Publishing advice for beginners
Discussion
I’m looking for a bit of publishing expertise. A good friend of mine believes he has an excellent idea for an innovative title, aimed broadly at 20’s and 30’s, blue chip business people.
He is a writer – both copy and script, with a marketing management background and so has a reasonable understanding of the production process, but is a bit lost in the area of publishing.
Does anyone have any pointers on finding out more about the first steps in publishing?
E.g. How to find a publisher and most importantly how to secure distribution and uptake with retailers such as WH Smith.
Thanks
Consider self-publishing. I've written a non-fiction text, now in its second edition. Despite a high sticker price, the amount which reaches me is quite small. If self-publishing is viable for your book (you're happy to do your own publicity and sales, or can outsource sales via Amazon) it's worth a look.
It's not suitable if you're seeking a WH Smith mass market - but if you're selling a niche product to a small market (which you can target in e.g. trade journals) it may be a good idea.
It's not suitable if you're seeking a WH Smith mass market - but if you're selling a niche product to a small market (which you can target in e.g. trade journals) it may be a good idea.
Edited by windandwave on Monday 31st July 16:49
Self publishing is a lot more viable than it used to be but is still a big risk and one that takes up a lot of time. If your buddy has the time and cash, its worth pursuing. If not, read on...
The two traditional methods of publishing are either to find a literary agent or find a publisher.
Literary agents do a lot of the donkey work and are generally better and quicker at finding a publisher. the downside is that they will take a percentage of your royalties/fees. Sometimes though, it's better to take a smaller cut of something rather than a bigger cut of nothing. Buy/borrow a copy of the Artists and Writers Year book for a directory of accredited agents.
You can approach publishers yourself. Rather than hit them all, identify publishers who already publish the same genre of book type and concentrate on those. Never submit the entire manuscript - it won't get read. Just supply the first chapter (or a capter that your chum feels "defines" the book), plus a brief summary of the whole book - no more than two sides of A4. If it's non fiction, you also need to supply a CV of the author to confirm his/her credentials in relation to the subject.
Remember that a publisher will only ever agree to publish a book if they feel that money can be made from it.
The two traditional methods of publishing are either to find a literary agent or find a publisher.
Literary agents do a lot of the donkey work and are generally better and quicker at finding a publisher. the downside is that they will take a percentage of your royalties/fees. Sometimes though, it's better to take a smaller cut of something rather than a bigger cut of nothing. Buy/borrow a copy of the Artists and Writers Year book for a directory of accredited agents.
You can approach publishers yourself. Rather than hit them all, identify publishers who already publish the same genre of book type and concentrate on those. Never submit the entire manuscript - it won't get read. Just supply the first chapter (or a capter that your chum feels "defines" the book), plus a brief summary of the whole book - no more than two sides of A4. If it's non fiction, you also need to supply a CV of the author to confirm his/her credentials in relation to the subject.
Remember that a publisher will only ever agree to publish a book if they feel that money can be made from it.
Magazine publishing is a minefield - and where I'm in my element to offer advice.
Getting a place in WHSmiths will cost anywhere between £14,000 and £80,000. Ranging from a simple chunk of shelf space (£14,000 = 1 month shelf space, last time I checked).
To distribute to other places, without Smiths (generally what smaller magazines do) then you can set up a small distribution of around 4000 copies for free pretty much, and scale it up to anything you want. Generally it's a nice idea to have atleast £5-10,000 to distribute your launch edition with.
If you're going to approach a publishing company with the idea then be very careful, magazine publishing is extremely cut-throat and if there's a way they can steal your idea, they probably will (or atleast line up a competitor magazine for if/when yours gets picked up by someone).
That's all if you want to sell the magazine, in shops. Failing that there are a number of good reputable distribution companies that specialise in delivering magazines to blue-chip companies, directors, high-level staff and so fourth. That would probably cost you around £5,000 to distribution 5-10,000 copies.
