publishing tips

passingby

HI all,

I am starting this thread in the hopes of getting publishing tips from people who published books, magazines, etc in subject to India.
I would appreciate any advice you have for me, or you can share the problems you have encountered while you try to publish.
I know it is a lot easier to publish in India, but I am more interested in publishing in the West.
How did you approach the publishing houses? Did you have to pay a lot of money? etc.
Any suggestion/advice is welcome.
Thank you.

machadinha

It depends on what you want to get published and with whom. You'd normally approach them with (a part of) your material and see if they bite. Give your accompanying letter some attention, not too long, not too short, keep it to the point, you can get into the details later if they're interested. Likewise, don't send them your 600-page manuscript rightaway, but a summary and an excerpt first. And don't go out of your way getting your manuscript plastified etc., my experience is people dislike that, in other words keep it simple, they've seen the next wannabe Hemingway coming along too many times and you can count on them receiving a lot of stuff. Calling ahead first to enquire is also perfectly normal or would even be the polite thing to do, at least in The Netherlands where I live. I.e. call them up, if they say send us your stuff then do so, then take it from there. Have a thick skin and be prepared for a lot of turn-downs. If anything develops enquire with the writer's or journalist's union in the country in question, if there is one, about going rates and stuff, or rather start looking into that right now. PEN would be a good American-international organization to start looking in this respect and they might be able to help you further.

I'd see to it that you get paid instead of your having to pay anything. It really depends what you're looking for though, maybe you can fill in some details.

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passingby

many thanks for the info machadinha,
did you ever publish anything? what was your experience?
I really don't have much expectations to break the market or to become well-known.. I simply wrote a small book about India and i would like to publish it. I have done it as a hobby, I don't expect to get rich from the experience. I am actually willing to pay for the publishing costs, but I would like to get it publish and I would be happy if I only sell 5 copies...
I am almost done with the book and soon, like in 2 weeks or so I want to approach some publishers. I want to get feedback from people who published their works how hard it was for them to publish and what was their approach.

My second project afterwards will be to publish a book on Mike's behalf with the best pictures on this site. I would like to publish both books here in North-America, although, I must admit publishing in India will be a lot easier, but I would like to try it out here first.

Please give more input guys if you have any tips/ideas.
thanks.

sadhuji

this will surely have the publishers queing up at your doorstep!!

passingby

You think? I don't think it's that easy publishing...

Nick-H

In UK there used to be something called The Writers' and Artists' Year Book. Lots of listsings of publishers, what sector they are intersted in etc.

If you are prepared to finance it then it should be a breeze once you find the printers, binders and room in the atic to store the stock.

Having it done in India would probably make a Huge difference to the cost.

It used to take a great deal of technical knowledge and skill to get to the camera-ready art work stage (any self respecting designer or typesetter would say it still does: I wouldn't argue with them) but these days you can almost do it in a wordprocessor.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

sadhuji

i located an indian publisher for a children's book that i wrote.

he was terribly enthusiastic about it. he wanted the manuscript, i sent it across. then received his proposal - if i am willing to finance 50% of the cost, he will get it released in three weeks time - complete with press releases etc.!!

this is dated last month!!!

machadinha

Well, yes and no, most of my official publications were translations by me, i.e. I got assigned to do the job, it's not like I had to go looking for a publisher (although I have with some translation projects *I* wanted to do -- to no avail if it makes you feel any better. Yes sir very interesting but the market etc. yadida.) My own stuff I mostly self-published, or a piece for a journal here or there perhaps.

I can mostly comment on the Dutch situation which will differ somewhat from yours. After more than a decade of being involved with the above though I have some general ideas about the (literary) publishing world.

