Many novel writers see traditional publishing as their end
game, but Margaret James argues that it’s not always
the best option for fiction authorsT
he Fiction Focus pages
of the July 2019 issue of
Writing Magazine featured
four writers who are all
successfully published,
three commercially and one as a self-
publishing sensation.
But how do you decide which path
to publication would be right for you
and your own novel (or even novels)
to take? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each approach?
Commercial publication by a large
and famous publishing house, rather
than a small independent one, is likely
to be the aim of many debut novelists,
who will have seen reports in the press
of the six or seven figure advancesto retain and sell a range of subsidiary
rights in addition to the usual digital,
hardback and paperback ones.
Subsidiary rights could include large
print, audio, foreign language, serial,
dramatisation, film and television, and
selling these is something self-publishing
authors will often struggle to do. But
it’s not unknown for determined self-
publishers to sell subsidiary rights, and a
novel that does really well will probably
attract the attention of audio publishers
and other interested parties anyway.
Once an author has signed a contract
with a traditional commercial house,
the publisher will cover the entire cost
of the production of the book, which
will include commissioning a designagainst royalties paid to celebrity
novelists, and to some previously
unknown debut authors, too.
These huge advances are real money
which most authors will receive in
instalments – on signing the contract,
on delivery of the completed first draft,
on signing off the professionally edited
version, and on publication of the book.
But receiving a huge advance against
royalties for a first novel is somewhat
akin to winning the National Lottery,
and it’s certainly not the norm for most
novelists today, especially those who are
as yet unknown.
The high-powered literary agents
who negotiate these widely-reported
megabuck deals will also do their best42 NOVEMBER 2019 http://www.writers-online.co.ukFICTION FOCUS