Publishing – Do You Go Big, Small, or Independent?

Ask Alice is an online column written by our former Secretary, Dr Alice Boer-Endacott, who has published several young adult fantasy novels and a non-fiction mini, under ‘A B Endacott’.

Ask Alice is designed to unpack all aspects of the Australian young adult literary scene, so if you’ve got a question, go ahead and Ask Alice!

It’s the dream of most authors to have their work published by a major publisher. You know, the publishers responsible for your favourite titles; the ones whose logos you recognise, like the little penguin or the line art cockatoo or the…whatever HarperCollins logo is (google tells me it’s a torch and waves).

These publishers seem to be becoming ever-more-major with the various mergers and acquisitions (HarperCollins is actually a consolidation, which the logo reflects). In Australia, despite a robust little literary industry, we’re by no means immune to this. Last year, in August, Simon & Schuster acquired Melbourne-based independent publishing house, Affirm Press, and in November, Text Publishing announced it was going to be acquired by Penguin Random House.

Although Text co-owner Michael Heyward told The Guardian: “What we’ve agreed is that Text will continue to retain creative control of all of its key publishing processes – acquisition of books, editing of books, curation of the list, publicity, marketing, design, production, export and rights,” it still means that Text is now an imprint, which changes its position in the literary landscape.

One might think the direction of this column is trending towards a discussion of whether we should be concerned by this ever-consolidated publishing industry. Certainly, it’s a topic on which I’m ruminating, given the fact that the ownership and upper management of these companies is largely white and male (and conservative) – not necessarily a problem in and of itself, but we do know that this can often affect the kinds of stories that are published, or not published. Moreover, companies which are this large are especially beholden to their perceptions of market demand at a more political level, which was arguably explains Hachette’s decision to create the Basic Liberty imprint which specialises in conservative books.

However, while I’ve shoehorned this concern into the column, this month, I’m actually interested in what this means for authors. So this month, I’m asking when publishing your work, is it better to go small, big, or independent? 

To help me answer this, I reached out to writing legend Ellie Marney, who just independently published All Shall Mourn, the conclusion to the None Shall Sleep trilogy, the first two of which were published by Allen&Unwin/Little Brown, and Bianca Breen, founder of YA for WA in 2021, a previous communications director at LoveOzYA, and previous co-host of The YA Room. Excitingly, her debut novel, Made of Steam and Stardust, will come out on May 12 with Stag Beetle Books.

Let’s start from the beginning of the publishing process. Smaller imprints are more likely to publish ‘riskier’ books. In a Q&A with two agents, one noted, “often, small presses will take on projects that might seem too risky or on the “fringe” for Big Five publishers.” This can take the form of content (stories which feature prominently queer relationships or identities, which follow characters of colour, or even are just unusual in their form or style), or in terms of the author’s profile. As they go on to note, “platform is only becoming more important and often it can be a deal killer if the author doesn’t have an extensive enough platform.”

Text championed established and emerging Australian writers, and translations, while also publishing a series of previously out-of-print Australian Classics. As this piece notes, “with a relatively small population and limited interest from overseas publishers in local titles, Australia’s literary heritage is at great risk of disappearing without the efforts of publishers such as Text.”

Interestingly, this willingness to invest in more ‘risky’ literary pieces means a lot of literary awards are won by smaller publishers.

Although this might risk an author being pigeonholed being ‘niche’, it’s also a foot in the publishing door, which can be spun into contracts with bigger publishers (if that’s what they so desire).

Moving to the next step in the process: the production time takes longer in bigger publishers. For Bianca, “by the time Made of Steam and Stardust is released, the timeline will be nearly a year. I received the contract in June 2024 and the book will be released in May 2025. It might have even been quicker than that, but I took a bit longer than expected on the first round of edits.”

Ellie noted that with a large traditional publisher, “the timeline is always 12-24 months from completing the manuscript to the book release […] Trad pub houses release thousands of new books each year, and they have a schedule for all the books coming down the pipe. Your book needs to find a place somewhere in that production-line schedule.”

The schedule for independent publishing, or self publishing, is totally different. Ellie observed, “I could cobble something together and hit ‘publish’ next week if I wanted to. But the quality of the book would not be good, and I’d have no time to build anticipation amongst my readers for the book’s arrival.” She revealed the publishing process for All Shall Mourn took about 7 months: “I released a chapter of the book each month in my newsletter for 7 months in the lead up to release, to give readers a taste of what was coming. Then during that 7 months, I finished the book, had it edited, arranged for the cover to be created, arranged for the manuscript to be typeset, organised ISBNs and metadata, and set everything up on release platforms. Honestly, I think 6 months would be a minimum timeline for a self-published book, if you really want to do a good job.”

It’s worth emphasising this potential for quick turnaround can be incredibly useful. I chose to independently publish my Legends of the Godskissed Continent series in part because I had so many of the manuscripts written and I knew I could build up a really strong readership through several closely spaced releases. However, Ellie’s right in saying that capacity for quick turnaround shouldn’t compromise the quality of the books.

