About Andrew

Writer, editor and publisher including: former principal for the Davies Literary Agency; editor and publisher of The Western Australian Year Book for a number of years; and editor and writer for Afterlife - the Magazine for Atmosphere users.

Swancon 2014: Panels

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Andrew

Despite having been a long term attendee of Swancon (I was actually at the first one way back in 1976) I’ve never been on a panel. With Hague Publishing now turning three in June I thought it was about time I was, so this year I am. And not just one, but two (nothing like plunging in without a safety net):

Maintaining a useful and meaningful web presence 101 for authors (with Anne Bishop, Jim Butcher, and Isobelle Carmedy) Thursday 20:00
How To Piss Off A Publisher (with Cat Sparks from Agog! Press) Sunday 15:30

A full listing of the draft program is available here.

So – if you’re in Perth over the Easter long-weekend why not drop and join us at Australia’s longest-running science fiction convention, and probably the longest-running in the southern hemisphere (Wikipedia).

Shelley’s book tour for ‘Lights Over Emerald Creek’ kicks off tomorrow

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Andrew

We’re quite excited at our first book tour, which features Shelley Davidow’s Lights Over Emerald Creek. and kicks off on the 11 of March. The tour will run for 20 weeks and features a combination of guest posts, reviews, author interviews, as well as excerpts and book features.

The tour’s first author interview will occur on the 18th, at Mommy Adventures.

As this is our first tour we’re eager to see how successful it is, although I can certainly say that Shelley has done as much as she can to ensure it’s as successful as possible. (Answering 50 questions, and preparing three guest posts for the tour’s organiser OrangeBerry Book Tours while preparing for the start of the new school year is never going to be easy).

The full Schedule follows: Continue reading →

Marketing 101 for authors: business cards for books

Posted on February 23, 2014 by Andrew

In this post I discuss what I have found to be the most effective marketing tool for ebooks – the business card.

[p2p type=”slug” value=”how-people-chose-what-ebook-to-read-part-1″]In a November 2013 blog [/p2p]I discussed a poll conducted by USA TODAY which found that a majority of those surveyed (57%) cited their own opinion of the writer’s previous work as the major factor in creating interest in a particular book for them. Opinions of a relative and friend (“word of mouth”) came in second at 43%. Lower on the list were professional reviewers and other writers (each 17%), the book cover (16%) and Internet opinions by non-professionals (10%).

From this, it would appear that the most effective way of selling a book is for the reader to actually meet the author, allowing them to form a positive view of the author and their work. It is for this reason that authors attend conventions, and it also why authors (or their publishers) take big stacks of paperbacks to conventions that the author is attending, for sale. That’s all very well for authors with a traditional book, but how do you achieve the same for eBook, because by the time the reader has gone home and is sitting at their computer, ready to purchase the book, they may have forgotten the name of the book, or even the author.

Hague Publishing tackles this problem by producing business cards for each book it publishes. Continue reading →

Our first newsletter for 2014 is now available

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Andrew

Our January newsletter has just been released.

2014 promises to be a bumper year for Hague Publishing with four eBooks slated to be released, as well as the release of our second paperback sometime in late March. As I explain in next weeks blog, relying on Facebook, Twitter, or (now) Google+ to be kept informed of what’s happening at Hague Publishing is somewhat problematic so why not subscribe to our email newsletter and never miss a release …

In the Newsletter

New Releases
- 28 February – Lights Over Emerald Creek by Shelley Davidow
Forthcoming releases for 2014
- Paperback
  - Frontier Incursion by Leonie Rogers
- eBook
  - Frontier Resistance by Leonie Rogers
  - Isis, Vampires and Ghosts – Oh My! by Janis Hill
  - Across the Bridge of Ice by Ruth Fox
Hague Publishing on Social Media
Blog Talk
Submissions Status
Now available from HaguePublishing.com

Seasons greeting to all our readers

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Andrew

We’re taking a short break over Christmas but will be back early in the new year. In the meantime …

IBPA’s new Code of Ethics

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Andrew

I am presently the member of two Australian trade associations (APA, SPN), and one international (the Independent Book Publishers Association). Now, professional associations generally have two conflicting mandates, firstly they have a responsibility to act on behalf of their members, a responsibility which will often have them acting like a cartel or a labor union (trade union) for the members of the profession, though this description is commonly rejected by the body concerned. Secondly professional bodies often act to protect the public by maintaining and enforcing standards of training and ethics in their profession. (Source Wikipedia). One of the primary methods by which this second is achieved is by the development, maintenance, and enforcement of a code of ethics for its members.

