I’m back in Marbella.
Last week, somebody flicked a switch and it’s gone from winter to summer quicker than a Spaniard can light one cigarette from the butt of his last one.
It’s bloody hot.
And before you can say, “well, we’ve had some hot weather in the UK as well,” you have, but it’s cold and rainy almost everywhere right now… your summer a fading memory, while we’re stuck with temperatures in the high 30s, and humidity sufficient to melt an iceberg.
And before you say, “well, you chose to live there,” — I did, didn’t I, but only because there’s less to find fault in and complain about in Spain than there is in the UK. A lot less. And one of the things I particularly love about living here is the subtle shift between the gentle warmth of spring and the fetid heat of summer.
This year, I blinked and missed it.
But this is not entirely a tale of woe because my latest book, Sand in Strange Places, has “sort of” gone live. By that I mean it has just had what Stuart, the CEO of Chiselbury Publishing, calls a “Cover Launch.” This involves a listing on their website with the cover, back cover blurb, and links to Watestones, Amazon and sundry other booksellers so you can place your “pre-orders”. But… don’t hold your breath because it will not be available until the book launch on 27th September. Still, that’s only around the corner isn’t it, and it may have cooled down over here a bit by then.
Let me walk you through the process of having a book published by a “traditional” publisher.
Well… first of all, what is a traditional publisher? There are three (main) modes available to get your book into print, but before I outline these, let’s step back a bit.
When my first book The Last Latrine was published in 1997, I was able to bypass a literary agent (mainly because I was rejected by a few and — being me — I swiftly got bored with both the process and the implication that I may not, in fact, be the next Martin Amis) and was fortunate enough to find a traditional publisher who bore all the costs of editing, cover and graphic design, marketing and an initial, and then a subsequent print run. Vain as I may be, I used to go looking for it in branches of WH Smith, Waterstones, and Dillons and would usually find copies… and it sold pretty well.
The internet, and Amazon, put an end to all that because two things changed. Firstly, anyone could write a book and self-publish it in around five minutes, and secondly almost all publishers would only accept unsolicited manuscripts through a respected literary agency. And to be accepted by a reputable literary agency was as challenging as getting decent service in a Spanish restaurant.
As a consequence, the second mode of publication was born and rapidly flourished: self-publication. While currently two hundred thousand or so books are traditionally published every year in the UK according to The Times, the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain estimate that there are currently more than 750,000 self-published titles entering the market each year.
Wow… so that makes almost a million books are published in the UK every year.
The third method of achieving publication is one which, in my opinion, should be avoided at all costs: vanity or hybrid publishing. Vanity publishers, such as Austin Macauley Publishers, Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie, and Olympia Publishers badge themselves as “Publishers and Service Providers”. They invite you to submit your manuscript, they will assess it with the promise of providing publication and marketing at their expense. This rarely happens; what they offer is a “hybrid” publication deal, whereby they share the production and publication costs with the author; in other words, the author pays for the vast majority of any expense incurred. Let’s not beat about the bush here, this is vanity publishing and should be avoided at all costs. Okay… if you genuinely do not have the time but have a lot of money, and cannot be bothered looking for an editor, cover designer, marketing agency, reviewers and someone to co-ordinate the publication — and reputable professionals can easily be found on Reedsy.com https://reedsy.com/ , then you pay your money and take your choice… but don’t expect much in the way of sales. A guy I know had his debut novel (I’m not holding my breath for the second one… oh you bitch, I hear you say!) published by Pegasus Publishers a few years ago, and it has received one review.
There are a few ethical hybrid publishers, such as Books Go Social, who offer a wide range of services, from reviewing, editing to the whole publication and marketing package. They are generally regarded as an honest outfit, but their marketing attracts the most angst from unhappy reviewers… probably for the simple reason that they charge a flat fee and receive no royalty share. Does a dog bark if it doesn’t have to?
So just let me hit you with that figure again: almost a million books are published a year in the UK alone. Is that too many? Does it matter? More importantly, what hope do you have of your book attracting an audience? Incidentally, just for the record, in Iran last year only three books were published. And one was called The Joy of Trumping Trump... no, that’s a joke.
If you’d like to find out more about publishing trends, do read this well written (no, I didn’t write it) Guardian article.
It may surprise you to know that there are many well-known authors who have achieved recognition and vast sums of money through self-publication, and despite being courted by major publishing houses, have chosen to remain independent.
“… the idea that self-publishing is the preserve of hopeless hobbyists producing books no one wants to read is at least a decade out of date.”
Sarah J Maas, the world’s bestselling author in 2024, started publishing fiction on FictionPress.com when she was 16. The hugely successful psychological thriller writer, Freida McFadden, is classed as a hybrid author; she claims to generate sixty per cent of her income from Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP).
That’s your tour of the publishing world… so, back to my book.
Sales are generated by promotion (no shit, Sherlock) and promotion is largely driven by reviews. Chiselbury, with whom I have been immensely impressed, will spend the next three months trying to obtain as many positive reviews as possible, and using these to drive pre-launch sales.
A reviewer should generally be someone well-known, but this is not set in stone. With some genres — and memoir is one — a review can be written by a person who knows the author well, and can comment on the author as well as the book. Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat — a Year on The Farm is a good example of this.
So, if you think you may quality as a reviewer, and would like to have a go, please don’t be bashful. Heck, you may even get your name into print.
Well, that’s about it, chic@s.
Time to leave the air-conditioned pleasantry of my writing café and get back to fanning myself on my terrace.