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Friday 27 December 2013

Indie Publishing Companies Help Authors And Readers

By Harriett Crosby


Many believe independent presses or small presses are an interchangeable title for printing various original works, which is often true. Almost one half of all publishers of books and nearly a third of magazines are produced by this type of industry press around the world. They are often referred to as indie publishing companies and they only print limited-edition books, mostly poetry anthologies, genre fiction and niche fiction and non-fiction books of various styles. They could also run small prints of specialty magazines.

The guidelines for a small press rank are clear: they cannot be associated with a conglomerate which publishes other books and magazines. The governing body is the ones who decide where the energy, time and money will be spent, on which worthy project. The small publisher got their start around the Arts and Crafts Movement with assistance from William Morris, a textile designer, artist and writer. It was around the nineteenth century when the Kelmscott Press began.

Over time, a shift occurred in the independent publisher community. This shift didn't happen overnight, however as technology grew the transformation from large publishers to smaller ones emerged. This gives authors more control over their content, something larger presses won't budge on.

Writers, both experienced and amateur will come out ahead using a small independent press. The independent publisher will front money for editing, printing and marketing of an author, no matter their status, as long as the content is good. In the end, the writer only needs to tell a great story.

Reserving an author's tone is paramount in small publisher's transactions. In addition, the author will retain all rights to their book after the small press runs their contracted amount of prints. For example, if an author is approached by another publisher or a film studio, they are able to sign a contract with either as they retain all rights to their material.

Independent publishers are not going to offer the benefits to an author as self-publishing will, the small presses offer so much more. The vanity publisher will request writers to put money up for a set amount of books or purchase so many books from the first run. In contrast, small presses have a much looser contract. They will pay royalties to the author for the use of their book as they do not own the copyright.

The distinction between small independent presses and the larger mega print houses is the smaller ones earn at or less than $50 million each year. This is on 10 or fewer book titles, although if a company prints more, it will still qualify as a small press. The total is given after discounts and returns are subtracted.

Since printing companies only print books, their distribution is limited. They run on a POD schedule. Print on demand is available to any author who can afford to pay the upfront money for printing cost. There is no perks such as editing, marketing or sales available. This is why indie publishing companies work best for most authors.




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