A publisher’s wish list for a new year

Here are some of the things that could make us happy in 2013

Finding the ground-breaking novel

We’d like to get that submission that really excites us. The story that is so different but is still recognisable as a story. The one that will change the world. A novel that will get everyone talking. Of course, we’re quite prepared for the fact that not everyone will agree with us. The main thing is that we should be thrilled.

Getting a best-seller

Obviously that would be good for everyone. We’d make more money and could invest more in more titles, both current ones and new ones. Some more attention would be brought to our authors.

Increased sales

We’re selling steadily but we’d like to sell more. Free and cheap books are fine – and we do offer them from time to time – but it’s only fair that everybody involved in the process of producing a book should be paid properly. So, if you do take advantage of a free or cheap book and you enjoy it, do give it a positive review. 

Satisfied customers

They usually are.  This is what we aim at and never do anything deliberately to annoy our customers. Nevertheless, the odd order goes astray, the odd book arrives damaged. We try to rectify that as soon as we can. We only hope for as few problems as possible this year.

Happy authors

We try to make the editing process pretty painless. Sometimes, though, something isn’t working  - either because it wouldn’t work in any circumstances or because it doesn’t fit what we aim to do. Changes have to be made. We hope to manage this without annoying our authors and we hope that they can make these changes effectively and in a timely manner.  

Not too many poor reviews

They actually don’t do all that much damage. I will often read a book that has had a bad review simply because I don’t believe it. I’m often then pleasantly surprised.

In any case, whilst 5* reviews are great, 3* and 4* are actually fine too. 2* or 1* either mean that we do need to take something on board or that we’re being pursued by a troll.

It’s just that it’s not all that pleasant reading a poor review.  

No complaints about 2012 really

2012 wasn’t a bad year. We’ve had some reasonable submissions and we may soon be asking some people to send full manuscripts. There are some promising stories out there. Sales are picking up. There have only been a very few problems with customers. Authors have worked with us fairly seamlessly. Reviews have been good and very good. No sign of the bestseller yet but that is anyway the ultimate goal.

Let’s just hope we can crank it all up a little.