So I was pondering my publishing skills the other day and I suddenly realised I had almost enough to be a publisher in my own right.  I’m an editor and a writer who has written contracts, paid out money, negotiated royalties, worked with designers, written marketing and sales material, worked on websites and taken many books from idea to publication.

The bit I am missing is design.  I can use Photoshop and have used InDesign but I don’t know how to use them well enough to design book covers and lay out text.

Ah, but I’m close right? Just by myself – add a designer to the team and suddenly I’m a publisher. Or pick up a few more design skills and I can do it all by myself.

This lead me to thinking about all those books out there and all those writers who are desperately pounding on the doors of Paper Publishing world.  I wonder what the response would be if I offered a new service:

I’ll edit your book, write a blurb, get a cover designed, write sales material, come up with a sales plan, create a website … for a 10% royalty on sales.  All books will be distributed on torrents as free content as well as uploaded to Amazon and other ebook sale sites.  Anywhere it doesn’t cost money to put it. (So that means no to most self-publishing companies who want some cash to simply hold files for you until someone buys the book.)  When torrents and downloads show there is an audience then the book moves towards paper publishing. But only when there is a proven audience.

I think this would be a viable business model for publishing books. At the moment an author gets a tiny percentage of sales for their work. Publishers cite salaried staff, distribution networks, losses on other books etc as the reason they take 90% of the money.  This means if a book is sold for $16.95, the publisher may receive $6.78. Now, depending on the agreement, the author may receive 10% of $6.78 ($0.67) or they may receive 10% of $16.95 ($1.69). In either case, they aren’t receiving much.

An ebook selling for $2 minus a 10% royalty for the editor/designer/publisher gives the writer $1.80 and the editor $0.20.  This is a good deal for the writer! (And for the editor too.)

A clever editor running a website with downloadable books on it would be able to collect advertising revenues as well which would be split with the author.

For books that became popular, large publishing houses may put in a bid to paper publish them. Of course, their royalty offer would need to be very good.

This model would drastically reduce the cost of books to the consumer. Readers would be able to get books for free or very low cost. The author would be able to make more money then with a traditional publisher and editors would still have a job.

As for publishing companies, which should really be seen as distribution companies, well … they’re going to have to get used to the idea that owning distribution to products people don’t want isn’t a viable business model.

Sidenote: I put my book, Super Monkey Group: The Blurting Beetles of Baloogo Loogo up on Minova free content distribution yesterday. It’s been downloaded 417 times since then. I’m not sure how many of those people then read the book but I think it will be at least a few. I’ll be putting the second Super Monkey Group book up there and then the following three that complete the series. Will it result in money and Paper Publication? Perhaps. If enough people download it then I think that shows there is a market. Once I can establish there is a market then I can risk money on Paper Publishing or sell it to a Paper Publisher.

I see editors working out of house to put books into free distribution as the next step in publishing development. The editor will be your agent, editor, copywriter, publicist and yes, even designer. Publishers will simply refuse to look at anything that hasn’t already been downloaded 10,000 times.

What exciting times are ahead!