According to the Le Robert dictionary, a publisher is the “person or company which ensures the publication and sale of the works of an author, a musician, etc..” » If we had to give a slightly more graphic definition of the profession of editor, we could refer to this sentence present on the website of the National Publishing Union : “Industrialist or artisan, the editor is a “ text passer.
According to the Le Robert dictionary, a publisher is the “person or company which ensures the publication and sale of the works of an author, a musician, etc..” » If we had to give a slightly more graphic definition of the profession of editor, we could refer to this sentence present on the website of the National Publishing Union : “Industrialist or artisan, the editor is a “ text passer.
The editor, by publishing a book, takes a risk that of putting on the market a novel that may not achieve the expected success. However, this faith in a project, this audacity , can also create great success! The editor is therefore the person who judges, or rather who gauges whether a literary project has the necessary assets to see the light of day and meet its audience.
PUBLISHING CONTRACTS
First of all, it is important to introduce you to the different types of contracts that you will encounter most frequently in the world of publishing, in order to guide you towards the best way to choose your publishing contract .
CONTRACTS THAT ARE NOT PUBLISHING CONTRACTS
Before talking to you about what a publishing contract on behalf of a publisher is and the role of the latter in the editorial process, let's come back to contracts which , within the meaning of the law , are not publishing contracts .
THE AUTHOR'S CONTRACT
Legally speaking, the author's contract is not a publishing contract since the author of the work does not transfer his rights to the publishing house. You therefore remain, as the author, the owner of your rights . The publisher has only the role of service provider for you and will not cover the costs generated by the manufacturing, printing, creation, promotion or even the dissemination and distribution of your work.
THE SO-CALLED “HALF” CONTRACT
There is also another type of publishing contract, called “half”, by which the author of a manuscript retains his or her rights to his or her work. Unlike the author's contract, here, it is the publisher who takes charge of the production, publication and distribution of the novel. On the other hand, both parties – author and publisher – are reciprocally committed to sharing the losses and profits generated by the publication of the manuscript. Which means that you agree to repay part of the debts generated if your book does not create profits.
These two types of contracts are sometimes offered to authors in a roundabout and unclear manner. Study them carefully so you know what you're getting into.
In our article Which publishing houses to avoid? we explain to you precisely how to detect unscrupulous publishing houses, or even scams.
SELF-PUBLISHING
Self-publishing can be an alternative to the self-publishing contract: it is a way for authors to escape the selection of publishing houses by remaining independent .
On the other hand, it is not because there is no editor behind the publication of the book that the process is simpler! When you decide to self-publish your book – and you want it to be published in a quality way – you will have to devote a lot of time to it. Correction of the manuscript, layout of the novel, collecting opinions from beta readers (if you wish) or even creating the cover are all steps that should not be neglected.
In addition, self-publishing rhymes with self-promotion and self-distribution : to allow your work to be visible to potential readers and to find its place in bookstores, numerous steps will have to be taken. When you are your “own brand” and you want to self-publish, the notion of personal branding is essential to build your notoriety . It is also extremely rare for a self-published book to be presented in several bookstores. In fact, bookstores and specialized supermarkets (Fnac, Cultura) order books exclusively from published and distributed publishing houses.
PUBLISHING CONTRACTS ON PUBLISHER'S ACCOUNT
According to article L132-1 of the Intellectual Property Code, the publishing contract is one by which an author transfers to a publisher the right to produce his book and to ensure its promotion and distribution. In return for this transfer of rights, the publisher must remunerate you in proportion to the sales made. This copyright percentage is defined in advance in the contract but generally varies between 8 and 10%. The structure of an author's remuneration is further explained in our blog article on this subject.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM YOUR EDITOR
Once your publishing contract is signed, your publishing house will support you during the different stages of creating your book.
Support in reworking your manuscript
When a self-publishing house decides to publish your manuscript, you will go through the inevitable stage of reworking the text. It is following numerous discussions with your editor, who will be able to advise you with the knowledgeable eye of a publishing professional, that you will be able to finalize your manuscript. In this, an editor plays a real advisory role.
Coordination of the different stages of layout and production of the book
Once the editorial work on the text is completed, the editor will have to coordinate the layout and production of the book. He will therefore be in contact with the graphic designers or illustrators, the layout designers (in particular to choose the cover and the layout elements: typography, spacing, margins, etc.), the manufacturer (to decide on the choice format, paper or specific printing techniques) or the printer. The editor is the link between all parties relating to the layout and production of a work!
