Feb 21 2008
Should We Shun Subsidy-Published Authors?
Last week I wrote about how the meaning of self-publisher has drifted to include authors whose books are published by subsidy publishers. Those are companies like Trafford, iUniverse / AuthorHouse, Outskirts Press, Bookstand Publishing, Infinity Publishing, and many, many others that charge authors a fee to publish their books. Most offer authors a choice of packages that include layout, cover design, editing, marketing, distribution, etc. The company provides the ISBN number, hence the company is the publisher. The author retains copyright to the work.
I participate in several online discussion groups made up of authors, many of who—like me—have started their own businesses to publish their books. I’ve noticed that most of them are very critical of books published by subsidy publishers. Specifically, they say:
Furthermore, they argue that subsidy publishing companies rip off authors by making false promises about how well their books will be promoted and how many copies they are likely to sell. The common belief is that these authors are so gullible and ill-informed that they unwittingly sign on with predatory companies and later regret their choices. True self-publishers—or independent publishers as some of us now call ourselves—don’t want to be lumped into the same category as subsidy-published authors.
How true are these criticisms? And should we take care to distinguish between authors this way? As I’ve said before, I think setting up a hierarchy among ourselves is divisive. As authors whose publishers don’t fit the traditional model, I think it is to our disadvantage to separate ourselves out into better and worse categories based on the publishing model we’ve chosen.
And I think it is insulting to authors who have chosen to use a subsidy publisher to assume they are all naïve, that their books are badly written, and/or that they regret their choice. Maybe some were deceived and have regrets, but others are happy with their choice. For example, Laurie Pooler Pelayo wrote the following comment on last week’s post:
I think ’subsidy’ publishing is simply an alternate way for people who wish to self-publish (in the traditional sense) but cannot afford to retain 500 copies in their basement, or to have to apply for a business license as a ‘business’ to get their book out. I could not afford to self-publish in the traditional sense, I did consider it at one point. I just didn’t have the overhead. So what I did was select I guess what is called a ’subsidy’ publisher to print my book.… So if ’subsidy,’ the dirty word on the street, is what my chosen path is, so be it. I am not offended. My POD/subsidy company (whatever one wants to call it) uses the term ‘author originated work.’ I think I like that term better.”
Personally, I think whatever way people want to publish is fine and the choice belongs to the author. It’s interesting (and unfortunate) that with all the bias against authors who don’t go with big traditional publishers, we denigrate the work of entire groups of these authors based on the business model of their publisher. That is prejudice and it’s beneath us.
I’m not saying that all books are equal or that we shouldn’t care about quality. I’m saying judge the book by the book, not by its publishing model. Let’s give subsidy-published authors the equal opportunity we all want to have their work considered on a level playing field. Then let the marketplace decide.
What’s your experience with subsidy publishing?: I’ve set up a short survey to find out how authors who have used subsidy publishers feel about their experience. How has it worked out for you? Are you satisfied? Dissatisfied? Would you do it again? Please click here to complete the survey to help tell the truth about subsidy publishing. I’ll publish the results in a later blog. Thanks.
To post a comment, click on the “responses so far” line below.
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Lynn,
I came across your blog vie your request for members to take a publishing survey thru the ‘Self-Publishing’ forum. The articles and subsequent comments written are of interest, however they have little information I have not gleaned through my own efforts concerning this topic for our publishing company. Your article of Jan.3, 2008 Publishing: Which Comes First, Art Or Business? was of particular interest to me.
Starting out in 2005, as a ‘traditional’ publisher with a ‘POD’ component, our company has struggled with ‘finding itself’ as a publisher in general. We quickly found out what POD meant in the Traditional publishing world. We struggled to sign authors and find books to publish (quality authors and interesting subjects are hard to come by). In 2006 we broke out our POD function into a separate company from our mother company (because of the bad press surrounding POD) and consequently, have shut down the POD altogether.
From your Jan. 3rd article, we are making #2 the most important part of our business model. We look at writing more as an art form and want our authors to take a more ‘holistic’ approach to their work. We want to elevate READING to a higher level than it has enjoyed in quite some time.
At this point our company will work in a more traditional manner, signing authors (who show promise), outside printing and distribution, etc. This decision has not come easy, after investing several years and quite a sum of our personal finances. Don’t get me wrong, the experience has for the most part been enjoyable and we plan to continue.
The world of books in the U.S. is dominated by the big 6. We don’t like the situation, but this is the real world we live in. Bemoaning this situation only strengthens the hold the big 6 now enjoy. Independent publishers need to work within this system, continue to make changes where we can. Subsidy publishing will help, only when they tighten industry wide quality requirements for publication.
