In praise of... Musa Publishing

My short fiction work, The Silent Hills, is contracted to Musa Publishing and the whole process has been a revelation.

Within days, they'd sent me a contract, held a skype call to introduce me to the team, discussed cover ideas with me (and assigned an artist) and - be still my beating heart - gone through my text with a fine tooth comb and made comments and recommendations for changes.

Compare that to another, nameless publisher, who took 1 year, 3 months and 16 days just to email me a generic rejection. (Boo, hiss and so forth.)

Musa is a new and vibrant publisher, with a wide range of genres and authors - many of whom have been published elsewhere in print and electronically.

The Silent Hills comes out as an ebook on October 14th, for $0.99. If you have enjoyed reading these blog posts, why not treat yourself to one of my stories.

Here's a tiny url link http://tinyurl.com/6bro36q

In the meantime, here are the Musa team, in their own words:

Editorial Director - Celina Summers

Editorial Director Celina Summers has been involved in e-publishing as an author, editor, review coordinator, senior editor, and managing editor for over a decade. She studied theater and political science at college in Tennessee, including master class studies in playwriting with famed dramaturge Howard Stein. First published in high school and now the award-winning author of sixteen novellas and novels, she left her career in professional theatre to return to her first love, writing and publishing, in 2000. As the driving force behind Aurora Regency, she produced over forty historical novels in the year before coming to launch Musa Publishing.

Financial Director - Kerry Mand
Kerry Mand comes to Musa with eight years of business ownership/management. As the Office Manager/Owner for those companies, she was responsible for Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and payroll for employees. She recently worked for another publisher as the office manager before coming to Musa Publishing. Kerry is thrilled to be part of Musa from the beginning and cannot wait to see where it takes us in the future!

Promotions Director - Elspeth McClanahan

Elspeth comes to Musa Publishing after working as Promotions Director for another publisher. Before entering the publishing world, she spent many years promoting and assisting in the promotion of the theatres she has worked for and the mothers groups she belongs to. Her promotional experience includes, but is not limited to, review coordinator, conference representative, conference speaker, contest judge, special guest speaker, “After the Show” host, and Promotions Director. As an author writing under a pseudonym, she has published two novels and one novella.

Art Director - Kelly Shorten

Kelly Shorten has over fifteen years of Web/Graphic Design experience under her belt. Besides what she does for Musa, she also works on independent contracts working with businesses for their promotional items. She has been designing covers and marketing books for authors for over three years. Kelly was the Art Director for a publishing company for over a year.

Director of Editorial Production - Coreen Montagna
She has a doctorate in Pharmacy, but is an artist at heart. Even while working on her degree from the University at Buffalo, she took as many art classes as she could on the side: ceramics, photography, art history. Cory has been a voracious reader since elementary school and was heartbroken when she discovered that there are people who never read books if it isn’t required for work or school. As Musa's Director of Editorial Production, Cory combines her love of art and words in a wonderfully unexpected way. Her prior experience includes freelance work as a graphic designer and typesetter, as well as working with another publishing house as their lead copy editor and book designer. At Musa, Cory is the Head Copy Editor and is responsible for the interior book layout and formatting as well as eBook production.