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.

Write On - YouWriteOn!

I take back what I said about YouWriteOn and the links not being on their site yet to post books on. It was not obvious on their home page yesterday, but it is now! A search of the Internet revealed the following page on the site which explains what they are doing and why in much more detail. I have emailed them accordingly, with a link to this site, so that they can see the actions that I have taken and what I have to say on the subject. Thanks to them this will reach a much wider audience and do much to help the cause of print on demand authors countrywide, helping to end the discrimination that we face once and for all. YouWriteOn definately have the right attitude - right on !

YouWriteOn urges authors to boycott Amazon

Regular readers of this blog will know that when the whole Amazon thing kicked off, just over a week ago, one of the first things I did was email everyone on my mailing list, and also post on here, encouraging everyone to boycott Amazon and not have any further dealings with them until further notice.

I am pleased to see that I am no longer alone in this endeavour, as the managers of YouWriteOn.com, a website funded by the Arts Council and aimed at budding writers, who review others work in exchanging for having their own reviewed, for a chance of getting a critique by industry experts, including leading UK publishers, have now added their weight to the anti Amazon campaign.

A report written by Graeme Neill in today's edition of The Bookseller online reads as follows:

"YouWriteOn.com, the Arts Council initiative for new writers, has called for a boycott of Amazon after the retailer's move to push publishers into using its own print on demand service.
Last week Amazon caused anger among small and independent publishers in the US when it told them that all p.o.d. titles would have to be printed at Amazon's fulfilment centres by its POD service BookSurge. It sparked fears that Amazon was trying to squeeze competitors out of the POD market.

There are no current plans to introduce BookSurge into the UK. However, YouWriteOn.com has invited all POD authors to list books on its site with a free link to any bookseller apart from Amazon. It called this "effectively...a proactive boycott of Amazon".

"It seems that Amazon are effectively attempting to monopolise the POD industry, and monopolies are never to the benefit of individuals. This will inevitably lead to less choice, less opportunities, and less royalties for POD writers," said Edward Smith, manager of YouWriteOn.Com. "It is also a red flag to the publishing industry in terms of how Amazon may use their influence on books from mainstream commercial publishing houses in the future."

The trouble is that having gone to their site, I cannot for the life of me see exactly how POD authors are supposed to do what Edward proposes. All I have received so far is an invite to review a book. Perhaps I am meant to do this first and then I can upload my book to their site. The report in The Bookseller should really make this clear, and much as I admire their philosophy and what they are trying to do, this does smack in its own way of their own attempt to not just help POD authors, but also to increase their membership. This may of course be my well developed inner cynic talking here.

I know that this is becoming big news when I see that this is the third report on the Amazon debate to appear on The Bookseller online today. Graeme Neill also reports regarding the Authors Guild statement that I mentioned on Friday, where they surmise that Amazon are attempting to control much of what the Guild refer to as the 'long tail' of publishing. The Guild, echoing the views of so many others state that in their view "once Amazon owns the supply chain, it has effective control of much of the 'long tail' of publishing - the enormous number of titles that sell in low volumes but which, in aggregate, make a lot of money for the aggregator."

This is what we in the UK would call back list titles, those books that sell in relatively slow but steady numbers, as indeed mine does.

It is uneconomic for book stores to stock many of these titles, since they cannot get sufficient discount, and the books are also non returnable. Once Amazon has control of the supply chain for these books, via Booksurge, they will be able to dictate any terms that they want, having both authors and publishers over a proverbial barrel, or so they think.

Owning the supply chain would allow them to easily increase profit margins on these books by insisting on higher discounts and upping the prices for printing. Most publishers, the Guild state, would be able to do little but grumble and comply. If Amazon really think this, then they have an awful lot still to learn and are in for one hell of a shock.

The Guild go on to state that "We suspect this maneuver by Amazon is far more about profit margin than it is about customer service or fossil fuels. The potential big losers (other than Ingram) if Amazon does impose greater discounts on the industry, are authors - since many are paid for on-demand sales based on the publisher's gross revenues - and publishers."

The third story to appear today is regarding Amazon's attempt to control pricing as reported a few days ago in Publishing News. I am totally incredulous to see two messages of support that actually agree with this policy, by Julian Rivers and someone purporting to be a tree (if I was a dog I would cock my leg against them and see what they think of that!)

