I did not understand the power and opportunity being afforded to self-published authors by ebook and print-on-demand formats and the distribution and marketing channels that support them. I thought I knew all there was to know about that. It’s dangerous, liberating and, most of all, fascinating out there!Īnd then there’s book formats. Others don’t need to because they can afford to do it themselves. It’s just not right for some authors – those who have a direct connection with their audience, for example. It took me a while to understand this – to grasp that traditional publishing is not necessarily considered a panacea. Only a handful has said it’s because they “Couldn’t get accepted by a traditional publisher”. Over the past three years, I’ve asked a lot of authors why they are self-publishing. Does that fundamentally discredit them as an author? The answer, of course, is No.

That’s it: I’m being their publisher except they, rather than HarperCollins, are paying me. Or I might send their page proofs out to a proofreader or organise an index for their book. Other times, I negotiate with a printer on their behalf, or put together a sales and marketing plan or a book costing. Sometimes that means we have coffee and talk about what it is they are trying to achieve, why they are going down this path. I help them to plan, create and publish their books.

It’s only now I work with self-publishers that I really understand what I do.

People often asked me as a traditional book publisher ‘What exactly is it that you do’? Well, I went to a lot of meetings. Then we started to help authors make their books, and their websites, and plan their book launches, sales and promotional strategies, and so much else besides. We’ve now sold over 5000 copies of that book via the book trade, gift trade, online retail and our own websites. We attacked it with gusto, publishing our first book, The 50 Book, to great acclaim later that year. We were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about applying those same standards of excellence to self-publishing. When we started our company in 2013, we were fresh out the doors of HarperCollins in Sydney, the big end of town when it comes to book publishing. And that’s why we are so excited to be partnering with the Byron Writer’s Festival as sponsors of the self-publishing marquee this year. What is self-publishing? In 2016, it may not be what you thought.Īt Captain Honey, we are helping to change perceptions.

The Travel Book by Roz Hopkins