Maine Authors Publishing

Why do you feel it’s important that writers have options to publish outside of the traditional publishing world?
Here in Maine, we have so many brilliant writers, but unfortunately not all their works will come to light through the traditional publishing process. Traditional publishing is bound to the financial success of a book; therefore, a lot of new works that deserve to be published are overlooked. Independent publishing allows these books a chance to reach the hands of readers. While “self-publishing” is always an option, it can be hard to market on one’s own without professional help from a publishing company or a team of authors willing to work together. Maine Authors Publishing presents a third option, a “cooperative-style” independent publishing model that offers more support and helps solve some of the marketing and distribution challenges of publishing outside of the traditional channels.Another reason it is important to have options outside of traditional publishing is to assure an author that they will continue to have control over their project. Many of our authors have traditionally published before and yet chose to publish independently with later books so they could receive a better royalty percentage, retain creative control, and choose their own publication date. Maine Authors Publishing takes 0% of the book royalties when we sell our authors’ books to bookstores. Publication can also happen faster than with traditional publishing. The books chosen for our catalog require professional editing and design, so we cannot produce a book in an instant as you can online, but our six-to-twelve- week turn time can be a better option for some compared to the eight to eighteen months that many large publishing companies may take. On the other hand, we are well aware that life happens, and we pride ourselves on our flexibility to adapt to the needs of our authors if they do decide to take their time.

You offer a co-op membership to authors who publish through you. Has this helped to build a writing community?
For writing support, we encourage writers to join existing communities, such as local writing groups and the MWPA. Our cooperative membership has helped to build more of a “marketing community” where our authors train and support each other. We feel as though our company highlights and facilitates two main networks for our authors. We first and foremost provide the platform and experience of publishing a book––connecting writer with reader. What sets us apart, though, are the encouraged connections between our authors. We encourage our authors to create bonds and to share marketing successes. We are now in the process of creating a schedule of classes for our co-op authors, some of which are even taught by co-op authors. Marketing is so vastly different from writing, and it can be costly, too, if authors take it on by themselves. We help facilitate by spreading these costs among authors so they feel less of the financial weight. Authors share the marketing costs in many ways––they participate in dozens of book signings and trade shows per year, and a booth can cost up to $500. Authors can donate $10 per title to cover the cost. Many of these events are organized by our events coordinator, though other events have been pre-established and we’ve been participating in them for years. The co-op membership offers marketing support by providing distribution, a listing in our trade catalog, and sales training. In addition, we provide a one-hour marketing consultation to our authors to show them the ways we can help them and the ways they can help themselves by providing individualized suggestions based on how active the author is willing to be and the genre of their book.

How does Maine Authors Publishing help authors face the challenges of publishing independently?
One of the biggest challenges self-published authors face is that their books are not vetted and do not have a presence in bookstores or brand recognition. Bookstore buyers have no way of knowing if self-published books have been edited professionally. Only a percentage of our books are allowed to publish under the imprint Maine Authors Publishing. We vet all of the books that carry our name to ensure that the books have been professionally edited and designed. Our authors’ books are not seen as “self-published” by most entities—we instead are seen as a small press. Publishers Weekly and the Kirkus Review have chosen to place us in the category of a small press, as have many other organizations. We carry a separate Indie Author Books imprint for books that either do not make the cut or simply don’t need our catalog and services. The imprint has a separate logo and website, but we still offer many of the same services to the dozens of books we carry in this category.

Our goal is to support local independent authors throughout the publishing process with affordable services. Authors who may not have the chance to publish their work traditionally are given access to local editing, design, and distribution.

Is there an event, publication, or any kind of change happening in the next year that you are particularly excited about and would like to share?

We recently hosted our first ever 2022 Annual MAP Cooperative Conference via Zoom. This is to supplement our Maine Authors Book Fair, which we usually hold at our office in Thomaston at the end of August. Over Zoom, we were able to show off our fabulous staff and connect with our authors. Our authors always provide excellent feedback––part of the feedback included learning about what other sorts of marketing classes our authors felt would benefit them.

In addition to the aforementioned class schedule we are working on, this year we are really focused on strengthening our connections with the libraries of Maine. We have increased our book discount to libraries from 25% to 40%. We understand libraries are the backbone of many writing communities here in Maine, and they are such an asset to our authors. We are also offering free professionally designed bookmarks for our Maine libraries. With the help of our library liaison and publishing coordinator, Molly Larson, we are working toward other library goals like making our book covers accessible in the state-wide library catalog, involvement in the Maine Library Association Conference and Reading Round up, and specific Zoom classes tailored to creating bonds between libraries and authors specifically.

Maine Authors Publishing began as a startup in a barn and in the years since has grown into one of the largest publishing companies in the state. Can you tell me more about the growth of the company?

While the company has grown and flourished so beautifully from years past, our values remain the same. Our commitment to bringing work into the Maine literary community has stayed consistent. We pride ourselves on the books we publish and assure they fall in line with our mission statement, which you can find on our website. Our moral values bleed into our company’s values, and we are so grateful for the authors who are along for the ride. We are a co-op and every day we are reminded of this––constantly working together for the greater good.

Maine Authors Publishing
12 High Street
Thomaston, ME 04861
www.maineauthorspublishing.com