It sounds like you love doing this — so glad to hear it!

Thanks for sending the handouts, too. I’m looking forward to reviewing them.

Sandy

Thanks, David. Please send me your handouts — sb@buildbookbuzz.com — I’d love to read them.

So what are you doing now? What’s your role in the process?

Sandy

I’ve confused you — sorry about that. This sentence: [When the publisher does nothing but take money from the author to manufacture the book ] DOESN’T refer to the Partnership model. I figured that those reading the chart would know that. It refers to the Fully Assisted path.

And we obviously agree that the Partnership model adds value to the process.

: )

Sandy

The self-pub-to-publisher examples are actually outliers at the small end of the partnership spectrum. My example was more meant to show that a lot more is going on “under the radar” than people realize, and I believe more examples will appear and evolve.

As for buyer assurance, I’m not sure I agree. For one thing, I’m not aware of too many readers who shop by imprint. For another, quality control seems to be a matter of individual company policy rather than a characteristic of a class of publishers. Random House appears to have bought and released “50 Shades of Grey” pretty much as-is, warts and all. Meanwhile, I know of small presses (Indie and Self-pub) that agonize over the quality of the titles they release.

I don’t believe the Partnership model includes publishers who “take money from an author to manufacture a book.” That is the province of “Fully Assisted” path (i.e. vanity presses.)

In the partnership model, the publisher adds genuine value to the partnership. They do NOT take money up-front from the author, although they do take a percentage (often 50%) of the profit. The publisher earns nothing if the book doesn’t sell, so it behooves the publisher to take great care with the quality of the finished product. That may (and should) include editing, proofing, digital formatting, layout, and book cover design. The author usually has a lot of creative input on these things as well.

Done right, a publishing partnership combines the creativity and market knowledge of an author with the production and distribution resources of a publisher. That said, I’m sure there are many ways to do it wrong. 😉

I agree with you completely on publishers using Amazon as the slush pile, Jim. It’s pretty smart.

As for partnership options, it goes beyond self-published authors applying what they learned to the books of others. There are some decent-sized publishing operations using this model. Because the publisher is sharing the risk, the book buyer or reader has some assurance that there’s a quality control system in place. When the publisher does nothing but take money from the author to manufacture the book, the reader can’t help but be less certain about the quality.

Sandy

Saying traditional publishing is probably not an option for first-time authors today is pretty bold. Most people in the industry tread cautiously around that subject because too many hopeful hearts are still set on attaining the near-impossible prize of seeing their book in stores with a major imprint logo on the cover. However, I agree with you.

We’ve been hearing for a while now about trade-published authors who go “hybrid” and self-publishing some of their titles. But we are also starting to hear about a new breed of hybrid: authors who successfully self-publish a novel and then get pitched by agents and publishers. These authors have effectively skipped ahead of their aspiring peers and completely bypassed the publisher slush piles. Some day it may be that your odds of getting a traditional contract are better if you self-publish first!

If you think about it, for publishers to use Amazon KDP as the new slush pile makes marvelous business sense. Publishers can watch the bestseller lists for titles that have proven commercial success and authors who have a proven marketing track record. Sure, publishers have to give more to these authors to get them to sign on, but they are willing to do this because the are taking virtually no risk on the title or the author. By comparison, taking on an unknown author and a book with unknown market potential is a *huge* financial risk.

Among Rooney’s quibbles was his contention that the Partnership route represents an insignificant percentage of the total number of books published. While that may be true, it is still an option for authors who are interested in that approach. I’ve run into several small publishers who started as self-published authors and have leveraged their hard-won publishing education to help other authors publish books. Susan and I have even done this ourselves with our 57 Secrets series. We produced and published books from two other authors who wanted to focus on writing and not deal with the production or business aspects of publishing. I think we’ll see more of this kind of thing over time because most authors don’t really want to fight through all the confusing changes and misinformation surrounding the publishing industry.

That said, Jane’s infographic is a good place to start for those who want to dive in.