Thinking of Forming an Author Collective?

A group of authors keen on self-publishing and forming an author collective, recently asked Team Triskele for some tips. Here are our (collective!) answers:

JJ Marsh, JD Smith, Gillian Hamer, Catriona Troth, Liza Perrat

Intro by JJ Marsh & Gillian Hamer

Before answering these astute and vitally important questions, we need to state right from the start that we don't know all the answers. Many collectives we've spoken to have fallen at financial or personality hurdles while we've managed to survive and thrive. We're not quite sure how, as we've had a fair few scrapes and stumbles along the road.

One thing we knew from the off is that we liked each other's writing and respected one another's critical perspective. But whether that would make us good business partners was anyone's guess. Triskele came into being as an act of trust - three independent partners, working together, sharing costs and maintaining individual rights.

Now we are bigger and more experienced, we are an officially registered company with a bank account and administration system. But more important than all of that, we're friends, fellow writers and a well-honed editorial team.

Did you set a maximum number of members of the co-operative at the start? If so, how many?

Liza Perrat

LP: No we didn't. We started off as three members from an online writing group, hence the origin of our 3-sided Triskele logo. It wasn't planned as such, more like an organic gathering of like-minded authors, all at a similar stage of the writing process and wanting to self-publish to the highest possible standard, and to help each other reach that goal. Very soon after, we welcomed two more members, whose work we also admired, and who had similar passions and goals. Personally, I think five is a perfect number. Enough people to take up the slack when someone is "out of order" for whatever reason. And that means four fresh pairs of eyes on each manuscript too, which I believe is a good number for an overall critique, and not too many that you end up with too many conflicting opinions.

How do you deal with approaches from writers who want to join your collective?  

JDS: Currently we aren't actively open for submissions to join our collective. Mainly because we work well as a small team and have built up a huge amount of trust between us when it comes to advice and critiquing, and we don't want to spoil that balance. However we do encourage other authors who like the idea of a collective to create their own, find a bunch of friendly writery folk you get on with, whose work you admire and whose opinions you value and support one another. Writing doesn't have to be solitary and the support of a good network of friends who share the same passion as you makes for a great team.


Did you sign up for a fixed duration, or can members leave when they wish, subject to removing the imprint name from their books? 

JD Smith

JDS: It's not something we've ever really discussed. We've all been part of the collective for a long time, when we published our first books. There's certainly no fixed duration, but of course any books published outside of the collective wouldn't feature our logo, for example. I personally published a book on cover design which doesn't fit the Triskele Books brand, so I did that as a standalone project and it doesn't carry the Triskele logo. Even so, my fellow members supported and helped me in its creation.


Do you put the collective’s name on the books, e.g. spine, title page, copyright page? 

JDS: We put the name/logo on our title page, spine, back of the book and then we also have a joint mailing list which we encourage readers to sign up to in the back of all of our books.


Did you formulate a written agreement? Including which points?

LP: We have no written agreement as such. At the beginning, we had many Skype chats (since we live in different countries), and several face-to-face meetings to define our goals and working methods. This is revisited and overhauled from time to time, or if a problem arises.



How do Triskele manage their joint funding? What rules and regs do they have in place to make it run smoothly?

Gillian Hamer

GH: Well, I am chief treasurer or top accountant or head of finance or what you will! Basically I just oversee the financial aspects of anything we arrange - be that physical launches or online competition, I just make sure the books balance. I pay the bills as they come in and ensure I send out invoices when required. I keep records of everything and share them with the other members so everything is transparent and I hope to think by now they trust me enough that they rarely bother checking!


I guess that in relation to charges, such as web hosting, website design, promotions, ISBNs UK, etc, a member is in charge of all financial transactions, like in an association? Keeping accounts and such?


GH: Part of my role as detailed above is to keep the bank account in the black, and to ensure we have enough in the kitty to pay for the yearly fees that roll round. If we need extra funds, say to hire a venue for a physical launch in London, then every member involved in that particular event will all contribute equally. We are a Limited Company in the UK now, so I do use my book keeping skills from my day job to ensure we keep everything legal and above board.


How do you ensure everyone abides by the rules and pulls their weight?

