Living the life of a writer (I watch a lot of television, walk the dog, and muse quite a bit), one of my "duties" is helping friends and acquaintances find a publisher.
Occasionally.
From the time I entered the book publishing industry two decades ago to now, there have been seismic changes. In the old days, traditional publishing models were still in vogue. A writer submitted a manuscript, waited a few months, received a book contract, then settled back into an easy chair while waking up often enough to throw another log on the fire. The actual business of marketing and selling books was the sole domain of the publisher.
No longer.
Today, increased competition and emerging technologies keep the industry in a constant state of fluidity. E-books, print-on-demand, and Internet presence for authors call to mind the famous quote from screenwriter William Goldman: "Nobody knows anything."
At least, in terms of how the industry will settle out. If it ever does.
Which brings me to my point. Increasingly, I am hearing from publishers and editors and agents that there is real interest in a given project … if the author is willing to pony up some dough to make it happen. At first, writers recoil from such horrid and crass questions. After all, a masterpiece shouldn't be sullied by bourgeois inquiries.
Yet, dismissing such issues from industry professionals begs the question: Just how do you propose they sell even a single copy of said masterpiece?
What I'm trying to say is, don't be automatically dismissive if an interested publisher asks you to help subsidize the cost of getting your book in print. It isn't exactly the stereotypical magazine ad asking you to self-publish. Often these days, it is a legitimate way for a publisher and author to partner in order to bring a needed book to market.
Gone are the days when publishers had seemingly limitless budgets and expense accounts. Now, the competition is quite a bit more than keen, so it requires any and all hands on deck. Now, I'll use some ballpark numbers, but generally, it costs around $5,000 to get a manuscript from that stage to printer-ready.
Printing costs are somewhat all over the map, but a trade paper copy can cost anywhere from a dollar to five dollars each to print. Print-on-demand is a bit different; most "first-print runs" are around 5,000 copies and can be relatively inexpensive. Print-on-demand is self-explanatory. An author or publisher can print, say, 250 copies for a speaking engagement, but the cost-per-copy is higher, nearer to that five-dollar area.
Some elements in publishing are arbitrary (including the often scandalous setting of a retail price), but a publisher might have $20,000 in costs before selling one copy of a new title.
That's a lot of dough for anyone these days. And that's why publishers want to know if an author is willing to help subsidize the cost.
So I've changed my views. Purists – always – have sniffed at the prospect of self-publishing, as if such an idea is low-class.
However, that competition I mentioned earlier is real, and it is fierce.
I'm not arguing whether your manuscript is the Next Great Thing or not. For our purposes here, I'm saying that if you get to the point of having a publishing company interested in your work, don't dismiss their request that you think about what is commonly called "co-publishing."
For one thing, even if you help underwrite the upfront costs, you are gaining access to distribution channels and marketing advantages a purely "garage author" can only dream about. If you are willing to help a publisher get your work into print, you make it up often on the back-end through increased sales.
Now, there are complexities you'll have to deal with (hopefully you have someone like an agent to help you navigate the various processes), such as a royalty rate that is structured/customized to reflect your financial commitment. In other words, whereas a traditional royalty rate of 15 percent is offered routinely, if you help pay for the printing of your book, you stand to see an increase, dramatically, in your royalty rate. So watch for that.
I recently paired one writer with an agent, who asked this very question. Said fellow writer wrinkled his nose at the financial commitment. He is still shopping his masterpiece around.
Another writer thought about it, swallowed a bit of pride, and now is joyfully seeing his book in the market and on shelves.
At the end of the day, it all depends on what you want to do. Just one piece of advice: Don't say no right away. Think about it.
You might be the next Mark Twain.