Author: Red Rover
Date:   03-16-06 13:11

Sorry about this being a newbie question, but what do you guys think about a small publishing house that charges no fees to authors, nor does it offer advances, but claims to have an attractive royalty schedule?

Also, have any of you had work published with a small publishing house? If so, any good advice? Or is this a situation that is not much better than POD?

Thanks so much for any advice you can give me.

Author: Ev
Date:   03-16-06 14:16

My situation is probably not exactly comparable to what you're considering because I've published in the educational market, but like the contracts offered by the small publishing house you've mentioned, none of my contracts have included advances. My royalties come in every quarter or 6 months, depending on the publisher. Having just completed my tax return for 2005, I can tell you that you don't have to have contracts with advances in order to build a very nice income from your writing.

Having said that, I will caution you to check out any publisher carefully before subbing to them. I will also caution you to read carefully any contract which you receive.

Author: Donna Pudick
Date:   03-16-06 15:22

Small publishers fill a very important niche in the writing world. Just remember, small publisher means short list and often small budget. It's not alway easier to go that way.

de

Author: Carol O
Date:   03-16-06 15:32

Agreed. The first question to be answered is: can this publisher, however small, get your book onto shelves? If they try feeding you the "available through" line, run!

If they can indeed get your book into stores then, as long as the royalties are paid on gross (the cover price), you should make out okay. Presuming, of course, the book has an attractive cover, is priced competitively, and/or grabs the browsing reader. No sales = no royalties. :/

Author: Donna Pudick
Date:   03-16-06 17:10

Also, be careful when signing with a small publisher. They may want first refusal on your next book, even if the first one isn't very sucessful. Read that contract really carefully. I recently had a wonderful book slip by me when the author was reminded that she must give her old publisher first nibs on her second book. She made exactly $8.70 in royalties on the first one, so she's hopeful he'll turn her down. Not likely, it's too good. He doesn't work with agents.

Author: Anthony Ravenscroft
Date:   03-17-06 15:03

As I manage a small book publisher, I'd advise you to shy away from any house that doesn't play straight with you -- period.

Make sure you understand their "royalty schedule." We offer 9% of SRP; some companies offer 15% of whatever they sell it for, which tends to work out to 15% of 40% of SRP, or 6%.

We do expect "right of first refusal," with good reason. A few years ago, we had an author try to lightly revise her book & market it to someone else. When I found out, I pointed out that this would be unfair competition with our book. She refused to stop seeking another publisher, or to rework the manuscript so that it expanded the combined reach, so I invoked this clause, sold the last few copies, & cancelled the title.

That is the only time it's ever come up.

But many companies -- including some very big publishers -- will try to slip a clause in where they can "sit on" subsequent manuscripts forever... just in case they someday decide you're worth a few more bucks. Meanwhile, our agreement specifies 30 days to examine a manuscript, & we have the right to either pass it up formally (with our written blessing) or put it in the schedule, or the default is to assume we've declined.

Plus, we want our authors to succeed. I've offered to release one from his agreement with us, if that'll get him a contract for his series with a big house. If someone's serious about advancing their career, & not simply messing around with the best-looking path of the moment, I'll not only let 'em go but work with them.

In general, it's up to the author to do "due diligence." That means finding out how many books they actually sell. You could ask what they're two best-selling titles are, & look at the Amazon rankings. We're kinda open about this stuff, & I'd gladly send someone our latest numbers for New Leaf (New-Age stores) or Quality Books (libraries & schools). That also might mean actually buying one of their books (maybe used) to see if they use a good-quality print vendor, the covers don't look like they were done by somebody's 12-year-old, the whole thing isn't set in 14/16 Arial Heavy, etc.

A half-decent small publisher is tons better than the best POD/vanity house. You may not make twenty bucks a year... but you won't be paying through the nose, either. From a POD/vanity, you might get a 40% discount on your own books, where a dinky press like us gives you a 50% -- but a bigger difference is that I'm cutting you 50% on a $12.95 book, & a POD/vanity is charging more like $17.95 for the same book, so that's $6.48 vs. $10.77.

Oh, yeah, & we deal with returns all the time, none of the POD "we could if we felt like it, & we'll bill the chargebacks & damaged copies against your royalties."

Author: Nina Dessypris
Date:   03-18-06 05:45

Hi i was recently published last year small publishing house in Cyprus, i was very nervous but it worked out ok, i asked on the net what to do the response was ask ask ask i did and so glad i did.
Good luck

Author: Ann Crispin
Date:   03-18-06 09:31

Not all small presses offer no advance. A small press recently purchased a science fiction series of mine to reprint it, and they are paying an advance.

-Ann C. Crispin

Author: Christine Norris
Date:   03-22-06 06:14

I recently published with a small pub house. No advance, but a nice 10% royalty. Being small, I do have to do my share of promotion - I do signings, keep up my web presence, get out in front of the media whenever I can. I speak to schoolchildren, I talk about my book - make a buzz locally.

They work hard to get books to the stores. It's not always successful, but they do work hard. I see them, in a year, maybe two, being accepted by those big chains for stocking and not just in their database for ordering (which is better than some can do). It's not as easy as it looks, but they do go through the process of sending the book and media kit to every chain buyer. The next step is getting reviews in big trade pubs, and they know it.

