All young authors, poets, or writers, long to see their work published. The first step after the completion of the work is usually to send the typescript to the big publishing houses, unfortunately, without receiving any response, and when they respond, after months and months and the response is almost always negative. The typical answer is: “Your book is beautiful, but currently our editorial plans do not include …” and sometimes add “later we will examine the possibility … keep in mind … we will inform you ...”. The truth is that most of the big publishing houses prefer to invest in big names of established authors because they claim that a young author’s book is difficult to sell, while books written by television personalities, by professional writers, especially those who attend broadcasts show, and again those written by great foreign writers already proven by billionaire sales, etc., etc. are certainly far more marketable.
In the UK hundreds, indeed I would dare to say thousands of books a day are published and even the bookstores, given the choice, do not dedicate space in their premises to unknown artists, they reserve the space available for the books they hope to sell, that is, those who have a good chance to be requested by customers.
Only after having ascertained the impossibility of seeing the work published by a large publishing house, the author decides to turn to a small publisher, and many times, they rely on publishers who publish the book only and exclusively for a fee. Even among the small publishers, there are serious ones, and those who are not serious can be dishonest or even scammers. Therefore, we advise the young author to be very careful in the choice of Book Publishers for New Authors and in any case avoid publishing houses that ask for considerable amounts for publication.
First of all, the Author must ascertain …
- If the publisher is regularly registered with the Chamber of Commerce.
- How long has been in business and professional background?
- If they do not have a shop window on the Internet, have a sample book sent to you to understand the quality of the paper and print.
The author must pay attention to the publishing agreement, here are some things that must be expected to be indicated in the contract …
- Number of pages (very often missing);
- Format of the book (i.e. cm.);
- Type of paper (weight, type, and possibly brand);
- Cover (weight, number of colors with which it is printed, the possible cost for inserting the illustration); How many colors is the illustration? It is common ground that the illustration must be provided by the Author or in any case approved by the publishers;
- Illustrations! Know if a supplement is required for the possible inclusion of illustrations (photos and/or drawings) in the book. For illustrations in black (or in the same color as the text is printed) there should be no surcharge
- Cover price;
- A number of copies that the Author will receive in exchange for contribution (there are even those who ask for a press contribution and then if the Author wants copies them makes them pay at the cover price without even a cent discount!)
- Get at least one sample of a book published in the same series sent
- Expect that the work is marked with the code because in this case the book will be inserted on the website, which happens automatically if the work has said code.
Distribution
Many publishers promise a national circulation with copies that will be sent to various bookstores around the peninsula.
All this is false because this is not the case. In truth, booksellers only accept books that they have ordered or reserved. If unsolicited books are sent to them they put them in a corner.
First of all, we must bear in mind that the book (beyond any romantic consideration) is a “commodity”, the publisher is a “producer” and the bookseller a “shopkeeper”. And no manufacturer sends goods to a merchant that has not been requested!
How diffusion typically occurs?
The publisher usually sends one or more copies of the book with a brief description of the work to the distributor who inserts it in its own catalog which is sent monthly to bookstores throughout the UK. Booksellers can now reserve copies. This happens, remember, only for books that have a good chance of being sold. Just for information, some distributors are accredited in hundreds of bookstores throughout the UK to which they send books on consignment with the commitment by the bookstores to display them in their windows and shelves.
All the books published by official publishers are gradually reviewed, which is constantly updated, and in the “Catalog of books on the market” which comes out every year. In this way, if a reader asks any bookshop for a book published by a qualified publisher, the bookseller can obtain it by sending a fax to the distributor or directly to the publisher. Therefore, books published by qualified publishers can be purchased in all bookstores. The catalog of books on the market, as well as in bookstores can also be consulted in many libraries.