Unless your going to handle advertising sales yourself, or are able to recruit tele and field sales people then you'll need to find an agency to take you on. For that you'll need a strong concept, some artwork, and lots of other concept material, if a sales company takes you on (normally for commision only, 30-40% is about the average (when no retainer, which is a monthly fee regardless of sales) is being charged) they'll be taking a large risk, and they need to know that you will be able to provide them with lots of material to show and woo advertisers with, whilst they won't be able to send out a past issue. The advertising for the launch edition will be very low, and will take approximately 3-4 issues to pick up. Most magazines fail after three magazines, so most large advertisers and media buying agencies wait to make sure you're going to make it past that point.
It would be a good idea to have your printruns and distribution audited, this is the only way that advertisers can ensure that you and your sales team are telling the truth when you're quoting your figures. A huge percentage of publishing companies will tell people targets and hopes for their distribution... an ABC where possible is worthwhile. This costs something like £800 the first time you do it, and £200 an issue thereafter. It's possible that a sales agency will go halves on this with you though.
Ok, sorry this is dragging on, we've covered distribution.
The next step is printing, unless you're a patriot, avoid printing in the UK. The quality and work-ethos in some eastern countries is far better than some of the UKs largest printers (speaking from experience). Find yourself a printer in Lituania (sp?), Poland, Russia, Ukraine, maybe even China. Even with the delivery cost back to the UK, you'll make yourself a tidy saving.
If you're printing under 20,000 copies you want to use sheet fed press - where the paper is given to the printers in large sheets, and single sides are printed at one.
Over 20,000 copies go for web fed, where two sides are printed, the paper comes on a bungalow sized toilet roll, and the cost and speed is lower (although the quality is marginally too).
Magazines like Lusso use sheet Fed for the extra quality, Magazines like EVO, Autocar, Vogue, GQ use web fed, for the savings in very large quantities.
And that's printing.
I could go on, and I would but then that's pretty much doing what I charge for - there are a variety of companies out there. You could even approach a contract-publisher to take on your magazine and they would do, without stealing it, but you would have very little input.
Self-publishing is lots of fun and very rewarding if you have the time and money and contacts to string together a good and interesting magazine.
My advice would be to find a company that can handle all the other jobs on your behalf, and that you can call every now and again for advice and stuff without having to pay them...
<plug> and it just so happens that's what we can do!</plug>
All the things you need to think of, create and cover (rather a coincidence that SWR Media can help with 99% of these) are listed;
- Pre Launch Website and Media Pack
- Concept Artwork
- Magazine Concept and rough idea of first issue contents
- Retail distribution network
- Free distribution network
- System in place for accepting/managing subscribers
- Market research to show distributors/advertisers that there's a need for your magazine
- Someone to sell your advertising
- Magazine branding and templates for all the future editions
Then when you come to build your first issue (baring in mind you can choose which of these rolls you would like to fill yourself - on a monthly title, i'd pick one only)!
- Content driven website (build up a community where possible, increase coverage, awareness and subscription sales for the title)
- Writers
- Photographers
- Proof readers
- Sub editors
- Designers
- Production staff to chase artwork, writers and photographers
And the 'top-bod' for editorial, who, depends on whether you want to have a Managing Editor, Publishing Director, Editor, etc needs to do the following per issue (on a monthly title ideally 3 months in advance):
- Flat plan the entire edition (say what's going where)
- Commision features and photographers
- And keep the ad-sales team fed with all this information and as many leads for potential advertisers as possible.
Anyway, if your friend wants a chat then email info@swrmedia.co.uk (www.swrmedia.co.uk - that's the company I'm a part of, and magazines are exactly what we do) and I'll pick up the email, and give him a call/email back. If he's after a more detailed idea of where to go next, i'm happy to point him in the direction of some people.
Sorry for the long post. I could have gone on, but I won't. I've got my own magazines to be working on.
[edited because of a sheet/web mixup that was pointed out]
Getting a place in WHSmiths will cost anywhere between £14,000 and £80,000. Ranging from a simple chunk of shelf space (£14,000 = 1 month shelf space, last time I checked).
