What do we offer our authors that inspires so many to publish second, third and fourth books with us?

Why do authors who have published before with larger houses publish subsequent books with us?

Why do writers who have never before seriously considered subsidy publishing choose to cast their lot with us?

• It's not our big-name authors. Our authors are just regular folks.
• It's not because we promise to make them bestselling authors—we don't .  I don't lie to my authors.
• It's not because we hire college kids to write glowing reviews of our submissions like other presses. I read them myself, and you may rest assured that all my reviews do not glow. We publish less than 30% of the manuscripts we receive.
  
• It's not because I have a secretary with a perky voice—I don't have one.
• It's not because of our high pressure sales staff—we don't have salesmen.
  
• It's not because an automated voice messaging service shuttles our authors' calls through a maze of departments.

Well then, what is it?

• Maybe it's because when our authors call, their editor answers the phone. When they email me I return it within 24 hours.
  
• Maybe it's because they can sense I'm glad to speak with them—or even more, that they can trust me to tell them the truth about a tough business (even when it's not what they would prefer to hear).
• Maybe it's because they know that, when they publish with us, they deal with one editor before, during and after their book is published—one man who cares about them. They know their editor won't be replaced by another one every few months. They know they won't be passed off to another department or given the runaround.
• Maybe it's because in Elderberry our authors have more than a business partner—they have a collaborator in a fellow writer and publisher.
• Maybe it's because we put writers in touch with our authors to hear what they have to say about us.
• Maybe it's because we promote our books by putting our authors on talk radio.
• Or maybe it's just the fact that at Elderberry we have one goal, one benchmark by which we measure our performance: putting good books in readers' hands.

Ask our authors. They'll tell you.

A personal note from the editor:

Today, (17 May 2003), I received a letter from Random House/Bartelsman. The date on the postmark was recent, so I know it was not lost in the mail. Inside was their form letter rejection of a query for my third novel which I submitted to them precisely four years, three months ago.

This is why I formed this publishing house. This is our reason for being. This is why so many talented writers turn to us. And this is why we have chosen to remain a small, indie publisher: in order to be able to answer queries not in four years, but in four days or less.

Try us and see.