New Year, no Publisher?
2024 has hands
Why I Signed with City Owl
I have been writing for a long time, and in early 2020 I had finally finished my first novel, Cinders of Yesterday. My queer love letter to the paranormal genre which I have been affectionately explaining as “Supernatural but make it lesbians” since starting to talk about it. It’d gone through six exhaustive drafts and over 250k written by the time I began querying.
I sent out my first queries in Autumn of 2019, and after several rounds I’d come to realize a few things. The market wasn’t really interested in paranormal books, and sapphic books have always been a hard sell. My brain began to work on the next project, and I realized I had three basic options. I could shelve Cinders of Yesterday entirely, I could self publish it, or, I could look for a decent small press that was still putting out urban fantasy and paranormal novels.
I considered going indie, but at the time I was still a freelance writer. With the volatility of the editorial freelance market, and coming from a lower-middle class background I had no savings to fall back on. So I decided to check out some small presses. After doing some social media snooping, and checking out a few of the authors like Lisa Edmonds(who has since received the rights to books 1-4 back) I submitted to City Owl, and signed with them in July of 2020 through my first agent.
I walked into the business relationship with eyes as open as I could get them. My contract went through several rounds of negotiations between my agency and the publisher, and I knew that the City Owl distribution model was digital first. They had a number of other authors, and were still happy to publish paranormal novels. I knew that the market changes, and trends come back around so I wasn’t worried about writing to trend. As an author of queer stories, I was also buoyed by the fact that the publisher seemed really excited about acquiring my book, even though sapphic novels have historically been a harder sell.
Why I requested a rights reversion
On 1/3/24 I requested my rights back. I’m part of the initial spate of authors who requested, or were offered, their rights back. A group that those of who have left have dubbed rush week. By the time 2024 rolled in, my rose colored glasses with City Owl had long since been crushed, and now all I saw were red flags. Unlike 2020 when I signed, I have a job that gives me a degree of financial flexibility, as well as a much more thorough understanding of the industry.
2023 was not a good year for me. I spent most of it trying to eke by while being unsure if I’d be losing my day job, and feeling like I’d creatively hit the wall while working on my second novel. Because of this, my personal promo and online presence with readers dropped through the floor. I expected to see a slump in what had always been a smattering of sales each quarter.
My Quarter 3 royalty statement after agency fees was less than $2. I had been unhappy for a long time with City Owl and the way they operated. On January 1st, a post went up in the City Owl authors group that outlined, amongst other things, the marketing budget for books. $500. That’s it. That’s the budget. Questions about this post started in the group, and SC Greyson was the first person to be offered their rights back via email.
When I found out, I reached out to my former agent about my best option, and then sent an email requesting my rights be reverted. On 1/4/24 after emailing with the publisher, and my agency I received my rights back. I chose to spend the $200 to buy my original cover from the publisher, and then immediately got to work on making the jump to indie publishing. On 1/7/24 I submitted Cinders of Yesterday to KDP and was officially an indie author on my own.
Red Flags
While the exodus from City Owl by affected authors (my current count is 11 who have received some, or all of their rights back so far) certainly looked like an implosion from the outside, the storm had been brewing for years. I’d begun to have misgivings about City Owl before the book was actually published, starting in August of 2020 and continuing until I got my rights back.
In this post I’m only talking about my personal experiences with City Owl, and I want to stress that because I knew how traditional publishing worked, and had an agent that I had a leg up. I was in regular communication with my agent about timelines for marketing, ARCs, review copies, and release dates, and we still received no communication about anything unless I, or my team, reached out first.
Additionally, as we got closer to my publication date, I saw more and more things that began to ring alarm bells. Amongst them were the small window for reviews, since my book didn’t go up on Netgalley until 6/11/21, and a lack of any kind of social media push for Cinders of Yesterday from City Owl Press.
A Timeline of Red Flags
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I received a welcome email from the COO directing me to the space City Owl kept for authors/communication. All of them were through FB.
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Feb 26: I receive the “marketing plan” via communication w/my agent. Its suggestion was to run a FB launch party.
March 1, we receive additional marketing info from the head marketing officer, Ms. Casale. I was advised that in-person events don’t push sales, was asked to reach out to non-trade reviewers, and was told I would receive an ARC in May to send to reviewers.
I was additionally advised via email that stores who couldn’t find the book in Ingram could order them through Ms.Moss.
In Early March I sent over my personal publicity tour which included virtual events, podcast appearances, and guest blog posts.
In April when I got my copyedits back I had to fight to get “Black” capitalized, and found all instances of “locs” had been changed to: dreadlocks, ‘locks, or dreads.
Keep in mind this was a white editor, who refused to budge and there were no Black employees or editors to explain how this was harmful.On 4/22/21 I received an email asking for blurbs, author bio etc. I didn’t receive an ARC to send to “trusted” reviewers (ie: authors for blurbs) until 3/5/21. If I’d sent the book out the day I received it, they had it for exactly 6 weeks. Not long enough for most to return a blurb considering our workloads.
On 6/11/21 only 11 days before release, the book went up on Netaglley.
On 6/15/21, a week from my release, City Owl then tried to release my book only on their website for a week before the wide release. This was denied.
Escalating issues
While the red flags that cropped up prior to publication put a bad taste in my mouth, I tried to focus on what was fully in my control: my writing, and screaming about Cinders of Yesterday on social media. However, I was fighting writer’s block and a general feeling of malaise about having sold these books to a publisher that seemed to not understand social media, marketing, or how to reach out to the audiences they wanted to reach.
