My two previous posts dealt
with the advantages and disadvantages of traditional publishing and
self-publishing. Now it’s time to put cooperative publishing under the microscope.
Two quick preliminary
points.
First, what do I mean by “cooperative
publishing”? I see cooperative publishing as the middle way between traditional publishing and self-publishing.
It typically uses print
on demand technology, selling on amazon.com and other bookstore Websites.
- In traditional publishing, the publisher bears the freight financially. The publisher
pays the author an advance against
royalties on sales of the book and covers all the costs associated with
editing, design, printing, and marketing. The author typically
receives a royalty of 10% of the list
price on each copy sold in bookstores.
- In self-publishing, the author bears the financial freight and (a) acts as the
publisher in producing and publishing the book or (b) subs this work off to
Trafford, Lulu, or other such Internet publishing sites. The author retains a
high percentage of sale revenue.
- Cooperative publishing roars right up the middle: Authors pay to have their book published,
but they go through a second-party publisher and work with that publisher on
every aspect of the publishing process. They receive a much higher
percentage on their own sales and the
publisher’s sales than they would with a traditional publisher.
Second (I’m putting my cards
on the table), I am a cooperative publisher. I worked for many years in a large
traditional publishing house, managing the editing and publication of up to 75
books a year. Now, however, I am running Bastian Publishing Services Ltd., the
main work of which is BPS Books.
You can learn more about the BPS Books publishing process here.
DISADVANTAGES OF COOPERATIVE
PUBLISHING
1. Cash Flow. Most
people are not awash in cash and therefore find it difficult to come up with
the funds required by cooperative publishing.
2. Image. This is
particularly important for authors who are building a career as a writer, or
who need to be in the public eye for their cause or their work. It is important
for such authors to be published by a publicly recognized house that sells to
bookstores. Authors of academic books definitely need the imprimatur of a
traditional publisher.
3. Reach. Traditional
publishers can get books out to a broader public by selling through bookstores
and on the Internet. Cooperative publishing sells primarily on the Internet and
through the author.
ADVANTAGES OF COOPERATIVE
PUBLISHING
1. Income. Authors
published by a cooperative publisher can quickly recoup the money they spent in
publishing the book. For example, authors can buy copies of their book from the
publisher at, say, 75% off the list price, and sell them at full price. So they
might pay $4 for a copy of their book and sell it at $20, making $16.
2. Timing. A
cooperative publisher can move much more quickly than a traditional publisher.
Getting to market more briskly is helpful, for example, to an author who has a
market to sell to through speaking engagements and can’t wait the year or
longer it takes for a traditional publisher to publish.
3. Getting
Published. Many authors cannot be accommodated by traditional publishers.
Sometimes because the latter don’t have room on their lists. Other times
because an author’s book is too specific for the publisher’s marketing system.
Or the book’s topic is not marketable enough to a broad spectrum of readers.
Cooperative publishing allows such books to see the light of day and reach
their market.
4. Quality
Control. Unlike self-publishing – for example, through Author House or
Lulu – cooperative publishing puts books and their authors through the same
hoops as traditional publishers do. Not every manuscript is chosen. The editing
process is rigorous. Design of text and cover are done by third-party experts.
Cooperative publishing helps authors avoid the mistakes that happen when they
try to be chief cook and bottle washer – not only writing but also publishing
their book. Cooperative publishing retains the important author-publisher
relationship that makes for great books.
I predict that cooperative
publishing will be the “Hegelian solution” for many authors: thesis, traditional book publishing; antithesis, self-publishing; synthesis, cooperative publishing.
DB
There's too little room on the "Good Ship Publishing"
THREE ADVANTAGES OF TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING
1. QUALITY CONTROL. To be published, manuscripts and
their authors must successfully jump through the hoops of literary
agencies, acquisitions editors, contractual negotiations, editing, production,
and marketing. Books are chosen by editors and marketers who more often than
not know a good book when they see one. Manuscripts that get through a
publisher's rigorous screening process are more likely to emerge as worthwhile,
readable books.
2. FAVORABLE CASH FLOW. Trade publishers (publishers selling to
the book trade, not to schools and universities) in most cases pay authors an
advance against royalties. This advance is the author’s to keep, even if the
book does not sell enough copies to “earn out” the advance. Authors can use the
advance to buy some time from regular work for researching and writing their
book.
3. MAINSTREAM EXPOSURE. It’s true that many an author’s heart is broken
when their shiny new book hits the bookstands and the publisher promotes it
with little enthusiasm. However, authors stand their best chance of getting
public recognition for their work when they and their books are part of the
publishing, library, and bookstore infrastructure set up to garner book
reviews, media interviews, award nominations, award wins, and so on.
THREE DISADVANTAGES OF TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING
1. LONG LEAD TIME. It can take an author years before they are
signed up by a publisher and it can take another year or two after that for
their manuscript to work its way through the editing, design, production, and
marketing process. As a result, authors writing about topical events are often
frustrated by the length of time it takes to get to market.
2. LACK OF SUPPORT. Publishers today expect proposals and manuscripts
to be highly developed by the time they hit their desks. Gone are the days when
editors took painstaking efforts developing writers of promise and marketing
people conscripted marketing money for an author’s first book to prepare the
ground for their second and third books.
3. TOO FEW BERTHS ON THE SHIP. Publishers today are spending most of
their energy and cash on “frontlist” books — their new books that stand a
chance of becoming bestsellers. Other types of books, no matter how worthy they
and their authors may be, are finding fewer and fewer berths on the good ship
publishing. These are “midlist” books —information books, how-to books,
cookbooks, regional history books, first novels. Indeed, some publishers are
increasingly ceding this ground to regional publishers, print-on-demand publishers,
and self-publishers.
2. LACK OF SUPPORT. Publishers today expect proposals and manuscripts
to be highly developed by the time they hit their desks. Gone are the days when
editors took painstaking efforts developing writers of promise and marketing
people conscripted marketing money for an author’s first book to prepare the
ground for their second and third books.
3. TOO FEW BERTHS ON THE SHIP. Publishers today are spending most of
their energy and cash on “frontlist” books — their new books that stand a
chance of becoming bestsellers. Other types of books, no matter how worthy they
and their authors may be, are finding fewer and fewer berths on the good ship
publishing. These are “midlist” books —information books, how-to books,
cookbooks, regional history books, first novels. Indeed, some publishers are
increasingly ceding this ground to regional publishers, print-on-demand publishers,
and self-publishers.
DB