On competition
Authors aren’t in competition with each other. If you consider the average reader’s actual taste, you’ll most likely find a wide variety of books on his shelf. The same person may read romances, horror stories, detective stories and comedy. It is shortsighted to presume that a given writer is ‘losing’ business to some other writer. Why might not the reader want both writers’ books? The only question is how best to market a book so that the work receives the recognition it deserves.
‘There’s always room on anyone’s shelf for one more book.’ –Jonnie Comet.
On ‘vanity publishing’, which we don’t do
Vanity publishers seek to earn their money from charging the writer for
setup, editing, and ‘marketing packages’ that ultimately do not bring
the writer closer to making a profit from book sales. Why do they do
this? –because they assume that the heretofore unpublished
writer is so vain and shallow that he will actually pay considerable
sums of money to be able to stroke his ego with seeing his own book, no
matter how poorly prepared, in print. So businesses provide this
service, making preposterous promises about the money to be made when,
all the while, they are regarding the naïve writer, not his readership,
as their customer. For as long as the author pays them for these
‘services’, the vanity publisher has no incentive to work any harder,
such as to create markets and to promote books through distributing
press releases, approaching libraries, and developing sales channels.
We, on the other hand, charge the writer nothing for any of what
we do, preferring to believe in the worth of the work itself. If the
book is good, we’ll market it. If it sells (if our labor is
worthwhile), we make money. And the writer makes money. This is how
respectable publishers and book marketers work– but notice it starts
with a writer writing a really good book and a promoter really believing
in that book.
‘If the publisher is charging you money to do what should be his job, he’s ripping you off.’ –Richard Christopher.
On our limitations
We can’t do everything. We don’t even try to. But everyone deserves
an honest, respectful response about why his work isn’t being accepted.
We’ll be as prompt as we can and as honest as we can. If we didn’t
have time to read it, we’ll say so. If we don’t want it, you deserve to
know why. If it needs work (and most works we see do), we’ll tell you
what to do to mend it. If, after all this, we don’t recognize a
marketable book, we’ll explain our reasoning, even if you probably won’t
like it.
But we’re not nitwits and our assessment and suggestions should matter to you.
On online marketing
We use Amazon as our primary marketing milieu. In this day and age,
most people turn to the Internet to see what’s available to buy rather
than walk or drive to the big retailer. And books on Amazon always turn
up in any Web search. As a marketing platform, Amazon is not limited
to any physical locations so, in effect, a writer can be marketing his
work in distant states and in foreign countries better than he may be
able to do in his own hometown. Amazon will provide each writer his own
author page and links to all his current works. It’s free exposure and
has proven priceless to writers who are just starting out. We at SCS
will compose the text of the author page and provide all the cool
marketing blurbs necessary to make your work seem fascinating. We also
offer this service alone (for a fee) to writers we don’t otherwise
represent.
It’s true that nothing matches the ambiance of cozy local bookshops,
whom we would most like to have selling the titles we represent. But
many of them claim to not have the space or the interest to stock works
by small, independent publishers’ writers (the same as what big-chain
book retailers tell us). So the tragedy for these business owners is
that online sales of small-press-published books, the fastest-growing
segment of the industry, will continue to cost them plenty of revenue.
As much as we can, we encourage small shops to develop a unique
marketing approach that will draw audiences to their physical
locations. We’ve found that those who do will succeed and those who
‘can’t be bothered’ will not. Though we market through Amazon, if the
bookshops do express an interest in our titles we always ensure they can
buy at a respectable discount and then we’ll offer as much marketing
assistance as we can. (Typically the bookshop’s discount comes out of our cut– not the writers’!)
‘We can get paid only if we have business. The question is in how we cultivate that business.’ –Richard Christopher.
