A Suitcase Full of Stories

What an exciting evening. Sitting outside in a summer garden in Sydenham was delightful.
We have it now, our fine green-covered book. Very smart it looks too.
I popped into Lightning Source on the way to see if I could intercept my order. They’d both just gone. I’d paid for one of them to be rushed. It didn’t actually go out any quicker than the others. In fact, my “slow” ones were signed off before the fast one was yesterday. Could it be that the “fast” order was the trigger to get the title printing and as they had several orders for the same title ….
It was good to visit their new offices. I’d been to their old one. Not that they were all that old, actually. I was given tea, anyway. Very nice. It is in a lovely spot. Semirural with Milton Keynes a dream in the distance and a pleasant lake a short drive away. It’s good to see all those books moving about.
All the excitement at the moment is about the expresso machine. I’d like to see one in action. All outlets of Blackwells have them so that means there is actually one on the campus here.
Say what you like about print-on-demand – it’s a very nice way of getting books out, I think.
I notice that both of our new books – this one and In the Shadow of the Red Queen have sales rankings on Amazon.
Back to the book launch.
Yes, a very pleasant evening.

Producing books

It is actually so easy with something like Lightning Source around. You can produce a very professional-looking books quite easily. The distribution then becomes the most difficult factor, but even this is more a matter of visibility than anything else. Produce a good quality book and it will find its own customers. Word of mouth, in the end, is the most powerful tool.

Some of us too have been talking about the demise of the book and the possible demise of places like Waterstones. I think it may be no bad thing if a monopoly like that disappeared. It leaves way for the small independents again. And if they get the ebook-reader right, it could be a real boon.

Our publishing venture is sort of cash flow protected. We don’t give royalties until the book is in profit and then the royalties we give are very generous ones – the authors get 60% of the profits. We’re pretty well cash-flow protected, though I do risk, especially with bookshops, ordering up-front. However, I shill only do that if I have the cash in hand. Otherwise, people just have to wait. Interestingly, I’ve never made anybody wait yet.

I’m feeling at a slight loss at the moment, because I don’t actually have a book in production right now.

Subsidy Publishing

There’s been quite a bit of talk about this on forums I belong to. Is “subsidy publishing” another word for vanity publishing?

I would argue it actually depends on exactly what your publisher does. Willow Bank, an imprint of which, Butterfly, has published one of my novels and is working on three others, actually does both.

I would say, that if the publisher just takes the money and does nothing, publishes everything offered to them, then they are vanity. If they edit and select, do much of the publicity and distribution work which the self-publishing author does not have time to do, then they really are doing something different from the old vanity publishers. It has to be at a reasonable cost to the author.

It is certainly true that writing well and in a way to appeal to your target audience is no longer enough. You do have to get yourself noticed one way or another.

There are temptations about self-publishing. It is becoming respectable. You do have all of the control. The big draw back is that you do not sell the vast numbers of books that a mainstream publisher can. You do not have the same access to the market. The outlay, if you use a company such as Lightning source is minimal, but not free. Typically, title set up is £35 - £47. You need a cover designing – that could be £250 and you need to create your own PDF file. The actual cost of each copy of the book is about 70p plus 1p per page. It’s always good to have a proof copy made and that’s about £25.00. Then you have to think about discounts to bookshops. It becomes quite difficult to keep the cost down to what the normal book publishers charge. But if you have something rather special it can be worth it.

Some Thoughts on Self-Publishing

I had a long conversation with a writing friend yesterday about self-publishing. It is definite something which is gaining respectability. I do love the print-on-demand service which Lightning Source offer. Their service is quick and efficient and they offer a quality product. You gain immense satisfaction form designing the book and then seeing it arrive, all shiny and shelf-ready.

The big bugbear with self-publishing is that you have to be your own publicist and distributor and that can be time-consuming. Lightning Source does give you the option of linking to Ingrams. This does mean that you have to offer a substantial discount, but this can easily be achieved by sensible pricing.

Publicity is a little more difficult and it does require your own effort. Book Promote do a very good service for £396. You have to weigh up your time again that cost and also remember that they have same expertise and same contacts that you don’t have. Then, you also need to programme in your own activities. They do need space, time and focus. Interestingly though, of course, you need to do this even if you are published by a mainstream publisher. And since you make a bigger profit margin on the book when you’ve published it yourself ….

Ups and downs

This week has brought two rejections and two acceptances. Funnily enough, the rejections seem to carry more weight. A small American publisher and a small Welsh publisher have rejected me. A large American publisher has accepted a poem - though I'm not really all that sure if I want it published. A short story of mine and an article have been published in an anthology for students learning English by the Free University of Moldova, with funding form the British Embassy, so that gives it some status even if it doesn't pay me anything.
I went on a training course at Lightning Source last week, and it begs the question of whether one should self-publish or not. I'm even thinking of forming my own imprint. The big problem will of course be the marketing.
I do have two more novels to market then now. The temptations is to just let them go straight to Willow Bank. Perhaps I'll talk to them later in the week.