For those who don’t know, Oliver Rhodes is the founder of
Bookouture. He spent 10 years at Harlequin UK, where he was Marketing
Controller and was chosen as one
of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars of 2012. He regularly appears on The
Romance University to give guidance and advice to authors. He was part of the Harlequin team that won The
Bookseller’s Digital Strategy of the year award in 2012. His incredibly
successful New Voices online author talent search won M&B the Bookseller’s
Marketing Campaign of the Year 2011. He helped quadruple sales of Harlequin’s
MIRA commercial fiction imprint in 5 years and establish authors such as Diane
Chamberlain, Alex Kava, Debbie Macomber, Erica Spindler, Pam Jenoff, Maria V
Snyder, Rachel Vincent, Elizabeth Flock, Anne O’Brien and Victoria Fox. Deep
breath. That’s pretty impressive. Oh and, of course, let’s not forget he
brought Blackthorn to the masses (not that I’m biased or anything). But
seriously, let’s get the insight into this awesome publisher and his extremely
exciting new venture…
Q) You
had a hugely successful career as the Marketing Controller for Harlequin UK. Why did you decide to go into
business for yourself?
A) I think I could write a book
on the answer to that question! But I shall try to keep it succinct…
A lot of business opportunities
start with a problem:
Publishing isn’t just about
editing and book covers. Yet I
felt that for a lot of authors – both those within traditional publishers and
digital publishers, that was all that they were being offered.
With millions of other books to compete with, I don’t think that
approach works unless the author is excellent at self-promotion. It might work for publishers, who take
on enough titles to ensure that they back some winners, but I didn’t feel that
it added enough value to authors.
I had a vision of how I’d run a
digital publisher if I were starting from scratch, without the constraints of
working within a bigger publisher – and Bookouture grew from there.
I knew that if I didn’t take the
opportunity to test that vision I would regret it.
Q) Why
romance and women’s fiction?
A) Both because that is where my
experience lies and because those readers are furthest ahead in terms of the
shift to reading digitally – it just made perfect sense.
Also, the romance genre in
particular is really well served by a very active blogging community – which
makes it easier for us to add value to an author in terms of getting publicity.
Q) You
have a very eclectic range of authors in terms of the books you’ve chosen to
publish – paranormal, Indian, humorous, contemporary, New Adult... was that
always your intention?
A) My focus was solely on working with the authors who I
thought had the most potential. Very broadly the aim is commercial fiction aimed at women – similar to
the MIRA list that I helped build at Harlequin.
It wasn’t a conscious decision to
go with such a range – these were simply the manuscripts that got me most
excited.
Q) You
have an open brief when it comes to submissions. Why?
A) With the concept of bespoke publishing we simply don’t
need our submissions to be all of the same genre, or word-count, because we’re
marketing that author individually.
It’s also worth saying that when
I was setting up Bookouture, I looked around at other publisher’s websites and
submission guidelines. I found the
tone and the number of ‘don’ts’ to be quite off-putting – almost as if they
were trying to make it difficult for authors.
I wanted to keep the submission
procedure for Bookouture simple, open and approachable.
Q) What’s
unique about Bookouture (and what first attracted me) is that you fit your
publishing around the author, as opposed to the other way around. Is that not a
bit challenging?
A) To me, developing a bespoke approach to each author is
essential if we’re to do the best job of publishing that we can. Applying a template cuts corners and I
think creates a danger of not developing or selling effectively what is unique
about that author’s voice or story.
With so many more books available
than ever before I think a bespoke approach is essential to stand out.
As for being challenging, I
actually find the variety it involves to be what I like best about the job –
and we published a wide range of fiction at Harlequin, so I’m also pretty used
to it!
Q) Deciding
which authors to sign must be a big thing for you. Your business depends on you
making the right choices. How stressful is it making those decisions?
A) Saying no is hard. The part of my job that I like least is
sending rejection e-mails, and there have been some talented authors that we’ve
turned down. And there are always
a few that I wonder whether I made the right call on.
Saying yes is easy. I
haven’t yet found making a decision to actually sign an author difficult. In each case there has been something
about the story or voice that has grabbed me.
When I get that feeling I have a
strong vision for the book – I know what we can do in terms of positioning,
cover design and promotion – and I start to get excited about the
potential.
