How Book Publishing Works

Written by Guild Markets Manager: Chase Anderson

Whether you’ve just finished your first book or your fiftieth, you have to make the same decision: how do you want to get it out into the world?

Self-publishing is pretty self-explanatory: you’re responsible for putting the book together and publishing it, and all the steps–and skills, and costs–that entails. It allows you to retain full control of the process, but takes significantly more time and resources. But what if you just want to write and not worry about any of that?

Traditional publishing, for hundreds of years, used to be the only option, and is still seen as the dream for many authors. But it can seem inscrutable to those unfamiliar with it, which can push underserved voices from submitting their books to agents and publishers.

The purpose of this post is to explain how this half of the publishing world works, to arm you with the knowledge on how to safely navigate traditional publishers both big and small.

### SO YOU WANT TO BE STEPHEN KING

If your dream is seeing your book on the shelves of Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, or Dymocks, you need to get your manuscript in front of an acquiring editor of a major publisher like Penguin Random House or HarperCollins. In the old days, they interred employees between stacks of mailed-in manuscripts to wade through the slush and pick out promising options to send upstairs.

But, once writers started using literary agents to negotiate deals on their behalf, publishers realized they could save themselves the trouble and move the slushing over to the agents. While some publishers might have limited windows for unagented/unsolicited submissions for underserved groups, the only way for most to get their foot into the door is through an agent.

Agents pick authors and projects they want to represent, which might entail feedback to strengthen the manuscript before showing it to editors. Once it’s ready, agents pitch your book to editors at publishers they believe will want it. They then ensure a contract from the publisher–or movie studio, or roller coaster manufacturer–is in your best interest, and they take a percentage of your earnings as compensation for their efforts.

This allows publishers to focus on what they do best: make your manuscript into the best product possible (so they can make as much money as possible selling it to readers). They offer you an “advance” on your future earnings (royalties) and you work with their editors to make your book stronger, along with the regular grammar, punctuation, and typesetting stages of editing.

One of their sales people will have a meeting with Barnes and Noble, where they pitch all their upcoming titles and argue that your book deserves space on their shelf instead of a Funko Pop. Their marketing team makes nice little graphics for social media and sends out review copies and press releases. As massive companies that put out dozens, if not hundreds, of books per year, they know this process in and out and have the connections to get your book in front of as many people as possible.

### BIGGER ISN’T ALWAYS BETTER

Publishing, in all its forms, is a business, and the book is the product. This means the corporate beancounters determine how many risks they can afford to take per year, as the guaranteed money makers like James Patterson, Colleen Hoover, and celebrity memoir bankroll everything else. It would be great for everyone if every debut turns into a runaway success like Xiran Jay Zhao, but they expect most books not to turn a profit. 

So books that are just outside the norm, whether it be in length, tone, subject matter, or the current political climate, will be harder to justify. Paying all those people to make a book a huge success isn’t cheap.

For furry writers, this is especially the case; we’ve all heard “Aren’t animal stories for kids? So why is this so long/mature? Who is this for?” We know there’s a market of readers for these books, but it’s not as big as major publishers want. They need to sell thousands of copies to make money, so what can you do when your readership is only in the hundreds?

### THE SMALL BUT MIGHTY

Small and indie presses do most of the same things that major presses do, but on a much smaller scale. They’ll put out maybe a dozen titles per year and have much smaller headcount; it isn’t uncommon for a press to be a single person who still has a day job.

The smaller headcount means that they need to sell much fewer copies to turn a profit, so they can publish titles that have smaller readerships. But it also leads to two major drawbacks:

1. They do not have the same cachet as a large press. It’s exceedingly unlikely that they’ll be able to get major reviewers or brick and mortar retailers to consider your book. Barnes and Noble is pretty confident they can sell that Star Wars LEGO set in Topeka, Kansas, but they don’t believe someone browsing the shelves will buy a book for a hyper-niche market.

2. Small or no advances. Without authors of instant New York Times bestsellers, their cashflow looks quite different. They cannot afford to give you $5,000 upfront if they expect to only make $10,000 in sales across all titles in a year.

But there’s also a number of benefits, too. You rarely need a literary agent to submit to them, so the barrier of entry is lower (and you don’t have to pay an agent’s fees, which means a higher royalty percentage for you). Your book won’t get lost among a bevy of new releases or a massive back catalog.

And, for furry publishing especially, you get the benefit of a deep understanding and integration into the community. Furry presses and distributors vend at all of the major conventions, where they hand sell your book and how awesome you are to people who otherwise would’ve never known furry writing exists. As furs themselves, they know what types of stories furries like and how to market to them. Despite having a corporate ‘sona, this isn’t something Penguin would ever be able to do.

### AND THEN THERE’S THE BAD GUYS

Malicious people–whether it be hackers, scammers, or shady businessfolx–succeed for two primary reasons: they manipulate emotions, and they take advantage of potential victims not knowing what is a “normal” interaction.