I am one of the only authors at City Owl Press who was writing queer books. When I came on in 2020, there were two other authors. Since 2020, City Owl has added a handful of other queer authors.
When I signed with City Owl, I was told that part of their marketing efforts included robust social media marketing. From July of 2020 to when I left the press, there were exactly 17 posts which featured or mentioned my book from IG & Tiktok. Of those, 8 were put up in June of 2021. On Tiktok, Cinders was mentioned not at all in 2022, and only twice in 2023. Of the 6 Tiktoks made, all but one were posted in June.
Over on IG, Cinders was not mentioned at all by the press until 5/22/21 when they reposted an IG live I conducted with another author, Lisa Edmonds. There are 11 existing IG posts which feature or mention Cinders of Yesterday. Of those, 5 were posted in June of 2021. The press did not even manage to mention the new release book On Its Release Date, instead posting about it a day later. Of the 11 total posts, 9 went up during Pride Month.
On socials I watched as they talked about other books, and while Cinders was never a huge hit it continued to find its audience. It has a 4+ Star rating on every review site, and the written reviews are by and large, glowing. I was active on social, I tagged City Owl in my content…and I got no real help or support from the publisher along the way.
Of the marketing that the publishing company did, they made one push to target LGBTQ+ readers. Everything else was pushed to paranormal romance, even though Cinders is not a romance heavy book. I tried to ignore it and continue writing, pushing myself through a series of unfortunate events that would not conclude for over a year. However, the issues at City Owl continued to crop up and I was feeling more and more disconnected.
In 2023, due to personal issues I was unable to write, or promo for most of the year. I was mentioned 4 times on City Owl social content (3/4 during Pride) and sold less than 20 books from 1/1/23-9/30/23. My total royalties were less than $35.
The issue with trying to lay out everything that sent up red flags between 7/20 and 1/24 is that looking back, they’re everywhere. However, the one that was most glaring to me when I looked back over my 2023 numbers, was the way that they trotted me out for Pride Month before forgetting I existed for months at a time.
I exist all year long thanks
When I signed with City Owl, I was given to believe that they wanted to market the books they were selling. However, my personal experience doesn’t exactly back that up.
I started promo for the Cinders of Yesterday release as soon as I was signed, creating social graphics and building buzz since we had less than a year until release. City Owl did not mention me, or my book, until a month from my release date. I’m not the only one either. All you need to do is take a peek at their IG grid. They don’t announce upcoming books, they don’t push preorders, and they don’t give proper support to the authors who do this on their own.
What makes me angry, is the way that my book was almost only promoted during Pride month over the course of two-and-a-half years.
Queer books, and queer authors do not solely exist during pride month. Trotting us out for a month each year to show that you “support” your queer authors is performative nonsense, and when I realized what had happened with Cinders I had to sit down before I burst a blood vessel in my eye.
In 2022, InD’Tale Magazine’s Rone Awards had 3 City Owl novels up for Best LGBTQ+ Book. We were notified that were were finalists on 3/30/2022, but the publisher didn’t announce this until June of 2022. Huh. Wonder why they might wait a full 3 months, instead of just…posting up a congrats like they did with finalists of other categories. Instead, we got trotted out again during Pride Month, and the post they made in 2022? Yeah, its one of the 17 total posts where they mentioned me or my book on TT or IG.
Why I’ve Been So Loud
My experience with City Owl Press are not unique, and they are honestly, better experiences than many other authors have had. However, the way that authors were treated in unacceptable.
I am generally a fan of Hanlon’s Razor, Never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to incompetence. After I left City Owl, I decided to do a wee bit of digging for my own benefit. Along with no traditional publishing experience from anyone at the company, their chief marketing officer has…no professional experience in marketing. Perhaps it just isn’t public, but the lack of understanding about core marketing principles like building word of mouth, or how funneling works, make me question it.
It wasn’t until I began to speak to the other authors who left that I realized how deep-rooted the issues were. I could attribute their neglect of my book to it being a sapphic paranormal novel in the current climate. Except that multiple other authors had the same, or worse, experiences. Mine were mitigated by having an agent for my release, and having an audiobook deal that put pressure on the publisher. Otherwise, I may easily have been one of their books that “fell through the cracks” at release.
Authors run a business. We enter into business relationships with other entities in order to sell our product, and expect a modicum of professional behavior because of it. Not only did they make misleading statements to authors like initially telling them they sought GoodReads giveaways, only to be told that if we wanted a GR giveaway “authors are free to pursue it.”, but City Owl has continued to double down as more people begin to tell their stories.
Here’s the thing. Speaking out, especially as an author, is not easy. It is in fact, terrifying. We are risking out reputations, being blacklisted, and finding closed doors that were once open to us. Not every author is in a position to be vocal about what happened, especially behind closed doors. For every vocal author, there are more who cannot speak out right now, and their stories still deserve to be told.
Authors considering submitting to City Owl Press deserve the truth about the way they operate, nd the truth of what to expect so they can properly advocate for themselves. Because I am in a position to do so, I feel morally obligated to speak up about what happened so that no one else gets bamboozled. I can’t get this information to everyone, but publishing has plenty of whisper networks, and they’ve started doing their job.
It was only after disaffected owls began talking to each other, and sharing notes that the pattern of behavior emerged. It’s that pattern that I want to make people aware of. It’s why I keep yelling about it, why I keep sharing new information as it comes to light, and why I took the time to write a blog post about my experiences. Since the situation keeps evolving as new things come to light, and I’m still parsing more thoughts this is likely not the only time I’ll be writing about what happened.
