Sarah Alderson's Blog: Writing and all the bits in between - Posts Tagged "whiteglove"

The future of publishing and books is a hot topic these days. Will e-books eventually take over and send paperbacks into the annals of history along with papyrus scrolls and horse drawn carriages? Will our kids look at them as strange antiques before trying to swipe onto the next page and highlight text with their fingers?

And what of self-publishing? It’s already opening the doors and democratizing publishing. Anyone can publish these days, and while we hear stories of self-published authors taking the industry by storm and commanding six or seven figure deals, these are very VERY rare. I think the average self-published book sells fewer than 100 copies, and most of these to friends or family.

I’m hugely fortunate to be with one of the biggest publishers in the world – Simon & Schuster. I’ve published three books with them over the last 15 months, and have another two slated for release.

But I’m now going the self-publishing route too for the sequels to my second novel, Fated. I feel privileged to be able to experience both routes, and it’s putting me in a fairly unique position, allowing me to reflect on the publishing process for both traditional publishing and self-publishing.

The key things about traditional publishing:

Firstly, I believe publishers do a great job of curating the market place. Generally speaking, most novels that come through a publishing house will be polished and of a guaranteed standard which, as an avid reader, I’m exceedingly grateful for.

For authors a publisher brings kudos, distribution channels and the power of their marketing, editing and sales departments. If a publisher really gets behind you, like S&S have done with me, your career can be kickstarted. But if you do fail to sell then equally your ‘career’ as a traditionally published author might be over just as it begins. Unless of course you can take the self-publishing world by storm.

I love having the support of a publishing team where I am surrounded and nurtured by skilled professionals. I have someone to edit, someone to copy-edit, someone to proof, someone to manage my overseas sales, someone to manage my PR and blog tours, someone to design my cover, someone else to make sure Waterstones etc are stocking my books. I mean, all I have to worry about is actually writing. I’m very well taken care of.

For me it feels a bit like getting married and having a team of top-notch stylists, wedding planners and photographers pulling out all the stops to make you look beautiful and ensure you have a perfect day.

The benefits of self-publishing:

Going the self-publishing route is more like doing your own make-up, writing your own vows and getting a friend to take your photos.

When I got married though, I actually opted for this second route and I relished the freedom of that decision. And from what I’ve seen so far, self-publishing has a lot to offer, if not the perks of a traditional publisher, then freedom, higher royalties (though no advance) and my own editorial decision making power (finally I have a sex scene in Severed!).

Self-publishing has been an interesting journey so far and I’m not even yet fully embarked on it. I’m also not self-publishing in the same manner as most writers. I’m publishing via Amazon’s white glove programme, which certainly makes things a lot easier.

Amazon are now working directly with agents to broker deals with authors. With white glove I get dedicated support, personalized cover design, support around conversion (and checking for errors) and hopefully (though not promised) access to specific marketing programmes. It’s like the VIP channel for Ryanair. It’s not like flying First class but it makes the journey more pleasant. Or it has so far.

My agent takes a cut of the royalties, but I’m happy with that for a number of reasons. 1) I love my agent and she’s worth it. 2) My agent helped me edit the book so again she deserves it 3) I think that the marketing support will hopefully ensure I make back the agent cut on extra sales anyway.

Also, Amazon offer a much MUCH better royalty than a publisher ever could (this is why they have the monopoly.)

So what would my advice be to aspiring authors or those already published?

I honestly believe that if you can get a good book deal from a traditional publisher then TAKE IT! Are you kidding me?

Top tips for self-publishing:

1. Editing
The key thing that self-publishing can’t do, that publishers can and do so well, is editing. I used to think I was pretty good at line by line edits (structural I can manage by myself). I’m pretty good at grammar and a stickler for spelling. But deciding to pay an editor for a line by line and continuity check was the smartest move I’ve ever made. It revealed several hundred errors in a manuscript I’d checked and re-checked at least a dozen times. Something to be said for not seeing the wood for the trees.

I cannot overstate the importance of editing your work before you decide to self-publish. Having said that, the cost of an edit will probably not make it worthwhile for most people who are self-publishing. I’m fairly sure, given my sales figures for my previous books, that it’s a wise move for me and that I will make the money back but if I didn’t have an existing readership I probably wouldn’t take the risk.


2. PR / Marketing for self-published authors

Most big publishers will no longer plan much if any PR to debut or even existing authors. They just don’t have the resources to do this for every author. So even with Simon & Schuster I am responsible for marketing myself most of the time; for connecting with bloggers, Facebooking and tweeting etc.

For self-publishing it’s even more important to put in the time to promote yourself because there’s no big house doing it for you.

Whether my books are published the traditional route or self-published I do the same amount of ‘selling’ and I’m equally as creative about it. I guest blog, I tweet, I use amazon’s author programme and goodreads. I do competitions and I connect at every opportunity with readers, via email, newsletters, Twitter and Facebook.


We’re still at the conversion phase and Severed won’t be released for a couple more weeks (November 12th) so I shall do a couple more posts in the coming weeks about the self-publishing process and what I’ve learned.