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  • Goal Publications Home
  • Storefront
  • About Us
  • Submissions and Inquiries
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Short Story Submission Calls
  • News
  • Music
  • Other Information
    • Bite Levels
    • Become a Distributor
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What to Expect When Submitting in 2020

11/15/2019

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We've sent out the last of the standalone submission acceptance/rejection emails! We have a couple of solicited manuscripts we're still waiting on, but other than that, if you've sent a manuscript in and have not received an email before today, please check!
 
And with that, a quick announcement for 2020 submissions.
 
As we continue to grow, we have to keep adjusting what our priorities are in the stories we accept. First and foremost our goal is to take in unique and wonderful stories with diverse voices that we think many readers will and enjoy. Beyond that, however, we need to start taking a closer look at two things: marketability and marketing.
 
For marketability, if you take a look at our submission form, we now have a new field option that says, "Sell Your Story in as Few Words as Possible". When we interact with a potential reader at a convention, we're only going to get a few seconds to try and sell that person on a book. After that, while they might still listen, it's likely the story will seem too complex and they will be much less likely to buy it. We have a couple of stories in our collection right now that, while they are great stories and I would recommend them to pretty much everyone, don't get as much attention, because they are so much harder to describe in those few words. While your submission next year won't be heavily judged on if you in particular can come up with that sales pitch, it will be heavily judged if neither of us can.
 
For marketing, while there's nothing new added to the form, we'll be paying much more attention to your own self-marketing. Here are the easiest ways you can improve your marketing (if you're not doing them already):
  • Have social media. Twitter is likely the best one to use, since that overlaps the largest with the audience we're like to have, but if you want to use Facebook, Instagram, and others as well, go for it.
  • Use your social media to talk about your writing. Link to other stories you have written that may be available online (which includes taking advantage of anthology contracts, and posting your stories online to advertise your own work once any exclusivity clauses have expired). Post teaser passages (even just a couple sentences) from your WIPs or upcoming releases. Interact with your fans, and encourage your fans to read your work. Be excited about your work.
  • Have a website. There are tons of free website builders out there that give you a "yourname.theirwebsite.com" type of domain. It doesn't have to be the pinnacle of web development, but it should have a bit about you, and should link to your publications (which could be stories published online for free that you're proud of, anthologies you have a story in, other standalone publications, or other relevant things).
Not having these things, moving forward, may heavily persuade our judgment one way or the other. We may be willing to help an author with developing their story more than usual if they have a social media audience desperate to buy their work. On the other hand, we may reject a story that we enjoy if it doesn't seem like the author cares all that much about promoting their own work.
 
2020 is going to be another great year for us, and the next post you see on here is going to be announcing several of the titles you can expect to see next year!
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Ko-fi and Tipping

9/28/2019

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To start things off, this is us reminding people we have a Ko-fi account! ​You can send a couple bucks our way for a coffee. We're trying to work from a place other than our home office once a week to keep our sanity, so anything helps.

Anyway, for those that have seen, starting at this past convention, we've begun adding tips to our checkout screen. We don't make much off of it; for example, this past con we made just about the same amount as we paid in Square fees.

​Why, you ask?

While we plan to go into more detail during our "Behind the Scenes of Furry Literature" panels, it comes down to this: furry publishing is very much a labor of love. It is a very low-margin business, meaning we make very little on the books we sell. Some of these titles we make next to nothing on. However, we truly believe in what we do, and it's why we continue to do it.

Making these books takes a lot of work. Just factoring in accepted manuscripts, I personally put in well over $1,000 worth of work into each title (if you take what we'd charge to edit and typeset each book into account, and we don't even charge that much compared to other freelance editors). That doesn't even factor in that we pay for cover art, pay for stock, pay to sell the books at conventions, and pay for other things that come up.

On average, we make about $2.50 on a full-price book. We sell 100 copies and we've probably made back what we spent on cover art, and a small dent in paying for stock (not to mention a lot of these copies are NOT likely sold at full price). So that's a lot of hours of free labor that's never going to get paid.

While tipping, just like getting me a coffee via our Ko-fi page above, is certainly not expected by anyone, it very much helps us keep doing what we're doing. Even if it's a dollar here or there, or purchasing an extra book than you were planning, everything is very, very appreciated.

