Hi there, Priceless...
Please bear with me as I'm not familiar with selecting quoted sections, etc. So, I'll indicate with "you said." Hope you don't mind! This is going to be a long one.
First, I would like to say that it's okay if you do not want to classify me as a "traditional" publisher. They said Jesus could not heal the sick, but He fooled them, didn't He?
You said:
A publisher who pays no advance is one who has little faith that the book is going to make any money. From your comment that paying advances was killing your business tells me there is a disconnect in your business plan. The only publishers I know who don't pay advances are those who proscribe to the Print on Demand business plan. These are companies who have very little cash, do very small print runs, require the author to be an unpaid sales force in selling their books, and they have no distribution.
My reply:
You're right, my faith does not lie within the title, but within the author. I run a business, and I do expect authors to do their share just as they have high expectations of me as their publisher. It could be the next Great American Novel, and not get any sales if the author and publisher are not appropriately and effectively promoting the book. If I am approached by an author to publisher (i.e., use my funds to produce their book from paying a cover designer, typesetting, editor, publicist, etc.), then I have expectations of that author. I, too, am an author of nine novels. My novels sit on the shelves of many bookstores, but it wasn't because it was pitched to the bookstores. I hit the ground running as an author and understood that the word was not going to get out about my book unless I put a lot of effort and hard work behind it. That's the business. Heck, that's with any business.
Your analysis of "advance paying publishers" and "non-advance paying publishers" is not completely accurate. However, I do understand you're speaking based on the publishers you know. I know of several publishers who do not offer advances. And, if they do offer advances, the amount isn't worth much ($1,000 to $1,500, if that much, which is spread out over the course of a year or so, or based on a two-book deal). My decision to no longer offer advances had to do with signing authors who were ONLY interested in receiving an advance and nothing more. It had absolutely nothing to do with my business plan. As a business owner, like most business owners, I annually assess my business and cut those areas that are losing money for me. So, instead of offering advances, I offer marketing and promotions, a publicist, an author relations rep, a title manager, etc., as well as seeing that my authors participate in many major events (that I foot the bill for). I choose to put those funds where they would be better useful.
I own my own printing equipment and produce my own books, as well as books for other small publishers. If that's considered print on demand, then okay. Print on demand is simply another form of printing, it has nothing to do with the publishing company and how its run. I simply think people in the industry use the whole POD as an excuse for what, I don't know--a smoke screen, if you will. I could be wrong though, but that's my perception. In fact, there are many major publishers who use POD companies for short runs (Penguin Books and Simon & Schuster to name a couple). I will never understand why people "knock" the whole POD industry. It truly doesn't matter if the title is POD or PIBY (print in back yard), there must be a demand for that title and it's up to the publisher and author to create that demand. Period.
You said:
What I mean by distribution is that you either have your own sales teams who pitch your catalog to your corporate accounts, indies, and libraries, or you have signed with an independent distributor whose in house sales teams perform the same duties. Saying that you are "distributed" by Ingram and B&T only means that your books are available to order by stores and libraries. It's misleading. Unless your authors are out there actively pitching their books, few know your books exist.
My reply:
My titles are distributed by Ingram Books, Baker & Taylor, Afrikan World Books, and other African American distributors. Why does saying "distributed by Ingram Books and B&T" is misleading? So, are the thousands of publishers who use Ingram and B&T as distributors being misleading as well? That makes absolutely no sense to me at all. Also, and this is said to say, but not all "white" distributors will distribute many titles written by black authors. Isn't that sad? Even in the year of 2009, and with a black president running the free world (Do your thing OBAMA!), we still have to struggle and overcome obstacles, and defend ourselves when we're trying to play the same game. Hell, we can't even sit on the same shelves as white authors. We're experiencing segregation by being placed on shelves by ourselves. Thank God for independent African American bookstores and distributors!
You said:
This is the mark of a POD publisher; they make most of their money from authors buying their own books. Most of us have it right in our contracts that authors are to make themselves available for book events. If an author refuses, this is a breach of contract.
My reply:
I assume you're an author, right? Do you not buy your books? Do you not have books on hand? Your publisher outright gives you cases of books when you need them, without you paying for them? For free? If this is the case, then I find that hard to believe, since so many of my author friends are published by "traditional" publishers and they buy their books from their publishers at a discounted rate. A publisher makes their money a few ways: bookstore sales, author sales, serial sales, and media sales. Probably other ways, but I've yet to tap into those. Oh yes, foreign rights.
Thanks for the tip. I will surely include in my contracts, going forward, that it is mandatory for authors to make themselves available for book events. I will have to pass this on to my attorney. You know, because I had several authors in 2008 to have us schedule signings and then reschedule, and then not show up...all 10 of them were released.
You said:
I looked up your titles in Ingram iPage and could find no listing of a distributor. When a publisher has a distributor, their contact information is listed in iPage as the source for purchasing books. No distributors are listed on your website either. Ingram and B&T don't count since they're warehouse distributors.
My reply:
Wow...well you've taught me something. I was sure Ingram and B&T were distributors. I'll have to add the other African American distributors. Thank you, I'll pass this on to my webmaster to add on the site. Well, if they don't count, then they owe me money, because not only are they taking 55%, they are charging other fees as well. I don't know anything about iPage, and have no problem admitting so. I do not handle the distribution issues. I hired someone to do that. Now, whether Ingram and B&T are warehouse distributors, then that's fine as long as a bookstore can place an order through them for our titles, which they do on a regular basis.
You said:
I have no doubt that your heart is in the right place and that you're trying very hard to do great things for your authors, but "traditional" publishers pay advances, have sales teams, and can pretty much guarantee that, yes indeedy, books will reach the store shelves.
My reply:
Well, that's not completely accurate either. Not all "traditional" publishers pay advances. I know, I'm starting to sound like a broken record. If I do not do anything on a daily basis, I research and read about the publishing industry. There are thousands of titles, published by "traditional publishers" that do not make it to the bookstore shelves. In fact, I personally know of many authors who have been picked up by mainstream or "traditional" publishers and their titles have not seen the light of a bookshelf unless they pushed the hell out of it and built the demand. Some of us are priveleged, some of us have to work like "slaves," excuse the "pun," to get our books noticed by "mainstream." But I'll bet you one thing, if ALL of those titles make to the bookshelves, I'm confident to say that the publisher has an extremely HIGH return rate. A bookstore will return a book, regardless of who the author is, that's not selling.
Also, I know for a fact that if an author's sales does not meet the dollar amount of that advance, the author is dropped from the roster and is invoiced for the remaining amount due. This I know to be true due to one author (who happens to be my very best friend) who received an advance from a "traditional" publisher. The author did not do much promoting (and the "traditional" publisher did not put marketing dollars behind the book). After six months, the publisher dropped the author due to low sales and invoiced her for the remaining amount of the advance due. The advance is a loan. It is not a gift.
While I have a fantastic team of folks working behind me, as with any other publisher--whether traditional or not--there's always room for growth, and there's room for me, as well as many other African American-owned publishers. As always, we're making our niche, which is a fantastic thing!
Hey, thanks for the iPage tip. I do 'preciate it. I will check on that tomorrow. You learn something every day. While I've enjoyed the dialogue, it's taking entirely too much time out of my schedule to respond, and, as you can see, my responses tend to be LONG-winded.
You have a fantastic week, and I'll peek in from time to time. It's been great. Much success to you all!
Jessica Tilles