To distribute to other places, without Smiths (generally what smaller magazines do) then you can set up a small distribution of around 4000 copies for free pretty much, and scale it up to anything you want. Generally it's a nice idea to have atleast £5-10,000 to distribute your launch edition with.
If you're going to approach a publishing company with the idea then be very careful, magazine publishing is extremely cut-throat and if there's a way they can steal your idea, they probably will (or atleast line up a competitor magazine for if/when yours gets picked up by someone).
That's all if you want to sell the magazine, in shops. Failing that there are a number of good reputable distribution companies that specialise in delivering magazines to blue-chip companies, directors, high-level staff and so fourth. That would probably cost you around £5,000 to distribution 5-10,000 copies.
Unless your going to handle advertising sales yourself, or are able to recruit tele and field sales people then you'll need to find an agency to take you on. For that you'll need a strong concept, some artwork, and lots of other concept material, if a sales company takes you on (normally for commision only, 30-40% is about the average (when no retainer, which is a monthly fee regardless of sales) is being charged) they'll be taking a large risk, and they need to know that you will be able to provide them with lots of material to show and woo advertisers with, whilst they won't be able to send out a past issue. The advertising for the launch edition will be very low, and will take approximately 3-4 issues to pick up. Most magazines fail after three magazines, so most large advertisers and media buying agencies wait to make sure you're going to make it past that point.
It would be a good idea to have your printruns and distribution audited, this is the only way that advertisers can ensure that you and your sales team are telling the truth when you're quoting your figures. A huge percentage of publishing companies will tell people targets and hopes for their distribution... an ABC where possible is worthwhile. This costs something like £800 the first time you do it, and £200 an issue thereafter. It's possible that a sales agency will go halves on this with you though.
Ok, sorry this is dragging on, we've covered distribution.
The next step is printing, unless you're a patriot, avoid printing in the UK. The quality and work-ethos in some eastern countries is far better than some of the UKs largest printers (speaking from experience). Find yourself a printer in Lituania (sp?), Poland, Russia, Ukraine, maybe even China. Even with the delivery cost back to the UK, you'll make yourself a tidy saving.
If you're printing under 20,000 copies you want to use sheet fed press - where the paper is given to the printers in large sheets, and single sides are printed at one.
Over 20,000 copies go for web fed, where two sides are printed, the paper comes on a bungalow sized toilet roll, and the cost and speed is lower (although the quality is marginally too).
Magazines like Lusso use sheet Fed for the extra quality, Magazines like EVO, Autocar, Vogue, GQ use web fed, for the savings in very large quantities.
And that's printing.
I could go on, and I would but then that's pretty much doing what I charge for - there are a variety of companies out there. You could even approach a contract-publisher to take on your magazine and they would do, without stealing it, but you would have very little input.
Self-publishing is lots of fun and very rewarding if you have the time and money and contacts to string together a good and interesting magazine.
My advice would be to find a company that can handle all the other jobs on your behalf, and that you can call every now and again for advice and stuff without having to pay them...
<plug> and it just so happens that's what we can do!</plug>
All the things you need to think of, create and cover (rather a coincidence that SWR Media can help with 99% of these) are listed;
- Pre Launch Website and Media Pack
- Concept Artwork
- Magazine Concept and rough idea of first issue contents
- Retail distribution network
- Free distribution network
- System in place for accepting/managing subscribers
- Market research to show distributors/advertisers that there's a need for your magazine
- Someone to sell your advertising
- Magazine branding and templates for all the future editions
Then when you come to build your first issue (baring in mind you can choose which of these rolls you would like to fill yourself - on a monthly title, i'd pick one only)!
- Content driven website (build up a community where possible, increase coverage, awareness and subscription sales for the title)
- Writers
- Photographers
- Proof readers
- Sub editors
- Designers
- Production staff to chase artwork, writers and photographers
And the 'top-bod' for editorial, who, depends on whether you want to have a Managing Editor, Publishing Director, Editor, etc needs to do the following per issue (on a monthly title ideally 3 months in advance):
- Flat plan the entire edition (say what's going where)
- Commision features and photographers
- And keep the ad-sales team fed with all this information and as many leads for potential advertisers as possible.