This person states that in their opinion "publishers should stick to publishing and if this action stops publishers stupidly trying to undercut retailers to make a quick few quid, then that's good news for them all from the mighty Amazon to the humble indie. Publishers should support and work with retailers, not cut corners and cut them out." What a shame this does not appear to work the other way.

Julian in the meantime states "Amazon are just like any other trader who realises that their supplier is their competitor as well . They are completely correct in assuming that the new RRP is the price that the publisher is seeking to sell the book to the public at. How else could they judge it? I personally think that all the big players should follow suit, and the small ones too for that matter. The publishers need to respect their trade customers large and small, and thank goodness that Amazon are now strong enough to take the publishers on. All the retail trade needs to follow their lead." He does not get it though - it is the retailers that cause the problem, not the publishers. Publishers would never offer to sell books at high discount unless the chains did not do this themselves. What we need is for all of them to get round the table and discuss this in a sensible and rational manner, realising that when it comes down to it, both want the same thing - to make money by selling books. There is nothing wrong with this, but not at any price, for one has to work with the competition and not against it. Competition is healthy, for it keeps us on our toes.

As I say, let's not forget that without the authors who write books there would be no Amazon, and no book industry full stop.

Anyone for non fiction?

Reading the various news articles on The Bookseller website this morning, I noticed one in particular on some of the peer review sites that have sprung up in recent months as a means of authors circumnavigating the slush pile. The best known of these is perhaps You Write On, which is sponsored by the Arts Council. Authors are asked to submit one or two chapters for review by their peers, with the premise that agents and those in the book trade regularly scour such pages looking for new and upcoming talent. Apparently several deals have been struck by such means. You Write On is by no means the only site, as there are quite a few of these projects now. Harper Collins plan to launch their own such site http://www.authonomy.com/ in February next year.

None of these websites though cater for non fiction and in fact, when you think about it, there are remarkably few resources for non fiction writers at all. The reference section in Waterstones and Borders (and no doubt smaller shops as well) is crammed full of books on how to write a novel, how to write a book proposal, how to do this and how to do that, but try finding a book on say research for non fiction writers and you are hard pressed (no pun) to find any. Some of the larger branches may have a small selection, but by and large you have to look elsewhere (which means the Internet) for such titles.

I find this incredibly irritating and frustrating for several reasons. Firstly non fiction has a much larger share of the market than fiction writing - around 80 percent in fact, and also because there are more different types of non fiction books - cookery, gardening, mind body and spirit to name just three, they tend to be given much more shelf space as well, collectively anyway. Go into a typical book store and you will see what I mean.

Writers who are trying to get their lucky break are told to do several things - read writing magazines, make contacts and attend writers workshops etc. How though is the non fiction writer supposed to do that when there are no such classes or books available to help them? And this is my point.

Some years ago I found a course listed in my local adult education prospectus entitled Creative Writing. It stated in the prospectus that it was suitable for both fiction and non fiction writers and so taking their word for it, I enrolled. It turned out to be an expensive mistake and with hindsight I should have demanded both a refund and an apology.

During the first class the tutor asked us to introduce ourselves and say what we wanted to get from the course. I was one of the only ones there who was not only a published writer, but also actually working on a book, and something therefore tangible. I was also the only non fiction writer in the room. I was then told that the course was predominantly for fiction writers, but we will do non fiction at some point, and was I happy to continue along those lines. I replied that yes I was, as long as it was understood that we would be covering non fiction during the duration of the course. Needless to say, we did not.

I persevered though and did my best to write the fiction homework that was set each week. I found it a struggle though as this type of writing does not come naturally to me - we all after all have different gifts and talents. After a while then I started to bring in parts of the book that I was at that time working on, and read them out in class. The comments were breathtaking in their rudeness and ignorance, with one lady having the audacity to say that I had no right to be there at all, as my writing was not what she thought of as creative. The tutor in the meantime stood there and did precisely nothing. Well after that I did write a very stiff letter of complaint and as a result they stopped advertising those classes as suitable for non fiction writers.

I personally believe that ALL writing is creative, for the simple fact that you are CREATING something - it doesn't matter then what genre you are writing, whether it is fiction, non fiction, horror, science fiction or whatever - ALL writing is creative.

What then is the non fiction writer to do? Network with other non fiction writers (not as difficult as it seems, and most of them I have discovered are more than willing to talk) and then look for the nearest course in Journalism. This is the closest thing you will ever find to a course that will help you - as I have discovered since I began editing my village newsletter.