As of today, we have 69 print books and 347 audiobooks.  I have posted a thank you to most of the folks involved with our main product – eBooks – at my own website – http://www.davidniallwilson.com – and I don’t need to repeat those here.  Here I want to thank two individuals in particular, a company, and a community of professionals – as a group because they number so many…

Print books at Crossroad Press would probably exist without Aaron Rosenberg, but they would be fewer and farther between, would cost a lot more than they make, and would not have his very professional and very particular perfectionist’s touch behind them.  It’s incredible, if you think about it.  I have begun learning to use the program Adobe InDesign that is behind the interiors of our books.  Aaron, is a master.  I can tell you that just to get ready to design the interior takes a couple of days of intense, mind-numbing formatting – and that’s just the beginning.  From there, you have design points – fonts, matching the covers and looking stylish, headers, and any number of things most people take for granted, like a single line not getting orphaned at the top of a page… Aaron has been the final hand on every book we have published – has designed the covers and banners for The Scattered Earth and O.C.L.T. series – as well as writing three of the books in one series and two in the other.

We are doing print editions for two reasons.  Authors love to have them to hold and sell at conventions, and fans like them to be signed – and because of the uproar our digital only company caused early on.  We must have print editions! The clamor was awful.  Now, of course, very few of those people seem to really want to buy print editions, they were just incensed that the books didn’t exist.  We will continue to do print editions of our new, original books, and I am determined to find good ways to market them.  That in mind, really glad Aaron is there…without him, it would certainly fail.

In audio, there is a very similar situation.  Jeff Kafer has been working with me since the very first audiobook that I was involved with – my own Roll Them Bones – which he narrated.  Back then, I had big dreams of changing the way audio was done.  I designed a royalty share program where authors and narrators shared the risks… Jeff and I managed to get our books into a lot of big distribution outlets.  Sales, however, were mostly through Audible, and they just would not pay us enough of a percentage for my system to work.  Before I move on to the people who changed all of that, I want to thank Jeff from the bottom of my 54 year old heart.  He has engineered and mastered the sound on every one of our audiobooks…as we have grown, hopefully we’ve started to make all of that worth his while…he’s a great friend and a consummate professional.  Again – without him, there would probably BE no Crossroad Press Audio…

And without the good folks at ACX who created a system where we could work with a huge talent stream of narrators to bring our titles to audio.  We got a fair shake on the royalties, as did the narrators who worked with us.  Sales still were (and are) an enigma.  What you would think would sell doesn’t, things you thought might flop – do not.  Through all of that, the engineers, rights and marketing, and everyone else at ACX have been incredibly helpful.  They have provided guidance, have helped us out when we really needed it, and have been unbelievably supportive and positive.  Here’s to a long and profitable relationship!

Last, but not least by ANY stretch – the community of audiobook narrators and producers – those we talk with regularly on Facebook, and others we’ve worked with over the years.  Some of the most talented voices in the business have worked with us – often for no more than the hope of profit over time.  Many times they worked under the rates bigger companies would / could pay them.  Often, they have become my friends. I have a great respect for the amount of work that goes into preparing, narrating, and worst of all – editing – the audio files that become the books we download and listen to.  It takes dedication, talent, and stamina.  I have my doubts as to whether, even granted a golden voice that I do not have, I could do what they do, day in and day out, and that they have worked with me, trusted me, and helped me build this company makes me VERY thankful.

So, this is our thanks to all of you who – behind the scenes – make the audio and print branches of Crossroad Press Publications possible.  We are better for knowing and working with you.

Sincerely (and we mean that)

David Wilson / David Dodd / Patricia Lee Macomber
Crossroad Press