Naomi announces a publisher for her manuscript

and a quick primer on the world of book publishing

Feb 03, 2025

Announcing a publisher.

Hello friends and family,

The purpose of this post is to let you know I am excited to use Minnesota-based Beaver’s Pond Press to publish my manuscript.

Finding a publisher has been long and arduous.

A quick lesson in book publishing

As you might know, the world of publishing is changing. Finding a publisher has always been tough, but it’s even more difficult now. Publishers are business people, and they want to make money. Unless you are famous or are writing about a well-known event (war, living through, 9/11 or some infamous event ), They are less willing than ever to take a chance on an unknown new author.

A brief history of the Big Five in publishing.

For many years, we’ve had the Big Five in the publishing world. They are (or were):

Penguin Random House
Hachette Livre
HarperCollins (owned by News Corp)
Macmillan Publishers
Simon & Schuster

The above companies control about 80% of the trade market of books.

In 2013, Penguin merged with Random House, which created a massive conglomerate. In 2020, Penguin Random House attempted to merge with Simon & Schuster, but the Department of Justice stopped the merger. The court said this merger would be a monopsony, similar to a monopoly but slightly different. (It’s a new word to me.)

If you are curious about the difference between the words monopoly and monopsony: In a monopoly, a single seller controls or dominates the supply of goods and services. In a monopsony, a single buyer controls or dominates the demand for goods and services.

The big four

Penguin Group and Random House
Hachette Livre
HarperCollins
Macmillan

What happened to Simon and Shuster, you ask? They were purchased by a private equity firm. Anyway, this is my way of telling you about a subject I knew little about before completing my manuscript.

Sure, there are small publishers. I thought my manuscript might be a good fit for a publisher located right here in Duluth named Holy Cow! Press. When I contacted the publisher, he said he had already chosen which books he would publish for the year. I didn’t feel like waiting and seeing if he would take the manuscript the following year. In the field of publishing, getting a quick response, even a no, is amazing. Other publishers I thought about were Minnesota Historical Press and the University of Minnesota Press. However, other authors told me that hearing back from them can be lengthy and challenging. I don’t want to wait years to get my book out to the world.

In the spring of 2023, my husband and I took one of our few trips. I was surprised at how exhausting it was for me. When selling a book, there is a lot of traveling for marketing. I have many marketing events that I want to do. When I realized how tired I got from our trip, I figured I couldn’t wait to publish this manuscript. I wanted to do it while I was still young. I’m 64. So, I explored hybrid publishing.

Hybrid publishers

Hybrid publishers are a combination of self-publishing and traditional publishing. The author doesn’t receive a monetary advance. And does have to pay the company. However, a good hybrid publisher is proud of its products and works to meet specific editing, design, and distribution guidelines, as defined by the Independent Book Publishers Association. Many (but not all) hybrids adhere to these standards and produce higher-quality books.

Here is one line from the paperwork I signed: “We’re choosy about the projects we take on because we're a small company and put a lot of care into our work.” I want whoever picks up my book to know that somebody else felt it was good enough to put their name on it.

I still have to pay them to publish my manuscript, but I feel good about this company.

I have talked to authors who have published with Beaver’s Pond Press and seen the end product. The books are beautiful. I have also visited with an independent bookstore manager; she had good things to say about Beaver’s Pond Press. A friend who works for Publishers Weekly also thought they were a good publisher.

Currently, I’m in the editing process with Beaver’s Pond Press. It’s more of the proofing since I’ve already worked with a development editor. After I accept or decline their suggested edits, we can move to the next stage: laying the pages out and designing a cover.

Vanity publishing

You may have heard of vanity publishing, but that’s not what hybrid is. Vanity publishing is when you pay someone to publish your book. Oftentimes, there are no controls on this, and even if your work isn’t good, a vanity press will publish your work. Often, it’s a way to scam the author out of thousands of dollars. Or a way to get work that’s not up to par published. (Though it is possible to be good and may be a route for some.)

I wanted to use a hybrid because I wanted to know that the company thinks my work is good enough for them to put their name on it.

Beaver’s Pond Press is a member of the Independent Book Publishers Association.

You may ask, Why don’t you simply self-publish on Amazon? Well, that would be an option, but small independent bookstores have no love for Amazon and will likely not carry a book or welcome an author event from someone who used Amazon.

I have a spreadsheet of locations where I want to market my book when it is published, and I want independent bookstores to welcome my book and my inquiry about hosting an event.

Thanks for reading my Substack. Hopefully, my next post will be about Janette and history.

Naomi

P.S. Just for fun.

The most recent author talk I attended was Fur Trade Nation by Carl Gowboy. This was published by Animikii Mazina’iganan: Thunderbird Press, which is a teaching press out of Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College