If Weebly gets it together and adds a tipping option on here, we will certainly go forth with that as well. But who knows when that will happen.
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Post-Convention Report - Camp Tiny Paws 2019

8/12/2019

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​*dusts off the blog section of the website*
 
Hello all! We’ve just returned from our first Camp Tiny Paws (www.tinypawscon.org), and it was an excellent convention! Though if you follow my Twitter, you probably are aware we had a good time. The convention ended up at 273 attendees, which while that was technically a slight drop from the previous year, the convention seems to have a good base for growth in the future. A perfect storm of things seemed to happen to several people prior to the con, which left about four tables in the Dealer's Den empty.
 
I'm going to break these posts up into a handful of sections, for consistency!
 
The Trip
Danbury is about 1.75 hours from us. Just out of range to be a commutable convention, but a short enough distance that the round trip plus going to a couple stores in the area requires less than half a tank of gas. Meant also we didn't have to leave until after noon, so that was helpful.
 
Setup Day
We decided late into the season we wanted to go for Thursday. Every time I say I'm going to setup on Friday morning I end up swapping things around last-minute and going in for Thursday. Yes it means we can set our table up on our own schedule and relax for the rest of the night, but it means we pay for another hotel night, and we seem to run into a problem every Thursday. This convention's problem came when trying to setup my banner. I stupidly stood on a chair (which if any dealers have sat on the padded conference room chairs in these dens, they know that the support is basically gone), so the chair fell over and sent me toppling into my table. I broke my banner stand (though it still managed to stand for the rest of the con), and we spilled two very full Starbucks coffees, ruining one of my display books and making me have to reprint a couple fact cards, which luckily wasn't a huge issue. It was a bummer, but things ironed themselves out quickly enough.

Going in we knew that we technically had what I would call the most difficult table spot in the den. We faced a wall with a garbage can, and to our left was the back corner of the room, farthest away from the door. To combat this, the next banner we're ordering will be double-sided.

Also an issue was that this was our first convention with two tables. The extra space was definitely needed, though for the first time, I didn't make a full Photoshop mock-up of where everything was going to go. It created a bit of confusion and caused setup to take longer, but ultimately we're happy with how things looked. We are looking to make some decent adjustments for our next convention, though.
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​Friday
In our Gen 3 setup arrangement period (Gen 1 being when I was only an editing company, and Gen 2 being when we had less titles at our table than fingers on one hand, and no merch), Friday has been our slowest day. Despite the fact that I've grown far better and more confident in my online marketing, most people don't know we're at these conventions, or that we exist in general, so we don't have people seeking us out on Friday. Fridays at cons are people coming around and seeing what's in the den, taking our business card and some first-chapter samples, and potentially coming back later in the convention. Sales were fairly light, but if you look at the number of attendees versus other conventions, it still wasn't awful.
 
Saturday
Saturday started out pretty busy for us. We sold most of our copies of Symphony of Shifting Tides on Saturday, because a super-diverse cast of characters + fantasy = the book that most people seem to want. There were times when dealers were the only people in the room, but that's to be expect from such a small convention, where the dealers themselves make up a notable percentage of the entire convention attendance. Things picked up, and by the end of the day, we'd hit the highest amount of gross sales we've ever had on Saturday (though only by a slight margin).
 
Sunday
Sunday was when the action happened. Despite several slow periods, Sunday was when we got the most number of people coming back and saying they've read the first-chapter samples, and were ready to purchase the full book (and sometimes others). We also had our first instance of someone reading part of book one of a series, then coming back and buying books two and three while they were there. Not the first time we've sold all available books in a series at once, but the first time they'd taken time to read a chunk of one at the con! In the end, we were $10 short of making this day our highest-grossing day of all time.
 
Customer Feedback
If you've been following our Twitter, you'll notice we started doing a bundle deal for conventions—our "Intro to Furry Lit" bundles. This contains one of our new reusable bags filled with a copy of A Glimpse of Anthropomorphic Literature, one anthology of their choice, and one Pocket Shot of their choice for $25 (plus or minus for a more or less expensive item). Several potential buyers expressed it was a really cool idea, but we only had a couple takers on the actual bundle deal. It doesn't cost us anything to have it exist, so it's something we'll continue doing for future conventions.

The biggest genre of interest for this convention ended up being "fantasy". Symphony of Shifting Tides is 2/1 for selling out at this point, which tells me there's definitely a good, active market for fantasy, especially magical fantasy (compared to high fantasy, though that still had some good interest, just not a lot in the way of sales). We'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more fantasy in our submission pile in the future.

