YouWriteOn publishes POD books for free

A few days ago, I received the following email from Arts Council sponsored peer review website, YouWriteOn. It reads as follows:

"Dear YouWriteOn member

Arts Council funded YouWriteOn.com will publish the first 5,000 writers who contact us for Free - fiction and non fiction.

To participate follow these 2 steps:

1) Email youwriteon@googlemail.com, and inside your email add your name, address, telephone number, book title, genre, length of your book, and a synopsis up to 50 words
2) We will contact the first 5,000 people who email us by 31st October 2008. Your book will be ready to order by readers as a paperback by Christmas. Open to UK and US residents."

The email goes on to provide further details of previous successes that the site has launched (all fiction, since the site is for some inexplicable reason, closed to non fiction writers, as indeed all other peer review sites are, with the exception of Authonomy), and provide details of how this deal will work.

Books will be available to order direct through the YouWriteOn site, and members will be able to review them and contact each other in the same way as with other works downloaded on to the site. The authors will receive a 60 percent royalty for each copy sold, paid six monthly, as opposed to the usual 12 to 15 percent paid by commercial publishers. The books they say, will be the same quality as bookstore or 'trade' paperbacks, and the author will retain all rights to their work. It goes without saying that the books will not be lithographic, but print on demand.

The offer, which seems a good one, is open to UK and US residents only and the contract is non exclusive - what this means is that if you are made an offer from someone else, or have other reasons to withdraw the work from their site, then you can do without any further obligation.

While this offer is entirely free, the books do need to be in a publishable state, since here is the catch, no editing or proof reading is offered. While it is true that works that have been on the site for some time may have been subject to a form of proof reading on the part of the readers, who point out mistakes so that they can be corrected, this is not the same thing as a professional edit. I can already hear the battle cries of 'vanity press', and believe you me, certain sectors of the industry will seize on this as an excuse to use that term and be very derogatory indeed about the resultant books. It does make one wonder whether this is such a good deal or not. It does though do a lot to help raise POD's profile, and I have to say that in general, YouWriteOn are a very POD friendly bunch, offering US authors affected by the Amazon debacle earlier this year, the chance to advertise their books (once again fiction only) on the site for free.

On the other hand, it this that much different to what other POD providers offer, such as Authors OnLine Ltd? In some ways no, but in others, yes. Authors OnLine and other reputable print on demand providers (there are a few of them) have access to freelancers whose role is to edit and proof read (for a fee) works that they publish or put their name to. They also offer help with marketing (if you ask) that goes far beyond placing it on a website and asking people to review it. On the other hand, they are not as high profile as YouWriteOn, which attracts some heavyweight members, with the chance of being spotted and picked up by one of the big boys (or girls - and several authors have been).

Of course none of this is of any significance to the non fiction writer (and bear in mind that most print on demand books are non fiction, as indeed most books are in general - the market for fiction is small in comparison), since YouWriteOn do not publish such material on their site anyway, yet the free publishing offer does include non fiction. Maybe they are planning to open the site up to non fiction in the hopefully near future, I seem to remember them indicating that to me in an email, but the details are hazy.

The other catch is the relatively low, but nevertheless, competitive cover prices that they hope to set, of between £5.99 and £7.99. With print costs of around 1 penny per page, plus the cover this will not leave much left over to pay the author their royalties. Mind you, 60 percent is still more than the 12 to 15 percent that commercial publishers pay, although the site doesn't stipulate whether royalties are based on net prices (after print costs etc are taken off) or the actual cover price. I would need to see the contract to know that, and seeing as I have nothing to offer them, that might be difficult ...

This seems such a good offer, that it is pity I don't have anything suitable. Perhaps I should consider publishing this blog ... Would you be prepared to buy it in published form - answers in the comments section please ...

Since the books will not have an ISBN (unless you pay extra for one - essential in my opinion), they will not be available in book stores or via the usual Internet retailers (Amazon, etc). This will cost an additional £39.99 through a separate partnership with Legend Press.

If you wish to submit your work, simply email YouWriteOn@legendpress.co.uk. The offer is open to applicants of all nationalities.

Celebrities fast tracking the publishing system

The Book lovers forum of which I am a member has an interesting discussion going at the moment entitled Celebs fast tracking the publishing system. Not that long ago, I was fiercely attacked on the same site for daring to state that it was unfair that celebrities such as Jordan (she will always be that to me and not Katie Price) were cashing in on others talents and claiming the glory for books that may well have been based on their own ideas, but were not in actual fact written by them at all. Those members who attacked me for having the audacity to suggest that brand Jordan was little more than a pair of breasts are it seems in the minority, for this new thread has far more supporters than critics.

