Publishing or publisher: an observation · Royalty Guild. Amazon KDP

Publishing or publisher: an observation

I wrote about a particularly bad experience with a publisher in another post and want to expand on it because that experience sparked a chain of thoughts based on my experiences over the past year. Just so you know, I’m not being very judgemental, but there’s definitely something dirty going on with some people in this industry.

𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥. 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦'𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘋𝘶𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 17 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘵. 𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘴𝘰 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬.

A publisher is a bit like a marketer. Of course, they have other services, but in an economy driven by finances and making a profit, the marketing part has become more and more important now. Those days of being able to send your manuscript to a publisher and have them publish it are gone.

I did a lot of research last year whilst writing and came across the 'bridge' obstacle. The bridge is the thing that held me up from going on toward the publishing part. What scares me a lot is everything that comes into play when your book is done and you are putting it on the market, the back and forth of improving your book like it’s a dish sent back by a customer complaining the steak is not well-done enough.

This stage is also where I came across the first bad apples. People who steal the hard work of others and publish it as their own. People, whom I won’t call writers, who think easy money is around the corner are using AI to write rubbish and flood the market, causing platforms to create more obstacles for real writers. And then I met the self-publishing writer, who was, in fact, someone who had mastered the art of not giving a ‘xxx’ about the writing part and, to be honest, was really good at the marketing part. Very soon I learnt this person was a real piece of work, but I got intrigued; very little judgement is involved here, as I said in my opening.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘄!

Even if you are a great writer, you need to be a versatile marketer and know and learn everything about keywords, reviews, design, short reads vs long reads, categories, etc. I have not yet published, so I have not yet said 10% of what is happening out there.

𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀:

What else did I miss that I would need to know to be a good publisher?
Is it worth the hassle? I’m a one-book writer and just want to finish this journey.
Do I want to outsource or partner up? Is it worth the income cut?
Have you had rotten apples yourself, and can you tell us about it?

Note: In my other posting you can read how I narrowly avoided that bad actor.

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Publishing or publisher: an observation