Unsurprisingly as well, customers were yearning for more transgender representation in stories, as well as more lesbian representation. We only have one of each at this time, and we NEED to have more. Our submissions are open until November 1st, so pleasepleaseplease, submit those stories to us!

While we still had our normal group of people who all but ran from our table when they figured out they sold books, I'd say we had a smaller percentage of that than usual.
 
Final Thoughts
As we have mentioned on Twitter, Camp Tiny Paws 2019 sits now at our second-highest-grossing convention of all times (only topped by AnthrOhio 2019 that beat it by a small margin, albeit with 1000 more attendees). What we didn't mention on Twitter, Camp Tiny Paws 2019 is officially our most profitable convention to date, and the convention where we've sold the highest number of books. This was also the first convention where our gross sales managed to pay for our hotel, tables, registration, and cost of gas. We still have a long way to go before conventions become actually profitable, but we're making bigger and bigger strides. I also feel like I have a far, far better understanding of this business than I did even a few months ago. I will continue to learn more, and continue to better my business, and myself.
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2019 - What's come and what's to come

3/10/2019

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It's been a little while since we've made a post! As per usual, it seems. 2019 has started out very strong for us, and we're looking to continue that into the rest of the year and into coming years.
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We've begun rolling out more and more merch items since the end of last year. Starting with our Hoofer shirt and continuing on with this adorable little raccoon, we've begun expanding our horizons as to what our readers want. After all, readers aren't reading all the time, are they? Sometimes they need to visit the outside world, and we want to make sure you're wearing something cute to do it in. Over the next few months, we're looking to expand our catalog with these designs into more products, as well as release more new designs.
Our book releases for 2019 have begun in full swing, and there are several more to come!
With a soft-release at the end of 2018 for reading in 2019, Signal by Renee Carter Hall is the tale of Jak, who after finding a relic left behind by the ones Before, must make a difficult choice between his home and his sense of wonder.

He sets out on a journey to discover more about these mysterious creatures (humans) who have left the Earth behind, but will what he finds prove too much for him?

​This short tale won't take up much time to read, but will truly leave you wondering.

​Read the review done by Furry Book Review here!
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Our first release of 2019, Ben Goodridge's Akela, brings us to the Australian Outback where Akela, an Ambimorph (this world's anthropomorphic animals), holds onto a prophecy that could be the sunset of the human race. Fresh from a traumatic experience of his own where he's lost three years of his life, Akela must quickly pick the pieces back up as more and more of the ones he loves are taken.

Akela's forced to decide which is more important: the prophecy and songs his people have been holding onto since intelligent creatures first walked the Earth, or the safety of his friends and family. Or, as Akela will find out, does he have a choice at all?

​Ben is a seasoned novelist, and really flexes his ability with this tale that spans multiple generations.

Currently open for pre-order, our coffee-themed anthology edited by Amy Clare Fontaine and Madison Keller, The Daily Grind, features eight stories by several talented short-story writers spanning from the paranormal to the fantastical, and from the every day to the out-of-this-world.

Short and sweet at just a $10 cover price, this collection can be guzzled like a large cold brew on a hot summer's day, or sipped slowly like a dark roast in the middle of winter.
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Then comes our most anticipated title of 2019: Symphony of Shifting Tides by Leilani Wilson, open for pre-order now and to be released at the beginning of April. While it's her debut novel, Leilani is no stranger to artistic creation, having worked on the soundtracks for several indie games (and making her own accompaniment album to this book, available here).

This story follows Verse, an ex-pirate, even though it shouldn't follow them. The seas are dying, forcing Verse and their partner-in-crime, Xan, to find new work and new seas. In the process, they end up getting involved in a holy war between multiple nations. They reluctantly join forces with Cecelia, a magic-adept bat who can't take her nose out of books for long enough to listen (or bathe); Basil, a knight that comes from a line of heroes, who is SUPPOSED to be the chosen hero of this adventure; and Karina, fellow knight and Basil's retainer (babysitter).

This is a story of two sides—one doing the right things for the wrong reasons while the other is doing the wrong things for the right reasons—and those that get changed by the choices they have to make. Verse—who is already struggling not just with their self-worth, but also their sexuality and gender identity—must figure out what's important to them, and navigate this war without getting themselves (or any of their friends) killed.

At nearly 500 pages, book one of this tale is sure to keep you clamoring for more.

