Pros and cons of choosing a small press publisher

As I mentioned yesterday, the three-year anniversary of the release of my first novel is coming up, so this week I’m sharing some of my experiences publishing with a small-to-medium publishing house.

All-in-all it’s been a good experience, and I don’t regret signing with Wings. There are a few things I might have done differently, but we’ll get to those tomorrow. As for today, I wanted to talk about the pros and cons of publishing with a small press, for those of you who may be considering querying a small or medium publisher.

Let’s start with the good, because there are a lot of positives and I’d like to highlight them.

The good

I’m published

Why deny it? It felt freaking good to hold my novel in my hand for the first time. And it was also pretty cool to see it on the shelf at a local bookstore. If you prefer to take the traditional route over self-publishing, and you’re striking out with agents, then you should consider querying a smaller publisher that will work directly with the author.

No cost

I still can’t believe how many other writers have asked me how much it cost to get published, and then are surprised when my answer is “nothing.” Publishers are supposed to pay you, not the other way around. It’s their job to care of everything. Editing, cover, formatting, listing it in all of the relevant places (Amazon, etc.).

And that’s the real kicker. Signing a contract with a traditional publisher saved me all of that work. Of course, the marketing is mostly up to the author, but I’ll talk about that a bit more tomorrow.

The editing process

The editor assigned to my novel was great. She pointed out character inconsistencies, and found a somewhat large plot hole to fill. She was very cooperative and open to my input on the one or two things we didn’t agree one.

After the story edits were complete, it was passed on to a copy-editor for a final grammar check and proofreading. She did a wonderful job as well.

The bad

There are certainly drawbacks to small press publishing. Here are a few of the ones I ran into:

Little to no marketing

Sales have been nowhere near what I hoped, but I knew going in with a small-press publisher that most of the marketing would be on me. This is something you’re just going to have to expect from small or medium publishers. They just don’t have the budget or the connections that the big publishing houses do.

It’s hard to compete for shelf-space when you’re the little guy taking on the big guys, so most of the sales have to come from online marketplaces. And there the competition is just as touch. This is definitely the place where small presses are the most lacking.

Problems with the cover

I don’t want to pick on Wings here and I’m only bringing this up to show that unexpected problems may arise. In my case, there was a problem with the printing and the resolution of the cover art. So when my box of contributor copies came in the mail, we had to send them back and have the cover redone.

This wouldn’t have even been a big deal, except that I was scheduled for a weekend of panels at a local science fiction conference, so the delay and reprinting meant I had no physical copies of my recently released book to sell at the con.

No price control

I think the price Wings put on my novel is industry standard, but I know of other small presses that will charge $19.99 or more for POD paperbacks. That’s a crazy price and it’s hard to sell a lot of copies if you’re priced out of the market. Another potential risk of using a traditional publisher instead of self-publishing is that since you are not the publisher, you will have to work through them to do things like giveaways, and bookbub promotions.

Contract terms (Not necessarily not bad)

I said this may not be a bad thing; it depends on the publisher. I’m happy with the contract I have with Wings, but I’ve heard horror stories about other small presses. The main thing to look for is to make sure the contract isn’t forever, and that you do have an out. Also watch out for unreasonable fees for breaking your contract.

What did I learn?

I learned that getting that first book deal doesn’t make it any easier to get a second.

I learned that publishing is a tough business and it’s just like they say: There’s a lot of “hurry up and wait” involved. Wait for a response and then rush to meet a deadline.

Finally, I learned that I should have done a whole bunch of marketing before the release date. I’ll talk about that stuff tomorrow, so check back then, and if you’ve got any pros and cons of your own, in regard to small presses, please share them in the comments section!