News
12th Jul 2012
She Writes: A New Way to Publish?
Hand-made, self-made, micro, low or even no-budget: if you want to create work and get it out in the world, you can find a way. Musicians can make a whole album in their bedrooom with their guitar and a four-track. Filmmakers only need a handycam and some budget editing software. And writers have it easiest – they just need a computer.
But can a self-published book have the same gravitas as the home-made album or film? As mainstream publishing grows increasingly selective and exclusive, the growth of independent publishing seems inevitable. There are definite perks to going down the indie route.
With self-publishing, you’ll receive 70% of your net sales (rather than the 7.5% royalties offered by most publishing houses). But it can be daunting facing the post-writing process on your own; editing, marketing and everything else that comes next. There are a huge number of ways to self-publish, and there’s about to be one more.
She Writes Press is a newly created independent publisher created as a platform for She Writes – the largest global community of women writers online, founded in 2009.
They offer a hybrid model, explains co-founder Kami Wicoff, “a press for authors who want to try their hand at publishing outside the traditional system, but who also want to be part of a high-quality, curated imprint.” All this along with the support and feedback of the virtual community of women writers already using the site.
There is an initial submission fee of $25, then if you’re work is accepted, there’s a charge of $3,900 (around £2500) which includes cover design, proofreading , a marketing plan, e-book upload and print set-up.
As part of the ethos of opening up publishing to excluded writers the pair have also pledged to publish one to two books a year at no cost to the author.
What do you think? Is this a much needed middle-ground between the solitary path of self-publishing and the impossibly elite domain of mainstream publishing? Would you be tempted to go this route?
Mekella Broomberg
I think, if you have the money and not the skills (to proofread/edit/design cover and understand the online-technology) it might be worth it, but it’s the marketing that really matters. I’d find out how they will market it and also, what the other books they’ve published look like. I’m heartened by them having a standard, below which they won’t touch it but can’t see how they’ll make money any way other than mostly from the writers. It really is possible to do it all yourself, but it’s not easy, and once it’s out there – in print (virtually) for all the world to see – mistakes look like huge untreatable wounds. Maybe it would be worth it to avoid the shame! For an example of what’s possible in DIY try http://www.tinyurl.com/learndiffs
I hear what you’re saying. Marketing is crucial and requires experience. a whole lot of contacts and usually a budget -and even then nothing is guaranteed. I also imagine they won’t depend on making money from sales, that would of course be a big bonus for lots of reasons. Let’s see what kind of books they produce…