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Finally, from prolific novelist Sylvain St-Pierre, we will be getting the second book (and more, for one series) to each of his four main series in 2019. While only two have product pages so far (Crimson and A Familiar Death), the others will be following in the coming months.
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We will have a couple more titles coming forward later this year (May and beyond), so stick around. Lots more to look forward to.
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The Tiger Indeed Writes

9/20/2018

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If you've been keeping up with the Fanged Fiction Twitter account, you've probably seen us advertising Tristan by Sylvain St-Pierre. For any of you that don't know, we've been editing for Sylvain via Ottercorrect Literature Services for the last few years now, editing seven novels for him to date. We've enjoyed his writing, and have decided to print and distribute his work! While these items won't hold our logo, they still hold our support, and we're very excited to bring them to you.

What does that mean for you? Well, for the next seven months, hopefully, we'll be releasing one of his titles each month, which includes a paperback version and a redesigned ebook version! If you want to read samples of each of the titles we'll be carrying, visit his website and check him out. Sylvain has been self-publishing his work for awhile, and is currently selling the ebooks for each of his released titles, but you'll be able to get them all right here, fully updated, coming soon.

If you like Sylvain's work, along with buying the titles we release, he releases a lot of extra content on his Patreon, so consider supporting him there.

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If you like his work, also consider joining his Discord channel, where you get to read first drafts of a lot of work, talk about existing work, and have input on in-progress work.
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Outpouring of Acceptances

9/15/2018

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Another gap, but another round of exciting news!
 
Needless to say, we've been busy. Not only do we currently have two anthologies open for submissions—we know we announced them last time, but they're still going strong—but we've accepted not one, but three works for publications! We've also released a few new merchandise options over the last month or so that's worth getting excited about.

The Anthologies

As a reminder, we have two anthology calls open for submissions. You can check them out here, but here's a brief rundown of them anyway!

Goal Publications is open for short stories based around coffee. The usual rules about anthro animals that surround all stories we accept applies, but the story much have a theme that centralizes somewhere around coffee.

Fanged Fiction, our 18+ imprint, is open for erotic stories with a strong predator/prey dynamic. Make them unique, as they will be regarded with much higher priority than your generic "cat chases mouse" or vice-versa stories!

The Merch

Along with our Whandirlust tshirts now being offered in a variety of fun colors, we have two other items that have had a lot of attention!
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First up, our "Hoofer" tshirt. Whether you're a fan of the hoofed and horned or you just want to show your support for these underappreciated herbivores, this is the shirt for you! As with all of our shirts, these are printed on Gildan ultra-cotton, meaning they'll be comfortable while still lasting as long as you want them to.
Speaking of hoofers, keep an eye out on Project Greenfields, eventual sequel to award-winning title reWritten, for a special Furry Booktober event that we'll be running with them!
As you can see, model and Fanged Fiction mascot Trale is really feeling his true self in this shirt.
Second, you know you want to wake up in the morning with a hot cup of coffee—or relax in the evening with a hot cup of herbal tea—with these logo mugs! Available in 11oz and 15oz sizes, these mugs will handle whatever you throw at them (just please don't throw the mugs!)
Not convinced? Check out Fanged Fiction mascot Trale as he really enjoys some sort of beverage in this mug. Is it the blood of the innocent? Is it a fresh cup of bean juice? Who knows!​
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The Upcoming Releases

I think we've teased you long enough.

Expected to release in mid November of 2018, award-winning author Renee Carter Hall of titles such as Huntress and By Sword and Star brings us our second Pocket Shot entitled Signal, a story about a rakuun whose curiosity gets the better of him, leading him on a journey to discover more about the ones who came before him.

Next, expected to release in February 2019 at Anthro New England, novelist Ben Goodridge—who you may know from his previous titles White Crusade and Found: One Apocalypse—brings us Akela, the gripping tale set in the Australian Outback following Akela, an anthro wolf—Bushchild—struggling to regain his memories and the life he once had. This title is a long time in the making, and we're all excited to bring it to you.

Finally, in her first publication expected to release in May of 2019, Leila Wilson with musical fames like the Freedom Planet OST and the upcoming Kyle & Lucy OST, bring us a Symphony of Shifting Tides, following Verse and their friend and partner-in-crime Xan, pirates who are forced out of water due to the death of the sea. They only want to leave and find a new home, but they get pulled into an adventure full of war, magic, and prophecies that Verse never wanted a part of.


