Goal Publications
  • Goal Publications Home
  • About Us
  • Storefront
  • Music
  • Inquiries and Questions
  • Submit to Us
    • Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements
      • SOAR - Information
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Standalone Submissions
    • Short Story Submissions
  • News
  • Convention Appearances
  • Other Information
    • Bite Levels
    • Become a Distributor
  • Goal Publications Home
  • About Us
  • Storefront
  • Music
  • Inquiries and Questions
  • Submit to Us
    • Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements
      • SOAR - Information
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Standalone Submissions
    • Short Story Submissions
  • News
  • Convention Appearances
  • Other Information
    • Bite Levels
    • Become a Distributor
Search

Year Wrap-up and Award Nomination Post

12/28/2020

0 Comments

 
​Hello to all!
 
2020 is finally wrapping up, and I'm sure most of you agree with me in hoping that 2021 brings some sort of resolution to all of what's been going on. Not holding my breath, but a person can hope, right?
 
There are a few things I want to go over on here before the year is over.
 
 
Titles eligible for award nomination
Because we have both new titles and ones that have been previously published, this will be your easy, one-stop area to see what titles we've put out this year that are available to be nominated. If it's not listed here, it's a previously-published work. This goes for standalone works, as well as short stories in anthologies.
 
Novels:
  • Symphony of Hunted Truths (Elancia Chronicles: Book 2) by Leilani Wilson – 109k words
  • Disbanded (Serpentia: Book 1) by Frances Pauli – 93k words
  • Fractured Families (Tristan: Book 5) by Sylvain St-Pierre – 128k words (18+)
  • Once Broken (Tristan: Book 6) by Sylvain St-Pierre – 147k words (18+)
  • Ritual of the Ancients (Changing Bodies: Book 1) by Ian Madison Keller – 67k words (16+)
 
Novellas:
  • Rightful Salvage by Frances Pauli – 20k words
 
Anthologies:
  • Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements: Vol 1 edited by K.C. Alpinus – 46k words
    • The Phoenix and Her City - Emily Martha Sorensen – 2.3k words
    • Paint the Void - Ember Randall – 4.1k words
    • Six To The Rescue - Frances Pauli – 2.7k words
    • La Leyenda de Marisa Gritaluna - Juan C. Moreno – 6.2k words
    • Strain of Tooth and Claw - Jessica Paddock – 6.8k words
    • Goat Mountain - Mari Serebrov – 3.2k words
    • Revontulet - Fenrir Black – 7.4k words
    • The Shore - Dahlia May – 3.0k words
 
  • Boldly Going Forward (Fur the More 2020 Charity Anthology) edited by Sean Gerace – 45k words
    • Somewhere Over the Ocean – Mary E. Lowd – 1.2k words
    • For the Greater Good – TJ Minde – 7.9k words
    • Shooting for the Star – Sofox – 5.8k words
    • A New Star – Linnea Capps – 5.2k words
    • The First Stand – Jaden Drackus – 5.3k words
    • The Dunes of Henereth – Thomas "Faux" Steele – 6.5k words
    • Fastest Route – Sonriah Thaise – 4.4k words
 
  • Give Yourself a Hand edited by Skunkbomb – 47k words (18+)
    • The Christian Boy's Guide to Sex with Demons - PJ Wolf – 7.0k words
    • With One Hand Tied Behind His Back - Royce Day – 2.8k words
    • Jerking to the Finish - Jaden Drackus – 5.7k words
    • Too Much Play - TJ Minde – 5.2k words
    • Power & Pleasure - KC Alpinus – 7.5k words
    • Oak Branch - WR Frixmargen – 3.9k words
    • Simplicity – Televassi – 9.1k words
    • An Unconventional Marriage Bed – Rukis – 6.3k words
 
