The numbers tell us that the vast majority of people who write a book will never see it published.
There was a time when commercial publishers treated authors like partners, and some even offered advances on future earnings. But those days are long gone. Now even best of us are “product”.
The sad truth of this is that some of the very finest writers of the past would not get a foot in a publisher’s door today: Hemingway – too misogynistic; Joyce – too bizarre; Miller – too vulgar, positively pornographic; Rowling – not commercial (some did tell her that and look what happened).
So You've Been Rejected!
You've just written the great South African novel, but it's been rejected by all the big publishing houses: now what?
This is where SRP comes in, because we've all been there. David's manuscript for "Running Wild" garnered what must be a world record 174 rejections from publishers and agents world-wide.
When it was finally published by Jacana it became a Top 10 best seller and went into five printings.
Simply put, what we do is – if we like your work – help you get your work published. Sure it costs, but what we offer are professional standard services at a much lesser percentage than what conventional publishers and editorial-design professionals are charging. But, even if we chose not to publish your work under the Southern Right Publishers banner, we can still help you get your work into print.
While it’s true we are not in it for the money, neither are we a literary charity. The basic deal is that you pay up-front for any or all the services you require. However, unlike any other similar business we know of, the profits are shared between ourselves and the writer.
In some cases writers desperate to get published resort to signing up with publishers (mostly in the UK) who say they accept unsolicited manuscripts, only to offer you a “pay to publish” deal. It seldom ends well. We know because some of us have been burned.
So unless you are desperate, our advice is just don’t.
