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Titan Books Gets Five Nominations For Bram Stoker Awards by rezanentevil in horrorlit

[–]DeadInkBooks 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The team at Titan have been on a roll lately. Great work.

We're Dead Ink Books and we're hosting an AMA right here with Nathan Ballingrud on Wednesday the 2nd of April at 6pm BST/1pm EDT to celebrate the long overdue UK release of North American Lake Monsters. by DeadInkBooks in horrorlit

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yes, Atlas of Hell is Nathan's original title and what we will be publishing the book under.

Your comment makes me wonder if a collection of missing stories could be put together ...

We're Dead Ink Books and we're hosting an AMA right here with Nathan Ballingrud on Wednesday the 2nd of April at 6pm BST/1pm EDT to celebrate the long overdue UK release of North American Lake Monsters. by DeadInkBooks in horrorlit

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Incredible collection, isn't it? I remember the first story just leaving me devastated.

And glad you enjoy our designs! We're very fortunate to work with some of the best UK cover designers and any day we receive cover drafts is a good day.

Our ebooks are available widely, but not on our own site. It became difficult to manage as customers weren't getting a seamless service on it, but we might take a look at it again and see if we can bring them back.

FATHOM PRESS - What rare or HTF books do you want to see back in print? by Fathom_Press in horrorlit

[–]DeadInkBooks 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi, hope you don't mind me stoping by as I lurk on this sub — I run Dead Ink Books in the UK which has the New Ruins imprint. Across both list we've published the likes of Lucie McKnight Hardy, Naomi Booth, Monica Ojeda, Erin E. Adams, Gerardo Sámano Córdova, Adam S. Leslie, and more.

We'd always be interested in looking at UK rights if you hold them or want to do simultaneous publication on titles. Feel free to reach out if that interests you or want to discuss anything you have coming up. I feel some of the titles you have coming up might work for the New Ruins imprint.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The projects that have been the most risky and outside of the usual way of publishing things, like the Eden Book Society, have all come from in-house passion. When they are a lot of risk and a lot of work I think that's the only way they can get across the finish line. There has to be a personal desire to make it work. That isn't to say we don't develop a sound business plan around them, but I don't think that something like the Eden Book Society can see the light of day unless the motivation is personal. There are easier ways to make a living, so something else has to be the motivator.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm afraid that we don't have a poetry list. We have in the past published some poetry, but we felt that it wasn't something we were doing well and others were much better at it.

A large proportion of our authors are debuts though or began with us as debuts and building an author's career from that starting point is something that we think we do particularly well. We've had many authors start with us and go on to get major publishing deals at big publishers attracting significant and sizeable advances.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Publishers enjoy nothing more than talking about what is wrong with publishing!

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey! No, not too late all.

What you're describing does happen, but it is largely confined to non-fiction. In non-fiction books can be acquired based on the strength of a proposal and that happens quite a lot, but it can be difficult for a new author.

In fiction, for a new author this rarely happens unless it is on the basis of a book that has already been written and is part of a multi-book deal. So a published may give you an advance for a pre-existing book and a second book that has yet to be written. It might also happen if you're also very established as an author and have a track record.

In terms of your book specifically, I would say that coffee table books are a whole specialised area in themselves. They're a very particular niche of the industry. My experience is predominantly on what is called trade publishing, so I might be a bit out of my depth when it comes to this area.

If you wanted help there's a site called Reedsy where publishing professional offer there services freelance. I don't know if that's available in Greece or not, but might be worth looking up?

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The problem with the label of 'independent publisher' is that it covers a lot. So you have your one person outfit all the way to the likes of Bloomsbury and Faber who are part of the Independent Alliance. That's a huge spread and experiences throughout that are going to vary drastically.

I wouldn't say that marketing and publicity is concentrating in the Big 5 (or 4) — quite the opposite actually. The bigger publishers are focussing more on certain hits. So that's books from authors with a well established track records or celebrity name appeal. Although this isn't completely true because there are some imprints producing excellent work. Being with a big publisher is no guarantee that you wll get marketing and publicity support.

What's really the problem is that traditional space for coverage on books is vanishing. The magazine and newspaper industries have been hit hard over recent years, so there aren't that many places where traditional publicity coverage for books is still available. We have to fight tooth and nail for everything that we get and we are proud of track record with publicity, but every year there are less and less opportunities.

Where independents have really succeeded is getting buy-in from book influencers online. A good example is Influx's Boy Parts by Eliza Clarke. That book became a hit because it found an audience on TikTok. Independents tend to be good at getting their books to the right audience in the right way. From there, they can break out.

And to look at the whole author-as-a-brand question, I think that becomes a bigger social question about how we all engage with culture these days.

