In this extra episode, concluding our first 10-part series, we catch up with Jane who has just got back from the Frankfurt Book Fair and we explore the collapse of Shawline, a vanity publisher.

01.09 Frankfurt. Ventura part of the Australian Publishers Association stand in Hall 6. It's the most enormous gathering of intellectual property purveyors. It's a wholesale market, publishers doing business with publishers.

02.58 Lots of young rights agents work hard, whilst MDs look important. It's a microcosm of the whole industry.

05.00 Which of Ventura's book got interest. Who else was there. What usually happens is that English-speaking publishers buy foreign rights and translate the books. That is changing, more books being translated into English. The Australian rights agents.

08.16 How translation rights work. What sort of royalties publishers and authors receive. Why the German market is important. Which Australian publishing companies have UK cousins. Why translations come out later than English language editions.

13.09 The collapse of Shawline, leaving 600 authors in the lurch. The difficulties of managing fringe publishers and worse, predatory publishers. Why to use the ASA's Authors Legal. There's a lot of malpractice out there

16.20 Proper publishers have distribution into bookshops. Others may say they distribute but it's all digital. Companies not being honest about how few books writers are likely to sell. On the other hand, a publishing services company can be good e.g. Publish Central.

18.37 Is it likely the Shawline authors will get their files back so they upload them by themselves? Never pay full cost upfront for anything!

20.05 Listeners questions: What is NaNoWriMo? Does a non published author need an author website and social media presence?

23:59 What are we reading? Jane had 74 manuscripts submitted when she was away so she is reading them. Good and bad examples. Seana has read Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional and Elizabeth Strout's latest book Tell Me Everything.

25.53 Where to find us and farewell.

• Frankfurt Book Fair
• Shawline Group enters liquidation - ASA article
• Publish Central
• NaNoWriMo
• Charlotte Wood's Stone Yard Devotional
• Elizabeth Strout's Tell Me Everything

Jane Curry Links

• Jane Curry Advisory: www.janecurryadvisory.com
• Ventura Press: www.venturapress.com.au

Seana Smith Links

• Seana Smith website: www.seanasmith.com
• Sober Journeys website: wwwsoberjourneys.com

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Jane Curry and Seana Smith take a deeper dive into self-publishing, using Seana's self-published books as examples.

• Seana’s first self published book, made the mistake of not researching what people want to read. Did not sell at all well. And was pulled.
• So the next project was better researched and planned, Wildly Weird But Totally True: Australia.
• Commissioned a cover, and layout, which didn’t work well.
• Learning curve, it started selling when I began running adverts on Amazon.
• All the ways Amazon earns money; printing books, sales commission, advertising, Kindle downloads.
• Ingram also does print on demand, how Amazon interacts with them.
• Once books start selling on Amazon, Amazon helps you sell more.
• Amazon advertising, pay per click, but impressions are not paid for.
• The joy of checking daily sales.
• Jane’s now running advertising for some of her books via Simon and Shuster. Leaning int o the algorithm.
• Next came Wildly Weird But Totally True: Animals but it has not sold well, probably because there is a lot of competition in that area.
• But remember, there are many books on Amazon that sell no copies.

Find full show notes on the website.

In Australia: Going Under is available in bookshops and online stores in Australia and on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Going-Under-memoir-secrets-addiction/dp/0645497231/

In the USA: https://www.amazon.com/Going-Under-memoir-secrets-addiction/dp/0645497231/

In the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Going-Under-memoir-secrets-addiction/dp/0645497231/

Going Under Audiobook: Going Under on Audible, narrated by Seana Smith, click here.

Going Under on Spotify: Listen to Going Under on Spotify here.

Jane Curry Links

• Jane Curry Advisory: www.janecurryadvisory.com
• Ventura Press: www.venturapress.com.au

Seana Smith Links

• Seana Smith website: www.seanasmith.com
• Sober Journeys website: wwwsoberjourneys.com
• www.instagram.com/seanasmith
• www.instagram.com/sober_journeys
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/whatdidyoureadtoday/
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