Without a Code of Ethics it is difficult for an organisation to discipline or expel a member for acting unethically, as without a code it often difficult to determine whether someone is a fit and proper person to be a member. This is because the question of fitness will differ across occupations, and the matter will often end up in court. With a Code of Ethics the question is simpler, as the expectations of the behaviour of its members is set out in that Code. While the matter may still end up in court, the fact that the Association made a determination against a code of ethics specific to its occupation and membership will make its decision to discipline, suspend, or expel a member is much easier to justify. And personally I can definitely confirm that it makes sacking an unethical employee so much easier.

Which should make it of concern that until recently none of these three associations appears to have had a code of ethics, although this has now changed with the release of IBPA’s first Code of Ethics. Continue reading →

How people chose what ebook to read – Part 2

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Andrew

Click Image to Enlarge Image Source: AuthorMarketingClub.com

[p2p type=”slug” value=”how-people-chose-what-ebook-to-read-part-1″]In my last blog [/p2p]I discussed a poll conducted by USA TODAY and Bookish, a website designed to help people find and buy books. The poll found that a majority of those surveyed (57%) cited their own opinion of the writer’s previous work as the major factor in creating interest in a particular book for them. Opinions of a relative and friend (publishers call that “word of mouth”) came in second at 43%. Lower on the list of major factors: professional reviewers and other writers (each 17%), the book cover (16%) and Internet opinions by non-professionals (10%).

This week I wanted to share with you the results of another recent survey by ebookfairies which confirms many of the USA today survey’s results. The ebookfairies survey was conducted from June 1-30, 2013, via Survey Monkey, and as many as 2,951 people replied to most of the 44 questions formulated by more than a dozen authors.

Some of the more relevant information from the survey include: Continue reading →

How people chose what ebook to read – Part 1

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Andrew

The availability of online bookstores, and particularly the arrival of eBooks is starting to transform how people discover the books they may want to read. The traditional place to do that was bookstores. You’d go in to buy one book and discover another.

Officials at Amazon and other book websites argue that clicking can replace browsing, but is that just a vague and nebulous hope, or are people actually selecting the books they’ll read in different ways? A recent poll conducted for USAToday and Bookish, a website designed to help people find and buy books, asked readers what factors create interest in a particular book for them. Continue reading →

Amazon finally catches up with the 21st century in Australia

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Andrew

For a retailer with one of the biggest, and possibly most sophisticated back office systems in the world Amazon demonstrated until a couple of days ago one of the most backward and antiquarian of systems when it came to paying Australian publishers who didn’t have an American bank account. While Google was quite happy paying earnings direct into our bank account every month in Australian dollars, and Lulu (Hague Publishing’s agent for Barnes and Noble and Apple sales) paid monthly into our PayPal account, and even Kobo was prepared to pay into our Australian bank account a maximum of every six months, Amazon would only pay by cheque in American dollars once our earnings had exceeded $100. This then required paying bank fees on the cheque, and on the conversion, costs which because of the complexity of the process we simply absorbed, rather than trying to split it up by individual sales and billing to our authors.

Now, however, the launch of Amazon’s new Australia store means that Amazon will be paying us monthly direct into our bank account in Australian dollars.

Perhaps more importantly Amazon will also be paying royalties of 70% of the list price, similar to what it had previously paid for American sales, rather than at the previous rate of 30%.

So good news for small Australian publishers without an American bank account, and their authors. But perhaps not such good news for the Australian reader who is now forced to pay GST, and in some cases according to GoodEReader.com a significantly higher price than what they have to pay for in the American store, e.g: A Game of Thrones: $4.99 AU, $2.90 US. The Signature of All Things: equivalent. Just One Evil Act: $19.99 vs $6.59. The Book Thief: $12.99 vs $2.90.

The price difference even seems to have happened to Hague’s own books with Bonnie’s Story: A Blonde’s Guide to Mathematics having the same list price of US$4.99 in both stores (ie $5.29 in Australian dollars), but being marked down to $4.39 in the US store.

Of course readers could get the book from our own website for $5 Australian without any DRM protection 🙂