Tribute Books Publishing: Evolving into YA Market~ An Interview with Owner, Nicole Langan

Nicole Langan

Tribute Books Publishing

An Introduction to Tribute Books:

Tribute Books celebrates its 7th year in 2011 as an independent publisher for independent writers.

It is a company proud to provide e-publication and book promotion for writers with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Nicole Langan says, "Publishing a book takes guts. An author needs to possess the courage to share his or her voice with the world. It is an investment of time, money and energy to transform a rough manuscript into a polished work. I applaud risk takers and strive to provide them with an outlet for their creations."

The Dame's Interview :

Hi, Nicole,

Thank you for granting me this interview.  I'm wondering if you'd share with us some of the reasons you're publishing for independent authors, and what your stragedy is for the future with Tribute.

1)  Tribute will be virtually a new publishing house on the horizon, why did you decide to focus on YA books in particular?

Tribute Books began in 2004 and we've published over 30 titles since that time. Some of our books have gone on to win awards such as the Christian Small Publisher Book of the Year and the Mom's Choice Award while others were endorsed by PBS and The Thoreau Society. We've covered a wide range of genres from children's picture books to history to sports.

In 2012, we'll embark on a new transition becoming solely an e-publisher of young adult titles. This change is based on three factors:

On a business level, the young adult genre sells especially if it is well written and has a paranormal romance theme.

On a marketing level, the devotion of the young adult fan base is unparalleled.

On a personal level, I thoroughly enjoy a good young adult novel and review many on my blog at http://tributebooksreviews.blogspot.com. I'm a believer in doing what you love and working with like-minded people, when it's at all possible.

2)  Are there any plans for some professional revamping of your website to capture readers and new authors?  That would be fun!  What do you envision?

At this time, I don't foresee a complete overhaul of the overall look of http://www.tribute-books.com but it will be updated in the near future outlining our new strategy.  Most likely, we will have a separate author page and online storefront for our young adult ebook division.

3)  What are your criteria for the writers you'll be choosing?

Our preference is for damn good writing, the particular YA topic is secondary in importance. However, books written with a series in mind or those that delve into the paranormal will have a slight edge.
Manuscripts that have already been professionally edited will receive greater consideration. Our preference is to work with authors who have already been published through a royalty-paying press and who know the ins and outs of book promotion. An established social media platform is a must, and we will not consider writers who do not have a well-followed blog, Facebook page or Twitter account.


Interested authors can submit their manuscripts via email to info@tribute-books.com. There will be no charge for the authors we select to work with, and they will receive 50% of the net profits of their ebook sales in quarterly royalty payments. We're looking for Microsoft Word documents with a maximum of 350 pages of text with no photos, charts, illustrations, graphs, etc.

4)  What do you expect will be the ratio of actual YA books to books about young adults from adult professionals; i. e., those written with young adults in mind for young adults, versus those written for adult professionals or parents with young adults in mind?

My guess would be that the majority of our submissions will come from adult writers in the YA genre. Will we consider submissions from teenagers? If teens can demonstrate their commitment to marketing their material and have an established fan base, we would certainly take a look at what they have to offer.

5)  What was your inspiration in choosing this new direction for Tribute, Nicole?

Over the course of 2011, we've watched our ebook sales outpace our print sales by 2 to 1 due to the explosion in popularity of e-readers such as the Kindle, Nook and iPad. The under $5 price point of most of our e-titles and the ease of purchase and delivery surely facilitated this rapid change. I can only see this trend increasing in momentum as the price of e-readers continues to lower and more and more people start using this new technology. The industry shift is similar to what occurred in terms of music buying habits when iTunes downloads became more popular that CD purchases. There will always be a market for print books, but I think the majority of book sales will soon be electronic. People want the cheapest, quickest and easiest way to obtain their reading material.

My hope is that we are able to recruit some talented writers of well-written, well-crafted stories in order to develop an eager fan base for the titles we publish. We want readers to be excited about the ebooks we produce. Young adult authors have the most devoted fan followings out there, and we'd like to introduce that audience to a whole new host of talent.


We'd love to have anyone who loves young adult literature to join us for the ride.




Thank you, Nicole!  I appreciate your taking the time to share your new direction with Tribute Books.  I know my readers appreciate quality in YA fiction, which I'm certain you are dedicated to bringing to their attention.We try to keep an active online presence with our web site (http://www.tribute-books.com/), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archbald-PA/Tribute-Books/171628704176), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/TributeBooks)  and blog (http://tributebooks.blogspot.com/).

We will all look forward to seeing what comes from Tribute in 2012.  I'm looking forward to reviewing for your new authors!

Deborah/TheBookishDame