Covers:
  • Symphony of Hunted Truths drawn by NightlineZ
  • Disbanded drawn by Ilya Royz
  • Fractured Families drawn by Nomax
  • Once Broken drawn by Nomax
  • Ritual of the Ancients drawn by LYCHGATE
  • Rightful Salvage drawn by Oku
  • When a Cat Loves a Dog drawn by Mindy "Idess" Sherwood
  • Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements: Vol 1 drawn by Jonas Jödicke
  • Boldly Going Forward drawn by Oku
  • Give Yourself a Hand drawn by Julian Norwood
 
Other Work:
  • Symphony of Awakened Gods: Accompaniment Album by Leilani Wilson 

2021 and Submission Calls
As I've announced, we'll be opening for submissions on standalone works (AKA things that aren't for anthologies) on January 15th, 2021, and will be opening for one month—until February 15th, 2021. If sales bump back up and things look good on the horizon (or we don't receive a ton of submissions in that timeframe), we may open up submissions for a slightly longer time.
 
As for anthologies, right now the only one planned is Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements: Vol 2, which we're hoping to have more information about soon. It was pushed back due to the pandemic, and we're hoping to be able to get that moving soon.
 

Titles Available for Pre-Order
Freedom Ring (Serpentia: Book 2) by Frances Pauli

In the sequel to our 2020 best-selling title, Disbanded, Sookahr is in exile, marked a traitor and separated from his home and his lover, Viirlahn. If he means to release the citizens of the Burrow from the corruptions that plague them, he’ll have to venture deep into the jungle that nearly killed him once before. He must negotiate a new way for his people, and with the help of an unlikely ally, perhaps win a victory for their rodent servants as well.

In a hostile new world populated by ravenous insects, drug-addled lizards, and the dark secret hidden in the belly of the serpents’ nursery tower, Sookahr must face his deepest fears.


Sometimes the hardest part of being the hero, is knowing when not to.

Freedom Ring will be released on March 7th, 2021.
Picture
Picture
Symphony of Awakened Gods (Elancia Chronicles: Book 3) by Leilani Wilson

In Book 3 of our 2019 best-selling series, Verse is an Imperial Knight with a monster inside them. They have a tendency to get into trouble, a desire to be better, and friends who just keep popping back up, despite inherent risk. Verse has to remember what it feels like to feel anything at all, and be brave in the face of something that scares them more than anything else: love.

What begins as a look into the whereabouts of a sister uproots an entire, rotten family tree with deep roots and no trunk. Awakening Gods stalk the empire as it begins to buckle under its own weight.


The storm is breaking, and before the empire shatters completely, everyone will have to figure out where they stand, and how to survive.

Symphony of Awakened Gods will be released on February 20th, 2021. You can also check out the accompaniment music album, available now!
Be safe, everyone, and see you in 2021!
0 Comments

​Moving / Furry Book Month Sale

8/31/2020

0 Comments

 
While we were hoping to have an accepted offer in on a house by now (the housing market is in shambles at the moment, where cardboard boxes are selling for $50k over what they're worth), the fact still remains that we're sitting on convention-levels of stock right now, and thus are running a stock-reduction sale!
 
Starting September 1st, 2020 and running through the end of October (Furry Book Month), all of our paperback books will be between 10-30% off, depending on our stock level! As our stock sells down that sale amount will decrease, so if you want the best deal, get in while the sale is at its highest! All of our merchandise (bags, stickers, and shirts) will also be 15% off throughout the sale. All shirts we're carrying during this promotion will be ones we have on-hand, so stock will be very limited (though they will also ship out immediately, versus in almost a month from the ordering time).
 
This promotion will also be the last time most of our ebooks are at their current price. If you look at some of our ebooks, we've started adjusting them to their new prices, better reflecting market value (most of them will be 50% of the cost of our print books, since creating an ebook still has all the same costs involved, except for printing costs, which is only about 40% of the print retail price). We'll be keeping the current prices as sale prices until the end of October, so if you want to grab an ebook as inexpensive as it'll be, now is the time.
 
On a lighter and more fun note, 1-2 times a week throughout September and October, we'll be featuring some of our favorite books, and giving you a bit of insight as to what we love so much about these books. Hopefully you love them/will love them as much as we do!
Picture
We also have a new release, Rightful Salvage, for those that didn't see it on Twitter!

