What's Your Genre? Find the Right Publisher for Your Book

Times have changed, and this change has not failed to touch the corridors of the literary world. Authors now have the opportunity to self-publish without any stigma attached to the endeavor. Digital publishing has made authorship possible for many writers. In tandem are the boutique publishers, literary agents and other small-to-medium publishers who may be willing to take on the task of publishing your book. However, this scenario of ample opportunity does not necessarily mean easy publishing of your work. In fact, it’s a long haul, and you must put in all efforts towards finding the right publisher in your genre of writing. The right find would perhaps be the single most important step towards your success as an author that goes beyond writing a great book.

How to find the right publisher

Write a book that your publisher can sell

A book publisher will be interested in your story if he thinks it would sell. Therefore the first important step is to ensure that you have written a superb book that meets the tastes and aspirations of your targeted audience. While preparing to write your book, you must go through several books in your chosen genre. The bestsellers would unveil what made their books a hit while the others will show you what was amiss. So, incorporate the good ideas and avoid the blunders, to write a good story. Also, all genres—from romance to self-help to literary fiction—have certain conventions that you should be aware of as an author. Apart from these benefits of studying books in your genre, useful comparisons can also be made. For example, is your 25-year old protagonist behaving like a 12-year old in your story, etc.? If so, your publisher will reject your writing convinced that it won’t sell however great your writing may be. Avoid following trends in your writing as by the time your book gets published the fad would become passé as other writers would have latched on the ideas. Write uniquely and by all means, avoid writing a cookie cutter novel just to stay trendy. A good book would also have gone through several rounds of editing and formatting in agreement with industry standards.

Pick a publisher in your genre

You must approach a publisher or a publishing agent that is focused on your realm of writing. A sci-fi publisher will not be interested in your romantic novel, however, interesting your story may be. Literary agents who will showcase your work to the publisher operate in the same manner. Publishers and agents will not pick up your story if you provide them only the idea. You must write the whole book for them to consider publishing it. This rule may not apply to non-fiction pieces. With this genre, you can provide the agent with just the outline and some sample chapters. More than the writing in the non-fiction genre an author’s existing personal platform and connections will be advantageous. So the author would need to spend time developing important connections.

Writing, publishing and fame are slow to come. To meet with the success you need the right ingredients – a good story, the right publisher in your genre and good luck to a great measure.

Book Publishing - How to Collect Royalties

How to create royalties: An attempt to simplify and offer you a bird’s eye view on the subject of royalties for a first-time or young author.

For a writer, the economics of a book may be just as exciting as writing one. Particularly for newbies into the world of publishing, the terms “royalties” and “advance” are something they have heard of but are not aware of the intricacies, and would want to know about them. How does the royalty issue pan out? How does the author tackle royalties? Publishing agents will entertain writers by the book’s business potential. Here is an attempt to simplify and offer you a bird’s eye view on the royalty issue.

What is royalty?

• For every book sold, the author gets a percentage of the revenue of the book
• How much this percentage will be is dependent on factors like the size of the publishing agent’s business, whether it’s a CBA or ABA House, the author’s platform and marketability, and each publisher’s criteria (of which you may never be aware).
• CBA publishers’ royalties are based on the NET price of the book i.e. the price at which the publisher sold the book to the bookstore rather than the revenue of the book as is the case with other publishers.
• The publisher may also offer an advance against royalties which is essentially a sum of money given to an author upfront with the promise of more (royalties) as sales pick up
• Royalties differ from a flat fee, where a set amount of money is given to the writer upfront and it’s his to keep. The amount does not change no matter how well the book sells. For example, if your flat fee is $8,000, the amount remains the same no matter if the book sells 20 copies or 30 million.
• Royalty is calculated by the cost of the book, terms of your contract and how the expenditure incurred to produce copies of the work. If you write a hardback novel, you may get $3/book. If you write a niche nonfiction, you may get $1/book, and if you co-write a book or work on a picture book with an illustration, the percentage of royalty you will receive will drop.

A desirable royalty option to go with

An advance against royalty is a desirable option to go with and is the most sought after choice as you get an advance and more revenue as the book sells beyond the money you have received upfront from the publisher. A huge advance would mean a large sum of guaranteed money, but a small advance would mean reasonable expectations for you to meet, and a greater chance for your book to be profitable — making you “a valuable author” in a publisher’s eyes. So, go ahead and advocate your book on your author platform, social media, at a writer conference to increase your worth in the eyes of publishers and book buyers as well. Sadly, advances are no longer easy to get. But the cheering news is that if your book sells well, there’s lots of money to be made on the back end with royalties.

You must find a literary agent who will be responsible for ensuring that the royalty statements (payments) accurately reflect proper totals that take into account sales, returns, foreign territory, sales and film rights.