Digital publishing: Getting your book to a potential audience of millions
The digital age has opened up markets for ebooks, audiobooks, print-on-demand, etc. Picture: iStock
Patricia Gibney has sold more than 1.5 million books since her first novel, The Missing Ones, was published just four years ago. It’s a figure which most Irish authors would envy. However, Gibney says she doesn’t have time to sit back and reflect on her success.
“I am so busy writing and doing two books a year, then doing online publicity, I literally don’t have time to stop and think,” she says from her home in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
She may not be a household name but Gibney is one of the many Irish authors who has found success in the flourishing digital publishing industry, with readers buying her books in ebook, audiobook and print-on-demand format on platforms such as Amazon, Kobo, Apple and Google.
Her crime thriller series, featuring Detective Lottie Parker, has amassed a significant fanbase around the world, and her ninth book, Silent Voices, has just been released.
Gibney is signed to Bookouture, one of the world’s leading digital publishers, founded by Oliver Rhodes in 2012. It is now a division of Hachette, having been acquired by the publishing company in 2017. Gibney’s success in the digital arena has led to a deal with Sphere, an imprint of Hachette, which means her books can also now be found in traditional format in bookshops.
“I do think digitally published books would have been seen as the poor relation to traditional publishing but it is changing. The industry has to move with the times, because readers are looking for choice. Sometimes a digital or audiobook is convenient. Traditional publishers are coming around to thinking they have to marry the two together,” she says.
Gibney, a mother of three, began writing after her husband Aidan died in 2009, and she eventually had to give up her job with Westmeath County Council.
“Aidan died within three months of being diagnosed with cancer. It was like the rug being pulled out from under my feet. I went through a really bad time, my kids were teenagers at the time and I couldn’t work. I started writing as therapy. I needed a focus so I committed myself to writing a book and getting it published,” she says.
Gibney acquired an agent, who started submitting her work early in 2016. Success came quickly after Bookouture offered her a contract.
“I signed with them without an idea of what I was getting into but it was the right choice. I always say that Aidan guided me. I signed for four books initially and I am writing book ten at the moment. It just really took off.” Gibney finds the flexibility of digital publishing suits her.
“You are not constrained by print deadlines. So, I can submit my book earlier or I can look for an extension to suit me. I am really lucky, I have had the same editor all along, we have a good working relationship. It is very flexible, which I find great.”
Jenny Geras, managing director of Bookouture, says one of the things that appeals to authors is that it accepts submissions directly, as well as from literary agents.
“In traditional publishing, you normally have to find an agent before you get a book deal. That isn’t the case for us, we have a direct submissions channel where authors can submit their work and we acquire a lot of books that way,” she says.
Bookouture also doesn’t pay advances but instead pays a higher level of royalties more often.
“We pay our authors royalties quarterly which means they start earning money very quickly. For the most part, our authors earn very well,” says Geras.
She adds that Bookouture also has a more equitable approach to marketing and publicity budgets.
“Whereas other publishers will give their biggest books the most marketing spend and publicity, all of our books get the same backing from day one. They all get a marketing campaign, publicity and attention. That doesn’t mean they will all go on to have the same sales — you put them out in the market, some will sell better than others but on day one, every book stands an equal chance of being a bestseller. That is something that is really important to me, and to our authors.”
According to Geras, older women make up the main part of Bookouture’s market.
“Women tend to buy more commercial fiction — crime fiction, psychological thrillers and suspense is our biggest area. We also do women’s fiction, romance, historical fiction. Last year, we also launched our first non-fiction list,” she says.
Ireland is also an important market for the company, she adds.
“We have a lot of Irish authors who do very well in Ireland, Britain, and the US as well. We are a truly global publisher.”
One of the other successful Irish authors published by Bookouture is Susanne O’Leary, a Swede by birth, who now lives in Co Tipperary, with her husband, Denis, a retired diplomat originally from Bantry, Co Cork.
O’Leary teamed up with Bookouture in 2018 after a successful stint as a self-published author writing romantic fiction. She has sold almost 250,000 books since.
“Bookouture were one of the first publishers who actually embraced e-publishing rather than scoffing at it like some of the bigger publishers,” she says. “It has worked out brilliantly for me because I have a large back-list of my own published books and the Bookouture books that have done so well have pushed those titles. Readers of e-books want the next book now and if they can’t find it, they will go back to an author they like and go through their list.”
O’Leary’s most recent books, the Sandy Cove series, are based in Kerry, where she has a holiday home, and have been very successful.
“I had a lot of readers already in America and they really went for the series based in Kerry. Novels about Ireland are so popular over there,” she says.
Like Gibney, O’Leary is prolific in her output.
“I have written 11 books in three years. If you are doing a series, you have to produce the next book in four months. That is a lot of hard work. Then you get into the editing, which is rigorous. You might be editing one book and writing another at the same time. It really is a full-time job. When you have been writing for as long as I have, for 20 years, you develop a routine and it becomes easier. I love it.”
Geras says the perception that digitally published books are somehow lesser in quality than traditionally published books drives her “mad”.
“There is definitely an assumption that they are not ‘proper’ books. I hope that is changing and will change further. There is no logical reason for it. The books that we publish are just like commercial fiction published in print, and just as good. I think it is just a form of snobbery that will go away with time, just as people used to see paperbacks as cheap and disposable and hardbacks as ‘proper’ books — it is just a different manifestation of that."