​From award-winning author Frances Pauli (who is also the author of our best-selling book, Disbanded (the first book of the Serpentia series), comes a sci-fi novella about an android girl who's been abandoned on a plague world. A ship with three salvage-collecting bears lands, and she takes a chance and stows away,

Will the bears accept her as one of the crew? Will they drop her off at the next station? At this point, as long as they don't just throw her out the airlock, she'll take it.

This title is available for pre-order (with the standard 10% off sale for being a pre-order), and this 10% off sale will continue through September and October, even when we get stock in.
0 Comments

New Titles and a Big Paperback Sale in June

5/24/2020

0 Comments

 
Hello all! Hopefully you have been staying safe during the pandemic. I know I've only left my home/home office a handful of times, doing my part to make sure social distancing is happening.

First off, we'd like to announce a huge sale that we will be running through all of June!

It's no surprise that with all of the conventions canceling, our sales have been hit super hard (enough we've had to consider closing submissions and pushing back releases on several occasions). We can't sell in-person, and since our distributors are also affected and not selling in-person, their orders have halted. So we've put together bundles to help us out, as well as our authors.

If you're familiar with our "Intro to Furry Literature Bundle", this is very similar: a collection of paperback books at a discount—and if you live within the USA, a free tote bag. (We apologize in advance for those outside of the USA, but in order to include the tote bag in an order, we'd have to ship directly from us instead of from our printer, which would means a massive hike in shipping prices.)

Along with the above, we'll be offering the following bundle deals:
  • Tristan: The Complete Series (20% off all six books)
  • Verse's Beginnings - Books (10% off Symphony of Shifting Tides and Symphony of Hunted Truths)
  • Verse's Beginnings - Books and Music (20% off the above two books, plus the digital albums)
  • The Fantasy Bundle (10% off an Elancia Chronicles title, Disbanded, and Heirloom of the Rusks)
  • The Humans Among Us Bundle (10% off When a Cat Loves a Dog, reWritten, Akela, and Ritual of the Ancients)
  • Sylvain St-Pierre's Series Bundle (10% off one book from each of his four series)

And if ebooks are more your speed, our ebooks are all priced below typical market value, so they are always a deal. Plus if you order directly from us, you not only get the ebook in .mobi, .epub, and .pdf format, it's all DRM-free!


In the meantime, we have some new releases! We've announced a couple of these on Twitter, but here they are again:
Picture
Ritual of the Ancients is the first book in a vampire/were urban fantasy/romance series by award-winning author Ian Madison Keller.

Everett Boesch never asked to be a vampire and be thrown into a world of supernatural occurrences he never knew existed, but he also never wanted to be a thief, nor did he want to be disowned by his parents after coming out as transgender.

Just add that as one more thing onto the list.

Now that Everett is in possession of a magical amulet—the last thing he managed to steal from his museum job—it seems there's a long list of people who are after him.

At least one of those is werejackal Jack (yes, Jack the Jackal, he's heard it before) who wants him for much more sensual reasons.

The paperback is available for pre-order now (click the cover), and the ebook will be released on July 3rd, 2020.
From award-winning author Mary E. Lowd, and set in her Otters in Space universe, comes a romance novella between a dog and a cat—something a large chunk of the world isn't so comfortable with—called When a Cat Loves a Dog.

Newly-married, Lashonda and her dog husband, Topher, navigate a whole new life together that takes them to new places.

As they navigate this new life, they release that their priorities are shifting, which takes them to the otter seastead of Friedan Isle. There, the mysterious Dr. Flockheart promises them to be able to do the impossible in order to make their dreams a reality.

But with the world as heated as it already is, where does that leave a couple with a barely-accepted marriage?

​The paperback is available for pre-order now (click the cover), and the ebook will be released on July 3rd, 2020.
Picture
Along with the above titles, we also are proud to announce our fourth title in our Pocket Shot line of books, Lunar Cavity, a sci-fi title also from author Mary E. Lowd. 

