Please help me in welcoming Maria Morpeth and Felicity Heaton of Alinar Publishing! Welcome to Fallen Angel Reviews! Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit with us.

E-publishing is a competitive market. What made you decide to create Alinar Publishing?

M. M. - A desire to do something positive for authors who want to self publish on the web. Felicity was already self publishing her own books and I was a founding partner and chief editor at Linden Bay Romance for most of 2005. I also write, and Felicity just happens to be an awesome web designer, so it was a match made in heaven really. I had the business expertise and Felicity, the technical know how to get the project rolling. We knew several other (and also quite awesome) authors who were talking about producing their own books and we decided to open a site where we could all do that. It’s an alternative, not a substitute for traditional e publishers. Producing your own book isn’t the easy route, by any means, but it’s the most rewarding. If you think about it, authors already do most of the work – they write the book, they do the lion’s share of the marketing. There are many free-lance editors to be found online that the author can call on to help with the editing and proof reading process. Also some wonderful cover artists. It just takes a bit of confidence and a desire to get the end product as polished as possible.

The most daunting part for self publishers is probably the selling aspect. Setting up the websites, distribution and checkouts, etc. That’s the part that Alinar publishing provides.

The best part of it is that we don’t charge anything for our services. Editing and cover art costs are funded by the author, who then hands the product over to us for formatting, uploading to the site and distribution. If an author can contribute towards the site in “kind” such as helping with promo, or contributing any particular skills they might have, then that’s great. We already had a good skill swap going with authors making covers for each other, some editing work etc. For it to work as well as it does we obviously have to choose authors who will work towards the collective good as well as their own careers, and of course whose writing will reflect the high standards we’ve set for the site. I couldn’t be happier with the group we’ve got right now. We’re all good friends and every author is invested in the idea of Alinar and of making it a success. Yes, it’s quite a bit of work for me and Felicity, but it’s wonderful to see us growing at the rate we are and to see the support that we’re getting.

F.H. – Like Maria said, we really wanted to give the authors who wanted to self publish their novels a way of doing it without the stress and strain of having to deal with payments and shopping carts. Alinar Publishing is like a cooperative; we all share marketing ideas, and promote the site equally, and it benefits everyone. Myself and Maria were happy to do the initial hard work and ongoing production of the ebooks because we knew that our author personas would benefit from the collective.

How long did the development process take?

M. M. - I think Felicity and I started talking about the idea back in March 2006. At first we weren’t thinking much further than a site to showcase and sell our own work, but it soon became clear that other authors were interested in the idea too. I’m lucky to know some great, already established e book authors and I’m very happy that they had the confidence to join us in this. I’ve got to give Felicity all the credit for the web design. I had complete confidence that she’d come up with something professional, yet welcoming-looking and she did us proud. It was a great deal of work for her, but she’s made us a sophisticated and user-friendly site that always gets great compliments. Meanwhile I was taking care of establishing the Limited Liability Partnership, sorting out server space and purchasing ISBN numbers - all the boring business stuff. I was also liaising with authors who were busy preparing books for our launch. We opened our doors October 13th 2006.

F.H. – It seems like so long ago now. The process of planning and creating the site took months because we had to do it whilst we were still writing, and I work full time. We had a very clear vision of what we wanted, so that helped, but I was learning a lot so it took time to get the vision into reality. It was a challenge, but one that has given me so much satisfaction, and I think we’ve really achieved something with the Alinar Publishing site.

What do you think sets Alinar apart from other e-publishers?

M.M. - I like to think it’s more than the fact that we pay our authors one hundred percent royalties, LOL. We’re a very friendly and democratic crowd, and although it’s owned by Felicity and I, we run every new development by our authors and value their opinions. Likewise they’re at liberty to run any ideas for improvements by us. We keep our authors regularly informed of their sales figures and they get full accounts every quarter. They can ask anytime what their sales figures are, and we pay on time. We also pay what’s owed rather than holding back royalties if the figures are low, like some e publishers do. We know that authors are very concerned about their sales figures and greatly appreciate transparency from an e publisher, so we try to do that for them. If an author spots a typo in their book, or feels that their cover isn’t working, it’s a big deal for them and we appreciate that so they know they can ask us to change it for them, upload a new copy of the manuscript etc. Basically we run the site from both perspectives, the authors and the publishers, rather than just from a profit making publisher’s viewpoint.

F.H. – Everything Maria said. Lol. Besides that though, we have the advantage of being authors ourselves. If we discover a great promo opportunity that works, then we share it. We give our authors information about review sites, where to pimp their stories, and what they can do to improve sales. We’re very concerned about our authors and want them to feel as though they aren’t alone in marketing their stories. A lot of publishers leave marketing solely to the author, or offer token advertising when the book is released. We’re very open and share ideas that work and those that don’t. It’s important to correctly market a book and sharing information disposes of a lot of costly trial and error. We’re always trying to think up ways of getting the Alinar name out there so people will come to the site and see the great stories we have to offer.

I know the ratings are of General, Simmering, Sensual, and Sultry promise to bring readers just about everything they can imagine, and maybe more. Can you tell us a little about the content rating?

