firstwriter.com's database of book publishers includes details of 1,992 English language publishers that don't charge authors any fees for publishing their books. The database is continually updated: there have been 28 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.
News
Abrams Artists Agency has hired former CAA agent Simon Green, with the industry veteran set to lead the company’s Book and Publishing division. He will be based in New York and begins immediately, marking the latest move to bolster the entertainment talent and literary agency’s agent and client roster under new ownership.
Green launched CAA’s Book Publishing Department in 2009, growing that division’s biz from scratch before exiting in the spring. He had spent 17 years before that at Pom Inc., a lit agency started by his dad, Dan, the longtime Simon & Schuster publisher.
Amanda Ridout, former managing director of Head of Zeus and a prominent figure in the U.K. publishing world, has launched a new publishing house, Boldwood Books. The imprint will bring out its first list this autumn, and in 2020 will publish about 50 titles. It will specialize in commercial fiction.
Ridout has held senior positions at Reed Books, Hodder Headline, HarperCollins, and Phaidon as well as at Head of Zeus (HoZ), which she left at the end of 2017.
Amazon Publishing has announced the launch of Amazon Crossing Kids, a new imprint for picture books in translation. The imprint, the company said, "aims to increase the diversity of children’s picture books in translation and encourage young reading from a range of cultural perspectives."
Amazon Crossing Kids will debut with three picture books, and is seeking picture book submissions from all regions of the world. The first titles on the list are: Spiky, written and illustrated by Ilaria Guarducci and translated by Laura Watkinson, first published in Italy in 2016 and to be released on July 1; A Tiger Like Me, written by Michael Engler, illustrated by Joëlle Tourlonias, and translated by Laura Watkinson, first published in Germany in 2016 and to be released on September 1; and Along the Tapajós, written and illustrated by Fernando Vilela and translated by Daniel Hahn, first published in Brazil in 2015, and to be released on October 1.
Wattpad, an online community for original fiction whose stories have been turned into streaming hits like Netflix’s “The Kissing Booth,” is now turning its eyes to publishing. The company today announced the launch of a new division, Wattpad Books, that aims to turn its most popular content into future best sellers.
The books division will publish six titles this year, aimed at Wattpad’s largely young adult audience of 70 million users, who collectively spend 22 billion minutes per month engaged with its site and app.
One of the more popular forthcoming titles, The QB Bad Boy & Me by Tay Marley, was read more than 26.3 million times on Wattpad, and will become available in book form on August 20, 2019.
Articles
In April 2011, Marion Grace Woolley found her first publisher through firstwriter.com's database of publishers. A year later, she has published three books with two different publishers, both from our listings.
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.
Emmanuel Nataf has a simple mission: “I want more people to share their ideas with the world.”
That’s why three years ago, the Frenchman moved to London and co-founded Reedsy, a curated marketplace for authors to find publishing professionals to help bring their book to life. While Paris may have Station F now, Nataf saw opportunity in the British capital thanks to the concentration of publishers, writers, and investors.
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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