Recently, Ballarat-based self-publisher, Shawline Publishing, collapsed amid rumours of impropriety. Various news outlets, such as the Sydney Morning Herald, the ABC, and the Ballarat Courier, have written stories about it.
It’s a cautionary tale about this side of the industry – that predators are lurking, just waiting to take advantage of prospective authors.
As writers, we share the same dream: we love writing, we have a passion for telling our stories, and we’d be ecstatic if we could get our book into the world.
Unfortunately, at this stage, inexperienced authors who don’t know much about the industry, who are naturally trusting, expect guidance, and freely invest trust, are vulnerable.
This is the briefest overview of how the industry works:
- Traditional publishing: a publisher signs you to a contract. They oversee production and pay for all of it, but get the bulk of the return. You’d typically get about 7% – 10% (per book), and possibly an advance (usually a small sum in Australia). For many, being published traditionally comes with validation and marquee.
- Self-publishing: you pay for all of it and hire an author-service provider to oversee production for the services you need. While self-publishing was heavily stigmatised once upon a time, many inexperienced and experienced authors alike are now pursuing it as a viable alternative.
- Partnership publishing: like self-publishing, but the publisher claims to go 50/50 with you on expenses and royalties. You think, Well, 50% is much better than 7% – what a great deal! It’s doubtful partnership publishers invest a single cent into expenses.
Busybird’s mother hen, Blaise, used to say if you’re paying even just one dollar for publishing, you’re self-publishing, so you should keep 100% of the royalties, and keep 100% of the rights.
She was right.
There are legitimate stakeholders who may cut into your pie later – like distributors or bookstores – but as far as the publishing component goes, if you’re paying, you should keep EVERYTHING.
If the self-publisher is making any claims on royalties and/or rights, run.
Run as fast as you can.
We’ve heard horror stories about various self-publishers from authors who’ve been burned.
The thing is many of these places will talk a good game. They’ll tell you they love your work, that the market needs a book like yours, and that your book will be successful.
Let’s break this down:
- Do they love your work? Well, maybe. But ask salient questions to ensure they’ve read it. Lots of these people will talk in generalities. We had one author come to us two years ago to ask about publishing. We read several chapters and gave him an honest assessment. Another self-publisher waxed lyrical about it, so he went with them. Take a guess who that was.
- The market needs a book like yours. It might, if they’re reading the market correctly. But that doesn’t guarantee sales. Think about just how many books are published – go look in a bookstore, or at an online retailer. Somebody thought the market needed every one of those books. Now, how many of those books would be blowout successful? A handful?
- Your book will be successful. Nobody can guarantee this. The market’s full of books that people thought would be successful, but which sold moderately, under-performed, or outright bombed, or which might’ve went through numerous rejections (e.g. twelve publishers rejected Harry Potter), only to be successful later. It shows you how fallible these evaluations are.
There’s no formula to this. If there was, big multinational publishers with huge marketing teams would orchestrate success after success after success, but they don’t.
They can’t.
We’re at the whim of so many things we have no control over, such as trends, tastes, and timing. You might write a great book about werewolves, but unfortunately something else with werewolves came out a month earlier, so the market’s satiated. Or you might have a campy spy thriller, but a real war has shifted consumer appetites.
Again, as Blaise would say, treat your writing career as a business. There are shysters just looking to take advantage of you. Ask questions. Any legitimate author-service provider will be happy to answer them. The others? They’ll talk slick, and it might sound great superficially, but there won’t be much substance. As much as we love flattery and praise, this is the time to shelve ego and to think ruthlessly.
You deserve the best. Don’t let somebody take that away from you.
We’re also always happy to answer questions.