FAQ
Q. Is Glissando like a regular publisher?
A. No. We don’t handle the full production lifecycle for books; there’s no editing, cover design, etc. involved, though we do provide our authors with support through templates for copyright pages, content warnings, etc. as well as assistance with custom ebook formatting. Instead we’re a group of independent authors working together to pool our resources and support each other in reaching new readers and spreading the word about our books. We each handle our own publishing process separately, but share a newsletter and joint promotions.
Q. As a reader, why should I follow Glissando?
A. It’s a great chance for you to discover new authors, while consolidating your email load. We know you get a ton of emails, and while you may love many authors that doesn’t mean you want to be on everyone’s mailing list. Subscribing to the Glissando newsletter lets you follow your favorite Glissando authors in one newsletter.
Q. How frequently do you email?
A. At the moment, once per month. Later, if we bring in more authors and have more monthly releases, we may increase to twice per month–but for right now, once is plenty enough.
Q. I’m an author. Can I become part of Glissando Publishing Group?
A. While we appreciate your interest, we’re not currently open to new members save for by invitation only. This is to keep maintenance and administration work down, and to ensure we aren’t flooding readers with too many books or authors. While we are growing, we’re doing so selectively. That’s not meant to be a negative reflection on you, or your talent. We’re just trying to keep things under control.
Q. Your authors seem to be producing some pretty hardcore/taboo stuff.
A. Many do, which is why we require that all Glissando authors include some form of trigger warning in either in their blurbs or in the front matter of their books. One reason that we formed Glissando is because it can be difficult building a platform when you write darker erotica with more triggering topics due to advertising restrictions, but we’ve found that working together helps to mitigate that difficulty and allow us to reach our audience.
Q. Why are some books duplicated on the Our Books page?
A. Because of how we’ve broken things down by category. Most people search for books by specific categories, whether they’re in the mood for contemporary or fantasy, M/F or M/M or F/F, etc. Many of our books overlap multiple categories, so in order to make it easier to find what you’re looking for by general category, we’ve listed them in each of their broader categories while also including subcategories in their individual descriptions.
Q. But your LGBTQIA+ section and Fantasy/Paranormal/SFF/Horror section are almost exactly the same.
A. It’s actually kind of funny how our queer authors also gravitate to the fantastical, so there’s quite a bit of overlap there–but we’ll be adding more authors in queer contemporary as well as a few more M/F fantasy titles soon, so you’ll see a bit more mix-up in each category over time.
Q. Some of your books keep disappearing and reappearing on Amazon with all reviews removed.
A. Amazon can be…particular about taboo kink stories. They’re allowed, but they have to be presented in a very specific way to ensure they don’t contain any illegal content (ch*ld p*rnography, b*stiality, yes those asterisks are to prevent this from showing up in certain search results). While all of our authors ensure to adhere to those guidelines in their writing, it can at times be tricky to ensure that the blurbs and content reflect that. Frequently Amazon will ban/block books where these things are ambiguous, and then provide very vague responses as to the reason for the ban while still allowing authors to revise and resubmit.
This can require a great deal of guesswork on behalf of the authors, especially when books pass Amazon’s content review, are published, and then are subsequently and unexpectedly pulled a few days later. So frequently what’s happening is that our authors are revising and resubmitting books to try to comply with Amazon’s guidelines, and going through periods of trial and error until Amazon finally allows the books to stay. When books are banned, they have to be resubmitted as entirely new books, so they lose all reviews and rankings, though authors are still paid for any books sold or KindleUnlimited pages read prior to the ban.
Q. I’ve noticed you use affiliate links. Do authors share the affiliate rewards/payouts?
A. The affiliate account is run by the site administrator, and all Glissando authors have agreed to use of the administrator’s affiliate tags on their links; all affiliate profits from sales go to maintaining site hosting and registration, paying for mailing list services, covering author advertising, paying for our joint Booksprout account, paying for our joint Instafreebie/ProlificWorks account, and providing compensation for the work of updating and maintaining the site. (And it actually doesn’t even cover hosting alone, let alone any of the other costs, but the pennies help.)
Q. Who maintains this page?
A. Mostly E.S. Vanguard, with a little help here and there when there are technical issues. Vanguard also does ebook formatting for about 90% of our authors, and maintains our Twitter + Facebook pages and ad account.
Q. Why the name Glissando?
A. Inside joke. 😉