UK Publisher / Self Publisher Wanted!

For months now I've been trying to find a good UK publisher / self publisher who is willing to sell printed copies of my work to people in their back yard.

In case you didn't already know, I'm located in Ontario, Canada. As a result I have access to a lot of US self publishing companies that will allow me to do all the design work myself and offer the work to readers. I still have to order a single proof copy with most of them, but that's a reasonable reality. It's best for me to see what my readers are getting. Other than that the companies I work with don't charge any upfront fees and there are no cash cost surprises.

What I've found in the UK is that the vast majority of self publishing companies are more interested in making thousands of dollars from independent authors and have little interest in selling books to readers.

After being thoroughly screwed by Trafford in Canada I promised myself that I'd never pay cash up front for a publisher to list my work and half heartedly offer it to readers. That rules out every self publishing company I've seen in the UK out.

The Emails regarding the lack of printed copies in the UK don't stop, however, nor would I like them to! The problem is I still don't have a way of fulfilling the demand. I could just give up and say; "Well, it's not easy, so I'm afraid you'll have to stick to buying EBooks in that part of the world!" That's not the way I work, however.

Instead I'm posting an open invite to all publishers and self publishing companies in the UK to offer my printed work to your customers. Here are a list of qualifications you MUST meet:

There must be no up front, listing, maintenance or procedural fees.
You get a cut of the cover price, that's it.
I must be allowed to determine the cover price (with a self publisher).
I will be given a 30% or higher royalty on the cover price (with a conventional publisher).
I retain all rights to my work (with a self publisher, a conventional publisher will recieve print rights but will have no entitlement to other media rights).

What I can provide:

10 titles.
Records of sale that will show thousands of EBooks sold.
Information and graphics for promotional purposes.
I can do all my own design work.
I will make myself available for telephone/radio/print interviews.
Your listings will be prominently featured on my various websites.
A conventional publisher will recieve exclusive print rights for a limited term in exchange for an advance against future sales.
I'll offer my eternal gratitude.

So that's all. I do have a note for users who might want to offer self publishing advice though, and that is to do your homework before offering it. Please don't recommend anyone unless you personally have a positive relationship with the company.

If you're recommending a publisher, be aware that I'm not interested in a long submission process and my readers don't want to wait around for a year or more and over 98% of unsolicited manuscripts are either never reviewed or rejected even if it's the best thing they ever read. There are many market, legal, time and budget considerations that come into play that prevent unsolicited manuscripts from being considered. I also don't have a literary agent.

Taking that into account, if you know of a good, free self publishing service in the UK or you're a real publishing house or literary agent and are interested in helping me, drop me an Email and I'll get back to you right away.

In the meantime I'll keep researching while I'm not writing and hopefully I'll be able to find a way to make printed copies of my work available in the UK.

RL