Why Is There Such a Negative Buzz About Subsidy Presses?
Sunday, May 2, 2010 
Guest post by Irene Watson
There are many advocates of self-publishing that cringe when a subsidy press is mentioned. It seems like it's one of those dirty words that shouldn't even be mentioned. Although many people think getting published through a subsidy press is considered self-publishing it really isn't.
Self-publishing is doing "everything" yourself and you pay for everything as you go. A subsidy press will do all the steps for you for a fee. From what I can see and hear there is a huge misconception, promoted by experts, on why self-publishing is so much better than going through a subsidy press. I just can't get on the same page as many of them. It makes me think they advocate self-publishing so they can get a coaching job, and I can venture to say that 99% don't include what I'm about to say.
As a review and author publicity service we've seen some very BAD stuff come out, both from true self-publishers and from subsidy presses. I have to qualify and say that many true self-published authors do extensive research, are coached properly and produce high quality books. However, I would also venture to say it's only about 25% of those that we receive parallel to those published by traditional publishers.
I belong to several self-publising forums and I see advocates of same are quick to dispel and critize subsidy presses. From my perspective, as a reviewer, and seeing what comes in for review I don't always agree with them; not only for quality of the books produced but also questioning whether it is cost effective. The buzz is that you can make "so much more money if you self-publish." Well, that is a huge misconception. Unless the author is involved in some major marketing and publicity it just isn't going to happen. Publishing a book and expecting "everyone" or "the general public" to be interested in buying it is a pipe dream. I know, I've been there!
The time and effort it takes to self-publish a book is tremendous. It's not as easy as it seems. The writing of the book is the easy part; the publishing and then marketing it are the biggies.
As I mentioned, I question if self-publishing is truly cost effective. Let's do some math. From what I hear from self-publishers (not those that publish through a subsidy press) they spend at least 150 hours of their own time after manuscript stage to produce a final product. So, what is your time worth? $20 per hour? $30 per hour? $100 per hour? From how I figure it, the book, without even printing it or paying for the ISBN, cover art, coaching, editing, etc., already has chalked up a total between $3000 to $15,000. How much will the extras cost? How about we liberally average it at $3000. This should cover those unforeseen items as well. Are you about to disagree with me? If you hire someone to do the full spectrum of editing expect to pay between 1.5 to 2 cents per word. And, that's only the first pass. It is suggested a book be edited at least three times by three different editors. And, that doesn't mean you the author or using a spell check. A professionally designed cover (front and back) would cost you between $600 and $1500. Now we have a cost of $5000 to $18,000. (For those of you that don't feel you want to consider your time for this venture, all I can say that is the stupidest business decision you are making! If your goal is to make money on the sale of your book the only time you actually "make money" is after you pay all the expenses, and that means paying yourself for the time you've spent.)
Okay, so what will it take to cover the self-publishing costs? You will have to sell at a minimum of 500 books to at least cover the initial costs. That's a lot of books to sell considering the average sales of a book (not taking into account major well known authors) is 350 books. And, remember, family and friends will expect you to give them a book - they aren't your buyers. Oh, let's not forget all the time and money needed for all the marketing and publicity you have to do. If you hire a publicist, you'll have to pay at least $12,000 to $15,000. If you don't, you have to do your own and budget for it. What will it take to send out review copies? How much time will you spend promoting? You will need to factor in your time as well as have at least $1000 to $2000 cash for marketing purposes. Doing the math I don't see how this could possibly be a viable business move, especially if you think you will make money .
As well, getting sucked in the buzz that you give up all your rights or you don't get royalties if you publish through a subsidy press doesn't serve you well. There is a lot of competition out there and each subsidy press is offering as much as they possibly can to entice the authors to publish through them. It's import to check and compare. From what I've seen you can buy packages of around $400 just to publish the book (includes template cover, formatting, etc.) to $5500 (which includes editing, custom made cover, publicity, book video, reviews, etc.) As well, regardless of what subsidy package you buy you will have distribution options so that the book can be ordered through a major chain or independent book store. If you self-publish you have to make your own arrangements for a distributor.
Again, as a business person, I need to look at the end result and I just can't quite see the value of self-publishing a book on my own. The sad part is that many authors that come to us, whether self-published or used a subsidy press, do not factor in their time and certainly didn't create a budget to market the book. They just expected the book to appear in their local chain store and people would flock to buy it. If I had $100 for every author that tells me he or she doesn't have a marketing budget I'd probably be retired on some Greek island by now.