I make the point, as I did in a recent article on Linda Jones' Freelance Writing Tips blog site that it seems a really sad indictment of our society when a ghost written novel by an ex glamour model sells more copies than the winner of the Booker prize for literature. It seems ironic to me that self publishing is seen as vanity press, by pandering to clients egos, when commercial publishers are in fact the real culprits. They may well be responding to market trends, and these books may well sell in the cartloads to blonde twenty somethings with nothing better to spend their money on, but the majority of book buyers in this country are not in that age range, but are in fact middle aged, and born during the sixties baby boom years. These people are not in the slightest bit interested in the so-called celebrity culture, in fact it bores them to tears.

It seems to me that far from self publishing being vanity press, commercial publishers that offer vast sums to celebrities in order to publish their works, or more accurately ideas, are the ones who are really guilt of vanity. This sets up a three way symbiotic relationship that feeds the ego of the celebrity keeping them in the public eye, at the same time offering publicity to the publisher who makes even more money. This also in turn feeds the illusion that celebrity status is desirable as it gives fame and fortune thus making the public, especially young women, feel that their own lives and aspirations are inadequate.

I believe that books at their best should enlighten and educate, making us think about the issues that really matter, whether through fiction or non fiction. Books such as these celebrity titles do nothing to either educate or enlighten, but have the opposite effect. They contribute to the general dumbing down of society by feeding the public with an endless supply of meaningless drivel that keeps their minds in overdrive and acts as a distraction that ultimately keeps both them and the so-called celebrities in chains as they have to work ever harder in order to maintain the illusion.

In its own way, the rise in self publishing can be seen as a by product of the so-called celebrity culture, since it leads people to a false sense of their own superiority, believing that if these celebrities, most of whom have no obvious talent apart from courting publicity, can do it, then so too can they. It is then partly the industry’s own attitude that has created this explosion.

It seems to me that commercial publishers have painted themselves into a corner, as by focusing on celebrities, who make up a very small proportion of the population and demand much higher advances, there is little money left with which to nurture new talent that comes from the many. The many grow to resent this as they are not being given equal opportunity, and so choose to take matters into their own hands and redress the imbalance by self publishing. That as I have discovered, has its own set of problems though ...

It seems that I am not the only one to be feeling as I do and criticising the rise in celebrity books. Award winning author Zadie Smith has launched a blistering attack on literary prizes. Critics of course say that this is rich coming from someone whose career was arguably kick started by such competitions, but she does have a a valid point when she says that most literary prizes are "only nominally" about literature. She goes on to state that "They are really about brand consolidation for beer companies, phone companies, coffee companies and even frozen food companies." Celebrities such as Jordan are increasingly seen as a brand in their own right, so these comments apply just as much to the rise in celebrity books as any other kind.

Bear in mind as I write this that Jordan's (Katie Price's) book Perfect Ponies: My Pony Care Book has been nominated for one of the most prestigious prizes in literature alongside the likes of Doris Lessing, Khaled Hosseini and Ian McEwan. Price's book has it seems been shortlisted for the WH Smith Children’s Book of the Year award, which is seen to many as the “Oscars” of the book trade – a decision that has whipped large sections of the literary world into a frenzy of disapproval, largely because she did not write one single word of it herself.

Somewhat depressingly, Price is one of the most commercially successful writers in the country. The Society of Authors has been inundated with complaints from concerned members. Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring, who chairs the organisation, said: “I’m shocked. I’m amazed the publishers even put the book up. If it’s ghost-written then it’s inappropriate that it should be shortlisted. I am disappointed by the judges.” I have to say that I agree with her.

Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat and several children's titles said that it would be “depressing beyond anything” if Price wins on April 9th. “If this is an award for people who write books then it should be open only to people who write books, not to somebody who lends their name to a book, or who would have written a book if they had time but didn’t.”

Robert Harris, the author of Fatherland, whose most recent novel was about a ghostwriter, summed up by own views when he said that Price’s nomination was “emblematic of the tacky culture we live in”. It is as he says though a sad fact of life that “Very often the books are by writers who would not be able to make a living writing under their own name but if you put a celebrity name on the cover then it becomes marketable.”

In the meantime, the current Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen has leapt to Price's defense stating that “We get too hung up about authorship. None of us writes a book entirely on our own. We get help from editors, or ideas might come from conversations with our families, or children. The issue is whether the book’s good, not who has written it. If Jordan or any of her helpers have written a very good book, then absolutely good luck to them.”

I cannot help feel that he is missing the point. Yes we do all get help from others. In my case that help came from first and foremost from my wonderful partner and soul mate Coran, but also like he says from friends, and the various other authors whose books I used for research purposes. I was the one who spent five years though collating the information and putting it in the correct order - no one else. I was also the one who paid the money to publish my work and spent hour upon hour doing my utmost to get my book seen an noticed. It is then about honouring the creator of the work for their input and hard work. In this instance I have to disagree with Rosen, that authorship is indeed everything.