I have not yet had to purchase a book for an event - they do all that.

It's been a good experience. I had a great editor (who really edited, by the way) and the illos and cover art were hand drawn and fantastic.

And yes, there was a right of first refusal clause in my contract. But, remember, just because they accept it doesn't mean you have to give it to them. You can say no. All it really means is that you can't show it to anyone else until they give you an answer. A competant publishing attorney can advise you on such things.

And, like Ann said, some actually do give advances. Small doesn't mean bad.

Author: Nicole Moens
Date:   03-22-06 16:14

As I have just started up my own (small) publishing house, I must agree with Anthony.
I've got already 6 authors contracted, and I do my utmost best for them. One has been published before, and says she is thrilled by the amount of time I give her.
I can't offer advances to an author yet (may do so, eventually), but the royalties start at 10%.
We also work with an illustrator for children's books, who draws beautiful pictures, and a cover artist. So no sloppy work.
Printing is done on quality paper.
So yes, small doesn't mean bad at all. Remember, we start out small, but who knows what will happen in the future? My aim is certainly to make my business a real player in the world of books.


Nicole
publisher - NF Publishing

Author: Catherine S
Date:   03-29-06 11:20

I think it's important to ensure this is an actual small press and not one of the endless string of "I want to help other authors" basement projects that entail no insurance, no professional editing, design or layout (and no, converting to PDF from Word is NOT how ANY professional company works) and that they're indeed doing a press run and not running digital (POD) copies on a per-order basis (if the press run is small though, say less than 500 or 100 copies, they might use digital presses because it's cost effective) AND they have a sales force to get your book into stores.

Another thing to watch for is claims that they can get your book into non-bookstore venues such as Wal-Mart. In order to do that, you'd need books printed with a UPC bar code, which is NOT THE SAME as the Bookland EAN barcode used by most book stores. UPC bar codes are pricey because you have to pay annual memberships. I believe it's something like $750 just to join.

Getting a book out even with a meagre run of say 1000 copies will cost a professional house at least $5,000 - $10,000.

C.

Author: Anthony Ravenscroft
Date:   03-29-06 15:35

Well-stated, CS.

You touch on one of my "favourite" redflag phrases: "...can get your book into..." which is right up there with "...will make your book available..."

Real publishers, however big, would find it ludicrous to say these things.

It's kinda like saying, "...we take extra steps to ensure that YOUR BOOK is printed on real paper!"

Also, watch out for the word "available" (or similar), or dingbats indicating footnotes.

I work in a tiny company. My editing skills are quite good. I add at least $1,500 value to each book, even if it's short & well-edited, & my talents are often worth five times that. Then there's layout, & cover design. I have three decent-enough artists (freelance) who turn out surprisingly good art for about $500. And our authors usually don't know about this, & have certainly never been billed for it!

Any service that doesn't add that sort of value is, at best, a printer.

Author: Greg Kosson
Date:   04-01-06 21:30

Well, yeah. Small houses may not be able to offer much of an advance, or any. On the other hand they're more likely to pay attention to you. No, they don't have big promotion budgets, but if you're unknown and this is the way for your to get published, and the world doesn't seem to be blazing a path to your door, do you really have anything to lose?

Yes you do, if they ask you for money or some other nonsense, but not getting an advance, particularly for a novel with a small house, that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Don't let anyone rip you off outright. The only thing of value you've got as a writer with no track record is not your writing, but what's in your pants. No, I'm talking about your wallet, Lothario. If anyone seems to want your wages and not your writing,(although it's always coupled with a feigned interest in your writing--always) you need to protect yourself.

Beginning writers make many mistakes--one is getting ript off by shelling cash out of said wallet because they think they're about to be discovered. The other is overestimating the value of their wares, which ain't worth Jack until you have a reputation.

This is a tough, tough business, and you had better look out for yourself, but don't be a prima donna who thinks he's deserving of a Grimus six-figure advance right out of the box. You will be treated as scum for years, and may or may not emerge from the pond as a human being,with any luck and enough evolutionary time if you don't collapse under the strain in the interim.

Author: Magic Bullet
Date:   04-04-06 11:17

RR: As with anything else in life, you would need to choose a small publishing house carefully, but there are numerous advantages to going with one.
It will allow you to bypass the tough market for obtaining an agent, and you will receive much more personal atttention then at a large house. This sort of thing can aid in developing a steady readership too, as small houses are less likely to drop a writer if they don't attain an arbitrarily set sales figure. You could have a long and rewarding relationship with a small publisher.
The down side though is that there will be a lot less money and exposure, at least intially, with a small house, simply because the print run will be smaller and so will any marketing effort.
There have been cases too of a writer with a small press being picked up later by a large house.

Author: Lynn King
Date:   09-14-08 19:14

I'd like to ask if you are still in the publishing business and what the abbreviation SRP means?

Thanks

Author: Lynn King
Date:   09-14-08 19:18

"I recently published with a small pub house. No advance, but a nice 10% royalty..."

Christine, I recently read your response which included the above line. Can you tell me who the publisher is or was and why 10% is considered a good percentage?

Thanks so much!

Lynn

Author: Lynn King
Date:   09-14-08 19:24

Ann do you remember the small publishing house that you mentioned in this response that gave you the advance?

Thanks,

Lynn