The owners of Clean Teen Publishing founded their Crimson Tree Publishing imprint in 2013. Created to host their non-teen fiction titles, they signed their first author—Jon Messenger and his Brink of Distinction Series. Today, they have ten authors and more than twenty titles in circulation or pending release. Some of their most recent titles include the Kindling Flames Series by Julie Wetzel, The Bionics Series by Alicia Michaels, and Sweet Contradiction by Peggy Martinez.
Be sure to check out all of the FREE ebooks that Crimson Tree Publishing has to offer
The owners of Clean Teen Publishing founded their Crimson Tree Publishing imprint in 2013. Created to host their non-teen fiction titles, they signed their first author—Jon Messenger and his Brink of Distinction Series. Today, they have ten authors and more than twenty titles in circulation or pending release. Some of their most recent titles include the Kindling Flames Series by Julie Wetzel, The Bionics Series by Alicia Michaels, and Sweet Contradiction by Peggy Martinez.
In keeping with Clean Teen Publishing’s motto: “Because you deserve to know what you are reading,” Crimson Tree Publishing adopted the same full disclosure system, with the exception of the rating tree. A full content disclosure for every Crimson Tree Publishing title can be found on the company’s website. This details out exactly what kind of language, romance, drug use, and violence is in every book, giving readers the information necessary to choose a book based on their personal preference. If readers prefer a book with little violence but lots of romance, they can now read the disclosure and know if the book is for them before they get halfway through a brutal battle scene that turns their stomach. Crimson Tree Publishing believes in empowering their readers so they can easily find books they will enjoy the most.
Readers can find fresh fiction in a broad range of genres at Crimson Tree Publishing including: science fiction, contemporary romance, paranormal romance, fantasy, dystopian, and more. For a complete list of authors and titles, visit their website at: www.crimsontreepublishing.com.
Crimson Tree Publishing is a great place for authors as well. Founded by owners who have experience in the Indie publishing world, they are dedicated to fostering new up-and-coming authors and guiding them along their publishing journey. They are known by their authors to be very involved and hands-on in order to give them the guidance and tools needed to establish their writing careers. Authors interested in submission information for either Crimson Tree Publishing or Clean Teen Publishing can find the full submissionsguidelines on their website.
GUEST POST
SHOULD YOUNG ADULT BOOKS HAVE CONTENT RATINGS?
This is quite the controversial question. Do young adult books need a rating system? Movies, video games and music all have content ratings these days, but why don't books? It's a good question, don't you think? Why has the book industry shied away from adding ratings to their books?
Before we dive into our view point on this, let us tell you who we are. Clean Teen Publishing, along with it's Adult imprint— Crimson Tree Publishing, is one of the largest emerging midlist publishers in the country. One thing that makes us stand out from the crowd is our content rating system. Every book published by our company has a full disclosure. Even our adult fiction titles under our Crimson Tree Publishing imprint have full disclosures.
It's obvious that our take on content rating is that it should be added to every young adult book. But, going back to our initial question, we have a few guesses as to why the book industry has shied away from forcing content ratings on all books.
WHY WOULD PUBLISHERS AVOID CONTENT RATINGS?
1. THE FEAR OF CENSORSHIP.
This could be a valid fear if publishers began deciding what was wrong or right for readers. If they started removing content and censoring content, where would they draw the line. Who would decide what is right for you? How do they know what type of content you are ready to handle?
Before deciding if content ratings are a form of censorship or not, let us look at the definition of censorship vs. the definition of rate.
Merriam-Webster states:
Censor: A person who examines books, movies, letters, etc., and removes things that are considered to be offensive, immoral, harmful to society, etc.
Rate: To set an estimate on, or to determine or assign the relative rank or class of.
*The action of removing things is not associated with the word rate, in any way. Therefore, content ratings are not censorship.
2. CONTENT RATINGS COULD HURT SALES.
Some publishers might think that a content rating could harm sales. Perhaps if a book shows that it has too much violence or too much romance, it would be purchased less.
We have not found this to be the fact at all. In fact, some of our YAm (Young Adult Mature) books sell even better. Content ratings simply give the reader additional information to make an informed buying decision. It can help a parent choose a book for their teen or it could help a teen pick out a book that has the content they want to read. It also works great for adults. For example, if you like a book that is heavy on romance and light on violence, a content disclosure could help you find the perfect book. Or if you want something full of action and violence but don't want a mushy love story, the content disclosure will help you find your next adventure. So as you can see, content ratings simply allow a reader to make a more informed decision.
3. The fear of banned books.
While there are still plenty of organizations who are banning books for their own reasons, adding a content rating to a book is certainly not the same as banning a book. (Obviously not, or we would be out of business!) A content rating once again is just giving a disclosure to the reader about what the content inside the pages holds. It in no way is saying that a book is bad or that a book shouldn't be read.4. Because it's just not the norm.
Yes, this is probably the main reason why most young adult books don't have content ratings. Since it isn't industry standard to have a content rating on young adult books, they haven't jumped on the band wagon. But we have! We are being the change we want to see. We hope that more publishers will adopt content ratings in the future. In the mean time, we are pleased to be making the waves that could cause the change.
CHECK OUT CLEAN TEEN PUBLISHING AND CRIMSON TREE PUBLISHING.
We would love to hear what you think about the subject of content ratings. Leave us a comment and tell us your thoughts. Also, if you'd like to learn more about our content ratings and full disclosure, check out our website:
About the team:
Rebecca Gober - Chief Executive Officer
Courtney Nuckels - Chief Operating Officer
Marya Heiman - Chief Creative Officer
Rebecca Gober - Chief Executive Officer
Rebecca Gober has thirteen years experience in upper level management, sales, marketing, and business relations. She has a history of finding ways to market outside the box and a passion for social media marketing and customer relations. She’s not afraid to take risks and doesn’t believe in the word impossible.
Since entering the publishing world in 2011, Rebecca has co-authored seven young adult novels and has since gone on to open Clean Teen Publishing. Rebecca is continually working hard to make new strides in the Indie publishing world.
Courtney Nuckels - Chief Operating Officer
Courtney Nuckels graduated from UNT with a Bachelor of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. She went on to teach Middle School where she found her love for the Young Adult genre. Courtney is a perfectionist who loves to work behind the scenes in formatting and web design. She believes that the interior formatting of a book should shine as much as the exterior does.
Since entering the publishing world in 2011, Courtney has co-authored seven young adult novels and has since gone on to open Clean Teen Publishing. Courtney is committed to making her mark in the Indie publishing world.
Marya Heiman - Chief Creative Officer
Marya Heiman has ten years of experience in customer relations and creative design. In 2011, Marya entered the publishing world when a friend asked for her help in designing their book cover. Soon, she found that she had a knack for image manipulation and an eye for bringing multiple elements together to create a visually stunning cover. Marya decided to do what she loved and began freelancing as a cover designer, and later went on to open Clean Teen Publishing.
Marya was recently honored with a RONE Award for one of her covers and has received numerous other accolades for her gorgeous designs. Marya believes that people do judge a book by its cover and she’s determined to make the Indie publishing world a more beautiful place, one cover at a time.
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2 comments:
Thanks for both the FAB giveaway and the free ebooks.
Thanks for the giveaway! I wish you much success!
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