NF Publishing - Page 2 - Writers Forum

ross · 01-01-2006, 05:15 AM

Good luck with it Nickie. I can understand why people can be initially sceptical on the subject of new or independant publishers, the SP organisations are partly responsible for that (and also unpublished authors expectations of them).
Its always a good thing to see someone working hard towards achieving a long-held ambition.
All the best.
Ross.

Mike C · 01-01-2006, 06:36 AM

You'll have to forgive my initial reservations, Nickie, but I'm irritated when I know I'm not seeing the whole story.

If I could be bothered, it would be interesting to reference back to a thread a few months back where you first mooted setting up as a publisher; then you suggested that there were lots of gullible females in belgium who'd be your target for submissions.

Who will be printing your books? Again, referring back to previous threads you'll be PODing - making you just a middle-man between author and pod printer, taking your cut out of the author's cut?

So, how do you differ from, say, Lulu?

Your only sales outlet will be a website. How do you plan on promoting that? Do you have a marketing plan, and can we see it please? And if not why not?

What percentage of nett sales will go to the author? and what will that equate to in real terms - how many euros/dollars per book?

And if, as you say, historical fiction AS A GENRE can only rely on selling 200 books in total (where do you get your facts from?) then how many sales will any one individual book within that genre sell? 1? 2?

So, if an author submits to you, and you accept, how many copies do you realistically forecast will sell? And in what timeframe? And what will that equate to in author earnings?

Is this a one-woman band? Who will be responsible for copy editing (not the same person responsible for all the typos on your website, I hope)? Typesetting, cover design, accounting, etc etc.

I'm concerned because I don't think you have the authors' best interests at heart. You're a self published writer who thinks it would be kind of fun to extend your hobby at the expense of other writers. And I don't mean by taking money from them directly; I mean by misguiding them into them thinking they're getting something they're not, or can get better elsewhere, into thinking that entrusting a manuscript to you will result in anything other than mediocre sales, into submitting to you instead of looking for a deal with a real publisher.

When a writer submits to a publisher - even to PA, if they don't know any better - they don't do it lightly. Writing a novel isn't easy; the manuscript that lands in your hands may be the result of several years work. Someone has sweated blood and tears over it. Is what you're offering worthy of what they will be offering you?

You may think i'm sniping at you Nickie, but if you want to go into a business which messes with vulnerable people's hopes and dreams - in fact, if you want to run any kind of business - you have to be prepared to answer difficult questions. And you need to be damn sure you know the answers.

Nickie · 01-01-2006, 02:07 PM

No offense taken, Mike! I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability.

1) The printer I am going to work with is Print-it. It's a relatively young company, which uses the newest kind of technology to print books. They work for most of the existing publishers in Belgium, including Manteau. The actual cost of printing will be the basic price of the book. Then we'll look at the number of pages, which will decide on the selling price.
2) With Lulu you can have your book printed in no time. But you will have to do all the markteting yourself, or pay a lot of money to Lulu. We won't work that way.
3) No, the website is not going to be the only sales outlet of the company. It will be there of course, for the world to see what we're doing. I have someone who's going to design this site for a fee. The contents of it are written by myself. I already have a contract with an online bookstore, Proxis (www.proxis.be and www.proxis.nl) and am now working on a deal with Amazon. I also try to get deals with independent bookstores. One I have already, but there are other ways of selling your books, for instance through a retail store called Kruidvat and Press Shop.
4) The author will get a percentage of first 10% on the net sales price. If the books costs for instance 15 euro, the author will get 1,5 euro on it.
5) If I think an author would only sell one or two copies of his book, I'll never offer him/her a contract. I will only publish books which have a fair chance of selling.
6) I can' foresee future, so I can't tell you how many copies of a book will sell within one month, a year, ... Who can? We all hope, of course, that there be plenty of sales.
7) And no, it's not a one-woman band. I am the acting head of the company, but there are others who do cover design, editing, and accountancy.