With that in mind, there are often a few more rounds of edits with any traditional publisher. Bianca shared that Made of Steam and Stardust has gone through three rounds of edits: “The first round that came back to me were very simple notes but fairly big structural edits […] then a second editor gave a few notes but these were very light, mostly questioning any inconsistencies or things that could be clearer to the reader.” The third round, which she’s going through as of this column’s publication, is a proofread.

Ellie opened with the comment that editors, “are rarely paid enough for their labour!” (True: the editor for my books, Jason has made me a better writer, as well as making my books better). She went on to outline when working with an in-house editor as opposed to freelance editor, “the dynamic is different. I often think of my trad pub editor as my “publisher” because they’re shepherding the book to release. With self-publishing, you’re the publisher, so you’re the boss […] it’s your book and your call. You can refuse to make the changes your editor recommends. I mean, you have this freedom with in-house editors also, but it’s more limited. With self-pub, the buck stops with you. But it’s also good to listen to this person who you’ve hired to advise you, right?”

Perhaps most interesting to me is that while a bigger publisher can promote a book better, but that doesn’t mean they do.

Rather humorously, Ellie said to me, “I hate to be the one to break this to you, but most traditional publishing houses do almost no promotion or marketing to support a book unless it’s been tagged as a potential bestseller. Publishing houses do have marketing clout, sure, but it’s usually used to support titles that they’ve spent a premium to acquire. Every house will have books on its schedule that are called “lead titles” and those titles will receive the lion’s share of the promotion. Authors talk about this issue a lot! As the 2022 US Department of Justice court case to prevent the PRH merger revealed, unless your book was sold for a huge advance (ie. over $500,000), you’re not getting much of a push from your publisher beyond a few social media assets and an email blast.”

Certainly, bigger publishers have bigger resources and a bigger network. But the question is whether they will actually use them to promote books. A couple of years ago Jay Kristoff, shared that his publisher did not think Nevernight (which went on to be a bestseller) was going to be a commercial success, so he got a smaller advance and virtually no publicity for the book’s release. I can’t find the exact post, but it went along the lines of: ‘I literally went to a bunch of conventions with a stack of author copies, and through word of mouth, the book gained traction.’

Bianca, who is also the publicist for (the comparatively small) Fremantle Press, noted authors are “involve[d] quite closely in the process. The sales and marketing team meet with each author to discuss what Fremantle Press plans for the book, as well as listening to and incorporating what the author would like, where possible. Stag Beetle Books is quite a lot smaller, and we haven’t had marketing discussions yet, though I believe it will be very author-led.”

However, Ellie and Bianca did both point out that even if they don’t give you their marketing clout, publishers have pre-existing distribution channels and relationships with libraries, book clubs, book festivals which give people access to the book, which can in turn increase sales.

As a self-published author, I was able to access distribution channels through the publishing platforms I used, meaning people can buy my books online. However, it didn’t get my books into bookstores. To do that, I had to literally call a bunch of bookstores and see if they’d be willing to give me shelf space. Many did (and were incredibly generous about it), but it’s much easier when that aspect of getting a book into the hands of readers to whom you don’t have a direct marketing line is taken care of for you.

With that being said, that direct marketing is increasingly important – and authors are expected to promote their books, anyway. As Ellie pointed out, “I engage with my readers in a personal way that’s really genuine and direct, and design my promotion with them in mind, so that the book is going into the hands of the people who are most excited about it. That connection with readers is really critical, because it helps to make the most important element of book promo – word of mouth – kick into gear.” She acknowledged, “I’m an author with 10 years of industry experience, a solid fanbase, name recognition, and a wider promo reach than most people. […] I had a springboard that many purely self-published authors don’t have. Also, the reader interest was really there in spades for All Shall Mourn.”

It’s worth concluding on All Shall Mourn’s publication circumstances, as Ellie’s decision to independently publish it arose from her US publisher deciding to not acquire it, the reason for which she said she was “truly in the dark” about. She speculated, “someone did the sums on it and decided that, based on their calculations, the finale of the series wouldn’t make as much money as they’d prefer, so they scratched it off the list,” but acknowledged the publishing landscape – especially in the US – is in a somewhat precarious position: “the US publishing industry has been battling a) covid, then b) AI firms that seem devoted to ‘disrupting’ everyone in publishing out of a job (even the authors), then c) a book-banning problem that has seen librarians harassed and threatened, and finally, d) a president who is hostile to the liberal arts. Under those circumstances, I can see why traditional publishers have been battening down the hatches.”

While I don’t feel as though I’m in a position to say for certain, I feel these are circumstances which would disproportionately affect larger publishers whose margins rely in that commercial success, rather than smaller publishers whose models are built around pursuing critical success and diversity of authorship.

So if you were to ask me at the end of this column where I want the manuscript I’m currently editing to go – small, large, or independent – I truly would not be able to tell you. I know I don’t have the time and energy right now to independently publish any of my work. While it’s easy to criticise big publishers, I’m also aware it’s rarely that simple, and the heft of being published by one of the ‘biggies’ can get you into a number of spaces and places that will help you sell your book.

Realistically, for most authors, it’s difficult to be picky. If there’s someone who willing to pay you for your work, who seems to get what you’re trying to do, and who wants to champion your work, even a little, that’s generally a great outcome, regardless of the size of the company in question.