Catriona Troth

CT: I am not sure if I'd say that we have rules, exactly. But we do expect everyone to pull their weight. We have a pretty regular pattern of things we are each expected to contribute to, and a work plan (refreshed weekly) that sets out what's expected to go into each of those slots. Nominally, once every five weeks, when our turn rolls round, is when we make sure we have completed everything we are supposed to have done. In practice, most of us probably do those things as and when we can fit them in.

That workplan is checked regularly, and if there are gaps that need to be filled, we get a nudge. Then at least once a year we do a big review of how everything has been going - if people have any ideas how things could be done better, or if anyone is struggling to cope. And we adjust accordingly.


How do you manage dispute resolution, in the event of a disagreement?

CT: Perhaps because our joint financial commitment is minimal, we have been fortunate not to have any really serious disputes. But of course we have disagreements.  The key is keeping channels of communication open, and talking things out, not bottling them up.


How do you split group responsibilities (website, FB page, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest...?)

GH: So, my other badge as well as finance is social media. I run the Facebook and Twitter accounts which are regularly updated daily or weekly. If I'm away or extra busy, someone else will always step in and help out. Other members take up the slack with Instagram and Pinterest when we have something to promote, and we all try to share our posts as much as possible. We took this approach as it got a bit confusing at times, not knowing who was posting what and when, so now if anyone has anything they want putting out on Triskele channels we share it internally first to keep things clean and ensure we don't duplicate posts.


What joint marketing activities do you carry out?

CT: We have the Triskele website and blog, which we use, among other things, as a showcase for our work. This year, for example, we have having a once a month feature on the blog focusing on one of our books in particular and talking about the inspiration behind it.

In addition to that, most years we try and do one Big Thing, where we are not necessarily pushing our own books, but promoting the Triskele name. We have run three so-called 'Indie Author Fairs' - pop-up bookshops where indie authors could come and sell their books directly to readers. The last of those was combined with a one-day Lit Fest, where panels of authors writing in different genres discussed their work. And this year we are running the second of two competitions to win a year's mentoring, with the aim of taking a finished manuscript and making it publication-ready, with editing, proofreading, page-setting, cover design etc. Our first winner went through the process, decided to try for an agent and got one in a matter of days!


What do you do about marketing when there are gaps in releases?

JJ Marsh

JJ: We try to keep a bubbling profile, publishing a blogpost per week under the Triskele name. We also publish articles on Words with JAM magazine for writers and reviews on Bookmuse for readers. Aside from individual promotions and advertising, we watch out for opportunities and alert one another. We all jump in and trumpet a member's new release and usually have a physical event each year to promote all our releases and drink Prosecco. Every week, one of us is on duty, stoking the fires.


In addition to a Triskele website, what other joint social media platforms would you recommend? 

JJ: We have a Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Pinterest presence in addition to the content delivery above. Others have had success with LinkedIn or Instagram - whatever feels right for you.

How do you co-ordinate your public face, i.e. website, blog, FB/Twitter, etc. Do you use a schedule? And perhaps use a shared Dropbox folder to share documents between all members?  
GH: I may have covered this in my previous answer, but we mostly use our private Facebook group for internal chats and shares, or we add things to our weekly round up emails, and edit them via Google. Nothing goes public until it gets the thumbs up! Website updates are agreed internally and then either myself or Jane will add new books or information as needed.

Indie Author Fair

Has your collective free short story anthology been a good draw and created traffic to your site with resulting sales?

JJ: Our three collaborative publications - A Time and Place boxset, A Taste of Triskele short stories and recipes, plus our collaborative non-fiction book A Pathway to Publication - all earn us a steady trickle of income. On top of that we use an Amazon affiliate code to bring in regular pennies. The great thing about the boxset and story collection is they don't need any maintenance. I'd be hard pushed to define which of our myriad funnels brings most traffic to our site, but people do come.


Self-publishing: A number of people mentioned that they’d find really useful a step by step guide to what needs to be done and by when, when you are self-publishing. 

JJ: Pick up A Pathway to Self-Publishing. You can get it for free by signing up to our newsletter. It covers everything we've learned and is constantly updated. Or poke about on our website and find many useful articles on your particular interest. Or join The Alliance of Independent Authors. Do Joanna Penn's Author 101 or David Gaughran's Let's Get Digital. 
There's so much information but all of it is constantly changing. This is one of the biggest advantages of operating as a collective - five minds watching, testing, learning, writing, reading and communicating.

