Ylva Publishing: The best of 2014 and what’s to come in 2015

[two_third_last]2014 was a phenomenal year for us at Ylva Publishing and I want to share a bit what made it so special for us.

Our team grew a lot in 2014:

In January, Sandra Gerth became Ylva’s official senior editor for both the German and the English department. Sandra (otherwise known as Jae) and I have known each other for several years, and working with her is definitely a pleasure. We share the same values when it comes to publishing. We both want to focus on putting out quality books and treat our authors with the fairness they deserve.[/two_third_last]

In February, we received an e-mail, asking if we took on interns. Interns? Well, we never really considered this. Still, we’re open for nearly everything and in March 2014, Devin Sumarno started her internship and stayed with us afterwards as our quality and production manager. With her master’s degree in comparative literature and book studies, specializing on gender in literature, fiction theories, and popular genre fiction as well as her experience of working in a bookstore, she was just what we needed. The best thing, however, is that her easygoing nature and her sense of humor make her a perfect fit for our small team.

But that was not the end of it. As our business grew faster than anyone could have predicted, it became obvious that we needed someone to support us with marketing in the US, so in October 2014, Nikki Busch became our Head of Marketing, US. She has worked at some of the biggest ad agencies in New York City and has won over fifteen awards for her work. Having someone with her background supporting and joining us is so great.

Now, at the end of 2014, we’re a team of four people working full-time or part-time for Ylva as well as a growing number of freelance editors, translators, proofreaders, and graphic designers.

In addition to continuing to build great working relationships with our established authors, we also signed a bunch of new authors in 2014. The list reads like the who’s who of lesbian fiction: Fletcher DeLancey, Blythe Rippon, Ana Matics, Caren Werlinger, KL Hughes, Cindy Rizzo, and Cheri Crystal.

Now, let me tell you a bit about what is going to happen in 2015:

One of the most important things for me is that my wife, Daniela, is going to officially join Ylva full time on January 1. With her experience as a librarian and her master’s degree in library and information science, she will help us grow in number and quality. She’ll be taking over the quality and product management from Devin who then will take the position as our new senior editor for the German department of Ylva. This will free up Sandra who will now be senior editor for the English department–and that is where most submissions arrive.

We also have a new editor in the German department working part time with us as of today. Which means that with the start of 2015 we’re a team of six people working full-time or part-time for Ylva as well as an ever growing number of freelance editors, translators, proofreaders, and graphic designers.

We also signed a number of new authors at the end of this year and will be announcing them in the coming weeks. Five of those authors are from Australia, one from the Netherlands, a bunch from the US… I just love that we’re becoming more and more of an international publishing house.

Things are looking great for 2015. Right now, we already have over forty-five English publications lined up and will probably end up publishing even more books than that in 2015. We will also branch out to new genres, publishing science fiction and fantasy novels while continuing to publish romances, mysteries, general fiction and so on. With a growing backlist of quality fiction, exciting new books, and a great mix of established and new, talented writers, we’re confident that our books will draw the attention of new readers and keep our fans entertained in 2015.

Last but not least let me thank you—our readers. You are the ones that keep us going in everything we do. Thank you for your support in 2014 and welcome back in 2015.

Happy new year to you and your loved ones,

Astrid Ohletz
Publisher