Shaking up publishing
My thoughts and questions about Bindery, the influencer-driven publisher
One of my things is helping authors understand the industry so they can better advocate for themselves. And find good advocates for their careers — good agents, good publishers.
I thought a lot about whether I wanted to talk about Bindery, the new publishing startup. Because, as much as I enjoy the bookish content created by the people involved (they genuinely seem lovely!), I have to admit: I took one look at the article describing the business and knew I wouldn’t consider it for my own career. Not without significant adjustments to better protect and support authors.
I want to say upfront — I’m not here to tell you what to do. I’m not the boss of you. But I hope — as with all business decisions (and this is one!) — you will use caution and ask the questions that need answering, particularly when it comes to selling your writing.
I also want to add that I have nothing against the influencers involved in this! They seem great. And I’m certain they are genuine in their enthusiasm and desire to create something fun and innovative.
Being an author is my job, however. As it is for every other author out there. We must look out for our own interests. Asking questions is part of how we do that.
How it works
In short, the business of Bindery appears to run like this:
Readers subscribe to some of their favorite bookish influencers. When those influencers have enough subscribers, they are eligible to become publishers. Then they will acquire a book at a standard $10,000 advance, take it through production — using an outside company called Girl Friday Productions — and their subscribers will be able to read the book.
The subscriptions are tiered at $5, $12, and $25 per month.1 The article goes on to say subscribers will get “access to various benefits, including author livestreams, branded merch, participation in certain creative decisions, early copies of books, and appearing in a book's acknowledgements section.”
Okay, are you following? They are billing it as publishing meets Patreon, essentially.
You can take a look at their team on their website here, along with their philosophy:2
Money
As an author whose bills must be paid, I was, of course, interested in the money.
According to their website, there are two main revenue streams: subscriptions and royalties. This graph is from their Tastemaker page.
Subscriptions:
I’m putting this one first, because that seems to be the main focus of the Bindery model:
Influencers who sign up to be part of the program and have a big enough subscriber base can become publishers. From the subscription revenue, the influencers (aka tastemakers) will get 50%, while the rest goes to the various costs of publishing a book, including paying the author’s advance.
It is my understanding that all subscribers will be able to read the book as part of their subscription — whether that’s the minimum requirement of 500 subscribers or 5,000 subscribers or 5,000,000 subscribers. And in this breakdown, there is no bonus for authors. From subscription money, authors are paid the same no matter how many people read their book.
Royalties:
This money likely comes from selling the book to non-subscribers, through other outlets like bookstores, online retailers, and (hopefully!) libraries.
The breakdown of this money appears to be in favor of the author, with 50% coming back to us. But the graph is a little misleading: the percentages are net royalties, not gross, which is typical with traditional publishing. According to the PW article: “When books hit the market, authors earn 50% of the net earnings, tastemakers take home 25%, and Bindery takes the other 25%.” (Bold mine.)
So this is not 50% of the list price. If your hardcover book costs $20, you will not be making $10, as you would if your royalty rate from a traditional publisher were 50%. Net royalties are wigglier. Publishers sell books to bookstores at a discount — and sometimes, depending on the retailer, it’s a significant discount. Net can also be affected by what the publisher is saying the earnings actually are (after all the production costs, marketing, etc.), and tons of other factors I won’t pretend I truly understand.
Because of all the uncertainties, I can’t say how these royalties compare to the standard rates on gross from traditional publishers. Perhaps it evens out. Perhaps not. But because I’ve heard about a lot of authors being excited for the apparently higher royalty rate — this is something I think is incredibly important to keep in mind.
Questions about rights, contracts, and the business
The more I sat with this, the more questions I had, just based on what I know about my current publishers and how things work at those companies.
Now, I haven’t seen a contract for Bindery yet. No one I know has. My questions might be answered in their boilerplate, but here are a few things I’ve been wondering about over the weekend:
What rights are they buying?
If they are buying territory rights beyond North American, do they have the capability to sell those rights on the author’s behalf? How will those advances be applied to the author’s advance, and will the influencer/publisher also get a cut of that?
What formats will be produced and sold? Ebook, hardcover, paperback? What about audio? Do they have the connections to sell those rights to an audiobook company, or will they be doing that in-house? Same question about the author’s share on all formats. (At my current publishers, royalty rates are different on different formats.)
Considering they will be providing subscribers with branded merchandise, the company must also be buying merchandising rights. What cut of that do authors get? What if they sell merch outside of the subscriber base?
