Last month The Andrew Lownie Agency set up its own e-imprint publisher - Thistle Publishing. It is a POD publisher also using Kindle White Glove and retaining 15 percent of the 70 percent royalties usually paid by Kindle. Their 15 percent pays for book cover design and publicists. Andrew Lownie said of the move;
“This is something we do in addition to our main job. There are some books that don’t fit the conventional model, where publishers don’t see the market for it, but we do - or they can’t publish it quickly enough … We are still acting as agents - but we are giving a brand, through Thistle, to these particular books. We are giving people the opportunity to earn while we showcase the works.”
This is following the launch of Curtis Brown Creative using KDP and Createspace. Would you consider such a service? I've never been a fan of POD but I like the idea of assistance with publicising and marketing from professionals with only a slight reduction in Kindle royalties.
What do you think?
Hi Victoria.
It is what they do to earn their 15 per cent that is my concern. The ebook involves little financial outlay. The publisher stands to gain 15 per cent by sitting back and doing nothing.
I do not believe publishers will Market and Promote a novel from the outset, unless the novel is by an established author with an exising readership.
I am willing to bet a large some of money that publishers will not invest money in a new author until the eBook/Kindle sales prove they are onto a winner.
Jonathan,
Thanks Good info.
Yes - marketing effort is probably the key.
Without intending to blow my own trumpet, my experience is that it is possible to sell a self-pub in reasonable numbers on Amazon (though what's 'reasonable' may be a moot point). During 2012 my first effort was selling 200-300 copies a month at a very low price point (99c/77p) which has settled to around 100 a month now it's at a more realistic $2.99/£1.97. However, it was uploaded at the beginning of 2010 so didn't exactly go viral immediately. What helps is that it's HF, which tends not to quickly go out-of-date, but I've not given any free books away to give it an artificial bump up the rankings.
Having said that, five or six books bringing in the same sort of figures each month would be very nice! And my only 'marketing' consists of website, blog and posting on other blogs and forums, most of which which won't accept overt advertising.
The main reason I continued to look for a trad publisher for my second book was the fact they're inside the industry and so have access to promotional tools I simply don't. I won't really know if it's an effective strategy until next year, as publication won't be until 1st September.
One thing I find hard to deal with is that we tend to expect instant results these days, whereas the book world still seems to move slowly, even with modern technology.
Not sure if that info is useful to anyone or not :?