The Independent Publishers Guild Conference

 

The IPG

We are members of the IPG.  It represents an overhead cost that we have to meet every year and we  don’t get to as many meetings as we would like to. However, their site is full of interesting and useful information and this year they offered an online conference. I was able to attend some of their sessions.

The working of a virtual conference

It did replicate a real life conference. There were lectures and seminars, discussions with breakout rooms and opportunities for networking. Also there were “goody” bags which took the form of promotional codes. We thereby managed to get some money off some of our printing.

 

There were also key note speeches.

 

All of the networking links are still on the site but you have to be a member of the guild to access them.

Trade

I attended a discussion of how trade has been affected by the pandemic and Brexit. At the time of the conference (11-12 May 2021) it was about 40% down on normal.  Much of this was to do with the changed rules not being understood by couriers and exporters. We sell mainly to the home and American market. We sell a few books in Europe – a few of our writers are based in EU countries but we still sell more of these books in the UK and the US.

 

Fortunately Ingram’s and Amazon look after all of the technicalities for us.

We have, however, had to raise the cost of our books in the EU – the exchange rate has rendered printing costs higher in Europe.

 

On the whole, though, we have noticed little difference in our sales patterns.  

Shopify

This is the go-to platform for sales from your own web-site. The presentation was very interesting and it all looks very professional. However, I decided against using it for our online book shop.  

·         The monthly cost would be an overhead we would struggle to cover

·         Out book shop is meant to offer a variety of ways for customers to purchase books.

 

Audio books

I watched a presentation by a company that produces audio books. To date we’ve used one of Amazon’s own narrators, and used a couple of narrators we’ve sourced ourselves whom we’re paying on a royalty basis. With this company, we would pay a one off fee then all of the profit from the books would go to the authors and to our company. This seems fair all round. We are now negotiating for two of our picture books to be made into audio books.

Hybrid conferences

We are gradually easing out of the pandemic now and life is returning to something that looks a little like normal. However some of these online events have been excellent and often offered an opportunity for joining something one would not normally be able to attend. Is our intention to carry this on to some extent? I do hope so.           

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

It is absolutely great to be featured in three anthologies and also some poetry books and a film so far this year. Devon Stream radio have been sharing my work and the Courage Copse Creatives are producing a film about the wonderful ash trees with my poetry and other authors.

Here is a photo and all are available to purchase now through Gill's bookshop.

The Macaroon Chronicles by Dawn Knox

How we came to publish this one

Dawn is a regular contributor to CaféLit and was the first contributor to have a story serialised. This was The Basilwade Chronicles. She is now working on a third of what she calls the Chronicles’ Chronicles serials - the Crispin Chronicles.

 

The title

Dawn and I came up with the title for The Basilwade Chronicles and the word Chronicles has stuck.   

 

Some notes about the process

The editing process here is slightly different from the one we use in our other anthologies. Every CaféLit story is given a light copy edit before it is published in the  e-zine. For serials like this we then put together a camera ready proof for the writer to check. We do an in-house technical proof and after the author has returned their proofs we get another proof read by an editor who has not seen the text before.  

 

The cover

The cover image was created by Neill C. Woods. He also created the cover for The Basilwade Chronicles. Dawn commissioned him herself as she thought his style was just right for these books. Dawn and Neill entered both covers into a competition. Alas, they did not win. Never mind. The problem with competitions is that only a few people can win. Many people have admired both covers.              

 

Some notes about style

These stories are very quirky. Very importantly in CaféLit serials each episode must stand alone and there should be an overarching story as well. This happens beautifully here.     

 

Who we think the reader is

These stories are for people who like to laugh. Most of the reviews of both books have their readers admitting that they have laughed out loud. This is probably what we all need now.   

 

What else

Dawn is a prolific writer and in several genres. She’s worth following, believe me.

 

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the book, or download it if you have a plan, and give us a review. Just click on the link to be taken to our online bookshop. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free review copy.         

Grab your copy here.

 

 

Soft launches and hard launches

 

 

I’ve mentioned this to one or two people already. I’ll go into a little more detail here.

The soft launch

The soft launch is what we do immediately the book is available. From our point of view this means:

• informing Nielsen’s (Bridge House only; the distributors do this for us with the other imprints)
• informing the author
• letting our fans and followers know (via social media e.g. Facebook groups and pages, and email lists)
• putting the book in our online bookshop
• sending it out to our list of reviewers

You might:

·         put the book on your web site

·         let your fans and followers know (via social media and your email lists)  

·         send it out to your list of reviewers

The hard launch

The hard launch should come about three weeks later. This has allowed the book to filter into all of the databases so people like our friends Amazon are able to obtain the book and have it showing on their sites. The might be one big physical event followed by a few other book signings in bookshops or other quirkier venues. You might consider a blog tour. You would again invite your fans and followers but you might go wider; get local press involved, invite people you don’t know yet. You might do an online event alongside this.

