The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer #12

The upside of the publishing process

Two weeks ago I promised to visit some of the pleasurable aspects of the process, having moaned on ad nauseam about the pain of editing.

Allow me to say something first about APP. Anyone visiting their website will immediately see some key characteristics. First and foremost, although the business is quite young, its key personnel are not. There’s a lot of accumulated publishing and business experience and I’m confident that this collective power will deliver a great product and significant coverage – and hopeful this will translate into sales. It was really the clincher for me and if I was asked for any advice to those looking to find a publisher, it would be to meet those into whose hands one commits one’s cherished work.

While the contract made clear that the publisher had final say on all matters relating to design, marketing and promotion, there has been a sense of involvement and sharing. In those long-past days when I dreamed of an eye-watering advance for a multi-book deal (don’t pretend you haven’t had the same fantasy), I accepted that one part of the price would be zero input into cover, publicity and marketing.

With APP, the opposite has been the case. They shared their cover concept and, while I was slightly disappointed that their designer didn’t ring me when he saw my original idea and offer me his job, I’m bound to say that his idea was beautiful and strong. Nevertheless, I did suggest a slight change which I’m gratified to report they adopted.

There was an enormous amount of toing and froing on the back cover blurb before we finalised it. I was fully involved in that, which was great. I always remember a 96-page brochure I worked on for a division of Shell.  It took about three days to approve the (very extensive) copy; and three months to agree the cover. So I know how important and challenging these things are. However, we were all batting for the same side so the carefully-wrought copy is poised to seize the attention of browsers in countless bookshops around the world, or so I would like to think.

They identified – and secured – a perfect venue for the launch: Waterstones in Hampstead. Having such a location speaks volumes (sorry) about the book, I think. And in all the publicity media – press releases, invitations and the like – there was a free flow of opinions and ideas. This gave me some ownership of the materials and engendered a real feeling of team spirit, which appeals to my collegiate approach for this type of ‘project’, even while I try and cultivate the temperament of a creative artist.  More dreaming.

From an anecdotal perspective, I think that all this is different. There is emerging a new generation of publishers who place author-friendliness at the centre of their culture and are able to be far more flexible in their interactions as they are smaller and more agile than the traditional behemoths.

For all ambitious writers this may just offer a brave new world where we can strike out into virgin territories in partnership with pioneer publishers brave enough to take on the settled powers and find new modes of work and production that offer all parties real value.

It’s been something of a recurring theme of this blog series that technology is changing the old publishing model.  The partnership culture of this aspect of the process tends to reinforce that impression, at least from my perspective.

Ian Phillips is a freelance writer for businesses whose first novel, Grosse Fugue, will be published by Alliance Publishing Press on April 17^th. Further information is now available at www.alliancepublishingpress.com.  Ian is tweeting developments @Ian_at_theWord.