Bat-like alien Druthel's home planet is tearing itself apart, so contrary to their peoples' viewpoints on the rest of society, they are forced to ask for help. In this midst of that help Druthel comes across Rhiannon, a human scientist who has the skillset to save his world, but is reluctant to help. Can he convince her to come up with a solution to save his planet? 

While this title is still in development, we expect for it to be open for pre-order by the beginning of July, and it will be released sometime in mid-August.



​We're also working with another one of our favorite authors (whose book has been a 2020 hit so far!) on some more work, so keep an eye on our Twitter or our Telegram News Channel (where you get to hear about stuff before anyone else).
0 Comments

Post-Convention Report – Fur the More 2020

3/11/2020

0 Comments

 
​This post is a few days later than our usual report, but we've been especially busy catching up on everything over the last few days.
 
After using up a lot of our prepared resources for Anthro New England, we were in a bit of a scramble to make sure we had more stock in time for Fur the More. Before we left for Anthro New England, we placed an order for what we thought we'd sell, but for one title (Give Yourself a Hand), we had to actually break into that order for stock for that con, which meant we had to get an expedited order sent over to our hotel at Fur the More. Luckily that didn't end up being a huge problem, but still.
 
My sister was a huge help in getting more samples prepared in time, a big thanks to her for all the samples you guys enjoyed at Fur the More!
 
The Trip
The drive was about seven hours in total, so not bad. I let Jake start the trip, which took us a bit of everywhere to get around NYC rush-hour traffic, but it still was very manageable. I took the second half of the trip, since that was what required us to navigate Arlington/Crystal City. I didn't have any issues figuring out where to go, luckily, but we'll get to the first added issue in the next part.
Picture
Thursday – Setup
Because of the distance, we opted to set up on Thursday. In all honesty, with how quick we're able to get our display setup these days (since we've eliminated using the grids), we may just opt to start getting to conventions for Friday unless they are REALLY far away, including big ones. Something to think about as a cost-saving measure.
 
The first part of all of this would be unloading. We received an email from the convention a couple days prior, mentioning they were going to attempt to facilitate half-hour timeslots to use the loading docks in the valet parking area. What wasn't mentioned (or at least clearly enough for me) was that to do that, you had to actually have the hotel staff valet park your car, which is where the loading dock is, pay to do that, then go inside and unload. We didn't even know about this part until the end of the convention, when it was finally explained. The hotel staff certainly wasn't helpful in that regard; they just kept yelling that everyone was taking too long.
 
Thank you to JD, TJ, Otter, and Alkani, who all helped in some way with the unloading and bringing stuff into the convention hotel.
 
While they did that, I drove down the road to park the car in the garage under the hotel we were staying at. It was close enough that without crutches, I would have been able to walk back and forth without issue. At least the people who ran the local shuttle got to know us very well over the course of the weekend.
 
Setup itself has almost nothing to talk about. We just got a new banner stand days before the convention, and despite being heavy and a little clunky, it proved to be the MVP of the convention. It was up in a couple of minutes, and my banner PERFECTLY fit on it. We'll have carrying bags for everything moving forward, but we received the stand too close to the convention for things to ship.
 
Friday
The day started out pretty steady. As per usual with the first day of a convention, I slept almost zero the night before, so I was slow to get the energy going. Once it did, I saw the day fluctuated quite a bit, with very busy points and very slow points. We tried something new this convention, in having Jake pretty much just be our cashier, so I can talk to customers about the books, and then once decisions are made, I can grab titles and just hand them over to him. It worked out super well, as we had several times where I had someone else lined up and ready to talk books as soon as the first person was taken care of.
 
Our Friday ended up with gross sales JUST shy of our ANE Saturday, which at that point was our biggest sales day yet.
 
Saturday
It was busy. There were dead times, but wow. By about halfway though the day we'd beaten ANE's Saturday numbers, as well as the ANE overall numbers, which at this point already made Fur the More our highest-grossing convention. Not much to say other than that!
 
