firstwriter.com's database of publishers includes details of 2,868 English language publishers that don't charge authors any fees for publishing their books. The database is continually updated: there have been 47 listings added or updated in the last month. With over a dozen different ways to narrow your search you can find the right publisher for your book, fast.
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Shopping in the pandemic often means buying supplies for working, cooking and exercising at home. But consumers are also looking for ways to pass the time, and for some, that means picking up a magazine while they're out and about.
Those who braved a drug store, supermarket or newsstand this past month may have seen in the magazine section copies of Better Homes & Gardens' "Secrets of Getting Organized," Delish's "Keto Comfort Foods" and Time's collector's edition on the Korean pop band, BTS.
But these are not traditional magazines. They are what some in the media industry call "bookazines" — a blend of books and magazines — and in recent years, they have become more crucial to publishers' success.
Ten Things I Hate About Your Book (AISN: B08VQP8D4L, 2021) by Charley Brindley has been released for worldwide distribution. The book is a must read for anyone aspiring to be a fiction writer or even for accomplished fiction writers looking to sharpen their writing skills. In this book, Brindley, an acclaimed fiction and nonfiction author writes what the top ten mistakes literary agents pointed out to him when he first aspired to be an author and how to avoid these mistakes in writing. Brindley writes how these are common mistakes that many writers make can be lethal to a writing career. Ten Things I Hate About Your Book is available in Kindle format for 99 cents or free on Kindle Unlimited.
“Ten Things I Hate About Your Book is the prefect book for anyone seeking to be an author or someone who is an author and looking to refresh their writing skills,” said Charley Brindley. “The ten errors I write about in the book that were pointed out by multiple literary agents are some of the most overlooked errors authors make and totally avoidable. Avoiding these errors can mean the difference between being published or being rejected by the publishing industry.”
In the UK, the top six trade publishers recorded a total 15.5% rise in ebook sales in 2020, the first double-digit percentage bump in seven years, reports the Bookseller.
Collectively, Hachette, Penguin Random House (PRH), HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan, Bloomsbury and Simon & Schuster sold 54.5 million consumer ebooks through UK retailers in 2020, up from the 47.2 million in 2019.
Remember 2013, when the US Department of Justice and 33 states prevailed in an antitrust suit against Apple and five major publishers? Back then, a common complaint from Apple fans was, “What about Amazon?” Our comprehensive coverage in “Explaining the Apple Ebook Price Fixing Suit” (10 July 2013) pointed out that the case was about Apple’s behavior, not Amazon’s, while also explaining Amazon’s instigating role and suggesting that the online bookseller might face its own antitrust charges.
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Several years ago, as an aspiring novelist with stardust in my eyes, I used to spend most of my waking hours in Yahoo’s Books and Literature chatroom in the company of fellow aspiring writers. I clearly remember how one of the main topics of conversations used to be the number of rejection slips one had received on that particular day (or the previous week), agents/publishers who had requested a synopsis or proposal, and those who had just not bothered to respond. All of us were united by the looming sense of uncertainty, suspense, and the palpable realisation that the odds were firmly stacked against us.
Today, having spent more than seven years on the other side, first as a consultant and then an agent, I think many writers have wrong notions about rejections. While most books are rejected because of poor quality and incompetence (as they should be), there are several other factors that play a role in publishing decisions. And these affect “good” books too.
Traditional book publishers. They were once known as the titans of the book publishing industry. In the Baby Boomer era, self-publishing was an unknown concept. You needed a traditional publisher if you wanted the best chance to succeed with your book.
During that time, there was significantly less competition for publishers and authors, meaning more book sales for both parties.
Over time, traditional publishers (especially The Big 5) gradually started to exploit authors by offering lower royalties and seizing the author’s publishing rights.
Never judge a book by its cover. So the saying goes, yet consumers do it all the time. Every publisher and bookseller knows that covers sell books. But do consumers also form expectations from looking at the cover? Well, based on the results of some of the initial reader analytics data at Jellybooks, we think they do.
Signing a contract with even a brand-name traditional book publisher initially feels like a ticket to Nirvana. You may expect, for example, your new publisher to set you up with a big fat advance, a multi-city promotional tour, your very own personal PR rep and multiple copies of your book on every bookshelf in the nation (and Canada) for as long as you and your book shall live.
But to understand how book publishers really work, study this list of what I call the four great “myths” of traditional book publishing. Then, by all means, proceed to seek out a publisher if that’s your goal but do so with your eyes wide open. Your relationship with your publisher will run much smoother if you recognize its pitfalls as well as its glories.
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