BE CAREFUL WHEN IT COMES TO BOOKS - DON'T LET THE SNOBBERY BEWITCH YOU

Recently I saw a journalist make a request on behalf of a business title ask for tips around new podcasts or books coming out in 2025. Great, I have a couple of clients where that's relevant. Then, in brackets, it said 'no self published books'.

Most books today are self-published - so that one phrase is simply abject snobbery. For many reasons. Increasingly this kind of snobby mantra will become outdated and consigned to the past. Thank goodness.

Now I deal with authors a lot - many of my clients are published authors, some of them have had a book deal and some are self-published and some have used hybrid publishers.

Yet there such a snobbery and a huge cloud of BS around the world of books and publishing and it makes my blood boil. This snobbery suggests that if you are not in the 'family' of a recognised publishing house you are somehow 'less' than authors who are. Frankly it's utter BS.

As in all aspects of business and life, there are always people who are much better than you and more successful than you - and in the world of books that's exactly the same. Yet there are always people who are not as good as you and a whole realm of people who have never made the effort to write a book in any form. Many may talk about it however there's gulf between those who 'talk' and those who 'do'.

Recently I interviewed businesswoman and Dragon's Den Dragon Deborah Meaden and she talked about how some people come into the Den with whacky ideas - but she admires them because at least they are not sat no their sofas doing nothing! And this whole post speaks to that.

I'm a professional writer, I've written millions of words for articles, chapters in books and also in script-writing for television mainly but also for some radio work. I know how to write, I have a style. There are tons of people who are much better writers and story-tellers than me - and there are far more people who are not.

Over the years, I've come to understand that having a big publishing house take up your book idea is absolutely fantastic - yet it's rare, you make very little money per book and you don't often get big pay cheques for sales. There are, of course, the A listers, those writers, often established novelists or celebrities, who get and can earn big bucks, do book tours and when they put pen to paper, the money will just flow.

Good luck to them. They have hit on a book style and theme which really works, they have a book deal that pays well and publishers love them because they can literally 'fart' a story and the money comes in. We need these people.

With celebrities they will generally have a huge audience already so for publishing houses they are a 'slam dunk' guaranteed success so it's so worth the investment as their audience will buy - even if the book is absolute pants or it's actually totally ghost-written by somebody else.

What about the rest of us though? Does that mean that writing a book is a waste of time? Does that mean we are somehow 'less'? No, it does not. It means we believe in ourselves and we believe in our stories or expertise - and that's admirable. We are prepared to step out even into our own little circle of influence.

Don't let yourself think that you are 'not worthy' and don't buy into the snobbery of you are only a 'real' author if you have a publishing deal - the rest is just vanity. Indeed it was previously called 'vanity publishing'. But here's the thing IT'S ALL SMOKE & MIRRORS, IT DOESN'T MATTER.

How many times have you gone up to someone who has written a book that you've met and said 'you're not a real author, it's just vanity'?

If you have - then don't be an arse and don't be even more of an arse if you've never written a book.

Recently I worked with someone who has a 'real' book deal and the publisher was frankly poor to deal with. They kept moving deadlines, didn't send copies out to interested journalists or bloggers who were going to review - so that I had to do it myself and then charge them for the cost - and then they didn't want to pay. They promised publicity and secured one small item, it was national, but was not on the scale originally promised. My client made no more money initially than if she'd done it all herself. We'll see how that goes.

With another client, who does have celebrity status, a book they had written and had published the so-called 'real' way and which they use often as they do a lot of professional speaking, is no longer available to them.

Why you ask? Why can they not get copies of their own book, which they wrote and which involves them on every page? Because the publishing house has decided not to do any more print runs of the book.

The only way my client can now get copies of their own book and continue to use them for their own marketing is to buy the rights back so they can get their own print runs done. And that's a risk you take. This client has pledged to never do that again - put their own expertise into the hands of a third party who can then pull the rug out from under them quite legally.

In another case, one of my clients was approached by a big recognised publisher to do her own book - they loved her work - and they said they'd get someone to help her through ghostwriting. They would do wonderful professional images and would handle all of the design. It would sit on the shelves of bookshops alongside books of the same genre. What's not to like?

When I looked at the small print though - that offer included a commitment to buy 1,000 of those books at £20 each. That meant my client would have to pay out £20,000. Not such a great deal after all - thank goodness I read the small print!

When I wrote my first book, I opted for a hybrid model working with a publisher. Yes I paid out and I did this because I needed mentoring and guiding to write a long form piece of work (around 90,000 words) and I also wanted the book to look and feel professional. I'm also time poor so I was happy to invest.

What I didn't want was someone else to own the rights to my book, being bound to buy a specific number of copies and I didn't want to earn pennies per book. I knew my book wasn't going to be a best seller and I was pretty sure no mainstream big publisher would take it - but I didn't care because all of these lessons had turned up to teach me that there is another way.

The biggest danger here is the 'rights' issue - do you want to third party to be able to decide how long your book has currency? How long they will keep printing your book? If you do, please please ask this question - HOW MUCH WILL IT COST ME TO BUY THE RIGHTS TO MY OWN BOOK IF YOU DECIDE TO STOP PRINTING OR PRODUCING IT?

Otherwise you could be in a position where your book is five years old - you've made a bit on it - and then you have to pay out £1000s to buy the rights back otherwise it goes out of publication.

My book is a marketing tool for me. I know how I want to use it and I know its value. I know I'm a published author even if some others get sniffy and say 'I'm not really'. That's fine, they can go on their merry way.

It's great to get a publishing deal and if you are one of the one per cent who can keep on delivering best sellers so earning pennies per book is fantastic because you are already three books ahead - that's wonderful.

Yet don't think that because you are not one of the few, you are not worthy of being called an author. You are. You simply have to take action. However please do it wisely and research the world of publishing first - it is complex and it might not deliver what you think it can deliver.

As for me, my second book has started and, with any luck, this time next year, I'll be launching it and it will be proudly self-published. I am already an author and will be so again, and again and again. I'm not defined by what others do - or don't - think about me. I'm defined by how I see myself.