A real example I’ve encountered: I was at a local reading, and was talking to a fellow writer. She was telling me about her book and her efforts in getting published. “I found this great agent,” she told me. “And if I pay him up front, he’ll try harder to pitch my book!”

“Uhhhhhh, what?” I said. And I explained to her that agents get paid a percentage of your earnings, both the advance and royalties. They need to work hard to pitch your book in order to get paid. So, if you pay them up front…why would they try harder? They already made money off of you without having to do any work, so why risk putting in more effort for no return?

She didn’t want to believe she almost got scammed, of course. No one likes to admit they’ve been tricked. No one likes to feel ashamed. But it happens to all of us; I have absolutely clicked phishing links before my morning coffee has kicked in. But once I notice the website I land on is sus, I leave before I can do any more damage, like entering in passwords or personal info.

As a writer, you want people to like your book. You want people to tell you it’s amazing and that it deserves to be published. Bad guys know that you’ll become super excited when told these things, and, when you’re emotional, you’re less likely to stop and think things through. You’re less likely to question if these things are untrue. They may not ask immediately, but they will, at some point, ask you to do something against your best interest.

Which, almost always, is sending them money. There has been maybe one scammer in all of history that had the intention of stealing someone’s manuscript to publish elsewhere, as publishing takes a lot of effort and doesn’t guarantee a big payout. It’s a lot easier for them to get you to send them money for services that will never happen, or that you shouldn’t need to pay for in the first place.

### WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR

Malicious people constantly change the names/emails/websites they use and the text of their messages, so listing known bad-actors will quickly age into uselessness. Instead I’ll list the techniques they use and some examples, as those are the most difficult for them to change. But the tl;dr is ”…and then they ask you for money.”

* Messages from a publisher, agent, or editor out of the blue saying they really liked your book (especially an unpublished book) and are interested in it.

* Needing to pay for services, such as representation, editing, cover design, marketing, appearance fees, etc.

* Needing to purchase X copies of your book in order to be published or to keep the publisher from going under.

* The terms of an agreement changing (e.g. My uncle works at Nintendo, I’ll pitch your book to him to be turned into a game. Oh, he said we need a treatment first, but my cousin will gladly do it for only $10,000.).

* Any sort of pressure to act now, or else you’ll lose your opportunity. (Publishing moves very slowly. You can absolutely take a week or two to think things over.)

* Any sort of pressure to keep the offer and/or threats secret.

* Any sort of hostility if you ask for more time/space to think it through or when asking questions.

If you’re familiar with banking, tech support, or investment scams, you’ll notice some similarities. Many unpublished mainstream writers are older and aren’t part of larger writing communities or organizations, so scammers see them as likely to fall for flattery and intimidation tactics. But anyone, of any age and at any point in their career, can be victimized by a scam. You need to be lucky every time spotting and dodging scammers. Scammers only need to get lucky once.

### BUT WHAT ABOUT…?

There are “vanity presses” and publishing services, where you pay for things like cover design and distribution. It’s common for self published authors to pay for someone else to edit their book or handle the marketing, for example.

However, the self published author knows up-front that they want to pay for a service and begin discussions with that in mind. They don’t get blindsided with, “Oh, actually I’m not gonna make you a cover for free. Gimme $5,000.”

Printing your book at FedEx is technically a vanity press; FedEx really doesn’t care what happens after it’s printed as long as you pay them first. If you see a press that says, upfront and clearly on their website, that they’ll publish your book if you pay $W,XYZ, then you have the right to enter that contract. But it’s important to keep in mind that what makes them money is the services, not making a book people want to buy.

Before you sign that check, do some research: Do their covers look nice? Do their titles have any reviews on Amazon? Do they focus more on selling books, or services? If you google them, what comes up? Have other authors had good experiences?

Just because a publisher doesn’t say upfront they won’t ever charge you fees doesn’t mean they aren’t a vanity press; many publishers assume this is an unspoken rule, like, “Please don’t set our store on fire or punch the staff.” If, after being accepted, you’re told you need to pay for services (either as a normal part of their business or that you or your book is an exception), that’s extremely not cool of them.

There are presses that only charge some of their would-be-authors, especially for editing. This is also extremely uncool, and it makes it harder for word to get out that they do this, because authors compare notes. If you were singled out for paying fees, it can increase the negative feelings that keep people from speaking out, which is the one thing they don’t want you to do.

### HELP! I THINK I’VE BEEN SCAMMED!

It’s awful that this happened to you. It doesn’t mean that you’re naive, or a bad writer, or deserved this. It means you’re human, with human emotions that a not very nice person took advantage of. They’re in the wrong here, not you.

You can try to initiate a chargeback with whatever service you used to transfer the money, but that might be impossible (services like Zelle and PayPal Friends and Family post warnings that they cannot undo transactions because they’re so commonly used for scams). The best thing you can do is share your story; while not furry-specific, SFWA’s [Writer Beware](https://writerbeware.blog/about/) has a tipline for potential scams and shady publishers.