I do have the author's best interest in mind. Once a novel is accepted for publication, we'll do our best to promote this book and the author will be treated fairly. And Mike, these authors are not obliged to come to NF Publishing. They can also query other publishers, right? And you were mentioning PA. Well, I sure won't claim that a book did not sell (like what happened to me personally, I knew for sure that people had bought my novel and PA claimed there were no sales for that period). Authors will always have the right to view the sales figures. The author should get what he deserves.
9) So, to conclude, I'm not afraid to answer questions. As we only start as of today, I don't have all the answers yet. A year or so will teach us a lot more. Then I'll be able to assess what we have done and how well/bad it worked. I can only assure everybody that we want to make our company work and hope to create a respected reputation.

Nickie

Mike C · 01-02-2006, 04:19 AM

I'll watch your progress with interest Nickie.

Out of interest how do you propose dealing with submissions from outside Belgium, or even outside Europe? If a US author submitted to you would you accept (assuming the book was good) or would you advise him that (s)he might be more successful if he went elsewhere?

Nickie · 01-02-2006, 04:59 AM

Out of commercial viewpoint, I'd be foolish to let a good book go! I don't see any problems publishing writers around the world; their books will be available through online bookshops and payment won't be a problem either.

As a matter of fact, I already have some oversees manuscripts into consideration. I'm going to offer a contract to at least one of these, and the author seems quite happy with what I told him so far. He had offered this manuscript to big publishers, but they did not want to publish it. Still I feel this story is going to do well and so I want to give it a chance.

I'll let all you guys know how we're doing, along the way, that's a promise!

Nickie

Mike C · 01-02-2006, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nickie

Out of commercial viewpoint, I'd be foolish to let a good book go!

But from a moral and ethical standpoint? How are you planning on publicising the books you publish? Just appearing on websites - even amazon - without any form of promotion won't cut it. What active steps will you take to promote your authors? How are you better than Lulu?

ross · 01-02-2006, 05:12 PM

But from a moral and ethical standpoint?
C'mon Mike it's a business venture not a damn charity.

Nickie · 01-03-2006, 06:39 AM

A promotion campaign will be discussed with each individual author. We will do what is possible.

Nickie

Mike C · 01-03-2006, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ross

But from a moral and ethical standpoint?
C'mon Mike it's a business venture not a damn charity.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. Sure, it's not a charity, but if Nickie takes on, say, a US author, how is she going to make sure the book achieves the sales it deserves. Do you not think there is room for ethics in business? I thought that's why people don't like PA.

Mike C · 01-03-2006, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nickie

A promotion campaign will be discussed with each individual author. We will do what is possible.

Nickie

Will the campaign differ from author to author then? In what way?

What do you consider possible?

Nickie · 01-03-2006, 10:15 AM

Mike, I cannot really go into this. It will depend on the book and the author, where he lives, what possibilities there are. You will have different campaigns for let's say children's books, a thriller, ... You also aim at another public. So each campaign needs to be "tailored".

Nickie

Selorian · 01-03-2006, 11:13 AM

Mike, do you think you could ease up some now?

Everyone has the right to be skeptical, but in your effort to discredit (I may be wrong here, but that seems to be what you're doing) Nickie, you are making yourself look bad. You're asking questions that are impossible to answer since each situation will be different. So far, I applaud Nickie for how she has handled herself, it shows true professionalism under the circumstances.

I believe right now you are making yourself appear in a less than favorable light. I doubt that is what you were wanting to do, so maybe give it a rest for a while. All perception though, and that's how I see it right now.

Mike C · 01-04-2006, 12:59 AM

If I make myself look bad for asking questions that any author is entitled to know the answers to, I can't say I'm bothered. I wasn't asking to make myself look good, I'm asking because there are a thousand and one sharks out there determined to crap on writers and, while I don't think Nickie is one of those, I don't feel that what Nickie is doing is in any writer's best interest, and I reserve the right to say so.

I'm still curious, at present, as to how a Belgian POD middle-person can best serve me, or any other author not based in Belgium. And as the marketing of a book is the critical factor that determines whether you sell 5 copies or 5,000, I'd like to know more about how Nickie aims to service remote (to her) markets. All it takes to shut me up is a satisfactory answer, but as far as I can see all Nickie will have is a website and a lot of hope. This does not serve the best interest of the author, or Nickie for that matter.

Janelle_34 · 01-28-2006, 03:35 PM

Honestly. Some people!!!

Mike C · 01-28-2006, 05:05 PM

Which people?