Granted, some authors don't care if they sell books because they just want to write. However, for those that want to make money, there is a bottom line. I encourage you to do the math before you decide which option you are going to take. And remember, if you have a book to sell, it is automatically considered a business. Smart business practices are a must. Regardless of how I do the math, I just don't see why using a subsidy press would be such a bad idea. And, as far as readers go, they really don't care if you self-publish, use a subsidy press, or get published by a traditional publisher; they just want good material.
What has been your experience? What are your thoughts on this?
Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.
Reader Comments (8)
I can't post under my own name because of legal conflict with the publisher in question. And I can speak only about my experiences with one subsidy press--moreover one that claims loudly to be a "full-service publisher." Joke. This publisher claimed to know what she was doing. She didn't. She kept changing the rules, changed the fee, changed the print run requirements, had total veto power over covers, sometimes causing authors to spend money to change something she'd already ok'd but then decided she didn't like, claimed to be there just to "help" the author but managed to nip 20% of every sale plus a % of what the independent artists, designers, etc. got from the authors. Also, the authors--after having paid for EVERYTHING BUT THE ISBN still had to paythe "publisher" to get their own books, and that's not the s & h. There's more but I'm running out of room. The book cost me about $10,000 from start to finish. I have made back about $2000. She did nothing to promo except demand the author hire a promo expert--at $5000 for what amounted to a list of places to send books for review. It had been a legal nightmare that is ongoing and more than that I can't say. Publish with a subsidy press? Not if you have brain cell one.
Except for poetry, etc., I have never heard anything good about subsidy publishers, and the one I had was the pits.
Not much to add except the following maxim, which I invite anyone to disprove:
Traditional publishers make money from selling books to readers
Subsidy publishers make money from selling books to authors
Follow the money and you'll see subsidy publishers have no motivation to do anything for sales, they have already made their money from the author by the time the book goes into print. Oh, and if you don't buy their worthless $2000 to $5000 publicity package, they'll blame the failure of sales on you not doing that. But if you do buy their publicity package, there's no guarantees except their bottom line has gotten even better.
Irene, I agree with you 100%! I chose to subsidy publish my first novel, Prot U, after wasting months trying to find an agent. I chose the basic package at booklocker.com for $299, providing my own cover. The folks at Booklocker were just great and took care of everything. I published my second book with them, my memoir Reclamation. As a returning author, I paid just $99. The only other cost is $18 a year for my own page on their website. I get a substantial royalty for every sale. I don't understand why anyone would go to all the expense and trouble of self publishing, when it's a lot easier to go with a reputable subsidy publisher. Of course, I had to do my own marketing, but that's true in both cases.
I've only had one experience with a subsidy publisher and, I must say that they did everything they agreed to do and they did it very well. I was/am very happy with my finished book.
Yes, I could have probably done all of this work myself and saved money, but I decided to hire experts who could do the job quicker and better than me.
On the other hand, from a marketing standpoint, I was pretty much on my own, but since I'm a veteran publicist, that was okay. I did hire a publicist for a couple of months and he got me several radio interviews. I set up my own book signings, speaking engagements and produced my own book trailer.
I did pay the publisher to format my book for Kindle, but (in hindsight) I could have probably gotten that service done cheaper elsewhere. Frankly, I wonder if Kindle is really worth the extra expense. The vast majority of my sales have been hard copies.
Want to avoid having to buy books directly from the publisher (for no royalty)? When you do a book signing, make a deal with the store to buy (AT THEIR COST) any unsold copies of the book. That way, they save the cost of shipping back the books, you get your royalty and everybody wins.
I agree that there are many subsidy presses who make their money off the authors. I do know that some exist that do split the costs with the author. One author I assisted with publicity worked with a company that he paid a flat $500.00. Once he reached a certain number of books sold he got that money back and earned royalties or profit sharing -I can't remember which. It's been years now.
In my own humble opinion, I think the down economy has made deals like that close to extinct. You're going to pay for all of it and you might not be happy with your results any way around it. I always tell authors to query agents and mainstream publishers first. If that fails, then look at self publishing options. The bottom line is make sure you read all the fine print, ask all the important questions and make sure you can afford to lose all the money you invest. Publishing IS a gamble.
Hi Irene,
I must thank you for having the wonderful ability to come up with consistently powerful topics of discussion for authors on the verge of publication fame, or at least publication.
Regarding the question of self-publishing vs. subsidy publishing, I think historic overview is important. Well before self-publication became a realistic choice, subsidy houses such as Vantage Press and Carlton Press built a reputation as vanity houses who would publish practically anything as long as somebody would pay for it. They offered a 40% royalty arrangement, based on sales. Distribution was pretty much confined to their list of hopeful authors, pretty much insuring that there were very few sales. There may have been one or two authors per decade that went on to a paying publisher contract, but not much else. There was no internet, so no virtual book shelves for the inventory.
