Over the past few years, Publishing Industry in India is facing a whooping demand for publishing services by Indie Authors. Well, today we would like to discuss about the various Types of publishers in India and which one of those would help you with book publishing:
Traditional Publishers
Type 1:
Description: The Traditional Publishers would not generally accept every manuscript which they receive over the emails. They are keen researchers or in other words, you can call them hardcore thinkers.
Expected Response Time: They receive almost 500 manuscripts in a month and they hardly select one or two manuscripts to publish. They take almost 3-6 months to analyse your manuscript and revert. But once they select your manuscript, your career in writing is set for the lifetime.
Selection Criteria:
- The manuscript should be outstanding and it should possess a Unique Selling Point (USP) so that it can hit the market and generate positive word of mouth among the readers.
- An Author (Existing or Debut) should have a fan base that would buy the book. However, creating a fan base before getting the book published is a challenge.
- The marketing Budget of the Author should be enough to help the traditional publisher to sell the printed stock and achieve the expected sales.
- Reach: An author should be on good terms with the literary agents associated with the traditional publisher.
Investment: Traditional Publishers would invest in your book and make it available at bookstores worldwide (both physical and online). Yes, you need not pay anything except for the marketing (offline & online) which you would do from your end to make the book a big shot in the market.
Recommended for:
- The authors having an awesome fan base.
- Authors who have already Self-published 2-3 books.
- Authors who have a good budget for the Marketing of the book.
- Authors who can patiently wait for the publishers to revert.
- Authors who can handle the rejection.
Type 2:
Description: The Traditional Publishers who would accept the manuscript only if the Author is willing to fulfill any of the below Terms and conditions:
- Achieve the minimum Sales: The author will have to work hard and achieve the minimum sales demanded by the Traditional publisher. Ex. 1000 or 2000 copies.
- Invest Half of the Publishing Amount.
- Pay the Editing/ Any other Expenses: Sometimes the Traditional Publisher would ask the author to pay the Editing/ Any other expenses while the publisher will invest for the printing and distribution.
Selection Criteria:
- Generally Accepted through the Literary Agents.
- The manuscript should be captivating.
- An author should have a good fan base through his first 2-3 books or previous works on social media.
- Author’s Profile and willingness to accept the terms and conditions.
Expected Response Time: Generally, this type of Traditional Publishers takes 1-2 months to review the manuscript.
Recommended for:
- Authors having a good fan base.
- Authors who have already Self-published 1-2 books.
- Authors who can invest at least up to half of the publishing amount of the book.
- Authors who can invest a good amount in the marketing of the book.
Self Publishers
The Publishers who think that every story should be heard. Every writer should be given a chance to showcase his work. Today, as an author you need not work hard to look for publishers who would provide you end to end services according to your needs. In fact, Self Publishers today are just a click away.
Investment: Self Publishing is the type of publishing where the author will have to invest in his book. All the expenses will be paid by the author starting from editing to printing. However, a good Self Publisher would also guide the author throughout the publishing process and would also help him in marketing the book.
Selection Criteria:
- Quality of the Manuscript.
- The Budget of the Author.
Expected Response Time: 1-2 Days.
Recommended for:
- Debut Authors.
- Authors who can invest a good amount in publishing and marketing the book.
- Authors who need the customized premium services.
- Authors who have the flair to hard sell and outperform.
- Authors with no/ less fan base.
Vanity Publishers
Vanity Publishers are just a printing press. Most often people get confused between a Vanity Publisher and a Self-Publisher. But there is a lot of difference between the two.
Vanity Publishers are the one who just prints your book and hand over the physical stock to you. You will be liable to sell/ distribute the book. Vanity Publishers will take the onetime charges to print a certain number of copies and their task is done. You cannot expect any support related to marketing and distribution. However, many vanity publishers generally make your books available at the online bookstores and pay you the royalty but they won’t help you with marketing. Whereas, a self publisher would not only make your books available online but would also guide you about how to do marketing of the book.
Recommended for:
- Authors who can sell and distribute the books on their own.
2 thoughts on “Types of Publishers in India”