Anyway, if your friend wants a chat then email info@swrmedia.co.uk (www.swrmedia.co.uk - that's the company I'm a part of, and magazines are exactly what we do) and I'll pick up the email, and give him a call/email back. If he's after a more detailed idea of where to go next, i'm happy to point him in the direction of some people.
Sorry for the long post. I could have gone on, but I won't. I've got my own magazines to be working on.
[edited because of a sheet/web mixup that was pointed out]
Edited by fto2tuscan on Tuesday 1st August 09:13
Edited by fto2tuscan on Tuesday 1st August 10:09
Good post however,
Good in theory but unviable in practice - getting advertising in and coordinating on time production and distribution at this early stage I have witnessed doesn't work.
You have this the wrong way round but are correct. Web is on rolls, sheet is erm well sheet fed.
Web - slightly reduced quality however we utilise some newly installed presses in the UK which you'd be hard 'pressed' to notice the difference.
One last point to make - gaining credit at this early stage will be nigh on impossible.
fto2tuscan said:
The next step is printing, unless you're a patriot, avoid printing in the UK. The quality and work-ethos in some eastern countries is far better than some of the UKs largest printers (speaking from experience). Find yourself a printer in Lituania (sp?), Poland, Russia, Ukraine, maybe even China. Even with the delivery cost back to the UK, you'll make yourself a tidy saving.
Good in theory but unviable in practice - getting advertising in and coordinating on time production and distribution at this early stage I have witnessed doesn't work.
fto2tuscan said:
If you're printing under 20,000 copies you want to use web fed press - where the paper is given to the printers in large sheets, and single sides are printed at one.
Over 20,000 copies go for sheet fed, where two sides are printed, the paper comes on a bungalow sized toilet roll, and the cost and speed is lower (although the quality is marginally too).
Over 20,000 copies go for sheet fed, where two sides are printed, the paper comes on a bungalow sized toilet roll, and the cost and speed is lower (although the quality is marginally too).
You have this the wrong way round but are correct. Web is on rolls, sheet is erm well sheet fed.
fto2tuscan said:
Magazines like Lusso use Web Fed for the extra quality, Magazines like EVO, Autocar, Vogue, GQ use sheet fed, for the savings in very large quantities.
Web - slightly reduced quality however we utilise some newly installed presses in the UK which you'd be hard 'pressed' to notice the difference.
One last point to make - gaining credit at this early stage will be nigh on impossible.
Edited by BRoCceRs on Tuesday 1st August 09:05
BRoCceRs said:
Good post however,
Good in theory but unviable in practice - getting advertising in and coordinating on time production and distribution at this early stage I have witnessed doesn't work.
fto2tuscan said:
The next step is printing, unless you're a patriot, avoid printing in the UK. The quality and work-ethos in some eastern countries is far better than some of the UKs largest printers (speaking from experience). Find yourself a printer in Lituania (sp?), Poland, Russia, Ukraine, maybe even China. Even with the delivery cost back to the UK, you'll make yourself a tidy
saving.
saving.
Good in theory but unviable in practice - getting advertising in and coordinating on time production and distribution at this early stage I have witnessed doesn't work.
I've worked on the floor for 3 consecutive press-days working with a printed based in Lituania and have seen a faster and more reliable turnaround than a large UK based firm. We send press ready PDFs on Monday, had them all preflighted on the same day, 1 days rest (Tuesday), printed proofs on Wednesday, and a double-arctic with husky Lithuanian men arrive late Friday night. Move press day to Friday, and the delivery can make Friday morning's wholesale route, and be on the shelves for Saturday.
BRoCceRs said:
fto2tuscan said:
If you're printing under 20,000 copies you want to use web fed press - where the paper is given to the printers in large sheets, and single sides are printed at one.
Over 20,000 copies go for sheet fed, where two sides are printed, the paper comes on a bungalow sized toilet roll, and the cost and speed is lower (although the quality is marginally too).
