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?
Yes I am with Jonathan and Jennifer. I can see the method behind it. It would be the publicity that I would be Interested in like you say Jennifer. Without any publicity there would be no point.
This is probably one of the main reasons why I stay away from self publishing at present. Yes we can all be on Amazon lost with all the other hundred or so self publishers.
Yeah I agree with Jonathan. As a business model I can see the value in it.
That said, I would be interested to know what kind of help they will provide in terms of publicity. As someone unversed in the dark arts of marketing, this, for me, is the crux.
Thanks indeed for posting this Victoria, it's very interesting.
'Opportunity to earn while we showcase the works.' is the interesting phrase for me.
An assumption's usually been made that 'publishers' always want 'first rights' but this seems to disprove that theory. Perhaps they're finding it more and more difficult to get new writers into the mainstream and enough sales made this way, ie.in small numbers per book but potentially over a large number of books, help shore up both their margins and market share. After all, preparing a book for e-publishing isn't exactly rocket science.
A recognised name also gives 'their' author a headstart over Joe Selfpub.
Thanks for posting :)