As
a writer, you must have heard about plenty of well renowned book publishers
such as Penguin Books India and many other book publishers who can boast of
publishing the bestsellers. But do you know there are some small publishers who
want to encourage new talent, who want to give new authors a chance to get
their book published? These are publishers who have recently started out or the
publishing houses are run by people who have very little knowledge about the
publishing industry.
Small
publishers have very little in common as each comes with unique contracts,
interesting qualities and distribution power. Therefore, small presses take
pride in their status and often call themselves independent publishers. However
before we proceed to describe ways to evaluate small or big publications like,
Penguin Books India, here are the basic information on how books make it to the
market and how they are sold by the publisher.
A
traditional publisher has four responsibilities:
·
Producing best quality books
Regardless
of the format – hardbound or online book, a publisher needs to product a best
quality book. He needs to take care of all aspects such as editorial,
designing, packaging, production, book description, pricing and more.
·
Selling the book
Next,
the publisher should also proactively sell the book to bookstores, libraries,
and other retailers. He must also contact other places where books are sold or
are made available for the public.
·
Marketing
It
is an important aspect of a publisher job to market and publicize the book. For
this he needs to get in touch with librarians, booksellers and various
professional book reviewers.
Market the
book to readers
Apart
from marketing the book to the traders, it is important to market and publicize
the book to readers. This can be achieved by direct marketing channels such as
social media or through traditional marketing channels such as magazines,
radio, newspaper, TV and more.
·
High quality book publication
Even
when you are choosing a small book publisher, you need to make sure he produce
high quality books only. If the publisher is not investing his time to produce
high quality books, it can be a cause of concern.
Without
putting in sufficient efforts to produce the book in a right manner, neither
the publisher nor the author stands to gain much success. There are some small
publication houses, which put a lot of burden on the author to get the book
right. These publication houses lean on the author to come up with the best
title and work on the marketing strategy on their own. So while experienced
authors can deal with marketing and titles, inexperienced authors find it
difficult to do the same.
If
you are dealing with a small press who makes you pay upfront for their in-house
editing, designing or production services, they are not the traditional
publishers. While traditional publications pay the author, hybrid publishers as
the author to pay for some costs upfront.
Some question to ask
As
an author, you have the right to ask question until you are satisfied with the
answers and your doubts are cleared. Certain questions you can ask include:
·
What will be the
editing process be like? Will the content be edited, proofread or copy edited?
What are the responsibilities of the publication house?
·
Will your designs
be professional? Will they encourage the readers to take a look at the book?
When
hiring a book publisher such as Penguin Books India or other publishers, make
sure to read book description of their previous books. Are they well done? Do
they excite you to read the book?
As
small publications, they may work with a distributor rather than having an
in-house sales team. However having a distributer or having your book
distributed does not mean that it is being sold to the audience. It is
difficult for small publications to get a distributer on board who can actually
pitch the books.
Selling
the book is the most difficult part. However if the small publication is not
sell the book to anyone, it should not deter you from choosing one. Small
publications can help you sell your book locally or regionally. Moreover if you
are able to secure a significant media attention, it will make it easy to reach
out to people.
Traditional
publishers will negotiate every single contract. However for someone who has
very little experience in the industry, starting out with a small publication
can be the right choice as they will make it extremely easy to get your book
published. So instead of going to big publication houses like Penguin Books
India, make sure to get in touch with a small publication house.
Comments
Post a Comment