Another great article, Jamie. It's interesting you hit on the issue of no feedback for declined submissions and maybe discussing this in another post. It was the one thing I found most writers hated about trad publishing was the vague 'thanks but no thanks' responses they got from publishers when submitting. Our rejected submissions are sent a reasonably long email explaining the process and why their submission may have not made it this time around. I find it helps to at least acknowledge the writer's time and effort, even if it wasn't something I was willing to take on. I don't provide feedback as a whole, although I have made exceptions when something is very close, but just not quite there.
I also wondered about your services and how that works - I've been an editor for over 15 years prior to starting Scorpius Books and do design/editing work for companies and other publishers, but strayed from offering it to authors, feeling it may have been seen as a conflict of interest. Is this not your findings? If you edit someone's book and then don't accept it for publication, would they not question why?
This is a great comment that I'm sure a lot of readers will appreciate. I was perhaps a bit flippant in the "feedback" bullet point, trying to set expectations in the basement then exceed them: I will still do the nice standardised letter you describe, and link to the next post on this subject ("reasons why I might have said no"), so perhaps it should read "no *personalised* feedback".
In 2021, a £30 fee was charged per submission, and every author got half an hour spent on their book. You can now get essentially the same service if you submit this month and book consultancy as well, but I've made that non-compulsory (and just hinted at it), in the name of inclusion.
The "services" are unquestionably a conflict of interest, on paper at least. An unethical publisher could simply capture 300 submissions, turn them all down with an ad for services, and do quite nicely! That's why I just *hinted* at the offer above, and won't mention it in rejection emails; it's not my intention to run the business like that. I try to keep both arms as segregated as possible (tricky when it's just me), be transparent about the differences (which I think I've done well), and not do the hard sell too often (which you'll all have to judge).
One day, you'll all wake up and find the "services" page is gone, and I'm running an operation pure as the driven snow – but as you'll see when I share some financial data, I very much still need to sell services in the present market conditions.
Thanks for clarifying, Jamie, and apologies if I misunderstood. I completely understand the need to balance the books with things like editing and design. I don't think I'd still be here if it wasn't for them! I was just curious as I've had queries prevously from authors who I think assumed I was a pay to play publisher and asked me how much I charged to publish and edit their book, and that was without anything on my site advertising services. I've come across a number of authors who wish to self-publish in groups on social media etc who seem to assume that any small publisher is naturally a vanity, which is why I decided on only working for other publishers or editorial consultancies/companies etc. The finances of a small publisher are never pretty!
I like this article because it answered some questions I had that I didn't even know I had. So unlike the other people who have commented I don't exactly come from a editing background so I don't want charged for this service.I don't want to look like a vanity press and like another guy said some people just assume that if you're a small press your a vanity press. I however come from a promotion background and was considering offering easy promotional service such as finding reviewers or setting up tours or website building for authors. However, I'm not sure how authors would view that if they would think we were trying to be a vanity press after all. I'm still on the fence but like you said small publishers need extra income streams.
Coming from a promotion background is probably the best start anyone could have!
Case study: my fellow Substacker Isabelle Kenyon both runs a successful small press and offers promotional services like you describe. I've hired her several times for blog tours, have never heard any authors looking at her offers in a negative light; in fact, she is one of the most respected publishers of her generation in the UK. See here: https://www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/book-blog-tours
Another great article, Jamie. It's interesting you hit on the issue of no feedback for declined submissions and maybe discussing this in another post. It was the one thing I found most writers hated about trad publishing was the vague 'thanks but no thanks' responses they got from publishers when submitting. Our rejected submissions are sent a reasonably long email explaining the process and why their submission may have not made it this time around. I find it helps to at least acknowledge the writer's time and effort, even if it wasn't something I was willing to take on. I don't provide feedback as a whole, although I have made exceptions when something is very close, but just not quite there.
I also wondered about your services and how that works - I've been an editor for over 15 years prior to starting Scorpius Books and do design/editing work for companies and other publishers, but strayed from offering it to authors, feeling it may have been seen as a conflict of interest. Is this not your findings? If you edit someone's book and then don't accept it for publication, would they not question why?
This is a great comment that I'm sure a lot of readers will appreciate. I was perhaps a bit flippant in the "feedback" bullet point, trying to set expectations in the basement then exceed them: I will still do the nice standardised letter you describe, and link to the next post on this subject ("reasons why I might have said no"), so perhaps it should read "no *personalised* feedback".
In 2021, a £30 fee was charged per submission, and every author got half an hour spent on their book. You can now get essentially the same service if you submit this month and book consultancy as well, but I've made that non-compulsory (and just hinted at it), in the name of inclusion.
The "services" are unquestionably a conflict of interest, on paper at least. An unethical publisher could simply capture 300 submissions, turn them all down with an ad for services, and do quite nicely! That's why I just *hinted* at the offer above, and won't mention it in rejection emails; it's not my intention to run the business like that. I try to keep both arms as segregated as possible (tricky when it's just me), be transparent about the differences (which I think I've done well), and not do the hard sell too often (which you'll all have to judge).
One day, you'll all wake up and find the "services" page is gone, and I'm running an operation pure as the driven snow – but as you'll see when I share some financial data, I very much still need to sell services in the present market conditions.
Thanks for clarifying, Jamie, and apologies if I misunderstood. I completely understand the need to balance the books with things like editing and design. I don't think I'd still be here if it wasn't for them! I was just curious as I've had queries prevously from authors who I think assumed I was a pay to play publisher and asked me how much I charged to publish and edit their book, and that was without anything on my site advertising services. I've come across a number of authors who wish to self-publish in groups on social media etc who seem to assume that any small publisher is naturally a vanity, which is why I decided on only working for other publishers or editorial consultancies/companies etc. The finances of a small publisher are never pretty!
I like this article because it answered some questions I had that I didn't even know I had. So unlike the other people who have commented I don't exactly come from a editing background so I don't want charged for this service.I don't want to look like a vanity press and like another guy said some people just assume that if you're a small press your a vanity press. I however come from a promotion background and was considering offering easy promotional service such as finding reviewers or setting up tours or website building for authors. However, I'm not sure how authors would view that if they would think we were trying to be a vanity press after all. I'm still on the fence but like you said small publishers need extra income streams.
Coming from a promotion background is probably the best start anyone could have!
Case study: my fellow Substacker Isabelle Kenyon both runs a successful small press and offers promotional services like you describe. I've hired her several times for blog tours, have never heard any authors looking at her offers in a negative light; in fact, she is one of the most respected publishers of her generation in the UK. See here: https://www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/book-blog-tours