Interview with Dona Parus, CEO of Tiger Publications

Hi, everyone, Today I'm excited about having Dona Parus, CEO of Tiger Publications, Inc. here to tell us more about this wonderful new publisher.

Vonda: Welcome, Dona! What was your main goal in opening the doors of Tiger Publications?

Dona Parus: The main goal we had when we opened our doors was that we knew there was a better way authors could be treated. If you look at the industry it works like this. Bookstores get respect from distributors. Distributors get respect from publishers. Publishers get respect from authors. Here's where the broken spoke of the wheel comes in. No one respects the authors. Without authors there is no industry. But the industry feeds off the dreams of authors and not once do they respect them for producing a product that everyone, except the author makes money on. Our goal is to show the industry that authors, out of all, deserve respect.

Vonda: What wonderful insight. Your company definitely sounds like the friend of the author. How many editors acquire at Tiger?

Dona: Three of our editors acquire. Margaret Esch, Romance and Women's Fiction. Carol Smith for YA, and Wayne Bruno for Action Adventure, and Rudy Rend for Science Fiction and Fantasy are all acquisition editors.

Vonda: What types of stories are your editors looking for?

Dona: We're looking for good stories. I know that sounds trite but it's all Tiger will ever look for. We don't have genre slots. If we have 20 books in Romantic suspense that are great they'll all be released. If we don't get a RS that year we don't have one to put out. In other words, if we find a good story we're going to publish it.

Vonda: Anything you're not looking for?

Dona: I know you're asking about genres but once again since we have no restrictions as far as genres go there isn't a story we won't consider.

Vonda: Sounds wonderful! Please tell us who designs your beautiful covers, some of which I'm displaying along the sides.

Dona: Dale Ankrum, Lin Rudolph, Sandra Kelley and Scott Parus have done our covers.

Vonda: They do wonderful work! Please tell us about Tiger's distribution.

Dona: We use Baker & Taylor for our distribution. We're in their sales book and also we've placed ads in their sales catalog. Now if you're talking about the promotions that Tiger does that's a different story. We have a PR director that works with our authors. She contacts bookstores for book signings and also sends out bookmarks, that we produce for the author, to both bookstores and book clubs. We are in the process of creating our own catalog that will be going out to bookstores with follow up visits from our sales staff.

Vonda: I find myself going Wow to a lot of your answers including this one. You guys do a lot for authors! What and how do you prefer writers submit their work?

Dona: As our website says, we would prefer synopsis, and the first three chapters. All submissions should be done via email attachment, because it's less expensive for the author. Now with that said, I must clarify that we've bought from paper submission.

Vonda: That's easy. Will Tiger editors be scheduling appointments at RWA national and smaller conferences this year? If so which ones?

Dona: Early in the year we were asked to participate in the New Jersey conference. We discussed it and decided that it's not fair for us to do that until Tiger has proven we're going to be around a while. Since we're accessible via the net we also feel that it's not necessary for us to acquire at conferences. Now that doesn't mean that we won't be at a few of them, just not in the capacity of an acquiring publisher.

Vonda: How many books will Tiger release this year? Can you give us a hint about some of them?

Dona: This year we were planning to release 12 books, however that number has recently jumped up. Our first released on March 17th was A Band of Roses by Pat McDermott. You were kind enough to do an interview with her an we thank you for that.

The next was Butterfly Wishes by LaDonna Paulette. This is a book that will rip you heart out. Every reader and editor that has read it has said the same thing. This one is a very emotional book so keep that box of Kleenex nearby.
I won't take up your readers' time with all the others, but please stop by Tiger's site and check out our fantastic list of titles.
http://www.tigerpublications.com/

Vonda: What sensual heat level does Tiger prefer for their romance novels?

Dona: We haven't stepped into the erotic level of stories and that's because we haven't been presented with one that we feel is written to the quality we're looking for. So once again it has nothing to do with genre or sensuality. It has to do totally with a good story.

Vonda: Would you like to tell us anything else?

Dona: I would like to tell your readers that Tiger Publications is an author based publishing company. What that means is that our authors come first. We will do all we can to gain and make sure we keep their respect. This means it comes from not holding their copyrights, to making sure we hold their hands through the quagmire of promotions.

Vonda: Thanks again for being here Dona! I've enjoyed it!! This has been an enlightening experience.