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.

27 comments:

Renee said...

Thanks for taking the time to inform us of your company. Much success to you.

Besides a good story and book signings what else do expect from your authors?

I'm still learning the ropes, so please forgive me my ignorance. What do you mean by 'not hold their copyrights'? How can you insure an author doesn't sell elsewhere if you don't hold the copyrights?

Renee

Holly Greenfield said...

Great, informative interview Dona and Vonda. I wish Tiger all the best. I've seen several books promoted that are published by Tiger and have even talked to a few of the authors. They were all extremely happy working with Tiger.

Pat McDermott said...

Thank you for showcasing Dona today, Vonda. Wonderful interview. I can attest to Tiger's support for its authors both during the publishing process and after the book's release. There's also a lovely camaraderie among Tiger authors that I find refreshing. Finally, I wanted to stop by and say "Hi, Boss!"

Anonymous said...

Hey, Dona!

Like Pat, I wanted to stop by and say hi to our Boss. :) I can absolutely attest to Tiger's support of their authors, and it's refreshing. Their mission statement allows authors the freedom to focus on our stories, without stressing about what's around the corner. I couldn't be happier!

Chicks of Characterization said...

Great interview! Tiger sounds like a great place to be!!! Thanks for all the wonderful information.

Anonymous said...

Great interview! The Dark Shield is definitely on my TBR pile!

Corrina Cowan said...

Great interview Dona! Vonda, thanks for highlighting Tiger Pub. I enjoyed reading more about them!
C-

Eliza Knight said...

Great interview! It was very informative and answered a lot of questions I'd had!

Marcia Colette said...

Awesome interview! Tiger definitely sounds like a great place to be. You guys are never going to be absent of authors. ;-)

Chris Redding said...

Yeah Dona,
I wanted to share something with potential authors.
One thing had me gobsmacked about being a Tiger author (Along Comes Pauly out in 2010).
1.When they sent me the contract for a 2010 release Margaret our submissions editor said they would understand if I didn't want to wait that long. Wow.
And we have a great community of writers and I LOVE my editor, too.
I highly reccommend Tiger.

Robin Haseltine said...

Vonda, thanks for such a wonderful interview with Dona Parus and for highlighting Tiger Publications. As a new Tiger author, I can attest that I feel like I've found a wonderful home with this company. All they offer authors is mind boggling and the quality of both the books and content is top knotch.

Kath Calarco said...

Tiger author chiming in to attest to their "author hand-holding." My palm got its share while I underwent some eye issues which slowed me down, but Tiger waited the storm with me and is still willing to release my novel this Fall.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rene,
I apologize for not getting to your questions sooner. You asked what Tiger expects of their authors. What we would like them to do is write the best story they can. This is the best thing any author can do for their publisher.

Regarding the copyrights. We attain them for the author in their name. We keep a copy but send the original directly to the author. Our contracts give us this right for the length of the contract.

BTW, Rene, the only ignorant question is the one that's not asked.

Thanks for stopping by.
Dona

Anonymous said...

Hi Holly
Thanks for stopping by. Tiger works hard to make sure our authors are pleased. We have a PR Director that not only sets up book signings but she sends tons of bookmarks out to stores and book clubs. We will do everything we can to help our authors through out the whole process. They truly do come first with Tiger

Anonymous said...

Hi Pat, :-)
I have to publicly thank you for allowing A Band of Roses to be our first book. Pat is an amazing writer and a great friend.
Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Hi LaDonna,
Thanks for stopping by. I giggled when Pat called me "boss" and now I'm laughing out loud. I have never once thought of any of the authors in that vein. We have the most amazing group of writers and I feel like we're friends sharing a great adventure.

LaDonna and Pat have been so easy to work with. They are both a publisher's dream.
Thanks to you both.

Anonymous said...

Hi Veronica
Thanks for stopping by and for considering adding The Dark Shield to your TBR pile. If you're anything like me that pile gets larger every hour.

Anonymous said...

Hey Corrina,
Thanks for stopping by also. I wish you were going to Nationals so I could tag along on your coattails again.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Eliza. I will admit that Vonda makes this SOOOOOOOO easy. I would like to take this moment to thank her for all that she's done to help authors in so many many ways. She's one of the most giving individuals I know.

Thanks you, Vonda

Anonymous said...

It was such terrific fun at dinner tonight. I wish you lived closer so that we wouldn't have to wait a year to share those hugs.

Anonymous said...

Waving at Chris. :-) I have to admit that I have perks in this job and one is that I get to read the manuscripts before they hit the shelves. Chris' story "Along Comes Pauly" had me laughing out loud.
Thanks for offering it to Tiger. BTW I'm in love with Pauly. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Robin,
Thanks for your lovely comment. We feel that all our stories deserve not only the best quality of books, but our authors deserve the best Tiger can do for them.
We're very grateful to all our authors for trusting us with their stories.

Anonymous said...

Hi Kath. I'm so glad to hear that your eye is doing better! I'm sure you're chompin' at the bit to start those edits. :-)

Anonymous said...

I would like to take a moment to apologize to all of you for not answering immediately.

It has nothing to do with the volume of workload. It has all to do with this old woman's inability to understand this new fangle technology.

I looked at the site repeatedly and thought gosh there's no comments. I felt awful for all the work that Vonda had done and I didn't pull in one comment.

After looking carefully I realized that the comments were UNDER the interview. ok Now everyone knows just how inapt I am. :-)
Thanks again to everyone.
Dona

Vonda Sinclair said...

Thanks everyone for dropping in and reading Dona's interview! And thank you, Dona, for being a fun and easy person to interview as well as one of the greatest friends a person could have! You have given authors an amazing gift by opening Tiger's doors!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dona, your interview was informative and instilled even more confidence being one of your new authors. It gave me a sense of pride to be associated with Tiger Publishing. I'm looking forward to the process and anxious to get started. Carol DiGiulio

Pat Jeanne Davis said...

Hello Dona, I enjoyed and appreciated this interview. I discovered Tiger Publishing over at The Pasionate Pen and decided to check Tiger out. Your publishing house seems like a dream place for an author. I wish you much success. Thank you for taking the time to be interviewed here.
Pat Jeanne Davis