Q) You’ve
had a LOT of submissions, agented and unagented, debut authors as well as those who
have sold tens of thousands of books. Do those kinds of credentials/lack of
them affect your decision-making?
A) Essentially, there needs to be something there that makes
me think that we could make a success of that book.
The most important thing is the
quality of the manuscript – and other factors (or lack of them) don’t influence
our decisions in a negative sense if a manuscript is great. I think you can see that from the fact
that most of the authors that we’ve taken on so far have been debuts.
Having said that, factors such as
an established sales history or author platform are definitely persuasive
because they increase the chances of success.
Q) What’s
your thinking process as you’re reading a manuscript? Do you start making
judgments early on? Do you wait until you’ve seen the story unfurl completely? Basically,
is it true that editors/publishers decide within the first few paragraphs?
A) For me, it’s easy to decide if it’s an obvious ‘no’
within a few paragraphs. From
there, basically the better something is, the further I will read. If I get a few chapters in and I think
there is potential, I will send it to one of our Editors for a second opinion.
Q) A
great story is one thing, but what other qualities or skills do you look for in
your authors?
A) The writing really is absolutely the most important
thing, and nothing else is required, other than perhaps openness to feedback. As I say, things like influence
on social media can have a positive impact, but not a negative one.
In terms of marketing, people
often forget that the product (or story in this case) is the most important
element. I always say that if you
write a good book, you’ll be able to sell it – if you write a great book, readers will sell it for
you.
Q) Can
you summarise what makes an author ‘ideal’ to work with?
A) I’d never thought about that – and it’s a difficult
question because every author is different and you form a working relationship
that seeks to make the most of their strengths.
In terms of writing I think
creativity, a focus on delivering what readers want and being open to feedback
are the key things. Being able to
write and revise quickly also helps!
Q) You
work with some of the best editorial, design and marketing professionals in the
business. How do you match your designers/editors to your authors?
A) That’s a good question, and
one I had to think about as most of the time I just ‘know’ by instinct. Designers tend to have styles that can
make them a good fit for certain genres or for a look that you’re hoping to
achieve. In a way the same is true
of editors but, because they’ll be working directly with the author,
personality can come into it to.
Q) All
of your authors speak extremely highly of you and are very open with their
praise. How does that make you feel?
A) It’s very rewarding, and I really appreciate it. I take is as a sign that we must be
doing something right!
Q) You
very much have your finger on the pulse. Some publishers are still slow to
catch up with the eBook revolution. I know you offer print on demand books, but
why do you have so much passion for eBooks?
A)
Because they are the future. Because the model of publishing is so much more efficient and
quicker. Because pricing is much
more fluid. Because publishing
becomes more about marketing to consumers and less about influencing a
supermarket to stock your book. Because promotions are much more measurable. Because reaching a global
audience is easier than ever before. I could go on…
At the heart of it, eBooks simply offer a better deal to the reader in
terms of price, convenience and choice. I think that’s a very exciting proposition to be working with.
Q) Authors
are becoming increasingly more business savvy as to what might be the best deal
for them and their work. Is that a good thing or a bad thing for the future of
publishing? And for readers?
A) I actually did a post on a similar topic over at Romance
University recently http://romanceuniversity.org/2013/06/21/how-to-choose-the-right-publishing-option-for-you-by-oliver-rhodes/
I think it’s a great thing for both publishing and
readers. It forces publishers to
concentrate on adding value to authors and to justify exactly how they are
going to do that. The good ones
shouldn’t be afraid of that.
It’s also a pressure for
publishers to continue to adapt to the adjusting digital landscape. There’s a quote from Mark Sanborn (a
business guru) that I love – and that I think very much applies to publishing
at the moment:
"Your success in life isn't
based on your ability to simply change. It is based on your ability to change
faster than your competition, customers and business."
That’s another reason that I
founded Bookouture, because I knew that I’d be able to innovate and learn
quickly.
Q) What
are your hopes for Bookouture?
A) I want to carry on creating
publishing that I’m proud of. I
want to achieve what I think is possible in terms of sales with the authors
that we have and to gradually add to our author base.
We’re still just starting out so
we need to be focused, but I want us to be a publisher that adapts, learns and
flourishes. My aim is for us to be
the best of the new generation of publishers.
You can find out more about Bookouture here or by viewing the trailer below:
You can find out more about Bookouture here or by viewing the trailer below:
Thanks so much again for joining us, Oliver!
