From Digital Book World:
You’ve probably heard of indie publishers, but have you heard of micro-publishers? Author Shirin Bridges, owner of Goosebottom Books, calls her company a micro-publisher: a professional publishing organization that brings together a flexible workforce to produce a small number of highly targeted books.
Because of the nature of micro-publishers as small, custom organizations, no two are alike. This in-depth look at Goosebottom’s structure and goals can offer insights into the benefits of this new highly flexible option for energetic authors and entrepreneurs looking to reach niche audiences.
. . . .
Goosebottom was created with the goal of producing books for children about females who have found a way to effect change in their communities.
“We run Goosebottom like a co-op,” said Bridges.
The organization does not employ full-time staff members. Instead, trusted professional members come together on an as-needed basis. Bridges noted that she doesn’t pay herself, but the other members of the team receive standard compensation. Authors get advances and royalties, illustrators get either a flat fee or a royalty, and all copy editors and designers get a flat fee.
. . . .
“Micro-publishers can’t compete in the realm of general fiction.” said Bridges. “They have to know their narrow niche.”
Bridges defines the brand as the thinking girls’ series that boys are interested in, too.
The stories produced at Goosebottom Books span various times in history, and the stories come from all over the globe. For example, one series is about real-world princesses, including Hatshesput of Egypt and Sorghaghtani of Mongolia. Another series, called “Dastardly Dames,” includes biographies of iconic women such as Cleopatra and Njinga, “The Warrior Queen.”
. . . .
“There’s recognition out there,” said Bridges. “People see me at conferences and say they recognize the logo.”
. . . .
Goosebottom Books, like publishers of any size, is inundated with queries.
“We get two to three manuscripts a day,” said Bridges. “Though they’d be hard-pressed to know how to find us.”
Link to the rest at Digital Book World
PG knows nothing about Goosebottom Books, its personnel or financial backing.
However, the first thing that popped into his mind when he read the OP was All Romance E-Books.
Goosebottom struck PG (perhaps wrongly) as a hobby, albeit a serious hobby, for most of its participants. There is nothing inherently bad about that type of organization, but is Goosebottom and its books only a hobby for the authors it publishes?
PG quickly scanned the website and couldn’t find anything about the contracts Goosebottom wants authors to sign. He checked out the publisher’s Terms of Use and they were standard boilerplate legalese.
If the same attorneys who wrote the TOU wrote Goosebottom’s publishing contracts, PG would expect the usual (unfortunately) term-of-copyright, all ancillary rights language that most publishers include in their contracts.
This type of language is dangerous enough for authors publishing through well-established traditional publishers. In PG’s astonishingly humble opinion, such provisions definitely should not be in the publishing contracts of small publishers, some of whom will definitely go out of business in either an organized or unorganized fashion before their authors’ copyrights expire.
For small publishers who may read this, what are PG’s alternatives?
- The publishing contract lasts for a specified term – three years, five years, seven years, ten years max. At the end of the contract term, the parties can renew the agreement if everybody’s still happy.
- The publishing contract is for printed books and ebooks only.
- For any other rights associated with the book (games, toys, movies, etc.), the author agrees to negotiate with the publisher if the publisher wants to do something with those rights, but is not required to grant those rights to the publisher.
- If any payment of royalties and/or royalty statement is more than 30 days late, the author may immediately terminate the contract on written notice to the publisher and all rights to the author’s books immediately revert to the author.
If an author is writing as a hobby, perhaps he/she may knowingly take the risk of giving his/her stories to a publisher on a wing and a prayer. However, if an author is working towards a career in writing, the author and any publishers with which he/she associates should engage in sound business practices.
PG,
No opportunity to cure?
30 days is the opportunity to cure. Which is more generous than most contracts. Just try being 30 days late with payroll, lease, utility bill…
I worked many, many (many, many, many) years ago in a commission-based business (securities broker). There were several times that I recall sitting at a Selectric typing out commission checks – or, worse, sitting with a calculator and a desk next to me piled high with the transaction documents. Wife came closer to divorcing me in that period than she ever has since, but I never missed one of those semi-monthly deadlines (we paid first and fifteenth of the month).
“Goose”. “Bottom.”
They can’t have been thinking the same things I did when they named their company.
Anyway — check out their blog – http://goosebottombooks.com/goosetracks/ – for example, the post about how it feels to be a published writer, and the comparison between CreateSpace and Spark and something else.
Indies are very easy to kill off, but no one other than that indie notices.
Large publishers are hard to kill, but if one fails it takes down lots of people who weren’t party to the failure.
Micro-publishers are easy to kill and will take down third parties with them.
All the caveats about granting the minimum licenses needed apply doubly to micro-publishers. They are not robust organizations and you don’t want their failure tying up your IP.
For example, one series is about real-world princesses, including Hatshesput of Egypt and Sorghaghtani of Mongolia.
If it’s the series I’m thinking of, we have it in our local library. My oldest loved reading those books.
Next time I go to the library I’m going to look for it to see if it was the same press.
At least they named it well. Every now and then you ‘might’ get an egg out of the bottom of a goose, the rest of the time all you’ll get is …
Heh heh.
Years ago, I was offered contracts which covered ebook and print versions for a period of two years. All they had to do to extend that was to publish a translation–it didn’t have to sell, it didn’t have to be a particularly good translation. Checking the site, there were a lot of mom-and-pop pics, clearly from a department store portrait studio. That publisher has since shed all other authors and now sells exclusively the founder’s works.