New Year, Great News

It has been a while, hasn’t it, dear reader? I fear have only myself to blame. In part, I did not want to write about the numerous rejections I received in the last two years. It left me questioning my decision to try and publish in the first place. So, I let this website and my social media accounts sit in the shadows. I will admit that the longer it went on the harder it was to return.

Author in 12th century garb (Source: Own Library)

Then I got great news!

I wanted to share it with you, but I could only make the announcements. It felt too surreal and I felt like an imposter. You see, I stopped reaching out to agents and chose a non-traditional publishing route.  But now, now I am only 24 days away from it being released in bookshops, I feel ready to talk.

On the 28th of January 2025 my book Fight Not For Glory will be available to buy from two major UK book retailers – Waterstones and Amazon.

Saying it still gives me shivers.

So how did I get here? As I said before, I chose a non-traditional route. I worked directly with a hybrid publishing house known colloquially as indie publishers.

While traditional self-publishing presses have the author pay to physically print x amount of their book, they do nothing more, so care not if it is poor work. This led to the term ‘vanity publishing’; a stigma that hangs over authors to this day. However, indie publishers enter into more traditional contracts with their authors. They get paid for every book sold. Good indie publishers therefore pride themselves on bringing good quality, sellable work to the market.

So indie publishers just cut out the middleman? No. When a book’s rights is sold to a traditional publishing house, the publisher pays all the cost in making and distributing the book. The full financial burden is on them, resulting in authors getting less royalties. With indie publishing, the author is footing the bill. Yes, the publisher takes a cut, but generally author royalties are increased.

The process for myself, then, started when I contacted Troubador. They are the UK’s leading indie publisher. Please note that this isn’t an advertisement, paid or otherwise, it’s just my experience with using them. I first had to submit my work for consideration, just like I had with the agents. As you can imagine, I was fearing a rejection.

Thankfully, they said yes.

I was assigned a coordinator and then we went over the services they provided. They do printed only, eBook only, or both. I chose the latter. So, at a minimum I was getting a cover design, typesetting and proof work, printing and digitising, and my book sent to the British Library. From there I had multiple other services from website design, to media and trade marketing, to audiobooks, and international distribution, to choose from.

I’ll not got into details about what I selected. What I will say is some options run concurrently with the preparation of my book, others only started this month. They also came with a contact, who worked (or works) with me so I get the most out of it. Each extra service was an extra cost, and it can add up quickly. Some authors might not want that. I, myself, sat down and thought long and hard. The knowledge that I can add certain services at a much later date, or that said service overlap too much with a different one to be useful, was a big help. As were my contacts. No question was too trivial.

All that leads me to say that I believe I’m actually happier with this arrangement than I would have been with traditional publishing. Every step of the way I knew what was happening if not outright making the decision myself. I chose the paper used, signed off on the typesetting, saw my vision for the book cover come alive. These are things that, typically, the author has no say in with traditional publishing.

So thank you, dear reader, for being patient with this silly soul. I hope to write more on here within the coming weeks.