Team Triskele colours

Final point: When we started publishing as a collective, it was almost unheard of. So we sought out other collectives to interview, compare notes and learn from each other. You can find all our interviews here and we would be so very pleased if you came back to tell us about your successes.

Thanks for the smart questions!
Jill, Gilly, Liza, Jane and Kat

Do You Need Assistance?

Helen Hart from SilverWood Books talks to Triskele Books about assisted self-publishing

Hi, Helen. Thank you for joining us on the Triskele blog. Can we start by asking how would you define assisted self-publishing?

For us at SilverWood, assisted self-publishing means working in partnership with a small professional team who can support a writer with the tools to produce a book to the same standard as those produced by traditional publishers. Rather than engaging a separate cover designer, editor, typesetter and other freelancers, our authors work with one publishing assistant who oversees the entire project from submission of the final manuscript through to book delivery and beyond (supporting the development of an author platform). This ensures good continuity, a coherent end result, delivered on time, with an author who is educated and knowledgeable about what they need to do to then sell books.

Who is it suitable for and how is it different from going it alone?

Many of our authors are writers who just want to write, and have no interest in learning how to run a publishing project. Some are busy professionals who feel they don't have the time to undertake the project themselves. Others are writers who have health issues, or aren't technologically inclined, and who simply want to hand over their manuscript and get a fantastic book delivered back to them. Most care deeply about their book, are immensely engaged with the process and enjoy seeing their project develop, but they don't want to learn how to do that themselves (or risk making costly mistakes due to their own lack of experience and know-how).


When and why did you decide to set up SilverWood?

I set up SilverWood in March 2007 with the aim of providing self-publishers with an alternative to what I perceived as the unscrupulous business practices, expensive publishing packages, and poor quality books offered by so-called 'author solutions' companies. I could see from a friend's bad experience with one such that there was a need for someone to offer something that had integrity and placed the self-publisher and their needs (and their aims for their book) at the heart of the project. My aim was - and still is - to offer a close, supportive working relationship and therefore a similar experience to that which the writer might have if they were signed to a mainstream publishing house. The only difference is that they're underwriting the costs.

What is your own background?

I’ve been a published author since the late 1990s. Writing under a variety of pseudonyms, I’ve been published by Scholastic, HarperCollins, Oxford University Press, and several non-UK publishing houses. My books have been translated into many different languages including Swedish, Danish, Greek and Japanese. I’ve also worked as a commercial copywriter for SilverWood’s sister company Redwing. My writing background means that I have a deep understanding of the writing process and how important each book is to its writer. I also know from my own experience how much heart and soul has gone into the creation of a book, and how important the relationship is between a writer and their publisher/editor.

What specifically does SilverWood offer authors? How does it differ from other assisted publishing services?

Our authors work in partnership with a small, friendly, supportive team who care about the book and the writer, and who have the professional skills and expertise to offer impartial guidance. I think what makes us different is that we do genuinely enjoy what we do, and care about the people we work with - and that makes us generous with our advice and support. Most of our authors come to us through word-of-mouth recommendation, or they are repeat customers who were pleased with the experience of producing their previous book with us. Our preference is to work with a writer through their career rather than on a one-off book, and many authors return to work with us for a number of books. Some of our most successful and proactive authors are working on books 6, 7 or 8 of a series (Harvey Black, Anna Belfrage, Helen Hollick).


The way we differ from some other services is that we work in a very cooperative way with our authors - all decisions are explained and discussed, proofs shown for approval, and authors kept up-to-date with progress. We take inordinate care over the design and layout process and go to great lengths to make sure the books are the best they can be before publication. We add value to any publication, with expert design, typesetting, and general understanding of how books are produced and how they get into the marketplace. And finally we're reliable long term partners who are here for the long-haul, not just a quick turnaround and then on with the next writer/book/hard-sell.


Typically, what does it cost to publish a book through SilverWood?

