Trade Publishing 101

 

Today I've been reviewing my seminar of the Queensland Writers Centre on "Trade Publishing 101". As mentioned elsewhere, Kasia recorded this for me while I attended something else. I didn't expect to learn anything new, but I'm happy to find that I did.

I've been waiting for ages for the The Australian Writer's Marketplace site to become live, and I eventually gave up on it. I found out that it's now available at https://writersmarketplace.com.au/

It's full of excellent information for the business side of writing, like publishers, agents, competitions, prizes and so on. It's reasonably priced at $25 a year. 

I also learned about the Small Press Network (https://smallpressnetwork.com.au/), which is a directory of small presses and independent publishers like Allen & Unwin (yes, that was a surprise for me too - I didn't realise they were an indie, and mentally lumped them with the 'Big 5', which makes no sense because that would have made it the 'Big 6'. Anyhow, it was a surprise).

Stacey Claire went through the process of getting published in detail, and although I already knew most of it, it was good to be reminded of some of the nuances of what is considered professional courtesy. For example, if you are putting your manuscript out to multiple publishers, you should let them know in your submission. However, though it used to be frowned upon (since digital submission has largely replaced physical mail-ins), this is no longer the case. By the same token, it's accepted that if your submission is rejected you're not informed. Volumes are just too high, given the ease with which people can submit electronically. If a publisher hasn't got back to you in the specified time-frame, consider it a rejection.

I also found that despite the hugely underrepresented state of genre writers in this country (eg. Sci-fi / Fantasy), one of the small presses, Brisbane-based Brain Jar Press, does dabble in it. The leader of the Brain Jar team of two, Peter Ball is apparently really supportive of genre writers, and is someone to get in touch with if your manuscript is of this ilk.

More later ...