Know Your Publisher

There are many kinds of publishers and if you are looking at getting your manuscript published, you should know the differences. Notice I said manuscript in the last sentence. That’s because even though you feel like you’ve written a book, it is not actually a book yet until it becomes published. Not yet published - then your work is a manuscript.

Types of Publishers:

Trade Publishers: Of these are big publishers such as Random House, and Harper Collins. They produce mass market books and usually have well known and best selling authors on their lists. Their budgets for publicity are huge. They don’t often give new authors a chance, and usually deal with Literary Agents. Many small and medium publishers exist that look for unique works and sometimes do take on new authors, and they deal in niche markets such as poetry or specialty books. What are called trade books, are put out by the trade publishers.

University Presses: Several universities run their own publishing houses and market their books the same as Trade Publishers. You will find non-fiction, trade books and art and scholar books being published. Books published by these houses can be extreme literary works of art. It depends on what they are looking for.

** If your manuscript is accepted by a University or Trade Publisher, you will work with their editorial departments to finalize your manuscript and they will ask no money of you. You will receive advances and/or royalties on the number of books sold. You can and will be expected to help market your book, but the publisher will have several marketing catalogues and distributors already in place, so you don’t have to worry about where to send your books.

Subsidy Publishing: Several years ago this was also known as ‘Vanity Publishing’. Depending on how much money you can afford to spend to get your book published, a subsidy publisher will do it for you. You will also find several poetry books published this way. Contest entries which provide winners to be published in a chapbook or poetry book for a fee are also considered subsidy publishers. They will do everything from the layout to design and printing of your book (short story/anthology/or poetry chapbook). They do not guarantee a superior product. Do your homework and research these publishers.

Print on Demand (POD) Publishers: These are an offshoot of the subsidy publisher. Depending on the package you buy, you can edit and layout your book ready for print, have your own designer or have the POD publisher do pieces of the work for you. As more and more authors seek help with the marketing of their books, some POD publishers are also offering small marketing packages as an incentive to get you to contract with them. These might include a listing on their online store or a promise of distribution to some outlets. Do your homework when researching this type of market. Sometimes you find that the contract discusses rights, and you may be signing the rights of your work away to have the POD publisher print your work for you. Also, you may end up having to buy copies with a small reduction of cost.

** You have to determine the market you want to sell your book in as you will be doing all of your own marketing if you go with a Subsidy or POD Publisher. These types of publishers are good depending on your project (family history, niche markets, local and educational/seminar markets), who your market (audience) is going to be, and the number of copies you need to publish.

Self Publishing: Some people confuse Self Publishing with POD or Subsidy Publishing. With Self Publishing, you take on the whole and complete project yourself. All you contract out and pay for is the printing and delivery of books. You own all rights to your work, and all the books you receive. You will be responsible for the editing, artwork, and design, layout and readying files for the printer. You are also in charge of the marketing. If you want 100% control of your book, how it is published and what it looks like then self publishing is a great way to go. With self publishing you can determine the number of copies you require being aware that smaller amounts will be far more costly than runs of 1000 or more books. You will want to select a printer who is familiar with reproducing books.

As you can see the options are open. You need to determine what goals you want for the work you need published. As an example, if you want to become an author whose book is available to everyone, and only do the odd book signing and book tour, than Trade Publishing is for you. If you have written a cookbook, and know you only want to sell it to 100 or 200 of your favourite family and friends, then a subsidy or POD printer may be of service. If you know how to do editing and layout, are a graphic artist, know the printing industry and are not afraid of marketing, then take the whole project on yourself and become a self publisher.

Not covered here are desktop publishing, e-book publishing, educational publishing and co-op publishing.

If I’ve missed any that you may be aware of, please leave a comment. If you think of other comments which may be helpful, don’t hesitate to leave those too. Everyone has their own opinion on a type of publisher to pick. There are also pros and cons of each type of publisher (we’re not delving into that quite yet).

Tags: Print on Demand Publishers, self publishing, Subsidy Publishers, Trade Publisher, University Presses