As seen by the flood in the numbers of new titles that have come into the market, books to publish are not hard to find. Maybe it is the author’ choice, but that doesn’t change the fact that many authors are naïve, subsidy publishers are exploitative, and that subsidy books are, for the most part, still poorly written and edited. Those companies exist for a reason, and that’s to take advantage of the author. As mentioned, finding quality authors and interesting subjects is more of a challenge.
Mike
But how do we judge books by the book, before purchasing the book? Excerpts?
My view on the whole Traditional vs. Non Traditional publisher is this:
It the same argument made in the film industry with Indie films vs. big budget studio films. Sure, most Hollywood film suck royalty, and quit a few indie films rock, but few will point out how nice it is to be an indie filmmaker!
Indie Filmmakers are shunned by hollywood, and most movie watchers carry some stigma toward them.
My view for the reason this is (in both industries) is that since Both Non-Traditional presses and Indie film have there very, very bad (but very few) apples they make the rest of us look bad to the general audience. Traditional Publishers and Hollywood studios carefully screen what they release, and most of the time if its bad, it either gets fixed or sent away, something that usually does not happy in the Non-Traditional and Indie Film community.
My argument on profits from books published with Non-Traditional publishers is this: While it is true that an offset printers cost’s much less to print, cost of the book is not the only reason people don’t make money in non-traditional publishers. What does make the difference? Advertising! The reason traditional books make more money and sell more copies is because Scholastic has millions of dollars to market a book, Self Publishers don’t. It had nothing to do with where it came from, its a matter that no one knows it exists to buy!
Look at it kind of like the Film industry, The little Indie guys makes a movie for $1 Million. Hell, this movie is the next Lord of the Rings! However, since he doesn’t have $132 million to market that film, it will never reach the potential of Lord of the Rings. Sometimes, however, word of mouth and good reviews is enough to skyrocket the films (or books) into better standing than most traditionally published books.
My view on getting your books into shops: IMHO (I don’t have any evidence to back it up) most people buy books online anyway. They are #1 Cheaper and #2 Easier to find and order. Let me tell you a true story here: 3 Days ago I wanted to buy the 5th books in the “Dripping Fang” series by Dan Greenburg. Available on Amazon for $9.99, but I couldn’t wait to get it. So I got out in my car, drove 25 minutes to Borders Bookstore. I walk in this giant store with hundreds of thousands of books and begin my search for Dripping Fang. I started with the info desk, where I asked the clerk if he could tell me where it was located. “Over in either the YA or Children’s section” was his reply. Okay, where at exactly? “I Don’t know for sure, its over there though!”. With that, I made my way to search through the thousands of books in the YA and Children’s section. Turns out, they don’t shelve there books by title or author, but by “Genre”, and then within the genre they are in no specific order. Weird thing is, they don’t even have the “genres” marked on the shelves! So I end up looking through all the books in YA, with no results. Then all the books in children’s with no results. By now I was 1 1/2 hours into my search, and very tired of it. I finally asked to talk to a manager who had no issue with typing several keys and bringing up on there computer that they did not even have it in stock, even thought there website said it was.
He did offer to place an order for me though, and it should arrive in 1-2 weeks!!! HAAA, right. So I went home, sucked it up, and placed an amazon order (which took me all of 8 minutes from the time i logged on to the final checkout page) and ordered my book. I’m expecting the book to arrive tomorrow, and I still saved money by ordering it online.
This is the reason that most people buy books (and most everything else) online. So to me, if my local Borders don’t want to carry my book, its no loss to me. Not like anyone could find it if they wanted it anyway!
Those are my views. I know some of them are strong, but it is my opinion on the matter. Does anyone else agree with me?
Thanks,
Landon Parks
To add to my above comment on reason authors don’t make much money in non-traditional methods:
For me, I’m publishing my paper back of the first book with Dog Ear in a month, and my total cost per book will be $4.52 ($1.28 base + $0.02 per page). Selling price is $14.95 Retail, $8.99 through Amazon and several other distributors who I have worked out a special price agreement with.
At minimum, I’ll make $4.47 off each book as profit. Try that kind of “Royalty” with a traditional publisher! So I don’t understand why I would to give up my rights to my work, and loose money just so my book can be printed by some big excuse for a company that could care less about me, and care all about themselves.
So it may be true that most self-published authors don’t make as much money as one who publish through a traditional press, but its not because of the cost of the book or you getting cheated in royalties, its a matter of # of books sold.