In the literary industry there are two compounding problems a new author has: the difficulty of getting carried by a large publisher, and the risks of settling for a smaller one.
The culprit to the ill fate of both paths is the cost of publicity. Unfortunately, the vicious circle in the industry is that a publicist is so expensive, commonly several thousand dollars per month to start, that mainly large publishers and those authors that don’t need the sales of the book can truly afford it.
For publishers, accepting authors that aren’t prime publishing material, or are unknown; calls for additional marketing and allocation of other resources preferred for mainstream authors. It’s why big publishers usually do not bother with no-name authors.
The risks of using a smaller publisher are widespread. By far the most common and punishing one is that small or upstart houses usually will not, or cannot, carry the marketing costs associated with publicity, especially for new or unproven authors. Also, small publishers often are not qualified to provide effective promotions. The result is that few books get good third party promotional assistance. The publisher sometimes provides basic marketing plans for their books, usually at additional cost to the author. While these may seem ample to the untrained eye of an author, they actually are inadequate to make a real difference.
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The Traditional Publisher
Large publishers are typically traditional; they have the leverage to attract seasoned authors, and see no need to squander their marketing and human resources on lesser contenders. First-time and unaccomplished authors often have little recourse.
A large publisher is likely to provide more than enough publicity to get a title qualified for bookstores; but the inherent problem of first-time authors getting picked up by them is further compounded by the need for an agent. With few exceptions, the larger houses will not consider any title without representation.
A big issue if getting past the front door is that the large publishers share little of the royalties with first-time authors. It is not uncommon to receive from 8% to probably a maximum of 15%, with 10% being the average. On the other hand, a seasoned author’s starting salary would be at the 15% mark and in some cases more. The low royalties overall, especially for new authors, are designed as such to pay for the marketing needs of the book, and for any advances offered while also as an insurance for loss profits of fellow new authors.
Another situation is that large publishers don’t provide much feedback, nor will they commonly interact with the author. This may not be a problem to some, but generally it’s good to have the author participate in some of the decisions, or at least be well advised of the events pertaining to him and the title. The author’s opinion on publicity matters or the particulars of the book (such as title, cover design and/or chapter names) are more likely to be considered by smaller publishers.
Large publishers also have no qualms about dropping a book, or “passing it under,” if the title doesn’t perform as expected with certain reviewers or market tests. Rather than have a publicist continue with that title to maximize its profit potential, it is determined, after certain minimal publicity developments, if it has any appeal to select buyers who will distribute to selected bookstores, a reduced footprint in the national store arena. Or, the book is dropped completely from publicity and their losses are minimized. In both cases, the only hope for a better outcome is for the author to hire her own publicist to further promote the title – at her own expense, of course. The publisher will re-assign that original publicist to a new book, hoping this one will more than compensate for any minimized expectations from the one in question. Thus maximum company profits are assured.
Lastly, with traditional publishers who do provide an assigned publicist to a book, the campaign is often limited to a few weeks after the publishing date. To keep his title’s promotion going past that time, the author needs to hire an outside publicist. Again, the additional profits are not significant enough for the publisher to keep that publicist on it; that human resource is considered too valuable to be used on a title that is presumed expended. He or she is assigned another project.
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When Publicity is Left Behind
Many vanity press houses will allow up to half royalties to authors (while some calling themselves self publishing houses), that’s because there is no real expectation of any sales worthwhile; the sales mainly come from the author and not the readers, so why not boast of top royalties? Often the sales that the author can provide do not amount to any losses in royalties, but instead the high royalty serves as an added insurance in securing the authors business.
On more legitimate publishing, without the publicist working for the branding and publicity of author and book, first-time authors do not have a viable chance under most of the small publishers out there. Because the publisher thinks in terms of publishing first and then publicity; there is rarely a qualified publicist on staff to carry out the necessary campaign. This is an anomaly created by the existence of P.O.D. (print on demand), small publishers began to spring up but couldn’t afford the publicity that the large ones could. If there is publicity available, those services are reserved for top authors only.
Normally small publishers don’t do this themselves because they don’t know how to make the publicity efforts work for them, so it’s often counter productive for them to push efforts, resources and especially expense into something they don’t understand. The big publishers simply pull the plug if certain criteria does not match up and move their hired publicist to other projects, so still thinking as publishers. In short, the small publishers are publishers first, and that is what hurts them. This is true of large publishers; they are publishers first, only with deeper pockets.
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Publicity and the Author come First
We are aware that these are predicaments with the mainstream scheme. What VerveStar is doing is developing the publishing campaign around the publicity, so we can absorb much of the cost of publicity and depend on its dedication for returns when the book starts to sell. Our fee is a fraction what most publicists would charge, while having the book published at no additional cost. A publicist offers no guarantee that his/her service will suffice; however, it stands to reason that if the publicist’s proceeds are dependent on the book’s sales, wouldn’t that be incentive enough to maximize the publicity efforts? It is for us.
The author should get their fair share of the proceeds. The low royalties overall, especially for new authors, are designed as such to pay for the marketing needs of the book, and for any advances offered while also as an insurance for loss profits of fellow new authors. Though our royalties do vary and are set under proprietary means, they do start without the assumption that the new author’s title is a liability waiting to happen.
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Publicity to Film, Branding Center Stage
VerveStar is approaching publishing the way the auto industry has done for many years now, because the rest of the literary industry has lagged behind. The auto industry builds its prototype cars around the race-car driver. Because of it, the efficiency and high output of nearly all vehicles are much advanced, not to mention much safer. That new technology is utilized by the car makers in its final product.
We are doing just the same, building the campaign around the publicity of the author and his book, and then publishing the book of that ready-made and ongoing publicity. This will provide authors with a much better outcome no-matter how early the prototype is. Today the final product needs to be the publicity, not the book. We are publicists first, and then publishers.
In addition, under the umbrella of VerveStar, a Public Relations Entertainment Company, the publishing division can offer further benefits beyond the range of other publishers. In the book-to-film inclusion of all titles, and in integrated fashion, we can carefully examine all of our options to consider bringing each title to film; adding another dimension to authors allied with us that rivals the publicity and publishing aspect itself all the while complementing it.
