WHAT IS AN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER – AND WHY USE ONE

KREST Publishers describes itself as an innovative and independent publishing imprint – cool sentence, right? Of course it is – we wrote it ourselves. But what exactly does this mean for you?

Simply put, an independent publisher is one who is not owned by a corporation or conglomeration. An independent publisher can be owned by an individual, a well-working team, another smaller business, and so forth.

Think Bloomsbury – yes, the Harry Potter publisher! So while these independent publishers may not be the likes of your “Big Five”, they can be equally credible.

The term small press is often used interchangeably with independent because while small presses run on a different scale, they are, in fact, a fully functional publisher like any other, and owned independently.

The concept of a publishing imprint is a little more convoluted. An imprint is the name a publisher publishes under. That’s quite a mouthful, we know.

We’ll give you a familiar example:

Almost everyone knows of Penguin Fiction. Penguin Fiction is the imprint. Random House is the publisher.

Let’s give it another go:

Puffin Books is the imprint. Random House is the publisher.

In our case:

KREST Publishers is the imprint. LOCHAN MEDIA is the publisher.

Being independent comes with freedom and flexibility, and what is writing, after all, but creative liberty; not restrictive commercialism.

Here’s why authors are finding it advantageous to go the independent/small press route:

1.       More approachable: Smaller publishers are happy to deal directly with authors, without the use of literary agents. They encourage face to face contact. In our case, we love meeting our authors in person, to garner a peace of mind before we go forward.

2.       Open to something different: Small presses have the complete ability to choose to publish anything they like because they aren’t answerable to a commercial conglomerate at the end of the day. If your manuscript isn’t anything like the latest Danielle Steel, small presses are still open to it. (Here at KREST, we especially love something out-of-the-box.)

3.       Greater author involvement: Small presses have the time to work with their authors closely. Not juggling a million projects at once means we get to consult you on things like cover design, layout, proof viewing, etc. This book is your baby, after all.

4.       Individualized marketing of your book: Small presses, again, don’t ask the big guys up there if they can sell your cookbook at a cafe stand, or launch your fantasy novel with a cosplay party. We can tailor your marketing strategies to fit your book rather than go the stock-standard route of putting it on a bookshelf in the hope your reader will find it.

5.       Shorter turnaround time: The manuscript-to-book process takes an average of nine months with big publishers, only because of the volume of projects they are handling. Small presses can trim this by more than half without compromising on quality, because they work on a smaller load at a time.

6.       Flexible contracts: Small presses have the ability to tailor your author contract to suit your comfort levels – like letting you keep certain rights, or negotiating on the royalties – because every project is an individualized process centred around the author and the book.

7.       Longer list-times: Here’s a little-known fact about publishing contracts. Books fall out of contract once the sales dip below a certain threshold, and the remainder are sold off quickly, for little. Small presses can keep your book running for years – decades, too – simply because they want to. And, believe us, they will make the effort to sell the book as long it’s around because this is their income too.

8.       Stepping stone to greater opportunities: In a previous blog post we mentioned that newcomers rarely get taken on by big publishers. Small presses can get your name out there enough to get noticed – although, be warned, you will love the personalized, fun publishing experience KREST offers, and you may end up sticking around long-term.

9.       Loyalty to their authors: Small presses earn their keep through the books they sell so, guaranteed, they will go out of their way to keep the author and the book happy. Out there you are pushed aside when the next big bestseller shows up; in here, at KREST, we work hard to maintain our author relationships.

We’re pretty proud to call ourselves independent. And we want you to hold your head up high when you say you’ve worked with an independent publisher. So we strive to maintain our quality at all times.

Should you have any specific questions about our operations, or about this topic, we are contactable.

Our personal best,

KREST Publishers
CONTACT KREST PUBLISHERS SOUTH AFRICA