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An Interview with Authors 4 Authors Publishing
You’ve worked hard on your novel. You’ve spent hours, potentially years on this one book and now you have to decide how to publish it. Letting go can be hard, which is why more and more authors are choosing to self-publish. But that comes with it’s own set of hurdles. I for one know very little about marketing and wouldn’t have the first clue about finding a cover artist.
Traditional publishing does just about everything for you — but they’ll take a massive cut of the profits for their trouble. Traditional publishing also means relinquishing a great deal of control over your book, what it will look like, and how and where it will be sold.
However, there are emerging publishing companies that have found a balance between the two: lending you their professional experience while still allowing you to have control over the process.
One such company is Authors 4 Authors Publishing. Run by Renee Frey, B.C. Marine, and Rebecca Mikkelson. They strive to provide a publishing service that will “bridge the gap between indie publishing and traditional publishing”.
I talked to the ladies behind Authors 4 Authors and here’s what they had to say about their company:
What made you decide to start Authors 4 Authors (A4A)?
This all started when our COO Renee Frey came to our writing group with an idea: several authors that plan on self publishing go in on a bulk purchase of ISBNs to make the price considerably cheaper. Two ISBNs (which you’ll need for e-book and print version) are an incredible $250 whereas one thousand ISBNs are $1500. If you get ten people to buy in with you, it’s the same price as one ISBN. This idea burgeoned into, “If we’re buying the ISBNs anyway, why don’t we help each other publish?” and then came Authors 4 Authors after a year of meetings and hard work.
*ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number and every published book, Self-published or Traditional, has one.
In what ways are A4A different from Traditional Publishing?
Our approach is more personal, starting with submissions. Large publishers leave writers waiting for months with no response only to send a form letter. We respond quickly and if we don’t accept a submission, we offer advice on resources to further the author’s goals and changes they can make for resubmission.
Authors who sign with us get more input. We recognize that writers have different needs and wants in the process, so if they want to write their own blurb or help select their cover art, they can. If they need help with social media, we do that as well.
Once their books are published, our authors earn higher royalties than the industry standard based on the SRLP (Suggested retail list price) instead of sale prices.
In what ways are A4A different from Self Publishing?
Unlike self-publishers, our authors don’t pay out of pocket for editing services, cover artists, ISBNs, marketing, and other expenses, which can be prohibitively expensive. They also get the support of our team through the publishing process and help with marketing as needed.
What is the basic process a novel published with A4A will go through?
When a manuscript is accepted, we send the author a questionnaire and have a meeting with them to discuss their preferences for the process. Once the decisions are finalized and contracts are signed, the manuscript will go through a few rounds of edits where we actively converse with our authors to make sure we’re on the same page. Once we’re both happy with it, it’ll go to the proofreading stage to be finalized. After that we’ll talk with cover artists and include the author in the process if they so choose.
Can you talk a little about the social media promotional aspects A4A helps with? I feel it’s an area a lot of writers struggle with or are unsure of.
We’re really flexible with social media. Authors who have a handle on their website and media platforms can continue maintaining them. For ones who don’t know what to do (or don’t want to) we can set and manage accounts for them. And in between those options, we provide content that any of our authors can use and recommendations for posts and page setup.
For all of our books, we work with the authors to create social media campaigns and blog posts to promote launches and sales. We also help our authors with similar audiences to cross-promote one another, increasing reach for everyone. It’s worth noting that the cross-promotions are only for works that appropriately relate to each other. For example, two YA steampunk writers might market together, but a steamy romance writer would not be asked to join them.
Are there any types of stories, genres, or characters you’d specifically love to see in the A4A submission box? Anything you absolutely don’t publish?
We would love to see something in any of the speculative fiction genres, especially if it falls into the fantasy realm because we all either write in that genre, or enjoy reading it.
At the moment, the only thing we aren’t looking for is literary, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t publish it. If it sits well with us, and we think we can market it, we’re happy to proceed.
Do you have any submission tips or advice for authors interested in A4A?
If you’re going to submit to us and we ask you for a full manuscript, please make sure you clean up more than your first chapter. We don’t mind waiting for a better product that’s more likely to be chosen without having to ask for edits first.
Learn more about Authors 4 Authors or how to submit here:
“We are more than a business: we are a community.” — from authors4authorspublishing.com
