Byline

Publishing is entering a new era. Technology offers more opportunities, but authors face new challenges. Advances have collapsed, royalties have been affected by discounting, and the trade has become circumspect in placing orders.

Byline is a response to these new realities. We think technology should empower the author in the new publishing environment. We want to grasp the opportunities of developments like print on demand, and the freedom they give us to escape the heavy burdens of traditional publishing.

There remains one indispensable element to success in modern publishing: publicity. Because all Byline's authors have connections to journalism, they are uniquely placed to market their work on a public platform. Our authors understand the importance of promoting their work in the press and will take control of their own publicity drives.

There is another important way that our authors will benefit. Our business runs on a co-operative basis, with the idea that writers should get more than publishers. After direct costs of production we think profits should be split 80-20 in favour of the author.

This is how it works. After the costs of the cover, printing, postage, credit card commissions and so forth, the writer gets 80 per cent of the revenue. The practice of downloading to new hardware - e-readers, clever phones and computers is growing very quickly and because the costs of a download are very small, more is passed on to the author.

Serial rights take a little more negotiation on our part, and we are thinking that split should be 60-40 in the writer's favour.

Byline needs text in an ordinary Word document stripped of as much formatting possible. No indents, no drop caps, no spaces between the paragraphs.

We will commission the cover and prepare the MS for publication. The author will be asked to do a final proof read before we make the PDF for the printer.

The author will also be asked for a biography, a summary and a selected extract. We'll also film a video clip for the site.

We will work with authors to prepare a publicity program in press, radio, television, and live events (festivals, readings, book clubs).