Q&A with a leading UK Self Publishing Company
Sarah Taylor is the Marketing Manager at Troubador Publishing Ltd, the company that hosts The Self-Publishing Conference, where she has worked for nearly four years. She is also the Editor of The Self Publishing Magazine, one of the sponsors of The 2nd Self-Publishing Conference 2014. http://www.troubador.co.uk/
1. How long have you been running, and has your business changed in recent years due to the increase in Self-Publishing?
The Matador imprint is celebrating its 14th birthday this year! I’ve worked at the company for nearly four years and the company has expanded drastically in that time. The self-publishing boom has motivated us to continually change the way we work and improve our services so that we can continue to offer our authors the highest-quality product possible and a guaranteed route to market. One of the most recent developments within the company is the creation and launch of The Self-Publishing Conference – we held our first Conference last March, and it was so successful that we have now established it as an annual event. The second is next month – 30th March 2014!
2. Do you think that Self-Publishing is accepted now as a means to deliver a book?
Absolutely; barely a day goes by without a self-publishing success story of one kind or another. The stigma around self-publishing is starting to be eradicated and, at the end of the day, it’s all about the finished product and the readers. As long as they are getting a quality book that looks good and reads well, I don’t think they mind who has published it. We focus on producing a professionally-designed and book, and are often told that our books are indistinguishable from those published by traditional publishing houses.
There’s also been a massive turnaround in attitudes towards self-publishing from authors – nowadays being an ‘indie author’ is associated with a real sense of pride and independence; authors are increasingly choosing self-publishing as their first option, rather than as a fallback after being turned down by mainstream publishers. One of our most successful authors is Polly Courtney, who rose to fame after publishing two books with us, and was then signed for a three-book deal by HarperCollins. After her last book, with them, she decided to part ways with them and has since returned to self-publishing. She’ll be sharing her experiences in her Conference session ‘From self-publishing to mainstream and back again’.
3. How do you compare to other companies that in the past have been seen as Vanity Publishers that ask for large amount of money to produce a novel? (No names mentioned).
Vanity publishing is a largely outdated term nowadays, and one we’ve always strived to avoid association with. When we launched the Matador imprint, we firmly established ourselves at the quality end of the market and that’s been our ethos for the last fourteen years. There are a number of ways in which we feel we differ from other self-publishing firms; we place a big emphasis on editing, design – inside and outside the book – and we offer a full range of distribution and bespoke marketing options.
We also recommend a range of printing options – self-publishing seems to be becoming synonymous with ‘print on demand’, but a lot of authors don’t realise that POD doesn’t suit every single book – until it’s too late. These are just some of the things that Alysoun Owen (Editor of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook) and Matador’s Jeremy Thompson will be discussing in their ‘Choosing a self-publishing services provider’ talk at the 2014 Conference.
4. Do you support authors with creating their books – or do you provide templates for them?
We do as little or as much work on a book as an author requires. We have authors who supply print-ready files; we have authors who supply their own covers; we have authors who even arrange their own printing. For the majority of authors, who want everything doing for them, we take their book from the original text document to the finished product and do all of the production and marketing work involved.
Some authors choose to handle some of the processes themselves – for example, cover design – and in this case we offer guidance as best as we can to ensure that the end product is as good as it can be, even if we’re not doing the work on that particular component. Matador’s Head of Production Terry Compton will be talking about ‘The importance of cover design’ with Aimee Bell of Author Design Studio at the event.
5. How much support can an author get for their launch?
Book launches are something we’ve always felt best for the author to organise – it’s important for authors to take a handle on their own events as it is self-publishing, and it’s also important for them to cultivate their relationships with libraries and bookshops. We are often invited to – and attend! – book launches, but the emphasis is on the author to handle launches themselves. We offer a range of marketing materials for authors to promote their events – including posters, bookmarks and leaflets – and we can supply orders to any retailer that wants to source stock from us directly.
I’ll be touching on this in my workshop on how to ‘Work successfully with bookshops and libraries to sell your book’ along with Maggie Boyd of Leicestershire Library Services and Debbie James from The Kibworth Bookshop.
6. Was there a common question from attendees at the The Self-Publishing Conference in 2013?
We were mostly asked about marketing – a lot of authors completely overlook marketing, or think about it once the book has already been published – which is too late. Authors should start thinking about their marketing before they write the book – so that they can identify their target audience, and make sure the book is correctly aimed at that audience – and the bulk of marketing work is carried out in the run-up to the book’s official publication date.
At this year’s Conference, our marketing sessions are the most heavily subscribed – including Ben Cameron’s workshop ‘Creating the best media pitch’ and Helen McCusker’s two sessions – ‘Writing a successful press release’ and ‘Preparing for your first media interview’.
7. Are there any advancements in Self-Publishing or E-Books that you can foresee for the future?
We always hear that the print market is declining, but the number of authors still choosing to self-publish with us in physical formats contradicts this theory. Certainly we’ve seen a huge increase in the authors who come to us just to publish their ebook, and a massive increase in those who choose to produce their book both digitally and physically. I think the shift will continue to grow towards digital content, not just limited to ebooks – including apps and audiobooks. At this year’s Conference we’ll have Rachel Gregory and Rosie Grindrod from Matador, who will discuss ebook creation and marketing respectively. Kobo will also be running a session on ‘Ebook publishing with Kobo’ on the day.
Self-publishing children’s books also seems to be a growth area, which is why we have a dedicated children’s book strand this year. One of these sessions is run by Louise Jordan from The Writers’ Advice Centre for Children, who will be advising delegates on ‘Structuring a children’s book’.
8. When an author prints a large quantity of their book to reduce manufacture costs, do you provide a storage service?
We have in-house storage facilities and we also use an external distributor to enable as wide a distribution network as possible. We do provide storage for authors, but we also advise where an author is planning an unrealistic print run. It’s important for authors to manage their expectations and think about how they are going to sell copies of their book – rather than just blindly choosing a huge print run and being forced to store boxes of books for years to come. Neil Clarke from printer TJ International will be touching on print runs in his ‘Working successfully with your printer’ session.
Notes for Editors:
Taking place on March 30, 2014 at the University of Leicester, The 2nd Self-Publishing Conference is aimed at any author wishing to self-publish. The Conference is sponsored by Kobo, Writers & Artists, Cameron Publicity & Marketing, Writing Magazine, Nielsen Book, Cornerstones, TJ International, Booked PR, The Writers’ Advice Centre, Matador and The Self Publishing Magazine. It will bring together key figures in the self-publishing sphere for the benefit of self-publishing authors. The Conference takes place on Sunday March 30, 2014, 8.45am-4.30pm, at Stamford Conference Centre, University of Leicester. Registration is £55.00 per person. This includes a delegate’s pack, morning coffee, buffet lunch, afternoon tea and a choice from more than nine sessions on different aspects of self-publishing and a chance to win an amazing Kobo Aura, the premium eReader supplied courtesy of Kobo Writing Life.
http://www.selfpublishingconference.org.uk/
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