Ethical Publishing

by Tim Dedopulos, Managing Director of GWDBooks

As you may know, I run a Ghostwoods Books. Even in this new, rapidly-changing publishing environment, I believe that writers need publishers. I’m primarily a writer myself, after all. So Ghostwoods Books was set up with the idea of being the sort of publishing company I would want to publish with. A fair one.

Ethical publishing shouldn’t be controversial. Sadly – just like music and acting – a lot of publishing is quite predatory. This is a bad thing. It’s bad for everyone, not just authors. As the business gets nastier, the books get diminished and… well, just like Hollywood, it turns out bland pap.

I don’t know why publishing thinks that driving readers away with bland pap is a good business model. I sure don’t want to have to be exploited horribly because I write things.

Ghostwoods Books is trying to make a difference. We believe there’s a place for fair trade in publishing, particularly now, when books are becoming digital. One digital file can be sold infinitely. Paper books have a cost per copy, as well as development costs; eBooks don’t. It’s time to play fair.

We’re in the process of trying to fund our second-stage development. At the moment, Ghostwoods Books makes me no money. We’re too small still, so it’s a cost, not an income stream. But I can see it developing. We need to nursemaid it into self-sufficiency. Then we can start changing the world a little.

We need the funds to make next year really strong — fair advances for authors, proper pay for cover artists and illustrators, resources for advertising. None of it is destined to come to us personally; we’re going to keep on donating our time on this until it works. It will work. You can help us make a difference.

Here’s how.

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