I am nearing completion of a new book, tentatively titled 'Sailors of Varied Fortune: the Schombergs Afloat and Ashore' (apologies to Rory Muir), but have been unable to find a publisher, despite having tried all the usual suspects. Self-publishing now appears my best bet, but I wonder if anyone has any advice about who to go with, and what to look out for. Since the book will include both images and maps, I suspect the layout and production will be more complicated than for a text-only work.
Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Paul Martinovich
Thanks to all for your advice, both encouraging and cautionary. It looks like self-publishing might work for me, with the option of perhaps trying a traditional publisher at a later date.
Paul Martinovich
Self-publishing can be a crap shoot. My advice - shop around. Being previously published matters nought. As long as you have the money for the set up and print run you are good to go. Images and maps should not be much of a problem. You can see my heavily illustrated (and self-published) volume under Images Unleashed in this forum. All those images only rolled back the number of pages. My publisher was helpful in every manner. As for your percentage, do not expect much, 10-15% tops. Not bad, that is about what I got from the Naval Institute Press for my first one (excluding electronic right, 25%). Well, good luck.
I take the title as a compliment Paul. Wish I had some informed advice. All I can suggest is that you look for some examples that you like and perhaps get in touch with the authors and ask them about their experiences. (And perhaps also see if Andrew Bamford has any suggestions, though you've probably already asked him). The book sounds most interesting and it's a great pity the obvious publishers didn't take it - I'm sure that this reflects the state of the market in general rather than anything about your work in particular.
If you're interested in later being published by a mainstream publisher, maybe publishing on Kindle through Amazon. They also include publishing services, editing, cover preparation, etc. (I'm not an expert on this so I might be way off the mark.) Good luck anyway.
Trying to get anything published in our field is very difficult now. Yes books are being published at the same rate now as the past five years, but what is not happening is the larger publishing houses are not commissioning new Napoleonic titles. There will be a slight downward tick on the number of books published next year and the year after, but all of those books were commissioned last year or the year before. Three years from now you will see only a handful of new titles. One well known author told me that it will probably be 2026 before they start commissioning new books.
Have you tried Ken Trotman? Otherwise if you can't wait I recommend you self publish it. You can always pitch it again in three or four years.
Good luck!
Bob