Publishers: The Right Fit

My friend, Martha Alderson, author of Blockbuster Plots, Pure & Simple, asked some great questions regarding my last post about Kunati Books, a publishing house with a Canadian office in Ontario and U.S. offices in Florida and Chicago.

(Kunati) is not your publisher though, right? Do you wish you had used them (Kunati)? Do you intend to use them at some point?

Here's my reply:

My publisher is Central Avenue Press, an independent out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I can't fairly compare CAP and Kunati because they're two different beasts.

CAP is largely a one-man show that publishes about three titles per year. The publisher, John Oelfke, is a man of integrity, which means I never have to deal with contract squabbles or unreturned phone calls. He follows through with suggestions and ideas regarding marketing, understands the importance of unfettered distribution and is looking to the future by making my book, Growing Great Characters, and others in the Thorough Primer for Writers series, into eBooks, which should be available in about three weeks.

But because he doesn't have any staff, other than a great brother who handles the finances, I and other CAP authors handle most of the marketing through blogs, articles, workshops and other in-person and online strategies. The up side is that we're independent and have learned how to market our books, which is a necessary and marketable skill I can use to help sell my next writing project to agents/publishers.

Kunati, on the other hand, publishes 26 books a year and has a full staff and an active marketing plan that includes book trailers, press releases, FAQs from readers and authors, etc. If you think this sounds like a better deal than going with a very small publisher, however, in that you could just write your book and the publisher will take care of the rest, you'd be wrong. Though bigger independents like Kunati are more aggressive in the marketplace, they expect authors to be as savvy and aggressive.

I didn't know about Kunati, or any other publisher of books for writers, at the time I wrote GGC. Rather, the opportunity came when I wrote an article for ByLine magazine about character development and Harvey Stanbrough, a reader who also happened to be the writer of two Thorough Primer for Writers books, contacted me, saying CAP was looking for someone to write a book on character development.

Regarding Martha's last question, I will certainly consider Kunati if the publisher turns out to be the best one for my next project, which is a novel titled Winter Light. Considering most publishers have their guidelines and current book titles online, there's no excuse for writers to be lazy. They should do their research and submit only if their material matches that of the publisher, otherwise writers waste their time and that of publishers.

Obviously writers should put the most advantageous publisher — regarding marketing ability, titles sold, etc. — at the top of their list when the time comes to submit. What writer doesn't want a publisher that can aggressively sell his/her book and keep the money rolling in? But sometimes those deals don't work out, so you've got to move down to the next publisher. And if you get a contract with a smaller publisher, make the most of the experience! Develop a personal relationship with the publisher, learn as much as you can about the book business and have fun spreading the word about your work.

Do you have opinions on the topic? Let me know. Otherwise—

Happy writing!

Independent Publisher to Watch

I’ve written about Kunati Books before, but here’s another reason to spotlight the effort of writer/publisher Derek Armstrong: Kunati won the Independent Publisher of the Year Award at Book Expo America in May in NYC. The honor was bestowed by ForeWord Magazine.

Rather than mention this honor just for fun, I’m doing so with the advice that you keep this press in mind when trying to decide where to submit your book. Why? Because publishers like Kunati are the future.

Big publishers like Simon & Schuster and Random House have dominated publishing for decades, though more so within the last twenty years as one giant merged with another to form fewer and more powerful mega-publishing houses. Their methods are clear: if you’re a celebrity, you’ll get their full backing in terms of marketing (ads, book tours, PR campaigns, etc.). But if you’re an unknown author, your book will get thrown to a mass market along with hundreds of others. If your book somehow catches on within a month of publication, despite the absence of marketing, the publisher will step in and push your title. But if your book doesn’t become a publishing phenomenon, your title will be allowed to sink.

But independent publishers like Kunati are changing that environment. Rather that scoop up a lot of titles that may or may not sell, independents are carefully selecting what they buy to fit niche markets carefully developed via the Internet. Then the publishers commit to making each book a success. For example, Kunati fully backs authors through marketing efforts that include aggressive distribution and book trailers, which are the publishing world’s equivalent of film trailers. Such effort pays off, as Chris Anderson writes in his book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. As added evidence, four Kunati titles published this spring have already sold out, which means the company has to do a second run for each.

Many independent presses are small outfits that produce 2 to 12 books a year, whereas Kunati publishes about 26 fiction and nonfiction titles that run the gambit between satirical thrillers like Armstrong’s MADicine to the cultural psyche of alien abductions. Like the company’s motto — “Provocative. Bold. Controversial.” — the publisher encourages agented and unagented authors to send work that’s “unique and edgy.” To check out what that means, peruse the Kunati book list. Best of all, the publisher prefers e-queries.

Happy writing!