favorite author or merchandise. Or you can come hang out with us and our author friends on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/798268893905448
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So there you have it, dear frands. A great small press with good people and a diverse lineup of novels and authors. Definitely something that resonates during these times. Here's to writing up a storm and seeing that page and saying ATTACKKKKK.
Til next time we connect creatively.
Peace, love, and maki rolls.
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