The business of publishing continues to evolve and new finance models have emerged in recent years. There is a lot of new middle ground between self-publishing – Amazon, Smashwords, Lulu – and the traditional route of finding an agent who sells your work to one of the big commercial trade presses – Penguin Random House, Hatchette Book Group, Harper Collins, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. Small and independent presses can’t offer authors large advances or extravagant marketing campaigns, but they do offer many advantages over self-publishing including distribution. Most self-published authors recognize the difficulty of getting their books into retail stores and libraries because they lack access to the distribution systems used by publishers. Finding a good fit with a small publisher who champions your manuscript can be an ideal scenario for authors. Academic presses shouldn’t be overlooked. It might surprise you to discover which university presses today publish commercial nonfiction, memoir, even fiction. Some presses, if they endorse your manuscript editorially, may negotiate with an author for a subsidy to proceed with publication. When an author invests in the initial production costs, it is possible to negotiate a higher copyright royalty rate in lieu of an advance. Subsidy publication is an avenue to explore if the author has the financial resources or can find a benefactor to provide a subsidy for the production expenses of publication. Subsidy publication is a “dirty little secret” in the publishing business. Many traditional publishers don’t want it well known that such business arrangements can…
A professional developmental editor works with a book author to: complete a manuscript that will interest agents and/or acquisition editors at publishing companies; develop a winning book proposal (perhaps the most important role a development editor can play); position and package the writer’s concept to an agent or publisher; and establish an electronic persona and online audience platform for the writer. A book development editor is NOT… [Read More]
Filed Under: Advocate, agents, Book Development Editor, Publishers
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A few months back, in April, Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Company moved to Capitol Hill, a trendy LGBT-friendly neighborhood east of downtown. I heard about the change from the Seattle Times and asked friends about it but no one had visited yet. The move was a surprise – Elliott Bay is a local staple, its location nearly as sacrosanct as Starbuck’s original café in… [Read More]
I’m not a fiction writer. I stick to what I know and what I know is English literature and social media. Yet this past week, I attended a workshop at the Tompkins County Public Library (TCPL) on writing historical fiction. On Wednesday night I assisted Jill Swenson, the host and experienced writer, editor and CEO of Swenson Book Development LLC. It was the last meeting… [Read More]
Looking into the night sky, one is filled with wonder. The stars, moon and planets intrigue us as they have across all time. Two authors take up this fascination in their new books. One looks forward and the other looks backward in time to advance our understanding of the history of space science. Andrew Kessler in Martian Summer is looking to the future of NASA while… [Read More]
I finally went to BookPeople—Austin’s fav indie bookstore—because Tom Angelberger was signing his boy-friendly graphic novels, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back. As George Plunkitt so aptly stated, “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em,” by grabbing my 10-year-old, Jacob, saying, “Let’s go to the bookstore.” Angelberger’s presentation was lots of fun—juggling, inter-acting with the audience, re-telling a chapter… [Read More]