That's a tough question because there's no such thing as a typical book. Usually we look at each project and establish what's needed, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, if it's ready for publication, and if so where/how the author wishes to publish: UK-only, certain territories, worldwide, in print, ebook-only, hardback edition, are there images to be included - photographs, illustrations, charts, tables…? Are they to be positioned within the text or together in a plate section? Does the text need a copy-edit or proofread… Are there footnotes, endnotes, an index, additional prelims or endmatter…There's a lot of variation and all these elements will affect the economics of book production.


However, if we were to take a 264-page novel with simple chapter headings, standard prelims and no endmatter then Stage 1 pre-press might start at around £740 plus vat which would include: ISBN allocation and registration, professional page layout and typesetting, book cover design and layout (or use of the author's design and images), PDF proofs and one round of proof revisions, bibliographic data listing, barcode, legal deposit compliance, project management and quality control, high resolution cover images for marketing, access to a range of helpful factsheets on a range of topics, access to our closed Facebook group where we continue to keep authors up to date on new developments in the publishing and book promotion industry, as well as encourage them to share information and support each other.


Do you have any editorial input in the books you publish?

We approach each project on an individual basis so if a writer has an existing relationship with an editor, copy-editor or proofreader then we simply work with the final draft manuscript. Sometimes we spot things that aren't as polished as they could be, and might recommend a final proofread. On the other hand, if an author hasn't worked with an editor or copy-editor but we can see the work does need that extra professional input then we always recommend it and will suggest one of our reliable copy-editors. We also offer a range of additional editorial options at different stages, from a simple Reader's Report to a full manuscript appraisal.


Who has final say on design?

Ultimately it's the author, but as I mentioned before we are generous with our advice and if we think the wrong decision is being made or a design isn't going to meet readers' expectations or sit well in the current marketplace then we do talk that through with the author, as they could be jeopardising their own chance of commercial success. However some of our authors aren't looking for commercial success, but a sense of personal and creative fulfilment, or a book that's just for family and friends - and in that case we simply help them make it the best it can be.

Who owns rights?

The author.

What's the royalties cut?

We don't operate a royalty-based system because they tend to be a bit opaque and are usually calculated on net receipts (which can be a movable feast). We prefer to have a clear policy that all books are owned by the author. We then operate a trade discount system, so we sell our authors' books on a sale-or-return basis and keep 15% of the cover price for each book sold through our trading accounts. We find this is much simpler, and authors know where they stand.

Who is the publisher of record?

That would depend on whether an author is using one of our ISBNs or their own. This decision is usually part of the early conversations we have with a writer before we start working together. The majority of writers who choose to work with us prefer to use our ISBNs and want us to be the publisher of record - this is always an interesting part of the dialogue for me, as reasons can vary widely.


What sort of marketing support do you give your authors?

Included in our pre-press packages is a level of marketing support - partly educational (we encourage authors to keep their costs down by doing as much as possible themselves), and partly practical (distribution is always set up for authors who need it, we help set up the initial 'author platform', and also offer a wide range of tools and services that authors can opt in to if they wish; many are free of charge while others will naturally attract an additional fee to cover the time and work involved).


Tell us about your relationship with Foyles.

We have a good relationship with many bookshops who stock our titles because of the quality of production and the author commitment behind that. Foyles Cabot Circus in Bristol is especially supportive and stock most of our commercial titles. They also host a number of our events through the year. It's a genuine pleasure working with their team.

Do SilverWood authors support one another – with practical issues, say, or with marketing?

Yes, and that's one of the things that's quite special about SilverWood authors - they're very generous with each other and give a lot of support. Some of them buddy up to do events together, such as the forthcoming Chalke Valley History Festival.

What happens if an author wants to leave?

Fortunately it doesn't happen very often but on the rare occasion that authors have decided to leave - usually to follow a more "self" publishing route using skills they've learned by working in partnership with us - then they simply give us notice, we take their book out of production so they can set it up independently, and we package up their cover and interior files and send them over to them.

Tell us some of your success stories? What are you particularly proud of?

That would be immensely hard because I'm proud of so many of our authors and books, and the things we've done over the years. I don't think I could pick out individual moments without writing reams and reams here! I'd hate to leave anyone or anything out…

Thank you, Helen!

