DOING IT FOR OURSELVES...
Andrew Bibby introduces Britain’ s first authors’ publishing co-operative, Gritstone
Anyone who aims to make their living professionally from writing knows that books are not the way to make a speedy fortune. Calculate the hours taken to research and write even a modest title and you’ d almost certainly find yourself working for far less than the minimum wage. The Society of Authors’ latest survey( May 2015) found that average authors’ incomes in Britain, including advances, royalties and collecting society payments, is about £ 12,500.
It doesn’ t help that the publishing industry is increasingly driven by commercial pressures. Perhaps there really was a time when literary gentlemen( and a few ladies) sat in offices in Bedford Square in London reading typed manuscripts to decide which books caught their fancy and could be added to their lists. These days, publishing decisions are much more led by the views of sales and marketing staff than they are of the editorial departments.
The real difficulty with self-publishing is the marketing aspect of the process
In general, the size of publishers’ advances – when offered- are falling. I received £ 8,500 ten years ago from a publisher for an outdoor title I wrote for them – nothing like what I could have earned if I had spent the time involved in newspaper journalism or indeed almost any other sort of work, but still not too bad in the circumstances. I suspect I’ d be lucky to get a fraction of that for the same book today.
We do have in Britain some long-established outdoor publishers who care about their books and try to care about their writers. However they are also obliged to operate in a tight commercial market. It’ s really not easy being an OWPG member these days.
So are there any alternatives? Self-publishing is certainly no longer dismissed as being simply the province of vanity writers, and indeed the Society of Authors and NUJ offer advice to their members on successful selfpublishing, as of course does the Guild. The rise of the e-book has helped. I find it hard to think of many things about Amazon that I like, but the modest monthly royalties I get through from the company for the e-book sales they make for me are certainly better than nothing.
However the real difficulty with self-publishing is the marketing aspect of the process. Writing the book is the easy bit. Finding a printer is not too difficult. Getting the published book into the shops and into the hands of book-readers is the challenge.
So half way through last year four of us who consider ourselves professional outdoor writers / photographers decided to come together to try to develop a better way to market self-published titles. What we have done is to set up a marketing co-operative. It’ s based on the way that artists and craftspeople sometimes collectively market their works( it’ s also exactly the same method that dairy farmers have traditionally used to sell their milk). Gritstone Publishing Co-operative Ltd is, to the very best of our knowledge, the first writers’ co-operative in Britain. A company limited by guarantee established using fully mutual co-operative rules( provided by Co-operatives UK), Gritstone provides a marketing vehicle to enable us to bring our own books( and only our books) to market. There is a shared logo and a shared website- www. gritstone. coop- where our books can be purchased.
There are four of us who came together to create Gritstone. Chiz Dakin needs little introduction to OWPG members. She has served for several years on the Guild’ s committee, currently as Vice-Chair, has won the Guild’ s Award for excellence in photography and is also the author of several books, including Cycling in the Peak District( Cicerone, now in its second edition) and Outdoors Photography, co-written with Jon Sparks.
Chris Goddard is the author of two exceptionally well-researched and exquisitely hand-drawn books, West Yorkshire Moors and West Yorkshire Woods: Calder Valley, as well as a practical guide to the Wales Coast Path. He’ s currently working on a companion title focusing on the South Yorkshire Moors, and is also preparing a series of guides to the English coast path.
Gritstone is a marketing vehicle and not a traditional publishing house
Colin Speakman has a host of published books to his credit, including the definitive Dales Way guide – appropriately enough, because it was very much Colin’ s vision which led to the creation of what is now a very popular walking route through the Dales to the Lake District. Gritstone has just published his latest book, co-written with his wife Fleur Speakman, The Yorkshire Wolds. Almost the first travel guide to this beautiful if little explored part of Yorkshire, the book’ s publication has been timed to link with Hull’ s City of Culture celebrations. The book also has Welcome to Yorkshire endorsement.
Gritstone has also published two novels of mine, The Bad Step and In the Cold of the Night, two crime novels set in the Lake District both with strong outdoor themes: fell-running, mountain rescue, hill-walking and much else. My forthcoming non-fiction book about southern English landscape history, Back Roads through Middle England, is currently in production.
Gritstone, we believe, gives us a credibility which we wouldn’ t necessarily get if we self-published alone. But there is also something more: writing can be lonely, and Gritstone provides an informal way to receive support and encouragement from our peers. The guidelines we drew up last October talk of one of our objectives being to“ encourage members to take an interest in each other’ s work and to offer informal support and solidarity”. We have, for example, read each other’ s work and have also sometimes helped with proof-reading and copy editing.
14 Outdoor focus | autumn 2017