Samhain Publishing is winding down and will close

Josieb1 · 02-27-2016, 04:22 AM

I'm not sure where this post should go so mods please feel free to move it. Samhain Publishing has announced it is winding down its operations and will be closing.

Apparently they will be having a 40% off sale on Monday.

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2016/02/samhain-closing/

HarryT · 02-27-2016, 04:40 AM

Not a publisher I'm familiar with. What type of book do (did?) they publish?

tubemonkey · 02-27-2016, 04:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Not a publisher I'm familiar with. What type of book do (did?) they publish?

Romance and horror.

HarryT · 02-27-2016, 04:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Romance and horror.

Thank you. That explains why I wouldn't have come across them. Neither genre is my cup of tea.

tubemonkey · 02-27-2016, 04:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thank you. That explains why I wouldn't have come across them. Neither genre is my cup of tea.

Same here.

Terisa de morgan · 02-27-2016, 05:06 AM

It's a pity not only by losing an independent publisher but because their books were some of the few independent published ones which reached the libraries.

Josieb1 · 02-27-2016, 05:41 AM

I buy a lot from Samhain and I for one am gutted they are closing. I've been reading ebooks since 2010 and this is the 7th publisher I've bought from direct that's closed.

fjtorres · 02-27-2016, 06:28 AM

Disintermediation and competition from Indies doesn't impact just the bad guys.
I worry about BAEN. Hopefully they can endure.

bgalbrecht · 02-27-2016, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Disintermediation and competition from Indies doesn't impact just the bad guys.
I worry about BAEN. Hopefully they can endure.

Baen is a major SF publisher. Although they are independent of Simon & Schuster, they've had a print distribution arrangement with them since their founding, and Tom Doherty (of Tor) is a part-owner. They survived the death of their founder. I don't think they have the deep pockets of the big 5 publishing houses, but they are probably the strongest niche player in their genres, and if they falter, I would be surprised if one of the big 5 didn't buy them for the brand.

AnemicOak · 02-27-2016, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Disintermediation and competition from Indies doesn't impact just the bad guys.
I worry about BAEN. Hopefully they can endure.

Not really the same kind of publisher. Samhain is a digital first publisher (one of the more successful) while Baen is a traditional publisher with ties to the Big 5 for distribution. Samhain lost a fair chunk of their bigger authors to both self publishing (Self-pubbed Romance is probably the most successful self-pub genre) and "moving up" to big NY publishers and while some of those authors still work with Samhain on a lower volume basis just as many took the series they had established with Samhain and moved later books to self-pubbed or are exclusively Big 5 except for their backlists.

They also run a pretty crazy publication schedule with dozens of titles a month. This was fine during the "boom" of eBooks and readers, but was way too many titles per month as the market changed.

fjtorres · 02-27-2016, 06:51 PM

I'm not comparing BAEN to Samhain but I do think that most smaller publishers of romance and SF will be at ever increasing risk moving forward because readers in both those genres are heavily into ebooks and Indies are taking an ever-increasing share of the market. BAEN has a strong brand name and lots of customer loyalty but the long term trends in those genres are not tradpub-friendly.

(Did you hear about Larry Coreia's... vent... over his books getting 1-star reviews for their pricing? BAEN's ebook prices are far from obscene but they *are* taking flack in that area. That is new for them.)

Atunah · 02-27-2016, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I buy a lot from Samhain and I for one am gutted they are closing. I've been reading ebooks since 2010 and this is the 7th publisher I've bought from direct that's closed.

Me too, I am really sad.

And indies are not a replacement for me when I have to give up those publishers. I am heavy into ebooks, its the only format I read. Indies don't publish the stuff those romance publishers do. I don't want to read yet another version of 50 shades, or another step brother or billionaire romance, which seems to be the majority of what self publishers put out in romance. Or serials, which I can't stand.

These publishers provide a basic quality item with often great fresh stories. And I can be sure that a romance will be an actual romance, not another genre stuffed into the romance category. That is a trust issue.

Samhain also has a nice back list of some nice older historicals.

So yeah, its a loss to readers.

Cinisajoy · 02-27-2016, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atunah

Me too, I am really sad.

And indies are not a replacement for me when I have to give up those publishers. I am heavy into ebooks, its the only format I read. Indies don't publish the stuff those romance publishers do. I don't want to read yet another version of 50 shades, or another step brother or billionaire romance, which seems to be the majority of what self publishers put out in romance. Or serials, which I can't stand.

These publishers provide a basic quality item with often great fresh stories. And I can be sure that a romance will be an actual romance, not another genre stuffed into the romance category. That is a trust issue.

Samhain also has a nice back list of some nice older historicals.

So yeah, its a loss to readers.

Cleaning out my kindle today I found a billionaire stepbrother.
Good luck finding books now.

Fbone · 02-27-2016, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fjtorres

(Did you hear about Larry Coreia's... vent... over his books getting 1-star reviews for their pricing? BAEN's ebook prices are far from obscene but they *are* taking flack in that area. That is new for them.)

I noticed they still price their titles generally between $6.99 - $9.99. That's a difficult price point.

BearMountainBooks · 02-27-2016, 09:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Not a publisher I'm familiar with. What type of book do (did?) they publish?

Frank Tuttle (fantasy) was with them. His Markhat series ROCKS. It's sort of urban fantasy, sort of fantasy with the occasional touch of steampunk. But really his stuff is character and plot driven so those details are just worldbuilding/setting. One of my favorite series.

02-27-2016, 04:22 AM	#1
Josieb1 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,009 Karma: 18018738 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo Forma, Libra2, Clara 2e, Kindle PW SE & Kindle 2022	Samhain Publishing is winding down and will close I'm not sure where this post should go so mods please feel free to move it. Samhain Publishing has announced it is winding down its operations and will be closing. Apparently they will be having a 40% off sale on Monday. http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2016/02/samhain-closing/ Last edited by Josieb1; 02-27-2016 at 04:24 AM.

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02-27-2016, 04:40 AM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Not a publisher I'm familiar with. What type of book do (did?) they publish?

02-27-2016, 05:06 AM	#6
Terisa de morgan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,233 Karma: 11768331 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Device: Kobo Clara/Aura One/Forma,XiaoMI 5, iPad, Huawei MediaPad, YotaPhone 2	It's a pity not only by losing an independent publisher but because their books were some of the few independent published ones which reached the libraries.

02-27-2016, 05:41 AM	#7
Josieb1 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,009 Karma: 18018738 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo Forma, Libra2, Clara 2e, Kindle PW SE & Kindle 2022	I buy a lot from Samhain and I for one am gutted they are closing. I've been reading ebooks since 2010 and this is the 7th publisher I've bought from direct that's closed.

02-27-2016, 06:28 AM	#8
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	Disintermediation and competition from Indies doesn't impact just the bad guys. I worry about BAEN. Hopefully they can endure.

02-27-2016, 06:51 PM	#11
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	I'm not comparing BAEN to Samhain but I do think that most smaller publishers of romance and SF will be at ever increasing risk moving forward because readers in both those genres are heavily into ebooks and Indies are taking an ever-increasing share of the market. BAEN has a strong brand name and lots of customer loyalty but the long term trends in those genres are not tradpub-friendly. (Did you hear about Larry Coreia's... vent... over his books getting 1-star reviews for their pricing? BAEN's ebook prices are far from obscene but they are taking flack in that area. That is new for them.)

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