C.O.M.A. Blog; A Day in the Life of Nancy Schumacher
- Chris Eberle
- Jun 2
- 3 min read
Many people use their blogs to promote themselves, their work, or their businesses. I admit I’m doing the same for my books, but I don’t want it to feel self-serving. To keep things balanced, I’ll also be blogging about others in the writing and publishing world from time to time.
That said, it’s only fitting that I begin with my publisher, Nancy Schumacher. Writing under the pen names Nancy Pirri and Natasha Perry, she is a multi-published, award-winning author. Her passion for mentoring new writers and publishing quality fiction led her to become the owner of Melange Books, LLC. She wears many hats—handling publishing, customer service, and marketing promotions. I’m planning a full interview with Nancy, but in the meantime, she shared an intriguing piece with me: 'A Day in the Life of…'
Nancy Schumacher is the owner and publisher of Melange Books, LLC, writing under the pseudonyms Nancy Pirri and Natasha Perry. A dedicated member of Romance Writers of America (RWA) for over twenty years, she is also one of the founding members of the RWA chapter, Northern Lights Writers (NLW), in Minnesota. In her free time, she enjoys reading, knitting, and crocheting. On top of all that, she’s a wife, mother, and grandmother—making her one of the busiest women I know.
"Thanks, Joanne, for asking me to tell you about my work and life as a publisher. I'll begin by saying that diversity is the name of the game in the small press publishing world. The work of a publisher is multi-faceted and can change from day to day. Because Melange is a small press, with 3 acquiring editors, 16 editors, 6 artists, 2 proofreaders and 2 formatters, many times I will assist in every area with the exception of artwork. I am the most unartistic person, but I know what I like when I see a cover.
Here is what happens in my day:
I generally start out the day early in the morning by reading my email at 6. Melange has separate addresses for author-publisher communication, for submissions, acquiring, editing, etc. and yahoo chat lists for authors and fans. This can take sometimes up to 2 hours a day. The next hour or so I sift through submissions to our house and see if anything needs immediate looking at or a response from me. If I see something I initially think looks interesting I send it off to an acquiring editor to look over. Our usual response time to accept or reject a manuscript can be up to 16 weeks. It takes time to look at each manuscript.
The next several hours I work at finalizing, formatting our next several books for publication release in the next 4-6 weeks. I load books at our print vendor, order the print proof for the author to check over again before release also. I then respond again to authors emailing me about various stages of their book's release. I start to receive responses on books to accept or reject from the acquiring editor, look them over and send out the appropriate letters. I type up the contracts and send them to the authors for books we're accepting, and make sure I have them listed on our release calendars. I will then work on listing our latest releases at vendor sites we do on our own such as All Romance Ebooks and eBookstrand, Smashwords, etc... · Then, if I have time, I go out and search the net for reviews on our books and forward them to the authors to be sure they receive them. · I check out various ways to promote our books, including sending information to authors and inquiring costs, etc. with these promo places.
In between all of this I work on royalties as vendor reports and monies come in for each individual author. I also work on tax stuff that needs to be done. As you can see, a publisher wears many hats and I love every minute of my work day!"
Nancy Schumacher has authored over 12 romance novels and has a busy season ahead with upcoming signing events this fall. You can learn more about her books and event schedule on her website; https://www.nancypirri.com/
Nancy juggles a lot on a daily basis, and I’m deeply grateful she didn’t give up on me when personal challenges delayed my last book. I believe many people outside of the writing and publishing industry don’t fully realize the hurdles involved in getting a novel to print and promoting it.
If you want to learn more or contact Nancy you can reach her at the following;
Until next time, CGE
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