At Apeiron Press, we’re all about storytellers. People who want to write because they have a world inside their minds that they want to share with others. That’s because we are storytellers, too.
For most authors, this is what drives them. Not money. It’s telling a story and the best reward is hearing from people that they enjoyed it.
Not to say it isn’t great, even a goal, to make money from writing. But let’s take an honest look at the publishing industry:
It wasn’t long ago that the only way to be a successful author was to be picked up by an established publishing company, often by first convincing an agent to take you on and take their cut. Once that happened, you could count on them to edit, make a cover, and eventually get your book into the world of readers. You might have gotten an advance, but then you don’t make anything until they recoup the advance.
Part of the clout behind a publisher was the ability to get your books in stores. Marketing wasn’t a big issue if your book was on the shelf at every bookstore in every mall in the country.
Times have changed. Bookstores have, unfortunately, nearly vanished from the landscape. Most people who read, and this is a disappointingly shrinking number, get their books from online sources (you know who…) in either print, or increasingly, ebook formats. Audio books are a fast-growing format as well.
More importantly, online resources and the ease of self-publishing is fast making traditional publishers close up shop or focus all of their resources on already successful authors. If you can convince a publishing house to pick up your book, don’t expect them to turn it into a best seller through their own marketing efforts. The only real effort most publishers put into marketing books is for established authors who really don’t need it. That’s why you see lots of adds for authors like Stephen King, but none for up and coming authors.
Publishers will expect you to do the work. One of the first questions a publisher or agent will do is ask you what kind of social media presence you have already developed to promote your writing. And what you intend to do to keep promoting it.
So why even go with a publisher? There was a time when self-publishing was looked down upon. That isn’t much of a stigma anymore. There are also “vanity” publishers, who offer to publish your book and make you rich if you just pay them some money up front. Don’t fall for that.
In reality, there is very little good reason to go with a publisher these days. Good authors will do well, often much better, self publishing. But only if they put in the work, and often the expense, that a publisher would do, in addition to the self-promotion and marketing that publishers expect authors to do today.
Publishers do a lot of work, and they charge you for that service in the form of taking a large cut of the royalties from the sale of each book. And like most companies, they view their service as more valuable than the product you create.
Think you’ll get the publisher to pay you an advance? Good luck, unless you are already a known author.
How about other rights? Read a publisher’s contract. They’re going to want a big chunk of anything that comes out of that book, especially movie rights. Authors rarely make much money on movie rights.
Still here? Wondering why a publishing company is telling you not to go with a publisher? Because Apeiron Press is different. We’re a writers’ cooperative. We’re not here to be a big business. We’re writers, looking for ways to make it easier for all of us.
And to make sure the author keeps as much of the proceeds for their work as possible. Rather than you getting 25% of proceeds, how does 80% sound?
You get a publishing company behind your book. We do the typesetting work needed to get your work to print or ebook format. We help with marketing through our networks, our author family, and advice.
One downside to the ease of self publishing is that the market is glutted with books. And most of them today are not good. Even if the author has a good story, poor editing, artwork, or a lack of effort in marketing can mean the book never sells much. We don’t want our authors to experience that.
For this to work, you have to be willing to do some of the work, and do it to a high standard.
Editing. This is a big deal. You cannot edit your own book past a certain point. You won’t catch everything. A well edited, professional book is vital to an author’s success. Normally a publisher has to pay their staff to do the editing. And they also tack on a little extra fee for themselves. We’re going a different route. We have a list of approved, professional editors. You arrange with them to edit your work, and pay them yourself. In return, you have more control over the content, and we don’t need to deduct from your royalties in order to pay the editors. If you want to use an editor that we don’t have on our list, talk to us. We can probably work something out.
Same with book covers. We have artists that we can recommend who do a great job and don’t break the bank. You can use one of them, or you can find another artist. There are formatting as well as professionalism requirements. The art has to fit the binding (we will help with that) and it has to look like a professional book because a lot of people do judge a book by its cover.
One advantage to providing your own book cover art, as well as any interior art, is that YOU, not the publisher, owns the copyright to the art. If we decide to part ways, you will own full rights to not just your writing, but to the art you provide.
Control over marketing, giveaways, promotions, etc. If you want to invest in promotions and advertising, or offer giveaway promotions, you will have the ability to make those decisions. We’ll be happy to help with advice and resources.
Full transparency. With most publishers, good luck with getting a clear idea of how your book is doing at any particular time. With Apeiron Press, we provide monthly reports on book sales, and can provide additional reports if you want to track the effectiveness of any particular marketing campaign.
In many ways, you are self publishing. You gain much of the benefits that self publishers enjoy. But instead of doing it completely on your own, you join other writers who can lend their experience and support. In addition, you don’t need to pay for the expensive software and know-how of using programs like Adobe inDesign to prepare your book for the market.
Apeiron Press is a new way of approaching the publishing world.