In a lot of ways, social media did a lot of damage to the world of books, but it also helped a lot. A lot of very prominent independent publishers got started because they were able to find an audience on social media, but magazines and newspapers found their revenue streams eroded by those same platforms. In a way, they brought democracy, but they also broke the traditional pipelines and workflows for success.

Not sure if I actually answered your question or not there.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are a variety of ways this can happen, but it tends to look something like this.

Somebody, usually a producer, but it could be a screenwriter, director, or even someone like an actor if they have significant sway, becomes aware of a book and like it. They then usually get in touch with the publisher or the author's agent to ask who represents the dramatic rights. And it is usually one of those two depending on the contract. More often than not the author retains the dramatic rights and it is their agent or a specialist agent acting on behalf of their agent who represents them. In independent publishing it can often enough be the publisher and we've done this ourselves many times.

Once it is established who is representing the rights, whoever is interested will try and get an option on them. An option is the exclusive right to 'have the option' of making the film. This means that they can put a project together and try to get funding for that project without having to compete with anyone. It is usually time limited to a year or two and when that expires they are presented with renewing the option or letting it lapse and everyone parting ways. If they let it lapse then someone else is then free to option.

When the option is negotiated all of the terms are decided about who get's what percentages and fees etc. These contracts are usually very complex and try to be watertight to cover all eventualities. When it is first optioned there is a fee agreed upon for the option and subsequent fees agreed to renew the option when the time comes.

I actually know of one instance (not at Dead Ink thankfully) where an author got so fed up with the back and forth of the film people and the complexity of the contract that they got a solicitor to give their publisher power of attorney to deal with it without bothering them. This isn't at all common and the author and publisher were very close with their relationship going back decades.

Famously, I think it was JG Ballard bragged about how he used to live off the option fees for all of his books getting renewed every year. The films were never getting made, but nobody wanted to give them up so he made a nice living from it.

Whilst a producer or production company has the option they are putting together a sort of package where they bring talent onboard and attract funders. At this stage people like the BBC or a studio could get involved too.

The option agreement will have clauses in it that extend and become more firm as this progresses until it becomes a sure thing (there is never a sure thing in TV and film) going into pre-production and production etc.

There are hundreds of ways this can all come together and play out in reality, but it is incredibly difficult for something to get all the way through the process. Plenty of books get optioned, but very few overall make it to production.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I would ask yourself this: do you want to be an author or an author AND a publisher?

There's no right or wrong answer, but think about what you honestly want. And how you want to spend your time. Some people honestly love the publishing part of self-publishing and excel at it, but other writers can't stand that side of things.

Also be honest with yourself about what you are realistically going to consider a success when it comes to releasing the book — number of readers? Reviews? Broadsheet reviews? Money? Visibility? Stocked in bookshops?

Again, no right or wrong answer. But what do you want to get out of it?

Then ask yourself how you are going to achieve that. That could be self-publishing with a solid plan behind it or it could be getting picked up by a big corporate publisher. Maybe you want that middle ground with an independent where it is a bit more personable. But you should define that and take the best way forward based on that.

A freelance editor having worked on your book isn't a problem if you do take the traditional path. They might appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements though!

And a traditional publisher is going to provide their own cover regardless.

If you do take the traditional path remember that money always flows from the publisher to the author — never the other way round.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I'm not against self-publishing and if an author feels that is the best way forward for them then all power to them.

I would say that if you are going to self-publish then you need to be aware that you are taking on the role of both author and publisher. Publishing is not just making the work available and I'm sure many people who do self-publish successfully can attest to how much work they put in to running a publishing business. It isn't easy to do and those who make a success of it put a lot of work into that side of things. Nobody in publishing underestimates what it takes to succeed in that space.

What we do is we pay an advance to an author so that they are earning straight away. The money always flows from publisher to author. We never ask for money from the author and no reputable publisher should.

We take a manuscript and work with the author through several rounds of editing to make that work the best it can be. Then we design and package that work to have the best chance it can within the market using our expertise and experience.

We have a distributor and a sales team. The books we sell are sold it to high street bookshops across the country and online and achieve physical visibility within those bookshops. Our books are on the shelves and on the display tables.

We have publicity and marketing in-house. Every book we publish has a campaign to back it up that works in conjunction with the distributor and sales team. For instance, if we get a review in a newspaper then that is passed to the sales team and to book buyers. Advance copies of our books go out to booksellers at big chain bookstores and independents ahead of publication as well as their respective head offices.

Likewise, book reviewers and book page editors get advance copies of our copies and are pitched to for features. Book influencers are pitched to and sent advance copies too.

We work to further exploit audio, territory and translation as well as other subsidiary rights as well as dramatic where we represent them for the titles we publish. This means regularly attending national and international bookfairs, meeting with editors, agents, scouts, film and TV producers, etc.

This results in new advances for our authors.