Self-publishing is as diverse as the authors doing the publishing. There are basically two types, Print-on-demand (POD), and traditional inventory-based. Print-on-demand is less expensive because it requires no real estate space for inventory. Virtual bookshelves on amazon.com, etc., have more or less unlimited space, meaning self-published authors can compete with bestsellers.
Realistically, business-based models don't work for authors. Authors are essentially gamblers who wager their time writing on the hope that their work will at some point gain them some respect in their field of artistry, notoriety in their expertise, or fame and fortune at the most outside chance. Same as buying a lottery ticket. You could win a few hundred, a few thousand, or at the most outside chance, millions. Or you can go home empty handed. The Bell Curve is about the same. Authors who expect to make their entire living from writing are either exceptional in their work, or delusional. Authors who become publishers have a different row to hoe, because they have literally started a business, but most authors are not cut of the business person cloth, so the results could be iffy. The more aggressive author/publishers may make a profit, but all-in-all, authors need other sources of income.
Being of middle-age, I began my writing in the time when authors would write for years, send their work to one publisher or agent at a time, wait two to six months for a rejection postcard, and then try again. I spent thirty (30) years of this nonsense, knowing full well that I could either subsidy publish the book with companies whose reputations were already established as book graveyards, or keep trying in hopes that my books would be "discovered" in the offices of people who were in those offices for their own publishing ends, certainly not mine.
Perhaps subsidy publishing has improved since those days, but my first self-publication was sort of a hybrid subsidy arrangement, and I’m not convinced. It ended up being twice as expensive because I entrusted the work to a company which falsely promised reviews with Kirkus, New York Times, etc., and kept upselling various publicity packages. Part of the promotional stuff included getting endorsements for the back cover (for additional costs, of course) – which ended up being bland remarks attributed to other unknown self-published authors from this book producer's stable. Another publicity ploy was the professional "press release," that equivalent of junk mail in the book industry. If I weren’t such a stickler for perfection, the book would have died an ignominious death two weeks after release. The in-house cover artist did a horrifying cut-and-paste of my concept, and misspelled the title! I ended up co-designing the cover, and when it was produced, was printed in the wrong shades. Any reviews or accolades the book received were through my research and mailings, not theirs. I was supposed to get radio and TV interviews set up, but as of November, 2007, I would still be waiting if I hadn’t written that whole scheme off. The big clue was when after a year of being published, I asked the publicist at this company if she had read the book that she was supposedly working so hard to market, and she said she “didn’t have the chance yet.” Bottom line: nobody cares about your book as much as you do.
Ultimately I have begun my own publishing company. My most recent book is completely self-published. I work with a book production and fulfillment service for design, print and distribution. I maintain full control of the product, and have no illusions about getting rich from it. Unless I am approached by a major publisher for my next book, then that also will be self-published, and most likely in the traditional way, with a small but available inventory.
Irene,
Thank you for the fine and provocative articles you provide on this site.
I am working on my first book, a nonfiction combination of history and science. I have not tried to sell it yet, but I have attended many conferences and taken lots of classes to improve my craft, and have been accumulating knowledge about writing proposals, finding agents, marketing, etc. Soon I will be to the point of writing a nonfiction proposal for submission to agents. If I cannot find an agent and traditional publisher, I may someday succumb to the self/subsidy publishing thought, but at present I feel that if the book is not good enough to attract an agent, then it probably isn't good enough to publish. I believe in my book and am doing everything I can to make it the best I can, but there are just lots of books that should never have been published in the first place. I hope mine isn't one of them, but if it is, I hope I have the grace to put it on the shelf and try something else.
Any thoughts on this defeatist attitude?
Hi Irene,
After trying numerous agents, I finally decided to subsidy publish. I used Outskirts Press (a POD) and have never regretted it. They did an excellent job with my book, and I was able to concentrate on proofing, marketing, etc. Their Diamond Packet (top of the line) was $1000 and included custom cover, paperback, 20 free copies, website, ebook, and other items. For the first year, their marketing department send me suggestions and information for promoting my book every other week. Now, in the second year, I still get information but not as regular.
I found that like other companies out there, Outskirts was happy to charge for marketing services and materials. A little extra work on my part, netted me the same services and materials for significant less or no money. For instance, I submitted my own information for Amazon's See Inside (and Barnes & Noble's similar service) at no cost. For authors who did not wish to research this, OP charged $99 each.
It all boils down to what an author is willing and able to do on their own. I don't mind doing my own marketing. Right now all I invest is time and a little money. At the end of May 2010, my sales will be 490 books in a year. Not a tremendous amount, but I'm still willing to work and research to increase my sales.
Thanks for writing about this.
Cheryl