Book Promotion
When you sign a publishing contract with a publishing house, it is specified that your publishing house undertakes to ensure the promotion of the book in question. By promotion, we mean that the publishing house – and more particularly the people responsible for press relations – must highlight the work and the author in the media (newspaper and magazine, radio, television, podcast, etc.). This can involve sending press services to the editorial staff of certain magazines, making appointments with journalists for interviews or even managing events in bookstores or trade fairs, for example.
The distribution of the book
Finally, one of the most crucial steps to ensure the visibility of a book in bookstores is the distribution of said work. In a publishing house, the representatives, who work for a distributor, are the people responsible for selling books to booksellers (the distributor must judge in which bookstores the presence of your book is the most relevant) and making them want to to put your book forward on bookstore tables.
WHAT AN EDITOR WON'T DO
If your manuscript is not accepted by a publishing house, the editor to whom you sent it is not required to give you feedback on the different areas of rework that it should be considered. Obviously, as an author, it is completely natural to be waiting for such advice in order to be guided on the reasons which led to a refusal from a publishing house. 'editing. But most publishing houses can receive several thousand manuscripts per year (up to 12,000 in some cases), so it is impossible for them to provide reasons for each negative response within a reasonable time frame.
Édith & Nous supports you even before sending your manuscripts by acting as a trusted third party who selects the publishing houses with whom you will be in contact. Each account creation request is strictly controlled and we therefore do not reference publishing structures with author or “half” accounts, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises. This is why all the publishing houses active on Édith & Nous and which have access to your texts are publishing houses on publisher's account , which take care of the production, marketing, promotion, distribution and the distribution of the works they publish.
SENDING A MANUSCRIPT
TRADITIONAL MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION
When you send your manuscript to self-publisher publishing houses in the “ classic ” way, it is very important to follow the sending instructions on their website. Indeed, these instructions may vary from one house to another and it would be a shame if your manuscript was not consulted solely because of non-compliance with the technical conditions. Some houses prefer digital sending, by email, while others favor sending manuscripts in paper format, by post. Our article Tips for sending a manuscript to a publisher will provide you with more advice on this topic.
In addition to these technical concerns, it is essential to take into account the editorial line of a publishing house before sending them your manuscript. There's no point sending a children's manuscript to a house that doesn't publish one: it simply won't be read! It is better to target the publishing houses to whom you decide to send your text as precisely as possible rather than relying solely on the number of mailings! Fugue editions – and they are not the only ones – have, for example, specified on their site: “Before submitting a manuscript to us, we invite you to browse our catalog in order to check that your project fits in with our line editorial. » Which is not always an easy task!
SUBMITTING A MANUSCRIPT ON ÉDITH & NOUS
On Édith & Nous, we offer you a new way to present your manuscript to a publishing house. Our objective is to simplify and centralize all these procedures to allow authors to submit only one manuscript , in complete security , and to be seen directly by more than a hundred publishing houses . From now on, your manuscript is no longer buried under a pile of emails or letters, but visible to our partner publishers.
Furthermore, these publishing houses can directly filter their searches by literary genres (general literature, children's literature, fantasy, poetry, non-fiction, essays, human sciences, etc.) and by keywords . Publishing houses can also create alerts based on the literary genres they wish to favor and/or keywords. And when we know that some publishing houses receive so many manuscripts that they are forced to close their manuscript services temporarily, like Éditions Scrineo for example, offering them a way to pre-select the texts they read represents a huge time saving. It is also a way for you, the author, to not have to decipher the editorial lines of publishing houses.
Some of our partner publishing houses also benefit from a digital manuscript processing solution, which allows you to submit your manuscript free of charge by precisely targeting certain houses such as the Phébus , De Borée , Buchet-Chastel , Eyrolles , Noir sur White…
We also offer you the possibility of submitting as many new versions of your manuscript as you wish, throughout the rewrites that you may carry out. The new version you upload will overwrite the previous one and editors will always have access to the most recent version of your manuscript. This option prevents you from having to send your manuscript a second time to an editor and therefore bypassing the first submission.
The time frame of publishing is long and does not always correspond to that of the authors, which is why Édith & Nous offers you support – Proofreading, Correction or Incipit workshop , blog articles , advice on the presentation of your manuscript – by publishing professionals who can help you find a publishing house for your first novel , and for all those that follow, and to offer the most accomplished version of your manuscript.