Name of your website?Zacton Press
Your name?
Zachary Sexton
Your Location (city, etc)
Adelaide
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Zacton Press is a writers helping writers venture committed to publishing the best new authors worldwide.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
99.9% of all new writers will never find publication due to the cutthroat nature of the industry. Many a well-written, exceptional manuscript has fallen through the very wide cracks and landed on the 'sluch pile' simply because the author is an unknown.
Zacton Press aims to increase the odds for new writers and provide another avenue for publication and writer exposure. On staff we have a published author and a well-respected senior editor. We want to turn writer's dreams into their reality.
What genre of writing does Zacton Press accept?
Zacton Press is actively seeking submissions in all genres including poetry, short stories, chick-lit, GBLT fiction, non-fiction and childrens books. NB: Although we accept erotica we do not pornographic material.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Zacton Press is a combination of the founder's first and last name.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We are primarily interested in forwarding the careers of previously unpublished writers. We offer our services for free, there are absolutely no fees and all authors published on the future Zacton Press eBookstore receive a 70% commission. Zacton Press will work with its authors one on one, offer helpful advice, and do all we can to help new authors make their work available to the public.
As our aim is to promote new authors, and to hopefully give them an avenue to find representation from traditional publishers/agents, we do not tie our authors down to a binding contract.
What is your eventual goal?
Our goal is provide new writers with a voice and a platform to launch their careers. We want all Zacton Press authors to be acknowledged by the industry as professional, career orientated writers.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Currently Zacton Press staff are all working on a volunteer basis and making no income whatsoever. Despite this, we ask for no fees in return for our services. The business is financed by staff out of our own pockets.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
As we have to keep the costs down, considering we are working on a voluntary basis, the website has been designed and is maintained by staff. We are not professional web designers but in the future we would like to build a new, professionally designed site.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
We will always endeavour to reply to submissions within a reasonable time frame. If there is a backlog of submissions we will contact the author personally of any delay. We never want to close our submission department and would work hard to make sure this never occurs.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
There have been a lot of unexpected costs ranging from business registration to advertising. All of which have been financed by staff members personally. Cost on website design had to be kept to a minimum and we had to learn to create a website ourselves. It may not be a fantastic flash site filled with widgets and graphics, but it is informative and aimed directly toward assisting writers.
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenges were creating the site - as none of us are tech-heads, we're writers! - and finding advertising avenues.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Currently, word of mouth has been our main source of promotion.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
In the beginning stages it was time consuming and the site builders or html editors were not what we expected. It seems to have ironed out a little now and we have some breathing room to do what we wanted to do - promote new writers.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
The site has been in development stages for a few months while we battled with html editors and alike - eventually relying on the program us authors know best - Word! So long as Zacton Press is encouraging new writers to submit their work, building writer self-esteem, and publishing great eBooks we will strive to make the company bigger and better in the coming years.
What would your advice be to new writers?
Take a chance and never give up. Be professional in what you do, build your reputation, continue to hone your craft, and write!
What is your website address?
Zacton Press
No trackbacks.
Comments