Writers' Services: assembling the right team

You know all those house building programmes that have become so popular in recent years? From Grand Designs to The House That £100k Built – they celebrate DIY builders, designing and constructing their own homes.

One thing you will notice, though, is that however hands-on the home owners are, they will recognise the limits of their own skills and bring in professionals to do aspects of the work – like plastering, plumbing and electrics – that just have to be done right. Even when they DO have those skills, they bring in the professionals to check they are doing things right.

Publishing your own book is like building your own house. Some of those observing the self-publishing phenomenon from the outside – and some of those nervously contemplating attempting it themselves for the first time – imagine that it means the author doing everything alone, from the moment they write The End at the bottom of the very first draft until the book starts flying off the (real or virtual) shelves.

In truth an indie author, like the DIY builder, is more like the manager of a micro-business, taking responsibility for each stage of construction, but knowing when and how to bring in the professionals to help. So what are those professional services you are going to need?

 EDITING

 To carry on with the house building metaphor a bit longer – that first draft isn’t even the blueprint for the published novel. It’s more like the rough sketches for that Grand Design you’ve been dreaming of. You’re going to have to do quite a bit more work on it yourself, bash it into shape, make your vision clearer for your readers. So you go through as many rewrites as it needs until it’s as good as you can possibly make it. And then you need to call in the editors!

First off – a word or warning. Close friends and family do NOT make good editors. Even if they are the best-read people you know. Even if they are writers themselves. They love you. They believe in you. They want you to succeed. And with the best will in the world, they are going to read your work through rose-tinted spectacles.

 What you need to do is find someone you can trust to be ruthlessly honest. Who understands the genre you are writing in and the standards you need to meet. Who can pull apart the work you have just spent the last few months bleeding over without making you feel as if you’re a complete waste of space. And who can help you build it up again so that it is still YOUR book, not theirs, but even better than you ever thought possible.

 It may sounds as if we’re asking for the impossible – but they do exist, these people. We know. We’ve found a few of them – and we’re recommending some of them here. (Another excellent source of recommended service providers is the Alliance of Independent Authors Partner Members.)

 Broadly speaking, there are three types of editing. The lines between them are a bit blurry, and I find it’s easier to think of them as three separate processes.

 First is STRUCTURAL EDITING. This is taking a macro view of the book. If you have sub-plots going nowhere, scenes that advance nothing or characters that fail to come alive; if parts of your story are told in the wrong sequence, you’ve begun it too early or dragged on the ending too long: this is where it should be picked up. At this stage, you want someone who can judge the ms as a whole, and who knows the rules and standards of your genre (and I’m including lit fic as a genre here). Good beta-readers can be excellent at this (but bear in mind what I said about not using friends and family).

CATRIONA TROTH is a structural editor with experience of working with both fiction and non-fiction MSS. 

The next stage is COPY EDITING. When all those big, macro issues have been fixed, it’s time to take a finer-grained look at your ms. A good copy editor will still look at issues of pace. But they will focus at the level of individual sentences and paragraphs. Are you using unnecessary verbiage? Or is this scene underwritten? They’ll spot if a character’s eyes change colour part way through the book. They will also check (or at least question) factual detail. (Was the model of car you describe available when your story was set? Is it really possible to shoot someone at that distance with the gun you’ve given your villain?)  

And finally there is PROOFREADING. This is editing as a lay person understands it: checking spelling, grammar, punctuation. In a manuscript being prepared for publication, it also includes checking that you are using things like em-dashes, en-dashes and hyphens in the correct professional way.

Is all this really necessary? Well, the reading public seems to think so. As reviews on Amazon clearly show, readers can be savagely critical of self-published books that are full of slip-shod amateur errors.

PERRY ILES has been the proofreader for almost all of Triskele' books.

Two other terms you may hear are ‘manuscript critique service’ and ‘beta reader.’ 

 A professional manuscript critique service (such as Cornerstones in the UK) is likely to offer a range of services from which you can choose a package suited to you. They may look at your whole MS, or only an extract. In addition to the editing services above, they will often bring to bear their experience of the market to give you an idea of the commercial viability of your book. Critiquing service may also look at an MS at an earlier stage of development than final editing.

LORRAINE MACE and JOHN HUDSPITH both offer a critiquing service that covers elements of both structural and copy editing.

