What are we?

A traditional publishing agency which doesn’t require an agent.

And if your manuscript isn’t ready to publish just yet, we also offer author services including copy editing, developmental editing, proofreading, and manuscript assessment to determine if it’s ready for publishing. You can use any of our services regardless of whether you intend to publish with us, or with a Big Five publisher, or self publish.

So- what’s the pros and cons?

Pros

It’s the easiest way to get your book in bookstores such as Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and also smaller bookshops. That’s because bookstores buy in bulk, not from Amazon, and they don’t buy self published books. By publishing with us, your book both gets stamped with the legitimacy of being traditionally published. It also gets an ISBN which makes it stand out on Amazon as well.

It’s the quickest path to seeing your book on shelves. The querying process can take years. Even after a publisher accepts the manuscript, it can be up to another year or two before it’s published.

It’s fair and transparent. With the Big Five, you won’t earn anything until you “earn out” your advance. This means that day your publisher gives you an advance of £2,000. Your book has to sell enough copies to make the publisher their £2,000 back, before you get royalties. Many authors never do this because the book doesn’t sell enough copies, so they never receive any royalties. If they do, then royalties are a very small percentage, usually much less than 30%. The publisher, who didn’t do any of the work actually writing the book, somehow grabs most of the profit.

Cons

We’re a startup independent press, so we can’t give you an advance. With us, you pay a one-off transparent price to publish the book (ISBN and publishing process, uploading to Amazon etc is all inclusive. We like to keep things honest and simple).

If you are looking for an advance and not to spend anything on publishing, we would suggest not pursuing indie publishers, and instead querying agents who work with the Big Five. Please bear in mind that travel costs are often associated with this route, and the querying process takes months to years. Unedited manuscripts are less likely to be picked by agents, so be prepared to pay for editing services.

Ultimately, you know your manuscript best and what you want most out of being an author. Only you can know which publishing route is best for your book. If you are interested in publishing with us, please submit your manuscript and we’ll let you know if it’s ready for publication. If it would benefit from editing or formatting, we’ll let you know, and you can either make the tweaks yourself, hire someone else, or if you would prefer, you can buy a service from us.