![]() Prices are competitive for both ebooks and paperbacks. However, books may not be available in physical bookstores, especially if the small press utilises a digital-first or digital-only model to control costs. Books are available in major online stores. Small presses who produce excellent non-fiction may well be lacking in the necessary skills to produce excellent fiction-and vice-versa. Mistakes like these show the publisher or their editors lack an understanding of the essentials of good fiction. I often find the copyediting is solid, in that there are few or no typographical errors, but there are fundamental writing issues (e.g. The writing and the editing should be excellent. Readers do judge books by their covers, and many of the small presses (unfortunately) feature cover art best described as average. While their cover art won’t reach the standard of the best Big Five publishers, it will be as good as the cover art of the best indie publishers. Cover art will be professional, and reflect the specific genre. They can’t be all things to all people, and they don’t try. Here are some suggestions of what to look for before submitting to a small press: A good small press will operate in a niche (e.g. You might be better off self-publishing (or not publishing) rather than submitting to a bad small press. I find many small presses produce books with bad writing, amateur covers, insufficient editing, and little or no marketing support. ![]() However, just because you can submit doesn’t mean you should. Advantages of a Small Press Most small presses accept unsolicited submissions from unagented writers. This is a factor of cost: books are distributed to bookstores on a sale-or-return basis, and a small business may not have the financial backing to make in-store sales financially viable. Small presses may not distribute to bookstores. Alternatively, they may sell paperback copies through a print-on-demand service such as IngramSpark rather than printing and distributing stock (because printing and warehousing costs money). This means only books with a high enough ebook sales record will get printed and distributed. Small presses may offer digital-only or digital-first contracts. However, they often pay higher royalties than the major publishers, especially for digital sales (although it can be argued a higher royalty rate is only useful if the book is selling). A small press is less likely to pay advances. This has advantages and disadvantages: it means the person you’re dealing with is the one with the power to make decisions, but it may mean the publisher becomes stretched too thin, or are undertaking roles they aren’t suited for. The owner may well be the acquisitions editor, the structural editor, the line editor, the copy editor, the proofreader, the formatter, the cover designer, and the sales and marketing department. This means the person you are dealing with in a small press has an actual stake in the success of your book. Trade publishers are often owned by multinational corporations or churches (in the Christian arena). #WriteTip #PubTip Click To Tweet The main differences between a larger publisher and a small press are: Small presses are more likely to be owned by individuals. Paths to Publishing: Small Press | The potential problem with small presses is that they are often less experienced publishers, which can impact on quality. As with trade publishers, reputable small presses don’t charge you for publishing or require any compulsory book purchases (if they do, they’re a vanity press, which we’ll get to in a later post). Many will accept direct submissions from authors.įew small presses pay advances, but all pay royalties. Small presses take on the full financial responsibility for publishing and distributing the book, although you’re less likely to see their books on the shelf at your local store, or in your library. Small presses and micropresses follow the same business principles as the major traditional publishers. This week I’m looking at another area of traditional publishing: the small press. Last week I talked about traditional publishing, specifically discussing large publishers.
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