A few weeks back I decided to contact a publisher and send my first three chapters and all the required info. My novel is nearly completed (editing and final draft being sorted). I informed them that it wasn't quite finished and hoped I may get some feedback as this is my first venture as an author. I was delighted when they wrote back to me. They have offered to do a short run of my book to see how it goes , if it sells then they will look at pressing more. The publishers specialise in a different genre of books than the one I'm writing so this would be a different path for them. Should I accept the first offer ( they are based near where I live, which would make it handy for meetings) or should I hold fire until other publishers have been approached?
Hi Adrian,
I haven't slit my wrists yet :-) self publishing is an option I don't really want to take, my life is too busy with song publishing at the moment and the thought of sorting my own distribution would make me jump off a cliff. I will have a chat with the publisher then seek some legal advice, take it from their whilst submitting my draft to others. The company who has offered to publish seem to have a good reputation but aggree a small run with net me next to nothing in pennies. I think you hope that it will sell by the truck load and they then do a mass press ( One can dream )
Don't sign a contract until you have had a professional legal advisor look at it.
There are many things to consider before you sigh a contract: English right, foreign rights, film rights, and a scale of royalties that guarantees you a larger percentage of royalties the more books you sell.
Most publishers invest little in would-be authors.Most offer to publish ebooks, because it costs them nothing. The publisher has everything to gain if the book does well, whereas the author will be lucky to get between 8 -12 per cent royalties.
Here comes the good part. Most publishers give wholesale buyer anything from 50% to 65% discount on the price of a novel. Say your novel sells for £5 and you are lucky enough to get 10% royalties. You will get 25p a copy if the publisher sells to the wholesaler at £2.50p a copy. Depressed yet, well you should be, because a 1000 copies will net you £250, 10,000, £2500, a 100,000, £25,000.
Before you slash your wrists you might want to consider self-publishing on Amazon, because they give authors 70% royalties on book sales. So if they priced your book at £2.50p, you would receive £1.75p a copy. Now you are left with the problem that all would-be authors have to face, how to market your book and attract a sizeable readership.
I have yet to investigate all aspects of self-publishing, and I'm sure there are more knowledgeable and better qualified people on this site who could advise you.
I hope that helps.
Good luck if you haven't already shot yourself.
Thanks Kate :-)
I'm trying not to get too excited, my experience as a songwriter has taught me many lessons. Meeting up with them is a great idea and I shall suggest it. I have a list of publishers I wanted to submit to as they seem more established in the genre of my novel. However, the publisher that has offered me a small run has had success recently in a book that has become a tv series. I'm a strong believer in supporting local businesses so tempted to just go with it. They suggested I also sell my book at music concerts but I'm trying to keep my job as a music writer separate. Oh heck, this writing malarkey sure is more complex than music.