It does occur to me though, having said all of this, that the judges of said awards may in some way be being used (strictly unconsciously of course, as people nearly always are) by spirit to highlight these issues and bring them more widely into the public arena in order to open up discussions regarding the ethics or otherwise of the modern publishing world. Spirit does indeed move in mysterious ways, and who knows what goes on behind the scenes or what the higher agenda is. I often wish that I did, but then again, if I knew everything there was to know then what would be the point of me being here? I am here like everyone else to learn more about myself and then put what l learn into practise in the way that best serves myself and the rest of humanity. God never promised that it would be an easy ride, and actually I would rather it wasn't, for we learn through adversity and pain. If life was all love and light where would be the growth and the evolution?

Is it worth it?

I had a long email from my friend Tracy Saunders earlier in the week, who lives in Spain. She is currently going through the process of publishing her own book, on Christian martyr Priscillian with I-Universe, (A US based print on demand provider who recently merged with Authorhouse). Like many other authors, she is going through the phase of what's it all about, and have I done the right thing, will it be worth it all. I remember it well, as it is something I and a thousand other POD (and no doubt commercially published) authors go through almost every day of their writing lives. I have said it before, that you don't have to be mad to do this, but it certainly helps. I lost my marbles a long time ago, and they are currently rolling about on the floor of the Lightning Source printing plant in Milton Keynes ...

Tracy makes the point though that how are we to ever get over the POD stigma so that we can compete on not just an even footing, but be taken seriously as authors. It is a tough one to answer, as it depends not just on the quality of your writing (which is very much a subjective thing anyway), but also on being seen in the right place at the right time by the right people. This is difficult enough for commercially published authors let alone POD ones. It also though and perhaps more crucially, depends on the opinions of others. The problem is that people still remember the bad old days of vanity publishing, where the books were badly written and poorly produced, but times have changed. A lot of people though have not moved on from those times. This is where we have to work that much harder at changing perceptions.

Where though do you begin? The book buying public do not care how the book they are reading was published, only that is it interesting and affordable. The problem then lies not with the book buying public but with the book trade itself. Hard working POD authors and some of the recent success stories have helped, but most of all what the POD author needs to be do in order to be taken seriously on any level, is to write a damned good book, and get out there and promote it in as professional a way as possible. This is not easy when you are also trying to manage a house and a business, as Tracy is, or in my case when you have no other source of income and everyone keeps demanding free copies before they will make a buying decision.

It is true that the vanity stigma is much more of an issue for American writers, and attitudes here in the UK do seem to be changing fast. Personally I have found the supply chain to be by far the biggest problem, as have the few of you that have voted in the poll on my other blog site. It is not so bad here because we have chain stores in the form of Waterstones, Borders and WH Smiths. Waterstones are easy to get into, Borders and Smiths less so. Spain though has none of these chains, and Tracy's book is not in Spanish, the native language, but written in English.

Spain she tells me, has just ten Bookworld Espana shops (she plans to break out her shortest skirt to visit the main buyer), with very few independents. Fortunes are not made on this. They are not though made on the 300 odd copies I have sold either (not when they are sold at 55 percent discount anyway).

She goes on to ask me the question as to whether it has been worth it all. This again depends on your point of view and why you are doing it. A lot of the things that I am doing now I should have been doing when my book first came out, but neither I nor the book was ready for such exposure. I thought I knew the publishing industry and how it worked, but I didn't, I was just playing at it. I did very well considering, with the limited resources that I had, as well as most other POD authors anyway, but not that many are seriously prepared (or have the time) to do anywhere near the amount of work that I am now doing.

To go back to Tracy's question though - is it worth it all? Of course it is. Writers write not because they want to, but because they have to - it a compulsion that we have inside us that can no more be ignored than the impulse to breath. It is who we are, and what makes us tick, what makes us leap out of bed in the morning, what makes us shout at our partners to scribble down the ideas that always come when we are in the shower. It is the reason we are alive. For the truly serious writer, life and writing are the same thing and you simply cannot conceive of one without the other. It is the reason we are here to share that gift.

Print on Demand - pros and cons

Following some interesting comments made by various members of the Writers News forum I have decided to make a list of pros and cons with regard to POD which will be added to my article Print on Demand - Is Vanity Fair?

Admittedly as a POD author I may be slightly biased in favour of it, but when I look at this list, there are definately more pros than cons. Read it though and judge for yourselves.