In most places in the world both translators and writers are horribly underpaid and unorganized, you need not fear getting rich off your project You'd think that the English-speaking world would be more interesting because it's such a big market; the bad news is that publishers will do everything they can to scam you out of your money, and there are very few real laws or regulations to protect you. Thus, both in the UK and the US there are organizations advocating your rights but publishers are by no means bound to comply with them. What this means is they'll try to get you to work for a (small) lump sum and to waive any rights to royalties, a very bad idea in case your book should unintentionally become a best seller. Other than that, with some exceptions there's little romanticism to the market, it's all about what is likely to sell and any other considerations such as style or quality or literary value come second at best. Hey we have underpaid proofreaders and translators to get rid of your mistakes! -- if we care at all that is, otherwise we just dump the book on the market like that in the assumption that the public doesn't know how to read anyway. Sorry for being so negative but this is really how it works to an extent. Furthermore in the US word has it if a book doesn't make the top-10 list in the first week or so it disappears off the shelves and so it will be that much harder to sell, and publishers take these things into consideration of course before embarking on a project. Statistics show that if it were up to the free market none of the American classics would ever have been published today, it's as simple as that.

In the US having a literary agent seems pretty much like a must and you won't easily be taken seriously if you don't. They'll cost you though (hopefully only for any real work they do) and it's absolutely no guarantee you'll get published so if you're just thinking of a smalltime one-off project I'd hesitate to invest in it.

As noted and esp. with modern computer technology it's fairly easy to publish your own stuff. You'd need to pay for everything and organize the distribution etc. of course. Where I live there are small independent distributors who can help you with that actually. Even copy shops can help you to produce something that could reasonably be considered to be a "book," or there might be small independent printers where you live. If it's photos you're dealing with it might get costly of course. (In the Netherlands actually there's a group called Knust, see also under "uitgaves" for some samples of their work, who have preserved the almost-forgotten art of mimeographing + taken it to new heights. Their work is both beautiful and exceedingly affordable I know from experience, they even do color pictures, it comes out rather gritty of course but it's top quality and the finished product has a definite "feel" to it if you're a booklover, works fine for text-only too and they've gotten to a stage where you would hardly know it's mimeographed if no one told you. You might want to see if there are no artists working along the same lines in the US -- or contact this group even, then look for a (inter-) national distributor before you get the project going.)

One step further might be to look for a small independent publisher who might be willing to take on your project and deal with the logistical and technical side of things. If they're not getting any richer off it you might want to consider financing it yourself or sharing the costs, I'd still make damn sure you have a good contract in case the thing should happen to sell.

I've daydreamed about getting things published in India in the past, it's a big market of course with lots of excellent publishers. I've never really looked into the details, there'd be quite some possibilities ranging from self-financing to striking a deal like you would anywhere else; many Indian publishers operate internationally so that would open up interesting options, and with a company like Penguin India or Rupa even bringing up financing it yourself would be ridiculous if you ask me. At a couple of hundred rupees a book you'd need to sell quite a lot to make any proceeds I imagine, might just earn you a nice little stash for future holidays though. Finally, dealing with a publisher abroad anywhere would bring its own disadvantages regarding communication and the chance to strike a bad deal and so on of course. To publish in India I'd go there in person and try to get connected. Sadhuji's post seems rather optimistic on the subject, then again I take it he has a bit of a career to back him up.

About the finances of it all, I would really want to urge you to look into the going deals in whatever country you're dealing with esp. from any organized writer's perspective, not because you intend to get rich (you're unlikely to) but because publishers need to be educated and each time someone is willing to work "under the price" it makes it that much harder for the next person who comes along and who is actually trying to make a decent living.

As a final illustration, a friend of mine after several "underground" publications recently published his first "official" book with an esteemed American publisher. He has no complaints about them. The deal he got was he worked for an initial lump sum, a couple of months' worth of money that stood in no relation to the year+ he spent editing and revising it -- oh be prepared to swallow twice like a good boy if they decide to have your book reduced by 1/3 or 1/2 -- and he'll start collecting royalties after the book sells more than an X number of copies, and excluding those initial X copies (a common deal at least where I live). The book is now doing pretty well but that X number was still far away on the horizon last time I spoke to him. What he does is a lot of travelling and lecturing on the book and related subjects, I haven't really asked him if those trips at least break even or even earn him anything godforbid. Another thing of course is that for a first (or second, or third...) project you may well find yourself forced to accept a less-than-perfect deal in the hope of a better future or something, presumably in heaven. Be prepared to drive a hard (as in: reasonable) bargain though, it's your right and no one else will do it for you.