Want to join in on the fun? While we are closed for novel submissions, we are opening back up for Pocket Shots on October 1st, 2018. Check out the submission guidelines for more details on this type of book, and how you can submit.
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Pocket Shots and Anthologies

7/31/2018

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.We recently opened up pre-orders for our newest title, Melody of a Street Corner. Some of you may remember this story from the first Furry Writers' Guild anthology. What's different about this title as a whole, then?

This title is the first in our line of "Pocket Shots", 4" x 6" books that can likely fit into your pocket. These sub-30k word books are quick, inexpensive reads that allow us to introduce readers to authors without the full cover-price of a novel or anthology.

​We are excited about this line of titles, and would love to add your story to our collection.

Besides that, our two (hopefully) annual anthologies are open. This year, the Goal Publication one focuses around coffee, and the Fanged Fiction has a predator/prey theme. If you're interested in submitting to either of these, click the link and check out the submission guidelines.

Our parent company, Ottercorrect Literature Services, is still open for editing jobs with quick turnaround times. No matter the size or content of your project, send it over to be edited.
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2018 Convention Sales Wrap-up

5/29/2018

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We've just returned home from AnthrOhio, and we are sad to say that this will end our conventions with sales for 2018. In the northeastern US, most of the conventions are bunched up in the beginning of the year. Some of our staff will be at Anthrocon, but just attending, not selling.

If you're looking to get some of our titles, FurPlanet will be there, and may have a selection with them.

Over the weekend, we officially released Heirloom of the Rusks. Thank you to all that pre-ordered or picked up a copy at the convention. We also released our next tshirt, which came out fabulous. Whether you're excited for the release of Whandirlust (available for pre-order now) or simply think that the shirt and all its colors and fuzzy characters looks stunning, grab one for yourself.

Whandirlust: the Saga Begins will be released in conjunction with Anthrocon. We are hoping to have it sold there in some fashion, but that is yet to be confirmed.
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As our usual reminder, we are open for publication submissions! Check out our submissions page for more information on how to submit.
We are also looking for more project in the editing side of things! Check out our main site for how to send your project in for editing, and also check out the updated pages on our referral program (for current clients), as well as resources on how to edit your own work a bit better.
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New Releases Coming Up

4/10/2018

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It's been a wild road for the start of 2018! Some things are coming up that we're excited for.

In two and a half weeks, we will be at Pine Fur Con up in Maine, and while there we will be opening preorders for Heirloom of the Rusks by Lucas d'Aquina, a YA novel with a lot of high-fantasy notes. The preorder sale will last until the week before AnthrOhio, where we will be at the end of May.

Other than that, we've been working with an editing client for years off and on with a title called Whandirlust, a fantasy adventure set on an alien world. The book has undergone rewrite after rewrite, and with this latest pass, we couldn't pass up asking to publish it. The author is one we've worked with before, though on the artistic side of things. Aisha Robinson, who did the artwork for A Glimpse of Anthropomorphic Literature, as well as the interior artwork for Tales from the Guild: Music to your Ears. Excited to bring you that title, which should be opening for preorders at AnthrOhio next month and be released in time for Anthrocon.

As always, keep an eye out for more news. We're open for both editing projects (visit www.ottercorrect.com for that) and novel/novella/visual novel submissions, and we are hoping to see your project soon!
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New Website...again!

2/1/2018

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Doesn't it feel like we were just down this road recently? You're right, we were. Squarespace was great with our website for awhile, but sadly they limited us on some options, making things difficult on the logistics end. We've moved over to Weebly, and because of that, we have these new features for you:

  • We are now taking submissions and inquiries through the form on our website. If you have an inquiry about a submission or potential submission, or if you are going to submit a project, click on the Submissions and Inquiries tab above and fill out the appropriate form. This will ensure we get the info we need to make our decision.
  • Second, and probably most exciting, our new site has the ability to take reviews on products, and have comments made on news posts! We're still working on getting the reviews to function properly, but news comments are up and ready to go now.
  • Third, we now have the option of discounting shipping on specific products. We want to keep making USPS Media Mail a free option, but that option cannot extend to our merchandise, which does not meet the criteria for this shipping service. These products now have a blanket shipping option, and using the discount code MEDIAMAIL, as long as your order only contains books, you'll get free shipping, if you're in the US.
  • Finally--another logistical item--our storefront integrates with Square, making it easier for us to keep track of sales between conventions and online without going to different places.

Thanks again for your support. You all make these things worth it!
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