Paul Whybrow
Full Member
How do you choose a publisher to sign a contract with? Hopefully, the guidance of a literary agent will be worthwhile—if you can ever secure the services of one!
Over the last three years, I’ve made a total of 250 queries, mainly to literary agencies, but also to publishers with an open submissions window. In researching the requirements, tastes and overall feel of an agency or publisher, there have been a few that I really liked the look of, and some (often the largest) where I thought my books would just be another product on their corporation’s stock list.
These days, there are many more small independent publishers around, and a few have done really well with their authors being shortlisted and even winning literary prizes. Other independent publishers encourage direct submissions, though many of these only handle eBooks. I noticed Katie-Ellen’s post about Bloodhound Books seeking new talent and looked at their site.
It’s an attractive site, and they are the sort of publisher who might be interested in my four Cornish detective novels, as they handle grit lit, crime fiction, suspense, mystery, domestic noir and psychological thrillers and chillers. They specialise in publishing eBooks, but also print on demand paperbacks for all of their titles. They also have an imprint for women’s fiction, chick-lit and romance.
I noted, with a tiny amount of cynicism, that one of Bloodhound’s founders Betsy Reavley is published by them, but this is not uncommon in publishing. Salt Publishing’s owner Chris Hamilton-Emery publishes his own poetry. Even Hollywood star Viggo Mortensen runs a publishing company, handling his own work among other obscure writers.
Googling them, Bloodhound appear to have a good reputation in taking care of their authors, and the books they publish are well-reviewed, but it troubles me that there’s no indication on their site of what percentage of sales they pay their writers. Sadly, this is typical of eBook publishers and doesn’t encourage confidence.
It made me wonder how we’re meant to judge whether a publisher is any good. There’s the Nielsen BookScan data provider, which gives the point of sale statistics for book sales, so you can see how well publishers are doing commercially with their latest releases. But, how do we judge what a publisher is really like?
It worries me, that if I continue to seek representation through a traditional publishing contract, that I’ll sign up with an outfit that doesn't promote my work and are only in it for their 15%.
What do you think?
Over the last three years, I’ve made a total of 250 queries, mainly to literary agencies, but also to publishers with an open submissions window. In researching the requirements, tastes and overall feel of an agency or publisher, there have been a few that I really liked the look of, and some (often the largest) where I thought my books would just be another product on their corporation’s stock list.
These days, there are many more small independent publishers around, and a few have done really well with their authors being shortlisted and even winning literary prizes. Other independent publishers encourage direct submissions, though many of these only handle eBooks. I noticed Katie-Ellen’s post about Bloodhound Books seeking new talent and looked at their site.
It’s an attractive site, and they are the sort of publisher who might be interested in my four Cornish detective novels, as they handle grit lit, crime fiction, suspense, mystery, domestic noir and psychological thrillers and chillers. They specialise in publishing eBooks, but also print on demand paperbacks for all of their titles. They also have an imprint for women’s fiction, chick-lit and romance.
I noted, with a tiny amount of cynicism, that one of Bloodhound’s founders Betsy Reavley is published by them, but this is not uncommon in publishing. Salt Publishing’s owner Chris Hamilton-Emery publishes his own poetry. Even Hollywood star Viggo Mortensen runs a publishing company, handling his own work among other obscure writers.
Googling them, Bloodhound appear to have a good reputation in taking care of their authors, and the books they publish are well-reviewed, but it troubles me that there’s no indication on their site of what percentage of sales they pay their writers. Sadly, this is typical of eBook publishers and doesn’t encourage confidence.
It made me wonder how we’re meant to judge whether a publisher is any good. There’s the Nielsen BookScan data provider, which gives the point of sale statistics for book sales, so you can see how well publishers are doing commercially with their latest releases. But, how do we judge what a publisher is really like?
It worries me, that if I continue to seek representation through a traditional publishing contract, that I’ll sign up with an outfit that doesn't promote my work and are only in it for their 15%.
What do you think?
That's really interesting to know, and many congratulations on Undercurrent and Her Dark Retreat. I'll be wandering over to Bloodhound to find out more.
