Down, down, you bring me down...

Trying to get a small indie publishing house off the ground in today's publishing climate often feels like hurtling headlong in a burning car with no brakes towards the edge of the Abyss. And I don't just mean a long drop, I mean The Abyss. You know, demons and stuff.

There's so much doom and gloom around. Whether it's traditionalists panicking about the appearance of the army of ebooks cresting the top of the mountain, supported by legions of Kindles and iPads, the Google book settlement and what it means for authors, book stores struggling to turn a profit or large publishing houses shedding jobs quicker than James Patterson churns out books, I often wonder if we're not completely off our rockers to be getting ourselves into this, if indeed we know what this is.

Yet I can't help but feel we're at the start of someting, if not beautiful, then bloody exciting. Sure, it's a period of uncertainty for the publishing industry; and those who claim to know how things will pan out over the next five to ten are speculators at best, deluded at worst. But it is reassuring when respected voices such as agents Peter Cox, with this column in The Bookseller, and Nathan Bransford, with this blog post, say it how I see it.

Cynics will say it's a natural reaction from agents - to try and put a positive spin on events, given that they make their living by representing authors, and trying to find The Next Big Name, and a positive, optimistic unpublished writer will (generally) produce a better manuscript than one who's depressed because they think the world that they so desperately want to conquer is crumbling before their eyes.

I don't know Nathan, but I do know Peter through Litopia, and I don't believe he's bigging the future of publishing up because, well, it's his job. The impression I get is one of true excitement, and Peter is doing everything he can, both for his authors and the members of Litopia, to be at the cutting edge of publishing. It's a similar emotion that radiates from Nathan's blog; these guys love publishing, writing and, yes, even unpublished authors.

And that enthusiam is infectious. I feel sorry for anyone who can't share in it.

For us at Nemesis, one of the most important tasks we face over the coming few months is to learn everything there is to know about ebooks, and look to position ourselves to exploit the market, where possible. There are niche markets - such as the overseas Manx - where we know ebooks will likely present a more financially attractive proposition than a hard copy, which is handicapped by delivery costs to the US and elsewhere.

Now, if I could figure out how to bottle the enthusiasm emanating from these agents, we'd be quids in.

Till next time
JQ

Regular spot on Litopia

Thanks to literary agent Peter Cox, who runs the Redhammer agency, our antics here at Nemesis Publishing will be catalogued over the coming months on the Litopia Daily podcast.

Peter has kindly invited me, on a monthly basis, to talk all things publishing and to chart how the development of Nemesis is progressing. We recorded the first piece this evening - watch this space for details on when it will air.

As with all these things, the moment the Skype call ended, I thought of several points I didn't mention, or should have explained better, but I' ve been a semi-regular guest panellist on the Litopia After Dark podcast for a while now, and know that Peter is very skilled in editing and preventing me from sounding like a halfwit, or at least a complete halfwit.

One thing I didn't touch on, but hopefully will in future updates, is the influence Peter's Litopia writing colony has had on me during the last two years. It's fair to say that, if I hadn't stumbled across Litopia, and made a cracking bunch of friends and contacts, and digested the advice and info they impart, Nemesis wouldn't be anywhere near the stage that it is now.

So, thanks Litopia, and thanks to Peter. If you have any interest in developing yourself as a writer, you could do a lot worse with an hour or so of your time to register on Litopia and spend a while finding out whether it is the kind of place for you.

Now, back to editing....

What's that, authors? You want to be paid, as well?

I had the rather cool pleasure to be a guest panellist on the Litopia After Dark podcast at the weekend, alongside Martin Daniels, who, amongst other things, blogs for The Bookseller. There's not a whole lot he doesn't know, or have an opinion about, in the world of publishing.

If you’re not familiar with the podcast (and if you’re serious about books, you should be), each panellist raises an issue they want to talk (or rant) about. The ebook phenomenon has been a regular feature in recent months, and Friday night’s show was no exception.

We started with a look at the threatened boycott of Amazon's Kindle ebook reader by independent publisher Antellus, who has been riled by the fact that ebook editions published for the Kindle, and subsequently retired and taken off-line, are still being sold, not to mention claims about Amazon's seller agreement, which it says allows Amazon to modify and sell books from its suppliers in whatever format it chooses.

