ANNOUNCEMENT: PUBLISHING DEAL SIGNED!
It's been a while since I updated this thread - but I hope the wait was worth it.
Today I signed a publishing deal with a small local publisher, Petra Books.
http://www.petrabooks.ca/
I did quite a bit of research about publishing and Petra's publishing model, as well as them being local, small, and committed to quality, appealed to me.
Publishing a book can basically go two ways: author-paid or publisher-paid. The latter is reserved for those name-brand writers that you see on bookstore shelves and online everywhere. That actually represents a miniscule percentage of the authors out there. The rest take the former route. The author pays the whole cost of getting the book published - but typically keeps all of the royalties (basically revenues less printing, wholesaling, etc. costs.)
Petra's model falls somewhere in between. Without getting into too many specific details (the deal took over a month to negotiate), basically I will be covering a fraction of the costs; they will cover the rest; we will share in any royalties. This is for both the printed and e-version(s) of the book. There is a shared commitment to promoting the book, which will be available through numerous avenues including through Petra.ca, Amazon, etc.
Because they are small, and because they are currently fully-committed with other titles in the works, we've set a target of having the book ready for Xmas 2015 but, practically-speaking, it could be a few months into 2016. I've seen a few of their books currently in production and am hugely-impressed by the attention to detail and care that they put into it. Some books have taken up to two years to get to final print because of numerous iterations needed to get it right. (And no, my cost does not go up depending on the length of time; my cost for production is a fixed amount.) I could have simply taken this to a print shop and had it slapped-out in time for Bats' GTG, but I would not have been happy with the final product.
I have protected the ability to use my book for any and all purposes so, for example, I could take a number of the stories and turn them into a one-man stage play, which I am seriously considering doing.
In addition, I intend to create a book-specific web site and to serialize it: basically I will be releasing one story a week, for over two years until all 107 stories (and perhaps some "bonus" stories) have been posted. This should be up and running when the book is released, and visitors to the site will be free to wait for the two years+ to read all of the stories, or purchase the book immediately should they so desire. There will also be a "crowd-funding" option of sorts as well, where readers can donate any amount they feel appropriate.
At this point the expected retail price of the book will be $20. It will be softcover, and if we end up sticking to our plan for it to be 6" x 9" in size, it should come in around 300 pages.
Anyhow, I'd be happy to share more of the specifics of the process at the next GTG, with anyone who is interested.
And in case I've not said it (enough) before, this whole process has so far been a hugely fun and rewarding experience. Lots of work still to be done; but that's just more fun!
Jeff
