Nine for the Weekend. Welcomes Justyn Perry

A new fortnightly light hearted investigation into other peoples lives.


so for our first ever, nine for the weekend,


Raven's Ramblings welcomes Justyn Perry, publisher of Breathless Press

OK, Today we are going to ask Justyn the naughty nine. Nine questions we JUST have to know the answers to...
    
Q    Hi Justyn, how's life?

A    Good. Very busy! This summer we saw unprecedented growth in Breathless Press so we did some research into what readers want. We found out that the Young Adult market is another quickly growing area and so we decided to start another press! Lycaon Press came into existence shortly after. Running two publishing houses is hard, but I couldn’t do it without the help and support of all of our great staff members.

Q     That was the easy one. Now the nitty gritty- sorry a very British expression, Tell us a little bit about yourself.

A    Well, there’s not much to tell yet. I’m still quite young (turning 25 in a month) so I have most of my life to live. I graduated University with a degree in English. One of my areas that I loved to write on and study was Paleography (study of old books) and feminism and how it encompasses literature and every day life. I plan on going back to school one day for something else. I know that I’m not done learning yet - perhaps an Art History degree...

Q    So of course the next question has to be:-what made you decide to set up Breathless Press? Even although you are only a couple of years old, BP is already a force to be reckoned with.

A    Breathless Press was started after I saw author after author go through hardships with their manuscripts. I saw a rapid decline in quality eBooks out there and knew that if print books could have great editing and covers, why can’t eBooks. Sure there are a few large eBook publishers who boast great art and great editing, but what are they like with their authors? How are they treated? Breathless Press isn’t a publisher. We are a family. If an author has problems or concerns, we encourage them to speak up and let us know. We treat all of our authors with the utmost respect; afterall, if they weren’t writing then what kind of world would we be in?


Q    Where do you see BP going? Will we get books in print?

A    Funny you ask. October 21st is our first print book launch. Persuading Prudence by Liz Cole did so well as an eBook that we decided to bring it out in Print. November is our second print book with Lee Brazil’s series. We will be releasing three ebooks into one Print Book so the first book (Truth or Dare) will be the first three books in the series. The next three books will come out in 2012. In 2012, we plan on releasing 4 print books and somewhere between 104 and 156 eBook titles. 


Q     And I believe we now have a new publishing house on the market? Which is very exciting.

A    We do. As I mentioned earlier, we started up a Young Adult press called Lycaon Press. We will do everything Young Adult especially Gay and Lesbian titles. Now more than ever we need to stand up and show the world that we are all equal and no one should be ashamed or discriminated against. Submissions open October 1st and our launch will be slotted for 2012 (details to come). 

Q      Where do you see the genre's for either publishers going? Are we changing our ideas on what we want to read?

A    I have noticed a big shift in what genres are selling now days. When we began Breathless Press, Vampires were the top pick for most readers. Now, Shifter stories seem to be the top pick. Another hot genre is Interracial. Our Mocha line has become one of our best selling lines with titles selling thousands of copies. I hope that with Lycaon Press, we can see similar trends and offer books readers are wanting to devour.

Q     So as a noted Publisher, do you write yourself? And, if you do are you willing to share any of it with us?

A    I don’t write anymore. My life has become too busy to actually sit down and write anything. I did write a guide to self promotion, but it is no longer on the market. I am hopefully going to get enough time to rewrite it and expand on areas that authors seem to have some issues in.

Q     Now the silly bits three things you love?

A    I love cooking. Recently, I bought 40lbs of tomatoes and decided to make salsa. That took me 3 days (and I still have tomatoes left). So, as if I didn’t have anything else better to do, I went back to the farmers market and bought some cukes to make Dill Pickles. Making home-made pasta is one of my favorite things to do; so all-in-all, I love to cook. I also love movies. I will watch pretty much anything and find something positive about it (sometimes the only positive thing in a few movies is that it didn’t rain in the movie or that it looked warm). The last thing I love is working. Oddly enough I do love to work. Maybe that’s why I own two publishing houses and have a full time day job...


Q    And three things you don't?

A    I don’t like complainers. For me, if you are complaining then chances are, you put yourself in that position. Everyone has the opportunity and chance to do or make something of themselves; for them to better or further themselves. If you can’t help yourself, then how can you help others? (It’s a popular saying that rings true to a lot of situations). Something else I don’t like is stereotypes. I’ve come across a lot of stereotypical situations that leave me dumbfounded. Like the other day, I was talking to some people online and everyone thought I was at least in my Thirties or Forties. When I told them my real age, they were in disbelief. Most of them thought because I was running my own company that I had to be older. Another famous stereotype is the gender issue which I won’t touch on here :). The third thing that I dislike is laundry. I hate doing laundry because it takes so long to do and I don’t trust my dryer or washer to not catch fire so I have to stay at home and wait for it to finish. It sucks...


Q     And finally three things you would like to happen in the next three years?  I won't ask the three you don't.

A    I would like to cut down on the amount of work I am doing. While I love to work, I am starting to feel run down. Three jobs is hard to do for any length of time. Another thing I would like to see happen in the next three years is both Breathless Press and Lycaon Press grow to become one of the top ePublishers out there.  I can’t think of a third thing right now either... Sorry!


Thanks Justyn, glad you could drop by. Any links you want to give us, will be great.

Thanks for having me! 
Breathless Press: http://www.breathlesspress.com
Lycaon Press: http://www.lycaonpress.com