Another reason why independent publishing is the future

It’s a truism to say that small independent entities are more nimble and able to react faster than larger corporate entities, but this seems to be especially true in the case of publishing.

I am currently engaged in the run-up to the publication of a non-fiction volume by a major international publisher which deals with vaguely topical subjects. Apparently, it will take six months from the receipt of the (lightly edited) manuscript to the publication of the book.

Now, it’s not the case that I can write a book and publish it the same day, of course. There is always a gap between writing THE END and getting a printed copy into your hot little hands (or the ebook equivalent). Editing, rewriting, layout, cover design, proofreading… The list goes on.

But once all that had been done, for At the Sharpe End going through Lightning Source:

• 25 June – I uploaded the bookblock (interior)
• 28 June – Bookblock and cover passed LSI’s preflight checks
• 29 June – Proof was printed
• 29 June – LSI approved title
• 2 July – I accepted proof
• 2 July – Title made available for POD production
• 5 July (US time) – Title available on Amazon US

This is impressive. The background of At the Sharpe End is the 2008 bank crash, less than two years ago – while I was talking about it to some people the other day at Media Tectonics, they were impressed that a printed book could be written and produced in that time. And as I wrote earlier, the ebook version made it to the Apple iBooks store very fast indeed, courtesy of Smashwords.

Personally, I’m actually rather ashamed of the time it’s taken to produce At the Sharpe End – my only excuse is that Beneath Gray Skies was taking up my time. I am convinced that, if I concentrated full-time on this publishing business, I could get books out in a concrete physical form a lot faster than the big publishers. This has to be one of the big game changes about to occur – POD is about so much more than just reducing setup charges, and stock and warehousing costs – it brings a whole new model to the publishing world.