Author Aubrey Rose recently wrote a blog post explaining why she decided to turn down an offer from Amazon Publishing’s Montlake Romance imprint.
Why would a self-published author turn down an overture from a publisher? An offer that included royalties, even?
From her post:
“…Naturally, I was thrilled. A real publisher wanted my work! I chatted with her briefly on the phone and asked her a ton of questions: What kind of cover would they create for me? What promotions would they do? What control would I have over everything? Although I was excited to work with Amazon, I wanted to know that they would treat my book right. She told me my novel was a great read and very clean writing, and that she would love to “partner” with me in relaunching my book through Amazon’s imprint.
However, she couldn’t guarantee anything – from cover image to pricing to marketing…”
Ah, ha! Well, that’s par for the publisher course. But wait, there’s more:
“…The advance they offered was less than I had made in my first month of sales. As I looked through the Montlake catalogue, I saw a mix of breakout hits and complete flops, with some recent books that just had the worst covers imaginable for romance. And I would have to pull my book from every publisher except Amazon…”
Wowsers. Over on Reddit she posted up a few more details:
“…They offered $5k, with 35% royalties. My book is already published, and they said they would just transfer it over in October, so 2 months.
They were firm on the cover being theirs, something to do with rights. I sent them a link to the stock photo of my model, but they wouldn’t guarantee me approval power, and some of their covers were so bad I got worried.
I guess she stumbled across it, because I didn’t submit it anywhere, just got an email from them out of nowhere…”
This tells me a few things: Amazon is actively searching out and courting self-published authors, and the deals they’re offering are similar to what legacy publishers are offering – only with slightly more in the way of royalty (legacy publishers usually offer around 25%, which – after costs, fees, agent percentages – comes to around 15%). I’m a big fan of indie publishing, but I’m not saying to turn down the safety and security of a legacy publishing deal. Whether you go indie or legacy always remember: you’re a published author!
You can read the original blog post HERE.
You can read the Reddit conversation HERE.
You can find Aubrey Rose’s blog HERE.