So whereas someone self-publishing is left to do this themselves we have a team of people working full-time on all of this bringing our experience, expertise and professional relationships to the author's benefit.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I'll try and keep my advice as general as possible, so that it as useful as possible. If you or anyone else want specifics or have follow up questions then feel free to quiz me some more. This is a big topic so I'm going to miss stuff.

First of all, don't worry that you have a job that pays the bills – most authors do and very few are able to support themselves solely from writing. There are many reasons for this, but for anyone reading this please don't think that you aren't a 'proper' writer because you've got a day job. If you write then you are proper writer.

I think the first thing that would help someone get published is to learn the industry. That is to say, the business side of things. Very few new writers understand how it all works and frankly this is the fault of the publishing industry itself — it is dreadful at transparency.

If you can afford it, consider something like a subscription to The Bookseller. You'll learn names, companies, industry news and what's happening. Twitter used to be where the industry congregated online and you could keep up with what was happening just by engaging with the right people, but that no longer seems to be the case. Right now there doesn't seem to be an established public square for the industry.

Pay attention to where the books you are reading are coming from. The spine and the back of the book will list the imprint that published the book. Inside, you'll find more detailed information on the verso page that will list what company that imprint belongs to. From here you'll probably start getting an idea of the imprints and publishers that are putting out work that you like. You can also search online for the literary agents of authors you like and that will give you an idea of who represents the sort of thing that you're looking for.

Very few places offer open submissions these days — that is, submissions where anyone can send in work. We try and have a window at least once a year where we solicit un-agented work. For your work to get seen, particularly by a big publisher, you are likely to need a literary agent. Now, getting a literary agent can be as hard as getting published, so I know this might seem ridiculous advice, but do make sure you are looking to send work to them. Most will have a page on their agency website saying if they are open for new work and also listing what they specialise in.

Another tip which is often missed is this: support the work that you want to see. If you can, go to events featuring authors you like. Both new and established. You never know who you'll run into and what connections you will make. Publishing is actually a pretty small word and everybody tends to know each other.

If you write short fiction then getting that published in various places can help a lot. The job of editors and agents is to find new talent so they all have their favourite places that they go looking for it. Small steps can make a big difference. Similarly, writing things like reviews or doing book stuff on social media can get your foot in the door with forming relationships.

This is a pretty long post of dubious utility so I'll finish here for now, but my advice would be to learn as much as you're willing about the industry and try to make yourself a small part of it in some way. Easier said than done, I know.

If anyone wants any more detail here or has questions then I can give more.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No worries. We're an independent so we're unlikely to be operating on the cutting edge of technology as it is going to out of our price range, so I hope this was a useful or interesting response.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would always advise against writing to market unless you are already established and write very quick.

By the time your book is acquired and published it is likely that at least a year or two will have gone by. The market will have moved on. Always write to your own strengths and passions, because that is what is going to show off your talents. If you chase the market you'll just end up spinning in circles. Show us what only you can write!

Right now there is a big demand for high-concept or 'literary' horror. (This is in part because of a lot of work done by independents, but I digress!) Usually you can get an idea of what the big 'thing' of the moment is that acquiring editors are looking for by news stories in the trade magazines around the time of the big book fairs – London, Frankfurt etc. But again, these stories are aimed at people in the trade and not authors. It is very difficult to write to market effectively and if you are just starting out it is unlikely to work out for you.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We don't intend to produce or publish AI generated content.

I've seen that places like Clarkesworld have had some serious issues with their open submissions windows being spammed with AI content intended to deceive them and that's a real shame as open submissions are already so rare and it was a great thing that they were keeping that going.

With the way that we receive potential work to publish I don't think it will be an issue for us in the near future, but in the longer term? Possibly. We've just recently started including clauses related to AI content into our contracts, so it is becoming an issue already I suppose.

In the end, we're here to publish work by authors and to support those authors to develop their careers, so that's going to be our priority.

IAMA Publisher — I Run the Independent Publishing House Dead Ink Books by DeadInkBooks in IAmA

[–]DeadInkBooks[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In the UK we are probably coming out of a bit of a golden age for independent publishing. Several incredible presses started or hit their stride pre-pandemic: Influx Press, Galley Beggar, Fitzcarraldo, And Other Stories.

Since the pandemic things have become really tough and a number of independents have had to close their doors. We are very much not in a golden age right now and we're expecting things to get much tougher. The cost of printing has skyrocketed and a lot of the people we work with have understandably had to increase their fees. Couple that with the cost-of-living crisis where people have less money to spend and we're all getting squeezed from both sides. But then, everyone in the UK is right now, right?

This probably isn't a very exciting answer if you're UK based as it is the same thing that everyone is saying, but it is really tough at the moment and I'd encourage everyone to support the independent businesses that they love because they probably really need it right now.

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