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I have recently completed a book and the script is currently with Luath press awaiting their verdict. I don't have any unrealistic expectations given I know how difficult it is getting these things into print. I spoke with Ted Christopher on the subject fairly recently and he was pretty scathing about publishers in general. 

Does anyone have any experience in this area? Long shot, I know but any insight I can glean would be helpful. Thanks in advance! 

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19 hours ago, Stapes said:

I have several books published, but it's getting really hard to get a published nowadays. Busy right now, but can give you more info later. 

Wow! Well done 👍

Aye, whenever you get a chance, that'd be grand. 👍

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Yes, it's getting much more difficult to get a publisher to accept a book nowadays. I know one author who's widely published, and is a TV 'personality' who told me he had to 'pull strings' to get one book published. 

My suggestion in the first place would be not to pin all your hopes on one publisher (or agent), but to write to numerous ones at the same time. Annoyingly they all want something a little different, so you have to tailor your submissions (which is time consuming). My advice about your submission would be to spend some serious time on it. You can write the Great American Novel, but if your submission is crap no-one of note will ever read it to start the publishing process. 

You can get lots of publishers' details via the Writers and Artists Yearbook. I like to look at the online version as you can search for specific terms - non-fiction, fiction, Scottish etc. You can get this free at the National Library of Scotland. 

Your other option is to self-publish. Obviously you'll need a solid marketing plan to make it work, but you need that with most publishers anyway, as their marketing budgets are pretty much all spent on the bigger names. Getting about 500 books printed will cost about £1,300, and you'll then have additional costs such as ISBN, editing, cover, images etc. But the rewards are potentially much greater; a publisher might only give you a 10% return per book, whereas self-publishing could be 50%.

Happy to send you my submission for my next book if you PM me your email address. You can copy and paste what you need, or play around with the text a bit. I got lots of positives (which apparently they don't do just to make you feel better), but nobody wanted to take it on. So, I'm looking at possibly crowdfunding the costs.

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17 minutes ago, Stapes said:

Yes, it's getting much more difficult to get a publisher to accept a book nowadays. I know one author who's widely published, and is a TV 'personality' who told me he had to 'pull strings' to get one book published. 

My suggestion in the first place would be not to pin all your hopes on one publisher (or agent), but to write to numerous ones at the same time. Annoyingly they all want something a little different, so you have to tailor your submissions (which is time consuming). My advice about your submission would be to spend some serious time on it. You can write the Great American Novel, but if your submission is crap no-one of note will ever read it to start the publishing process. 

You can get lots of publishers' details via the Writers and Artists Yearbook. I like to look at the online version as you can search for specific terms - non-fiction, fiction, Scottish etc. You can get this free at the National Library of Scotland. 

Your other option is to self-publish. Obviously you'll need a solid marketing plan to make it work, but you need that with most publishers anyway, as their marketing budgets are pretty much all spent on the bigger names. Getting about 500 books printed will cost about £1,300, and you'll then have additional costs such as ISBN, editing, cover, images etc. But the rewards are potentially much greater; a publisher might only give you a 10% return per book, whereas self-publishing could be 50%.

Happy to send you my submission for my next book if you PM me your email address. You can copy and paste what you need, or play around with the text a bit. I got lots of positives (which apparently they don't do just to make you feel better), but nobody wanted to take it on. So, I'm looking at possibly crowdfunding the costs.

Aye, even though I'm a novice at all this I wasn't completely blind to the difficulty of it all. Even so, that's quite disheartening to hear. If it comes to it I'll self publish on Kindle via Amazon but obviously I'd rather see the thing in print on a bookshelf somewhere.

I'll pm you my e:mail address and peruse anything you send thoroughly. Many thanks again 👍

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Firstly let me wish you all the very best of luck in your endeavours. I had a meeting with Luath press nearly fifteen years ago and came away feeling completely and utterly patronised. I went down the self publishing route with Trafford press which was ok but not ideal. When I added to the first book and then passed it off as a new book, yes you can do that and get away with it, especially when you have very small sales for the first book, I went to Amazon's publishing arm and they have been very good. You don't have to pay for it upfront though clearly you will have to find the money to buy 100 books if you think you can sell the hard copies.

Their online sales system is easy to use, uploading books for sale via Kindle is also straightforward though I would wait until you have written the very very last version of the book before uploading it to kindle as it can get a bit boring updating it every time you tweak it.

Amazon have a couple of issues imho, they set a rather high amount target before they pay you i.e. you have to make £100 or 100 euros before they cough up the royalty cheque. You also have to strike a balancing act between an attractive price and one that will actually generate a few bob.

Stapes makes very good points on submission and a marketing plan. If you go down the self publishing route you may find yourself pushing the book at every opportunity on social media which can get tedious not just for your friends but for you as well. I believe there are now various tools to help you promote a book in certain areas but I have never looked at them.

I gave all the proceeds of my last book to the Sunshine Appeal and if you are doing it for a charity you should be looking for them to help as much as possible when it comes to publicising the book.

