During my 30+ years as a published writer of 120+ books, I have worked with many publishers – trade and educational, such as Penguin Books, Random House, HarperCollins, Allen & Unwin, Rigby, Pearson, et al, but along the way have been some small publishing houses which have taken on my manuscripts. In many ways I have found small publishers far more proactive and a joy to work with, particularly in the area of marketing.
The first small publisher which accepted one of my
manuscripts was Kangaroo Press, run here in Australia by a husband and wife
team, David and Cilla Rosenberg. At the time they accepted my (third)
manuscript, The Belligrumble Bigfoot,
I had only dealt with one international publisher. What I found, though, was
that the Rosenbergs were more hands-on in dealing with me than major companies.
Mostly I communicated with Cilla; she was always
available on the phone when I rang, whereas with my first publishing house it
was usually difficult to make contact with my editor. Cilla was impressive
insofar as nothing was too much trouble for her and she attended to matters I
raised almost immediately. (This was pre-computer days, so contact was only via
phone or mail.) Over the years I could count on my royalty statements and
cheques arriving promptly from Kangaroo Press, whereas there were always delays
with the first, major publisher, and often their statements were inaccurate.
Recently an author friend told me that Kangaroo Press is still distributing a
children’s non-fiction book of hers 22 years after it was first published!
More recently I have returned to working with small
publishers: Ford Street (publisher, Paul Collins), Celapene Press (Kathryn
Duncan) and Morris Publishing Australia (Elaine Ouston). All have been simply
splendid to work with. All responded to manuscript submissions more swiftly
than major publishers which take months (and sometimes literally years). In
each case I have felt a valued member of their publishing house. I’ve been
consulted about book cover designs, and my opinions taken into consideration.
All have entered my books into literary competitions and so far there has been
success: Crossing the Line was
short-listed in the NSW Premier’s Awards; Nobody’s
Boy won a CBCA Notable award. The
Girl in the Basement was released in June 2013 so it is too early to tell.
With all of the books I’ve worked alongside the
publishers in publicising and marketing. The very proactive Paul Collins, for
example, has a speakers’ agency, http://fordstreetpublishing.com/cnet/ through
which I have been employed in numerous schools, including a week as
writer-in-resident at a central NSW school. As well, I presented for Paul at a
Melbourne writers’ conference, talking about Crossing the Line. I’ve also joined Paul’s Creative Net speakers
for a day-long writing workshop in a NSW school.
Working as a team, Paul and I spent weeks sending
out a huge amount of promotional material. This also included numerous articles
I’d written which were published online and in hard copy magazines. As well, I
undertook interviews on radio, in newspapers and in many magazines. Paul and I
also sent thousands of emails to individuals and organisations on our
respective databases. As a consequence, Crossing
the Line has sold well, received many (favourable) reviews and, thanks to
Paul, sold to Australian Standing Orders (a book club) and to a German
publisher for translation. Something else that Paul did that none of my dozens
of publishers have ever done, was to create a u-tube with a young actor
speaking in the role of the book’s protagonist about a scene from the story.
More recently, the publisher of my cross-over
novel, The Girl in the Basement,
Elaine Ouston, has made good use of her 27 years in marketing. Like Paul and
Kathryn (Celapene Press), she has sent out many press releases and copies for
review. She has made great use of social media to promote my new title, and I
am working hard in this area; with little expertise in the area, I am employing
a computer guru and employing blogs http://diannedibates.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/get-your-copy-now-of-girl-in-basement.html,
facebook entries http://www.facebook.com/dianne.bates.71 ,
LinkedIn and twitters to publicise the book’s release. Once again, I am writing
articles about the creation of The Girl
in the Basement, and Elaine has organised a blog tour on 12 sites to happen
in July 2013.
Elaine also has a background in graphic design; she
kindly designed and sent me a number of full colour flyers including an
invitation to the book launch and an advanced information sheet (which lists
where to obtain the book), flyers and envelopes for students when I give free
talks in schools about the book. In September Elaine is also flying me to
Brisbane where she will have book events organise for me, including signings in
stores.
Like Paul and Elaine, Kathryn has a one-person
publishing house, but which she juggles with a family; she also runs an annual
children’s writing competition in memory of her daughter, Charlotte. Every time
I heard of a literary competition I thought Nobody’s
Boy had a chance with, Kathryn immediately sent off a copy. She has always
been available and continues to promote my junior verse novel at every
opportunity. After the book won a CBCA Notable award, there was a huge spike in
sales and I’m well pleased that Kathryn was able to re-print the book. Both
Kathryn and Paul have provided Teachers’ Notes for those books of mine that
they’ve published; at the moment I’m writing notes for Elaine.
I hold Paul, Elaine and Kathryn in high regard and
am always thankful to them for all the hard work they’ve put in to promoting my
respective titles. To learn more about these three marvellous publishers and
their publishing houses, check out
Celapene Press http://www.celapenepress.com.au/index.html
Morris Publishing Australia http://www.morrispublishingaustralia.com/
(Better still, support them with book sales from
their sites!)
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