What you need to know if you are looking for a Literary Agent/Publisher:
You have just written a book and want to get it published. So, you begin to trawl the internet for Literary Agents paying special attention to your genre and the genre they specialise in...that's easy enough. Or you could buy a copy of the Writers and Artists Yearbook for the info. It should be a simple match, and off you go...or is it that simple? Short answer - no! First, I recommend you read the blurb on a Literary Agent's web page, thoroughly, taking special note of their submission request information. Secondly, if you follow their quidelines and later receive a reply that they want to refer you to their sister company, then you have found an Agent who will pass you on to a publisher dealing in "Subsidy Publishing" or "Vanity Publishing" or Self-Publishing". Either way, you will have to part with a lot of your money before you will see your work in print. Finally, if you have written a "Block Buster" then you won't have much of the trouble aforementioned, but if your genre is among the fading many regarding a worn out subject, then you will experience practically every reply with a contract for Subsidy, Vanity and or Self-Publishing, or even POD publishing (Print On Demand). You will, at the end of all this cram, probably come out with a mere 10% for all your hard, slogging laboured hours, weeks, months, even years , if you are lucky! If you self-publish through a Publisher, you will have to buy each book from the Publisher, find a book store that will give you bookshelf space - costing apprx 50% of the book price - as well as having paid upwards of a £1,000.00 to the publisher and all your transportation costs to boot! Not a good prospect - if you ask me! If you Subsidy Publish, the money you pay them, along with all their overhead costs of what they call, marketing, media coverage, reviewing etc, will push the price of an A5 paperback normally costing around £6.95p to almost £16.00 - now who would pay that much for an average 310-page paperback? So your chances of selling any are reduced to a very few - if you are lucky!
If you want to see what a publisher's Subsidy Contract looks like, click on "See Publisher Subsidy Contract" at the top of this page. Click on Hall of Infamy if you want to see a short list of Agencies and Publishers to be aware of before signing up with any of them. Luna Moth Publishing Ltd, offered me 20% on book sales up to the first 100 copies, then 25% on book sales over the first 1,000 - so what are they taking from all my hard work? For £3,372.10p I must pay, they would give me 20 copies! How really nice of them! So, getting published is even harder these days. If you go by the old, archaic method - A4 single-sided print, double-line spacing, inch and a half margins all round 2-3 reams of paper will be needed - costs approximately £75.00 to post to a publisher, at say £5.00 per ream, makes say, £85.00. They recommend you send off to at least 10 publishers, which means your total will come to £850.00 - and you will end up, probably, on their slush-pile - they've got you cornered which ever way you go! The Post Office is well-oiled, the paper industry, the publisher's too, all on your money and you end up with 10% - well, what can I say! There is no doubt you have to be reasonably well-off to get published in this Literary Agency closed-shop world of Publishing in which we live. Good luck!
If you want to see what a publisher's Subsidy Contract looks like, click on "See Publisher Subsidy Contract" at the top of this page. Click on Hall of Infamy if you want to see a short list of Agencies and Publishers to be aware of before signing up with any of them. Luna Moth Publishing Ltd, offered me 20% on book sales up to the first 100 copies, then 25% on book sales over the first 1,000 - so what are they taking from all my hard work? For £3,372.10p I must pay, they would give me 20 copies! How really nice of them! So, getting published is even harder these days. If you go by the old, archaic method - A4 single-sided print, double-line spacing, inch and a half margins all round 2-3 reams of paper will be needed - costs approximately £75.00 to post to a publisher, at say £5.00 per ream, makes say, £85.00. They recommend you send off to at least 10 publishers, which means your total will come to £850.00 - and you will end up, probably, on their slush-pile - they've got you cornered which ever way you go! The Post Office is well-oiled, the paper industry, the publisher's too, all on your money and you end up with 10% - well, what can I say! There is no doubt you have to be reasonably well-off to get published in this Literary Agency closed-shop world of Publishing in which we live. Good luck!