If you go down the self publishing route and you have a small independent bookshop near you, you could ask them if it would be possible for you to do a signing in the shop. Likewise if it its for charity and they are having an event you could do a signing there or in the charity shop.

If you want to talk about anything else PM me and I will see what I can do to help.

Edited by joecraigfanclub
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I have had four books published and have gone down various routes. First book and second book was with a conventional publisher. It helped that my subject had not been covered by any other books. My third book was partnership publishing where I paid some money up front to get the book into print but means I get more of book sale revenue and my fourth book I self-published under my own imprint. A costly way but very rewarding as you do it your way.

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So how much dosh can you expect to earn if you sell publisher or self publisher ...

100 books

1000 books

100,000 books

1 million books

10 million books

There are arseholes on youtube with 80 million subscribers and all they do is play video games and shit and they are making megabucks...

A good book is a treasure so why is not rewarded?

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If you go via conventional publishing you ain't going to make a lot unless you have written Harry Potter. I made about 45p per book sold but plus side was more books tend to get sold as it gets the best kind of marketing. Partnership Publishing you will get more money from each book sale. For a book costing £10 you can expect around £4 per book but the marketing is not going to be so great so likelihood is you will sell less books. Self-publishing you will keep all book sales revenue barring print costs for each book if you publish by print on demand but marketing is solely up to you. 

So 100 books sold via conventional would make you about £45. 1000 = £450 100,00 (highly unlikely) = £4,500 . I won't quote the others as they are not feasible really.

Partnership Publishing: 100= £400 1000= £4,000 100,000 = £400,000

Self-Publishing: 100 = £700 1000=£7000 100,000 = £700,000

 

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I haven't had a novel published, however, I'm currently writing one. 

The only publishing that I have experience in is shot stories for periodical magazines. That process is pretty much as simply as it can be, you send in your manuscript and they send you a cheque if they accept your work. If they reject your work then you generally hear nothing, however, if they like your work then they will send a rejection letter.

Have you registered with https://www.writingforums.org/ ? If not, I'd recommend it. There's people there with tons of advice and they're all very helpful. I only post on the off occasion, as I generally see them as the competition. 

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Thanks lads. As I mentioned earlier I'm a complete greenhorn at all of this so any tips are gratefully received. I'm starting to think I've done the easy bit in writing the book! 🤔

12 hours ago, thplinth said:

So how much dosh can you expect to earn if you sell publisher or self publisher ...

100 books

1000 books

100,000 books

1 million books

10 million books

There are arseholes on youtube with 80 million subscribers and all they do is play video games and shit and they are making megabucks...

A good book is a treasure so why is not rewarded?

My feelings in a nutshell......it's the way of the modern world I guess but no sense in moaning about it, I'll just have to find a way in! 👍

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13 hours ago, Chripper said:

I haven't had a novel published, however, I'm currently writing one. 

The only publishing that I have experience in is shot stories for periodical magazines. That process is pretty much as simply as it can be, you send in your manuscript and they send you a cheque if they accept your work. If they reject your work then you generally hear nothing, however, if they like your work then they will send a rejection letter.

Have you registered with https://www.writingforums.org/ ? If not, I'd recommend it. There's people there with tons of advice and they're all very helpful. I only post on the off occasion, as I generally see them as the competition. 

You could do a series like the Enid Blyton "Five" ones -

Five At The Back - It's The Only Way Forward

Five In Defence - All The Top Sides Do It, etc, etc.

 

1 hour ago, slasher said:

Thanks lads. As I mentioned earlier I'm a complete greenhorn at all of this so any tips are gratefully received. I'm starting to think I've done the easy bit in writing the book! 🤔

My feelings in a nutshell......it's the way of the modern world I guess but no sense in moaning about it, I'll just have to find a way in! 👍

Have you heard of a guy called Richard McMunn? He gives free advice on his website - http://richard-mcmunn.com/ - and has the credentials to back up what he's talking about. I think he's published about 150 bestsellers on Amazon. Obviously his ultimate aim is to sell you something but you might get some good info. He has a lot of stuff on YouTube as well. Good luck.

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9 hours ago, slasher said:

Thanks lads. As I mentioned earlier I'm a complete greenhorn at all of this so any tips are gratefully received. I'm starting to think I've done the easy bit in writing the book! 🤔

My feelings in a nutshell......it's the way of the modern world I guess but no sense in moaning about it, I'll just have to find a way in! 👍

Personally, it is not about the money I make although it is an added bonus. For me it is the kudos and personal satisfaction knowing you have something out there in the public eye all over the world being read. 

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17 hours ago, Caledonian Craig said:

Personally, it is not about the money I make although it is an added bonus. For me it is the kudos and personal satisfaction knowing you have something out there in the public eye all over the world being read. 

Yip, I have much the same outlook, anyway I'm not expecting to retire off the proceeds if there even are any. 😁

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  • 3 weeks later...
4 minutes ago, slasher said:

Quick question. Can you self publish on Kindle and still continue to hawk your work around publishers? Or would the fact you've already released it deter them from taking any interest?

You can get your work published elsewhere unless you enroll your e-book into KDP select. KDP have a 90 day period of exclusivity. 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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