Sorry for being so prosaic and business-minded about it but from my end it's just another job, and like I said we gotta educate the companies cos no one else is gonna do it for us (besides the classic toiling away in some poor attic becomes a lot less romantic once it's the reality you find yourself in). It's no different than selling bread and sticking with the market to an extent out of solidarity if nothing else, no matter how much you enjoy the art of baking. Anyway this is the advice I have to offer you, good luck with it. Nick's advice of seeing if there are catalogues/guides as to your national who's who in the publishing world is also very sound.

Ho-hum! That's interesting in view of some recent discussions, are you actually under negotiation about it or just toying with the idea?

passingby

many thanks again for your detailed info machadinha.
Your words pretty much outlined what I already knew about the tought publishing market.

At this point I am kind of discouraged and I am afraid to even approach a publisher.
Well, the way I see it, is that I will try to approach a small independent publishing house and if that doesn't work, then I've seen a few companies that advertise on the web to self-publish and promote your book. I will try that out instead.
in regards to my second project, publishing pictures off the indiamike website. I am serious about it and Mike likes the idea, I just have to start digging into how to go about it once I will be finished with my book.
many thanks again for the info.

machadinha

Didn't mean to discourage you whatsoever PB, just giving you the harsh truth as seen from my perspective so you know what you're up against

I say go for it, if you can give a few more details as to the actual content you have in mind (you can PM me) I could think if I know of any small publishers that might be willing to accommodate you. Mind you no guarantees whatsoever and it depends on your specific field but I can ask around. Same with the picture book really if it takes more definite shape, great that someone is just getting concrete about it, that's what it needed!

With small publishers the thing is they can be that more loving and sympathetic on the one hand, and that more goofy and slow and vague and un-business minded like the rest of us... ah all the intricacies of the trade that I won't get into here.

Cheers + push forward by all means, let us know if anything comes of it.

ColinT

Passingby -

You could try Lulu.com (US based) for self publishing. They appear to be good, but anyone can get a book printed - marketing and selling is another matter and Lulu leave that to you.

In the UK check out eye-books.com, a small company specialising in travel books. They tell you how to submit a proposal to them. They seem to be reputable.


In India -

There is a publisher based in Mumbai if you want to get it in the shops in India. They are a couple of years old and tend to get a lot of media coverage for their books. They will certainly publish your book but may ask you to finance it, or part finance it. They asked me for a huge amount of money to print 500 - 1000 books (40,000 rupees). I know how much printing costs in India and thought this was quite laughable. First it was way too much and second they would be making a huge profit up front (that made me think - where is their incentive to really market the book if they have already made a profit?).

As the author, I doubt whether I would have recuperated my investment based on how many I could expect to sell realistically. As "publishers" they should be investing in the author and taking the financial risk. But they will certainly get your book printed, distributed, in the shops and in the press. If you have the money then you may like to go with them. Drop me a private mail if you want their address.

Despite what people think, apart from text books, the market for books in English is small in India. A best seller may only sell 25,000 copies. I think Harry potter sold by the truckload, but that is Harry potter for you.

sadhuji

those willing to finance 50% of the cost of books can contact me separately thro the 'pm' route. i feel this will lead to less clutter of the thread.

no, i am not an agent for any publishing house or publisher.

Mirjam

This is an interesting discussion. Do you know good publishers of photobooks as well? In India or abroad? Even on the basis of sharing?

A photobook on the basis of IndiaMike photographs is an interesting idea as well, although it will be a lot of work to get permission (copyright) from the contributors.

Mirjam