Sunday
Sunday was steady at first, then died off quite a bit. As usual with our Sundays, it got busy at the end, with staff members and dealers finally coming around to grab things they'd been eyeing all weekend. In the end, we ended up at 63% above ANE's gross sales.
 
We still were only at about 55% of what we needed to make to end up with a profit at Fur the More, despite the great numbers on paper, so 2021 will certainly be the year of us attempting to figure out how to way cut costs.

Also, a big thanks to JD, TJ, and Skunkbomb for helping us load out! It'll be nice when I have proper use of my legs again, and none of this is an issue.
 
Customer Feedback
This convention, we started doing something a little different with our fact cards: we added quick sales pitches to them—essentially the thing we'd say if they showed enough interest in the book to pick it up. That seemed to work out pretty well.
 
The biggest thing that seemed to be suggested for this convention was that we need more variety in our Fanged Fiction side. Which is totally fair! We're working on that, and are excited to have a couple of titles planned for later in the year.
 
We also started printing up physical catalogs for our products, as a test. They were supposed to be around the convention hotel, but since our catalog was double-sided and included our Fanged Fiction work, the convention was "kind" enough to bring them back to me, informing us after the fact that they don't like to advertise that adult-oriented work exists in the fandom, despite the fact that erotic works exist in the young-adult sections of national bookstore chains. This was also interesting with the fact that the STI-testing place the convention brought in had a table full of condoms. Not that there's a problem with that! Just thought it interesting.
 
Final Thoughts 
Despite the convention facing some definite challenges this year with the new venue and other things, we overall had a great convention! We'll be looking to apply again next year, as well as do another charity anthology, if the convention agrees.
0 Comments

Post-Convention Report – Anthro New England 2020

2/24/2020

0 Comments

 
After an exhausting weekend, we are back from Anthro New England! We've been to this convention as a dealer nearly every year since its inception (skipping one year due to financial trouble), and we were originally waitlisted for this convention! That's how it was until the Monday before the convention, when we got an email at almost 10pm asking if we could put together a single table for the convention. Luckily Jake already had two of the three days off, and was able to manage the third, so we agreed. That just meant that all of our convention prep for Fur the More, ended up being ANE prep!
 
The Trip
This section is going to be a bit different this time, since we commuted the hour and a half each way from home, each day. The drive wasn't bad each day, but with how last-minute everything was, it was certainly an added stress. At least we got a little bit of sleep each night. Just a little bit.
Picture
Friday – Setup
As with the last convention, we set up the morning of the first day.
 
Because we happened to have all of our Fur the More release titles in, we decided to bring them all with us, and we're glad we did! Friday saw a lot of sales for our newest Fanged Fiction release, Give Yourself a Hand, and if ANE likes one things, it a book of erotic fiction and good wordplay, it seems. We also sold through a good amount of the Pocket Shot stock we brought. Luckily, because we were commuting, we were able to grab more stock from home each night.
 
We were blown away with how busy the room ended up first thing! We were a little worried that the room was over fire-code capacity at first; it was just wall-to-wall.
 
The sales day was interesting. We'd done a bit under half of our ANE 2019 total year sales within the first two hours of the den opening, and then it just…sort of died for us. We did 13 transactions in the first day, and 10 were in those first two hours. All in all, it was our best Friday at a convention ever, keeping up with our trend of constantly beating previous conventions.
 
Saturday
Saturday started out very similar to Friday, in that we did quite a bit in our first couple hours. Only this time, the lull didn't last, and we remained fairly busy throughout the entire day. We also had PJ Wolf, who had stories in our Claw the Way to Victory and Give Yourself a Hand anthologies, at our table to give us his musical stylings, titled "Buy Some Books", as well as sign some books. With his help, we ended the day having sold 10 copies of Give Yourself a Hand" at that point in the convention, which beats the previous record for "Most number of one title sold at a convention" of 7 (held by Symphony of Shifting Tides).
 
We also picked up our sales of our "Books with Character", our slightly-defected titles.
 