Martyn then weighed in on the issue of royalties from ebooks - and whether authors are being screwed. With advances going down, at all levels but the very top, and with a market where the recommended retail price often has little relevance, where is an author's money coming from - and how will authors be paid for ebook sales?

He suggested that, rather than an across the board contract between publisher and author, a publisher could have separate digital rights for each sales avenue - eg Amazon, Google - and on renewable contracts, allowing for changes. On the face of it, these suggestions sound reasonable.

The whole ebook industry remains an entirely unpredictable business. Its share of the book market is advancing year-on-year, but quite how that growth is going to continue over the next five, ten or twenty years is difficult to predict. The likes of the Kindle are increasing in popularity, yet I've yet to speak to one person who would ever consider going for an ebook over a traditional slab of paper, other than some agents, who like the flexibility of being able to take a couple of hundred manuscripts to the gym with them for a good read on the treadmill.

One thing is sure - as a new publisher, it's an area in which we need to keep our eye on the ball, starting now. I'm woefully ignorant about ebooks and their implications for the publishing industry, and I don't think I'm alone. It's going to mean a tonne of research and trying to understand an area that is complex to say the least. And we'll be considering Martyn's suggestions for when we enter the ebook market.

But it's equally important for authors to keep abreast of developments, to ensure they understand the implications for their profession. If ebooks are here to stay, then it's better to be in from the start than trying to play catch-up when the ebook industry is well and truly cooking.

It won't hang around for you.

Waiting for the right stuff

With Vertigo out later this year, and one or two other non-fiction and short fiction collections in the pipeline, our thoughts recently turned to the big one – the first published novel. With the website in development, it would be ideal to have details of our first novel ready for when the site goes live.

We’ve received several manuscripts, which is pleasing, considering they arrived before we’d started putting our name out there. Some have been better than others, although at this stage there’s nothing which jumps out and screams ‘Publish me!’ One or two could be interesting with some work, but right now we have nothing ready to go.

As a new publisher, it’s a bit of a chicken and egg – with no back catalogue, you have no track record with which to convince writers that they should be submitting to you. However, if you go too early and publish something which isn’t up to scratch, you run the risk of soiling whatever reputation you may have.

So what to do? How long do you play the waiting game? Do you hold out for something utterly brilliant to thud onto your desk? Or do you take a chance on something that you think could work, having asked for rewrites and edits and the like?

With this in mind, I sought out the advice of Lynn Price, editorial director of California-based Behler Publications and resident editor within Litopia. If I had a pound for each time I’ve seen Lynn thanked by writers for the advice she offers, I’d have… hell, I don’t know, but I’d be damn rich.

‘You're certainly right that books build your reputation,’ Lynn told me. ‘And it's smart to have a bang-on book to open your gates. In my case, I knew a lot of writers, so I came out with several books at around the same time.

‘As to how long to wait till you're sure? That's hard to say. It's a gut feel in your radar that pings because you feel confident about promoting the book, the author has a good platform, you have a solid, identifiable readership, and the content is unique to everything currently in the store shelves. Fiction is hard to sell, and it's vital to understand the fiction marketplace.

‘My litmus test is, it has to be beautifully written, and I know I can sell it, given all the other parameters. I won't take something that needs a lot of work because it's too easy for the work to fall apart during the editing process. I'll make recommendations to the author about what I love and what I feel needs work. If they want to fix it and resubmit six months later, I'm good with that.

‘I won't/can't take something that I feel I'm taking a chance on because it's too expensive. I have to feel 100% committed. I wouldn't worry too much about not seeing great manuscripts yet; you haven't put your company name out there. Once you begin publicizing your company, you'll have a lot more to choose from.

‘The most important thing is not to make a round hole fit a square peg. Wait for the right book to come to you.’

Quite often, when you ask for advice, you already know the answer – you just can’t see the wood for the trees. Reading Lynn’s words, it became blindingly obvious.

So, the challenge to all you writers out there is this. We’re waiting for the ‘right book’. Get writing, get editing, get polishing and get submitting.