On e-texts
We’re traditionalists and all agree that having a physical book in your
hand is the most wonderful thing in the world. But after initial
reluctance we have gained respect for the e-book format and assertively
market titles on Amazon/Kindle. We do offer the caveat that some of the
available marketing plans have less-than-obvious drawbacks. It is
vital that any writer not expect too much from his Kindle sales, at
least at the first stages, because the primary benefit of Kindle is in
gaining exposure, not generating revenue. Discounted Kindle texts may
earn the publisher little more than pennies on each sale; and for us
this means splitting that with our writers. We prefer to leave the
decisions about Kindle to each writer and, after carefully educating him
in what we have experienced and what he can expect from it, will follow
his wishes without prejudice.
On printing on demand
We support very strongly, even more than we do e-texts, print-on-demand
publishing platforms. This is the only truly cost-effective and
environmentally-friendly way to produce hardcopy (meaning paperback)
books these days. For decades the standard model was for publishers to
accept only those books which represented a ‘sure thing’ in the market
and then to print 10,000 (which actually was a ‘short run’ at some
houses) or more at a time. Return policies stipulated that retailers
tear off the front covers of the books and return the covers for
refunds. The rest of these unsold books were sold as ‘cutouts’ or
‘leftovers’ at vastly-discounted prices (from which the author got
nothing) or became trash. This is wasteful on many levels; but it is
still how many ‘big-name’ publishers do business.
Using print-on-demand, a publisher’s printing contractor prints only as
many books as are actually sold to either a retailer or an end
customer. Rather than stocking thousands of books waiting for orders,
such a publisher can fill each order on its own. The actual process is
not expensive, not time-consuming, and not wasteful of resources. It’s
really not much different from printing a document on your home computer
(just with a very cool printer!). Of course there is a slight delay
between the receipt of the order and the shipping of a book; but
compared to how a large warehouse would fill the order the delay might
be only two or three days. Realistically a reader can order a title
directly from us and have the physical book in his hands in about a
week. A bookshop, whatever its size, needs to stock only as many books
as are needed to fill the gap of time between the sale of one and the
predictable arrival of its replacement.
On our production scheme
Our favorite book-printing platform is the Amazon/CreateSpace one,
which supplies quality paperback books very economically at no upfront
cost to either us or our writers. This is a very easy-to-use program
that provides the excellent benefits of Amazon marketing, including in
Kindle e-text, as though by default. Any writer who wishes to take on
the publishing of his own works may enter the program on his own, take
all the profits and perform all the necessary prep work. But we have
found that adequate preparation is most of the battle won; and with our
unique conglomerate of minds and skills we are remarkably adept at
editing, revising, formatting, and submitting book files to the
CreateSpace program– and we have received stellar results. We commend
to all writers this worthwhile scheme, in which an author pays nothing
but for the copies of books he orders, and we wish all the very best of
luck. But if a writer wants to concentrate more on writing and less on
marketing, does not expect a six-figure income from writing overnight,
and desires a deftly-rendered, faithful presentation of both his work
and his professional image, we offer our services (and contract) with
all eagerness.
On authorship
Being media producers ouselves, we believe in the author– his passion,
his dedication, his best efforts and his intentions. We hesitate to
call the yen to publish a good book a ‘dream’. Flights of fancy are
fine; but what separates the dreamer from the successful author is
plain, old-fashioned hard work, focused on a distinct goal, with
some sort of schedule or budget involved as well. Surf City Source came
into being precisely to provide that focus and impetus to what
otherwise were very talented voices in need of being heard. We don’t
pretend to be a sure thing– and anyone who promises that is fooling
you. But we are committed to what authors do, which is to create
unique, fascinating, well-written and media-friendly literary
masterpieces, and we will never discourage you from wanting to see that
work come to fruition.
In this modern world, any author will be foolish to assume that a
publisher is just going to take his text and turn it into a best seller
overnight. Unless you’re already very famous, that won’t happen no
matter which publisher accepts you. We’ll do our part; but we will rely
on the author to do his utmost in presenting himself, his work and its
potential in the very best light possible. Our part will be in helping
to prepare that work and in advising the author, opening avenues for
promotion, developing sales and marketing channels, and standing by
those we represent both in spirit and in person. In short, we want what
you want: for you to be respected and compensated for what you do well.
‘If you look good, we look good! That’s our motivation.’ –Jayne.
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