Over 20,000 copies go for sheet fed, where two sides are printed, the paper comes on a bungalow sized toilet roll, and the cost and speed is lower (although the quality is marginally too).
You have this the wrong way round but are correct. Web is on rolls, sheet is erm well sheet fed.
Whoops
BRoCceRs said:
fto2tuscan said:
Magazines like Lusso use Web Fed for the extra quality, Magazines like EVO, Autocar, Vogue, GQ use sheet fed, for the savings in very large quantities.
Web - slightly reduced quality however we utilise some newley installed presses in the UK which you'd be hard 'pressed' to notice the difference.
One last point to make - gaining credit at this early stage will be nigh on impossible.
Nice pun, how new are the presses. My only real beef with web was the wavey pages - if that's been rectified now then go crazy, and lower the 'move-to-web' threshold to 10,000 copies (if you're printing around 152 pages).
Regarding credibility.
It's true, but that won't stop you being able to commision good writers and photographers. And with a competant and well known sales agency, that has had long-lasting relationships with advertisers, they will certainly add some to your potential advertisers. But it's a true point.
Edited by fto2tuscan on Tuesday 1st August 09:31
BRoCceRs said:
I've worked on the floor for 3 consecutive press-days working with a printed based in Lituania and have seen a faster and more reliable turnaround than a large UK based firm. We send press ready PDFs on Monday, had them all preflighted on the same day, 1 days rest (Tuesday), printed proofs on Wednesday, and a double-arctic with husky Lithuanian men arrive late Friday night. Move press day to Friday, and the delivery can make Friday morning's wholesale route, and be on the shelves for Saturday.
Yep - can agree with this. If you have the time - which is unlikely - head further east (China, etc) - stupidly cheap and top quality
BRoCceRs said:
Regarding credibility.
It's true, but that won't stop you being able to commision good writers and photographers. And with a competant and well known sales agency, that has had long-lasting relationships with advertisers, they will certainly add some to your potential advertisers. But it's a true point.
It's true, but that won't stop you being able to commision good writers and photographers. And with a competant and well known sales agency, that has had long-lasting relationships with advertisers, they will certainly add some to your potential advertisers. But it's a true point.
If you have a viable business plan, you may be able to factor incoices.
johnfm said:
So DPS, which mags do you publish??
Lusso Magazine
www.lussoluxury.com
And we publish by contract a few others which I won't mention.
Are you involved in any magazines yourself?
steviebee said:
BRoCceRs said:
I've worked on the floor for 3 consecutive press-days working with a printed based in Lituania and have seen a faster and more reliable turnaround than a large UK based firm. We send press ready PDFs on Monday, had them all preflighted on the same day, 1 days rest (Tuesday), printed proofs on Wednesday, and a double-arctic with husky Lithuanian men arrive late Friday night. Move press day to Friday, and the delivery can make Friday morning's wholesale route, and be on the shelves for Saturday.
Yep - can agree with this. If you have the time - which is unlikely - head further east (China, etc) - stupidly cheap and top quality
BRoCceRs said:
Regarding credibility.
It's true, but that won't stop you being able to commision good writers and photographers. And with a competant and well known sales agency, that has had long-lasting relationships with advertisers, they will certainly add some to your potential advertisers. But it's a true point.
It's true, but that won't stop you being able to commision good writers and photographers. And with a competant and well known sales agency, that has had long-lasting relationships with advertisers, they will certainly add some to your potential advertisers. But it's a true point.
If you have a viable business plan, you may be able to factor incoices.
Actaully I said those things, not BRoCceRs... Edited by fto2tuscan on Wednesday 2nd August 10:16
fto2tuscan said:
johnfm said:
So DPS, which mags do you publish??
Lusso Magazine
www.lussoluxury.com
And we publish by contract a few others which I won't mention.
Are you involved in any magazines yourself?
Yes, Total911 magazine - www.total911.com. You gave a very detailed description of the minefield that is magazine publishing.
Do you do your ad sales in house - or use an agency?
Feel frre to email me at john@9publishing.co.uk if you want to take it off forum.
John
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