This is also now the third convention in a row where we've had a customer buy a book on Friday, then come back to us on Saturday saying, "I read the entire thing, and now I need more books." It's something that I don't think we'll ever get used to, and it certainly gives us a great feeling.
 
Sunday
As usual, our Sunday started off pretty slow. We had a couple early transactions, and then a rush around 1pm, but it stayed a slow sort of steady. Our sales of Symphony of Shifting Tides and Disbanded picked up quite a bit, letting us sell nearly the rest of our "Books with Character", and giving Disbanded a now-two-way tie for second, selling 7 copies at the convention. By the end, we'd also sold 12 copies of Give Yourself a Hand in total, which is going to be tough to beat!
 
Because we were offered a free table and we commuted we, for the first time ever, actually managed to make a slight profit at a convention! If we'd had to even pay for the one table we took, we would have had a slight loss still, but it's a step up! Our gross sales were about a 31% increase on our previous best convention, and a 75% increase on ANE 2019, so we really can't complain.
 
Customer Feedback
 
Once again, we're so happy we decided to do the Quick Fact cards, as well as the samples. Both were pivotal to the success we had. We also were given an idea we plan to implement at our next convention, which is to take our quick pitch for each book and actually put that on the card, right under the title. It'll allow customers to peek quicker, and for those that don't socialize well, it’ll allow for them to get a better sense of the book than just from the blurb.
 
As we mentioned on Twitter, horny New England does it again, and erotic content seems to be extremely favorable at this convention. We certainly didn't slack on the YA-friendly sales, but it was probably a 60/40 split in the end.
 
We did have a few customers specifically ask us for books starring dragons, and we realized that other than a couple short stories involving them, we didn't have anything! Write some books starring dragons, people!
 
Final Thoughts
 
Not too many, actually! Despite having such a short time to prepare, we did pretty good with our preparation. With the information we've gathered from this convention, we're going to be featuring yet another new table layout for Fur the More, so get ready for that in…10 days.
0 Comments

Post-Convention Report - Capital City Fur Con 2020

1/7/2020

0 Comments

 
​We have finally gotten back and have rested after Capital City Fur Con (https://capitalcityfurcon.org/). It was a first-year con, and to put it simply, there were some bumps along the way. The convention ended up a little shy of 400 attendees, which from my experience, really isn't bad for a first-year con! It seems as though they have good plans for next year, so we'll see what happens.
 
The Trip
Harrisburg is right around a 5 hour trip. In an effort to conserve costs this year, we left late Thursday night and got there Friday morning. We probably could have left a couple hours later and focused on sleeping more, but trying to get sleep before a convention is always a challenge for us. The drive was uneventful.
 
Friday - Setup
Because we didn't get there Thursday, Friday is the same as the setup day, so this will be combined.
 
We had several new items for our setup this convention, which included more vertical book displays, a new banner stand with a much larger banner (if you remember, ours broken during the last convention), and our own table cloths. The table cloths and book displays both were quick and easy to setup, but we ran into a slight issue with the banner stand. Nothing major, but things that we'll have to get used to.
 
We were in the very back of the dealer's den. We were also the only ones against that back wall. The convention played a lot of roulette with tables at the last second, so we were left with an empty table on either side of us. We also had a both in front of us that was very tall (very nice people, though), but our banner stand was able to sit against the wall and go just a bit taller, so it worked out in the end. Overall we are happy with how things looked.
Picture
Friday – Sales
Going into this convention, we had zero idea what to expect for sales. We say that a lot, partially because our business is still in a rapid state of growth and everything is a surprise, and that we still haven't been to a lot of different conventions, but also being a first-year con fairly close to Anthrocon, we really had no idea what to expect.
 
Thrill of the Hunt ended up being the title of the morning, with nearly half of our copies going out the door in the first hour of the den opening. We brought seven, so we're not talking about a whole box of books here, but still a decent amount for an anthology at this size convention. By the end of the convention, Thrill of the Hunt did end up in second place for sales, so it was a pretty good convention for that title.
 