General - stories we feel are suitable for all readerships and ages.

Simmering - these stories may contain any of the following - infrequent swearing, mild, behind-closed-doors sex scenes and mild violence.

Sensual - these stories may contain any of the following - swearing, descriptive sex scenes usually limited to euphemism, and moderate violence. In paranormal books, this rating also applies to stories with blood play of a sensual/sexual nature.

Sultry - these stories may contain any of the following - frequent swearing, graphic and explicit sex scenes, and moderate to extreme violence.

How many books do you release each month?

F.H. – When we first dreamt up Alinar Publishing, we were considering releasing maybe 1 or 2 books a month, but we’ve been pleasantly shocked by just how many stories our great authors want to sell via us. Currently we’re running at 4 books a month on average, sometimes up to 6 or 8 if there’s a special occasion like Valentine’s Day. Anything beyond that is a stretch for us both as there are only 2 of us running the company.

In addition to books for purchase, you also have free reads. What made you decide to offer free stories?

M.M. - Both Felicity and I have been writing and posting our stories free on the web for several years now and we know what a draw they are. They’re a great way to showcase an author’s writing style and also a way of giving something back to the people who buy our books. We hope that when our visitors have worked their way through the free reads, they’ll be well and truly hooked and go seeking the books the author has for sale. We started by having the free reads on our Alinar yahoo forum and we’ve nearly nine hundred members there now. We opened Alinar Adult forum this year to showcase the free stories and excerpts with adult content and, not surprisingly, that’s proving wildly popular, LOL.

From the publisher’s viewpoint, what has been the most rewarding aspect of this venture?

M.M. - Knowing that we have a group of happy and supportive authors who are using the power of e books and the internet to their advantage. I love the fact that our authors can go direct to the public with their books and get the rewards they deserve for all their hard work.

F.H. – I agree with Maria. It’s wonderful that we can give so much back to the authors. They’re the ones who have slaved over their stories for months and deserve to get the reward for it. It’s been great to have so many new people introduced to our stories too. Each author brings a new set of people to the site and we’re seeing a real rise in sales now.

If Alinar was a person, how would you describe her?

M.M. - Friendly, open, fun, and generous.

F.H. – Sexy, vivacious… hang on… describing myself now. If Alinar was a person, she’d be a very friendly, wonderful woman, the kind of person you liked to be around because she’d make you feel great, and relaxed, and happy.

As a reader, the concept of The Lounge is great. Can you tell readers more about this offering?

M.M. - Isn’t it just a great feature? I’m going to hand this one over to Felicity as it’s entirely her idea.

F.H. – I think The Lounge came around because we wanted to give readers something back. We wanted to offer them a place to get to know our authors and show the readers that we’re not just after sales. We care about what they think. We’re planning on adding more to The Lounge when time allows, such as competition information, author interviews, and other fun things like polls. The Lounge is also a place where we can announce things on the site, like the fact that our authors have received great reviews, or have been interviewed somewhere. We’re very proud of our authors, and we want readers to see that we’re a very friendly group of people who really appreciate them buying stories from us.

Is there a forum readers can join that will keep them updated on new releases and events?

M.M. / F.H. - There certainly is. We have two Yahoo Groups - Alinar Publishing and Alinar Adult. All our free reads and extra excerpts are in folders in the forums. The Adult Forum is, as the name suggests, where we keep our adult rated free reads and excerpts. We do have stories with adult content on the site and want to make sure that we comply with online protocol to protect underage readers. I think we have over half a dozen free reads available to date. You can visit them here: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/alinaradult/ and http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/alinarpublishing/

Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

M.M. - Because the site is run by just Felicity and me, and we pay one hundred percent royalties, we run an invitation only policy for submissions. Previously published authors are welcome to query us, but we decided at the start that we needed to keep some time for us to write, as well as for running an e publisher and our families. It’s great that the author does the lion’s share of the work, but that still leaves Felicity and me a lot to do. We’ve decided to grow steadily and concentrate on keeping quality high. It’s all about life-balance really and doing what we can, to the best of our ability.

I do believe very strongly though, that the internet is opening up wonderful opportunities for authors who want to retain control of their work and who aren’t afraid to go out there and try selling the books themselves. E publishers were the first step, but more and more authors are realizing that they have a tool here that they can use to their advantage. To anyone who’s thinking of selling their own books on the web, I’d say take the next logical step and go for it. I think that individuals selling their work straight to their public is one very strong future for e publishing.

F.H. – I just wanted to say that when we first began Alinar Publishing, I never thought that we’d be blessed with such wonderful friendly authors and such amazing readers. Our readers are all great people and we’re truly flattered when they give us praise for the site or the free reads. It’s great to be surrounded by so much support and to see it growing every day. As an author, it’s really heartwarming to have that support and to work with authors who write amazing books that deserve all the praise they get.

M.M. / F.H. - Thank you Amanda and FAR for giving us this great promo opportunity. It’s been fun. Thanks for reading everyone. Hop over to Alinar Publishing – http://www.alinarpublishing.com - and check out our free reads and the books we have for sale. You’ll be made most welcome.

Interviewed by: Amanda S.