Negatives

POD stigma – this applies more to the US though than the UK, where things are rapidly changing.
Author has to cover costs.
Low discounts and lack of sale or return mean that book stores are less likely to stock.
No sales representation – author has to work hard at marketing their own books.
Relatively high print costs giving less scope for negotiation with discounts etc.
Time consuming.
POD cannot accommodate the sending of review copies six months ahead of publication – unless you delay your launch and use initial copies for these purposes.
The POD author cannot get access to their sales data – since they are not the publisher.
Huge learning curve and not for the faint hearted.
No guarantees that the book will sell.

Positives

Excellent way to test the market and prove those agents/publishers wrong who rejected your work.
No agent/publisher in their right mind would reject a successfully self published book - such an author is then able to negotiate better terms.
Minimise the risk by printing copies in short runs or as they are ordered.
Books are never out of print – provided you pay your annual fee.
POD books have a greater window of opportunity in which to be sold – commercially published books have at the most 6 months to a year.
Easy and inexpensive to change cover and/or text.
No books to store. Author does not have to deal with orders/fulfilment themselves since these are filtered through the wholesaler.
Speed of delivery – average commercially published takes 18 months to see print, with POD this is shortened to 3 months.
Higher royalties.
Greater creative control.
Eco friendly.
The author knows that any successes are entirely due tot their own efforts.
Wonderful way to make friends and influence people.
Learn lots of new transferable skills.

Print on Demand - Is Vanity Fair?

For the past few days I have been busy writing an article on print on demand to go on one of the new sections of my website - The Write Stuff.

I have observed during my travels on the well trodden path that a lot of people both within and without the book trade seem to think that POD is vanity press. I find this most irritating and also very misleading to the general public. Mind you, there is a certain school of thought within the industry (thankfully shrinking fast) that resolutely refuses to believe that anything that is or has been self published is of any use to anyone outside the smallest room in the house. Mention highly successful spiritual but initially self published titles such as The Power of Now, The Celestine Prophecy and Conversations with God and their eyes just glaze over!

Oh well, you can never win some people, and I really should stop worrying about them anyway - the only ones that I should concern myself with are those lovely and slightly more forward thinking people who see past the rubbish that is frequently touted around re such books, and use their own eyes and brains and think for themselves. As I say at the end of my introduction - there are 2 types of people - shepherds and sheep. Which one then are you?

The aforementioned article anyway has now been added to my website and is entitled Print on Demand - Is Vanity Fair ? In this article I discuss in detail, both good and bad things about print on demand (problems with supply for example and the inability to send out advance review copies six months of time).

The best selling point actually I think though is the eco-friendliess, and this is something that in my humble opinion, POD printers and providers should make a lot more of. According to the October edition of Writing magazine, a recent poll showed that the majority of British book buyers would be more than happy to pay a little extra for what they considered to be an eco- friendly book, and the industry are considering setting up a kite mark scheme. POD books then it goes without saying would automatically qualify. After all, why fell an entire forest and pollute our waterways with ink and dyes to print books which later end up being pulped. Why not just print them to order in small batches as POD does? Sure a lot of these pulped books are recycled and some books may even be printed on recycled paper, but think for a moment about the chemicals that are needed to strip the ink from the paper and the water, electricity (from non renewable sources) that is needed for the recycling process. Surely it is better not to have printed these books in the first place !

I am looking forward to the Authors OnLine 10th anniversary celebration in St Neots on 13th October when one of the guests will be a representative from Lightning Source. I wonder what they will have to say on such matters ?

Having done some website updates then over the past few days, and rang a few more book shops, I have totted up the number of shops where my book is now stocked. I am proud to say that it has reached the magical number of 55. Here then is a full list of those who have told me they have ordered to date:

Borders - Brighton, Kingston-upon-Thames, Newbury, Uxbridge, Wimbledon, Whiteley's (Bayswater)

Waterstones - Aberystwyth, Andover, Aviemore, Barnstaple, Barnet, Basildon, Belfast, Blackpool, Bluewater, Bournemouth, Braehead, Brentwood, Brighton, Chesham, Covent Garden, Coventry (Lower Precinct), Derby, Dorchester, Dorking, East Grinstead, Epsom (High Street), Exeter (Roman Gate), Folkestone (Sandgate Road), Godalming, Horsham, Ilford, Inverness (Eastgate), Kensington, Kingston-upon-Thames (Bentalls Centre), Leadenhall (London), Liverpool, Llandudno, Lowestoft, Manchester (Trafford Centre) Market Harborough, Oban, Piccadilly Circus (London), Putney, Reading (Oracle), Redhill, Romford, St Neots, Scarbrough, Southampton (Above Bar), Southampton (West Quay), Slough, Staines, Stirling.

Independents - Chalice Well Bookshop, Glastonbury

That then I think is a cause to celebrate !