We talked to a good amount of people, someone went home with the entire Tristan series (minus the final book that comes out in March), and we gave out a lot of first-chapter samples. The day ended being my highest-grossing Friday yet, which is nice, though with how fast things are growing for us, every convention is going to keep beating other conventions for awhile.
 
Saturday
Saturday certainly had some busy spurts. We hadn't sold any of our "Books With Character" / "Oopsy" books on Friday (books that our printer messed up covers on, so we sold them for a decent discount), but we did sell about a third of them over the course of Saturday, which was great. As usual, Symphony of Shifting Tides clawed itself back to the top of our sales list, a place it held for the rest of the convention. The day ended as our highest-grossing Saturday yet (again). The den also closed an hour earlier than usual due to scheduling issues, and we tend to get a small rush of sales at the end of a Saturday, so we have no idea how that affected things.
 
Sunday
Sunday was interesting. As usual, we were dead in the start of the day, and then came a few rapid-fire sales. By a couple hours into the day, about a third of the tables had either packed up and left or were in the process of packing up, so we aren't quite sure if that affected sales or not. My late-day Sundays usually end up mostly dealer/staff/artist sales, and this was no different. This Sunday certainly wasn’t beating any records, but it did gross us enough to put it right up there with our highest-grossing con in general, as well grossing enough to make back a lot of expenses. We're still at the point in our business life where conventions are a loss, and are more of a marketing tool as sales continue to grow, but it's getting better and better each convention.
 
Customer Feedback
First-off, we would like to say that our "Quick Facts" cards were the MVP of this convention, and have ben a huge factor in our last few conventions. Without these cards, we probably would have cut our sales by about a third. These things have been so handy in talking to people (and make it so we don't have to just sit there and explain every book in detail, letting them shop in peace). We also had a suiter take pictures of several books for their sibling, who wasn't there and wanted a book. Would have been much harder to do without those cards.
 
Other Symphony of Shifting Tides selling the most and Thrill of the Hunt being in second, we honestly couldn't tell you what the most-wanted genre this convention was. Sales were very spread out. We did get more requests for more F/F stuff, erotic or not (and we did sell a fair number of Beyond Acacia Ridge to support that), but it's something we certainly need more of in the future!
 
We also did run into a handful of people who still have not even heard of published furry literature before. It's nice to be able to talk to those people and show just how much talent fandom writers have.
 
Final Thoughts
Not too many final thoughts to be had here this convention. Other than forgetting a couple of things (such as our main supply of business cards), we've been getting far better at preparing earlier and having to scramble less.
 
Our next con is Fur the More in March, and we have four new releases for there (some of which are open for pre-order now), including:
  • Disbanded (Serpentia: Book 1) by Frances Pauli
  • Boldly Going Forward (Charity anthology in conjunction with Fur the More, benefiting the ALS Association)
  • Give Yourself a Hand (masturbation erotica) edited by Skunkbomb
  • Once Broken (Tristan: Book 6) by Sylvain St-Pierre
 
Hopefully we see you there!
0 Comments

What to Expect When Submitting in 2020

11/15/2019

0 Comments

 
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!
0 Comments

Ko-fi and Tipping

9/28/2019

0 Comments

 
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.
​
0 Comments

Post-Convention Report - Camp Tiny Paws 2019

8/12/2019

0 Comments

 
​*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.
Picture
​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.
0 Comments

2019 - What's come and what's to come

3/10/2019

0 Comments

 
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.
Picture
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!
Picture

Picture
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.
Picture

Picture
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.

Picture
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.
Picture

We will have a couple more titles coming forward later this year (May and beyond), so stick around. Lots more to look forward to.
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Archives

    December 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    March 2019
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017

    Subscribe to Newsletter

FaQ

Shipping & Returns

Convention Appearances

  • Goal Publications Home
  • About Us
  • Storefront
  • Music
  • Inquiries and Questions
  • Submit to Us
    • Selections of Anthropomorphic Regalements
      • SOAR - Information
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Standalone Submissions
    • Short Story Submissions
  • News
  • Convention Appearances
  • Other Information
    • Bite Levels
    • Become a Distributor