I’ve submitted to them before, as I have been involved with publishers that ghosted authors without paying them, sending contributor copies, or reverting rights. And it always sucks when it happens! Unfortunately, if you work in publishing long enough, you’re going to encounter a bad actor, either one who set out to be a scammer or who meant well but got overwhelmed by the realities of publishing.

If something happened with a furry-specific publisher, you can privately message a Guild Officer and share your concerns.

Even if you just want a gut check or an extra set of eyes on a contract, one of the reasons why I’m here is to give you the tools you need to succeed, and that includes the knowledge and confidence to advocate for yourself. Your stories are important and deserve to be handled by someone who sees you as the artist you are, and not just a walking paycheck.

### GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Some words mean specific things with publishing, such as:

* Acquiring Editor: The person at a publisher who chooses what stories to buy to fulfill the company’s goals. For large publishers, final decisions are usually made by upper management. For small presses and literary journals, it’s often the same person who is the head of the organization and handles other editorial duties.

* Advance: A “loan” a publisher gives a writer for their manuscript. For each book sold, an author earns a certain percent of it as income, known as royalties, which are reported by the publisher and paid on a set schedule. An advance is an amount that is “borrowed” against future royalty earnings, any royalties accrued greater than the advance (and, therefore, sent to the author) means the book has earned out. Most books do not earn out, and this is part of the math that determines what advances an author might get. If a book does not earn out, the author doesn’t have to pay back the difference.

* Example: A publisher gives an author a $10,000 advance for a book that earns $5 in royalties per book sold. The first 2,000 books sold have their royalties “paying back” the “loan” that was the advance, so the author does not get issued royalty checks. If 2,001 or more books sell, then the book has earned out and the author receives additional income. If it sells 2,000 copies or less, the author only ever gets the initial $10,000.

* Agent: A person who represents a writer to sell and negotiate specific rights, such as English publishing, foreign language publishing, film adaption, roller coaster adaption… A person with an agent is agented, and an agent submitting a work on the writer’s behalf is an agented submission. A writer submitting directly to a publisher is an unagented submission. Agents get paid a percentage of author earnings, both advance and royalties, and is the only way they earn income; brand-new agents who have not sold any books do not make any income and often work another job.

* Publisher: A traditional publisher invests only their money into acquiring and publishing books; authors only receive money, not pay money. A vanity publisher will publish a book only if a writer pays all of the costs: some differentiate themselves by not accepting every customer, but they’re still vanity publishers. A hybrid publisher fronts some of the costs of book production, but they require the writer to “invest” some of their own money, too. Publishing services are offered by a company for authors to handle some parts of self-publishing for them.

* Note: Each has its own use case. If you want to print a couple dozen copies of a cookbook for the family reunion, then a vanity publisher is your best option. If you can’t be bothered to find a cover designer or figure out how to format eBooks, then publishing services can help you in self-publishing. Many vanity and hybrid publishers won’t call themselves that due to the negative connotations, so you have to determine what type of publisher they are by looking at their site. Regardless of what you choose, any ethical publisher that requires author payment must be up front about it. 

* Rights: The legal ability to do something with a book. If a publisher only sells books in the US and Canada, they need North American English language rights. If a publisher has worldwide distribution (such as through Gumroad or itch.io), then they need worldwide English language rights. The rights a publisher is buying from you, and how much they pay for it, is spelled out in the contract. Good contracts should include information on rights reversion, where you get your rights back (and can then sell them elsewhere, if you so choose).

* Example 1: A publisher wants to buy your English-language short story to sell in their physical and digital magazine for 8 cents per word. But their contract states you are also giving them merchandising rights, all forms of media/publishing, both current and future, and all foreign language rights. Signing the contract gives them the right to turn your story into a movie, translate it and publish it in High Valyrian, or make a Funko Pop of the characters, and you won’t see any additional income. It’s good practice to ask what plans a publisher has to exercise each right, in each form and language; if they have no plans, then they don’t need those rights. If they make plans in the future, they can issue a new contract then (and write you a new check).

* Example 2: A publisher wants to buy your book to sell both physically and digitally. They want the exclusive right to be the publisher of your book, but there is no rights reversion clause. If the press goes defunct (such as the owner dies, closes the press, or decides to ghost everyone), then, legally, you can’t sell your book elsewhere (either to another publisher or to self-publish it). Contracts exist to protect both parties in case the worst happens, so having, in writing, what should happen if a publisher stops functioning is good practice.

* Note: Generally, you do not need a lawyer to review publishing contracts, as they tend to be simple (comparatively). Contracts that are more complex and involve larger amounts of money are usually handled by a literary agent and their legal counsel. The [SFWA Contract Committee](https://sfwa.org/sfwa-committees/contracts-committee/) is a free resource that includes annotated model contracts and other resources a writer can use to judge a contract.

* Solicitation: An editor or agent asking a writer specifically to submit to them. This might happen if you meet them at a convention or take part in a pitch event on social media. Most of the time, you’re sending unsolicited submissions. Major presses usually do not accept unsolicited, unagented submissions, but most small and indie presses take mostly unsolicited, unagented submissions.