We are willing for the hard launch:

·         to come to the event if it’s within a twenty mile radius of where we live  - and we’ll do whatever task you assign us – serve the cake, wash up, set the chairs out, make a speech, be master of ceremonies etc.

·         let you have some books upfront.  You can pay for these later at author discount, or have them set against  royalties 

·         organise a free online event  for you –

Please ask us to do this – we won’t ask you.  We don’t want to pressure you.

Pre-orders

We’ve considered again doing pre-orders and dismissed it again. This can have the effect of creating a buzz around the day the book comes out (soft launch time) but in fact this barely tweaks the Amazon algorithm; the bots have realised this presents a false picture. We’d rather just get on with the marketing once the book is out. Just a note: generally the e-book is out a few days before the physical book. We don’t inform the author that the book is ready until we have the proof copy of the physical book.

Link to our book shop

There are more details about the bookshop below. It’s probably a good idea to send your fans and followers a link to that. They then have a choice about how to buy. Note, Amazon currently does odd thigs to the RRP and delivery. The Hive (UK) offers free delivery and gets out of stock books out more quickly than Amazon gets in stock books out on free delivery.  Plus The Hive supports local bookshops. Barnes and Noble US offers quick delivery and never mentions whether books are in stock or not. Actually our books should never be in stock; they are print on demand.

Amazon of course is where customers have to go for the e-book. And further down the line it’s worth looking there because occasionally they sell our paperbacks at very low prices. Spot that and send your fans there or buy up some copies yourself. It’s fine; we still get the wholesale price and you therefore get a normal royalty.  

We can get books out quite quickly but have to charge shipping unless customers but five or more boos.  The bookshop is fully searchable and browsable so customers should easily be able to find other books that you’ve written or are in, or other books similar to yours.      

Military_Material from Pixabay

Why Feisty Women?

 

We have a call for submissions about “feisty women”. Why not about feisty men, asked one of our male authors. Part of the answer is that we can’t publish everything. We’re doing quite a lot already: short story anthologies, single author anthologies, flash collections, YA novels, children’s fiction, including picture books, and my own Schellberg Cycle. 

How this came from the Schellberg Cycle

The House on Schellberg Street started off as a young adult novel, set during the 1930s and 1940s. At the same time it was an historical novel and it does stretch the YA label: the girls are in their early teens at the beginning of the story and in their early twenties but the end. Each novel has suggested at least one other. Although most have them have young adults in them and are readable by young adults they are more than young adult novels. What is a common thread? Feisty, courageous women.

If I ever escape form the Schellberg Cycle, I have some other historical novels in mind and they all involve women who do well in a man’s world.

 

Fiction and non-fiction

We’re interested in novels, memoir and biographies. We prefer memoir and biography to read like fiction so it will use using some fictional devices: narrative balance, engaging dialogue, pace and tension.  

 

Mslexia influence

Yes, I am influenced by this writing magazine. It has always made me feel extremely comfortable. I read a lot of the books that it recommends or at least advertises. There is something here about women being allowed to behave like women instead of having to mimic men. “Behave like women” is a packed phrase and shouldn’t be confused with “women behaving the way men expect them to”.

 

What does our feisty woman look like?

She gets on with things. She has courage. She surprises you in what she manages to achieve.    

 

Find the submission guidelines here: http://www.chapeltownpublishing.uk/p/submission-feisty-women.html                    

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay      

In Fields of Butterfly Flames by Steve Wade

 

See in our online bookshop

How we came to publish this one

The Basilwade Chronicles started off as serial published on CaféLit. A couple of sections were then read on a local radio show. This gave us the idea of making it into an audio book. The talented John Guest really brought the stories to life.   

 

The title

Somehow the title suits the audio book even more than it did the original paperback and e-book. Wouldn’t it be great if it made it to BBC Sounds A Book at Bedtime?   

 

Some notes about the process

We were on a bit of a learning curve when submitting the book to Audible. Still, we’re getting there. This is now our third audio book. We encountered different problems with each of the three.    

 

The cover

The cover is adapted from the original book cover. A cover for an audio book needs to be square and very high resolution. Apparently people still buy CDS!  Have you spotted something odd about the bride on this cover?     

 

Some notes about style

This is a quirky romp. John Guest reading makes it even quirkier.

 

Who we think the reader is

It’s good to listen to these stories. They’ll make you chuckle. Perhaps something to listen to while you do the housework? Or work in the garden? Or go on a long journey? Take care with the latter. You may find them distracting.    

 

Finances

This product is in the black – just.  No upfront costs were accrued. 

 

What else

We’re really pleased with our CaféLit serials and we’re looking at making more audio books. For this and one other book we’ve used a volunteer voice artist who is working for royalties alone. As we’ve provided the voice artist we gain the whole royalty provided by ACX. For another book ACX provided the voice artist so we only get half of the royalty. We’re now looking at using a company to provide the voice, so that the royalty will be split between the writer and our publishing company only.      

 

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the audio book, or download it if you have a plan, and give us a review. Just click on the link to be taken to Audible / Amazon. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free review copy.