Author Academy

Congratulations! The hard work has been completed: your manuscript has been finished, edited and bound. The book which you dreamt of for so long has finally materialised and now sits pride of place on your bookshelf. Perhaps, that is mission accomplished. Perhaps, the dream stops with your name printed on the spine of a book; your name listed on a bookshop’s website; your title of ‘Published Author’. But that is not the end of the line – quite far ...

Writing a book can be a long process for some authors, with many years of hard work going into the creative process. Submitting a book for publishing is an exciting, yet daunting time. It requires careful planning, attention to detail, and a strategic approach. With so many publishers out there, it is important to undertake research before submitting so you can have a sound understanding of the publishers you approach and to enhance your chances of being published. Hopefully, the...

As a Commissioning Editor, there are many things to take into account before making a decision to offer a publishing contract. If it were only about the story and the illustrations, that would be easy. However, there is far more to it than that. This article is not about the quality of the writing, subject matter or illustrations but rather the commercial viability of a product. Yes, I said ‘product’. Although books are beautiful things, the elements laid out in this article need to ...

After Brexit, the UK is looking into changing to a lesser know intellectual property framework known as “Copyright Exhaustion”. With our current framework, regarding books and publishing, it gives the owner certain exclusive rights. One of these rights is the “Distribution” right. This allows the owner to control distribution of their work for the first sale. For example, they could have the book sold abroad, for a specific price. Copyright exhaust...

With technology advancing enormously over recent years, we are more reliant on our phones and computers than ever before. What feels like many moons ago, to promote yourself, you put your name in the local paper in an attempt to make yourself more popular. But, with relative ease, you can now promote yourself much more easily and better than before due to the success and innovation of social media. For all our authors, we suggest using or creating various social media accounts to help wi...

How to Promote Through Social Media We get a lot of authors come to us with questions regarding how best they can use social media to promote their books, so we thought we would share some tips on how to maximise your use of your social platforms. Social media can be a great tool to help establish a name for yourself and get your product off the ground. Below, you will find some examples of how you can better maximise your socials. Consistency Set a routine fo...

How to promote children’s books You wouldn’t market children’s books to a book club for thrillers, would you? Different genres require unique marketing strategies. But what are the main differences? Firstly, there are lot of kids books in our current market. It’s one of the biggest and most popular genres of books. One place you can market your book, where no other genre can, is schools. But before we start, let’s think of a plan. Work...

How to: Video Conferencing Apps Online video calls and conferencing is not new technology, however, since the recent pandemic it has made its way into many lives – for both business and personal. If you’re working from home, you’ll likely know a few different apps such as Zoom, Skype and Microsoft Team, however, not everyone has experience with these video conferencing apps. The idea of a virtual book launch, began at the start of March when bookshops clos...

Publishing Jargon Publishing can be a confusing industry if you’re not used to it. You may come across some terms you are not aware of, so here is a helpful guide to publishing jargon! Audience – Who will be reading your book. Contract – The document you signed at the start of your publishing journey. Distributors – A book distributor will distribute your book to customers and bookstores. Wholesalers are very similar. Co...