Polly Courtney worked with editor JOY TIBBS on her novels Feral Youth, Golden Handcuffs and Poles Apart.

 A beta reader, on the other hand, is likely to be a trusted volunteer. Like beta testers in the software industry, who evaluate pre-release software, a beta reader will read your MS when it is close to release and let you know if any part of the book is not working for them. They are likely to focus on the same sorts of areas as structural editor – pace, engagement with characters, any major plot holes. But as they are readers, not generally writers or editors, they may point out problems but not necessarily suggest how to fix them.

 DESIGN ELEMENTS

 So now you have a wonderful story, thoroughly edited to a professional standard. What next? 

COVER DESIGN. 

Self-publishing packages like Kindle Direct Publishing make it very easy for authors to select a few elements from a pool of images and fonts, put them together through a semi-automated process and come up with their own cover design. So why do you need to bother paying a professional designer? 

 Well, for one thing, there is a high risk that your cover is going to end up looking suspiciously like at least half a dozen others, as authors pick from the same limited stock of options. Secondly, it’s amazing how tiny things about the way a cover is put together can change how professional it looks. Most of us do it at an entirely unconscious level, but put two covers together and we will instinctively prefer the one that obeys all those hidden ‘rules’ about visual impact. Designers understand that. 

 So find a good designer, one who can realise your unique vision for your book. And shop around. Designers can be expensive – but they don’t have to be. There are some outstanding ones out there who are also very affordable.  

INTERIOR FORMATTING

The last stage before uploading your ms to a publishing service is INTERIOR FORMATTING. Now, this is something a lot of indie authors do for themselves. It’s not intrinsically difficult and there are plenty of programs and packages out there which can help you with the process. But you need to be aware of the rules about laying out the book as a whole (what goes in the ‘front matter’ before the main text, and in what order, and what goes in the back matter), and about laying out individual pages (first pages of chapters vs. the rest, how page numbering works). You need to understand about balancing the fonts used in the text with those used in headings. And finally you need to understand the differences between formatting print books and eBooks, and the subtle differences between different eBook formats.

 If you are prepared to take the time to learn the rules, then by all means tackle this step yourself. But a slip-up at this stage can make your book scream ‘amateur.’ So if you are not completely confident, it is worth employing someone experienced so do your interior formatting for you. 

JD SMITH has created both cover design and the interior formatting for all of Triskele's books. 

 Once the book is formatted, you have an MS ready to upload to your publishing service. And that really has been made very easy. So long as you are reasonably comfortable around computers, there is no reason why you shouldn’t do that for yourself. (See our Leaving Prints chapter in The Triskele Trail for a post-formatting checklist.) 

 And there you have it. You’ve launched your book. You have made all the decisions about how the book should be presented to the world. And you’ve assembled the team around you who can help you realise that vision. Congratulations, you are an independent professional!

The Hard Sell

In a pop-up blog, Jo Furniss presents her MA thesis on social media and fiction.
Featuring video and audio interviews with Kate Harrison, Nick Harkaway, Liz Fenwick, Triskele's own JJ Marsh and members of the Romantic Novelists Association, Jo asks ...

Do tweets sell books?

The short answer is: no. But well-known, well-liked writers do. That much, at least, has not changed.

Schmoozing with newspaper reviewers, touring the country for signings, promoting their wares to book clubs and literary festivals: writers have always networked socially. The select few, anyway.

But social networking online has opened up the field. Now every author – from self-published to traditionally-published, fiction to non-fiction, pulp to literary - has to play the game.

My name is Jo Furniss, I'm a journalist, writer and student. This mini-blog comprises an Industry Analysis for my MA Professional Writing at University College Falmouth. I set out to ask: what can traditionally-published writers learn from self-published authors when it comes to social media marketing of fiction - or are we all in it together?

Read what Jo discovered about authors, social media and sales in:

The Hard Sell

Jo has worked as a journalist, writer and editor in radio, TV, online, magazines and books. I spent nine years with the BBC and also freelanced for Monocle, the UN and a variety of magazines. I’m on the home straight of a two-year Professional Writing MA programme.

@jo_furniss
https://www.facebook.com/JoFurnissMedia
http://jofurnissmedia.wordpress.com.