What about dramatic rights? Combining dramatic (and merch) rights with print is a dealbreaker for many agents. Even considering whether to give up all that would have to involve a massive advance.
When/how do rights revert back to the author?
My contracts give me the right to audit my publishers — basically, make sure they are paying me what they are supposed to be paying me. Is that part of Bindery’s contract?
Are there option and non-compete clauses in the contracts? For other books and for author appearances, since interactions with the author seem to be subscriber perks.
How (or will) books be available to libraries and schools? (A good number of sales on my books are from libraries and schools! Those institutions are key to my having a career.)
Since the influencers’ ability to be a publisher/tastemaker is dependent on the number of subscribers they have, what happens if that number dips below the threshold of 500? What happens to the author and their book?
How are payouts structured and when do royalties come in? (Here’s how author money works normally.)
I will pause on the business questions there, because I don’t want this post to be a million words long. (Spoiler from Future Me: it’s over 2,500 words.)
Please understand that these are questions I would ask with any new publishing startup. I am not picking on Bindery specifically. But again, being an author is my job. It is in my best interest (and yours) to understand how (and when) a publisher is compensating authors for their work and what steps they will be taking to find the widest readership possible.
So these are questions all authors should be asking before they sign on. Any good agent will be asking them, too, before accepting an offer on their client’s behalf. (Frankly, I think they should be asking these questions before they even submit a book!)
Social media
Beyond the business aspects of Bindery, I found myself asking some other questions:
First, this model relies on social media. It is the primary mode of promotion, as far as I can tell. And gosh. Social media can be great, but I think we’ve talked enough about how inconsistent it can be, too.
The PW article points out a few of the influencers’ TikTok follower numbers, but what if something happens to TikTok? What if a billionaire decides he wants to buy the company, fire everyone who works there, and bit-by-bit destroy one of the most recognizable brands of our time? Where will those influencers go, and can they recapture that audience on a different platform?
Yes, I think the point is to take them to the Bindery platform where they become subscribers, but I can tell you from experience that taking followers from one platform to another is difficult. Add to the need to pay for content — well that’s even harder. And it matters to me, as an author, because beyond the initial advance, authors aren’t making money from those subscribers. In order to make any more money on the book, the book must break out of the subscriber bubble.
And considering this is social media — what happens if the influencer says or does something questionable? Does their deal with the company protect them? Or can they be fired? What if they do something truly egregious? What if they need a break? What if there’s an emergency and they can’t do their social media or fulfill their obligations to their subscribers? How does that affect the book? (Those questions can also apply to authors!)
These folks will be under so much scrutiny,3 not just as influencers and representatives of their personal brand and social platforms — but as publishers. Anything that happens also reflects on the authors they publish, since they are (as far as I can tell), individually championing these authors and these books through the publishing process.
Authenticity
There’s another aspect to social media and word-of-mouth that I feel is being overlooked:
Social media recommendations work because they (have the appearance of) being completely authentic: unbiased opinions and recommendations with no financial stake in the book’s success.
The moment someone has a financial interest, their recommendation is slightly more suspicious. That is why authors are not the best people to promote our work. And why publishers want to get librarians on board, let teachers know about the books, and put ARCs into readers’ hands. That’s why trade reviews still matter.
Of course, publishers can make a push on social media, not only from their own accounts, but by signaling to the top influencers that these are the books they are supporting: they dress their lead titles up in fancy promo boxes, work to get special editions, and create a sense of buzz and FOMO. Then, when a book starts taking off on social media, a smart publisher will put their foot on the gas to capitalize on that energy, driving even more excitement and sales.
These social media sensations can be total surprises. Sometimes a book really will go under the radar until a video goes viral and sales spike through the roof. But on the traditional side, that is not very common. Most of the books that take off already had a great marketing and publicity plan behind them.
That brings me back to the main driver of books published through Bindery: the influencers/tastemakers now have a direct financial incentive to get people to read those books. While I’m certain many folks will happily read anything their favorite book influencer suggests, there will be more who understandably look at it with the same skepticism they do when they see an author promoting their own book.
To me, that makes breaking out of the subscriber bubble look even more difficult, unless the subscribers themselves actively work to champion the book and drive outside sales. Perhaps that will happen! But it cannot be counted on.
Editorial concerns
Whew, this post is getting really long. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, clearly! Humor me for just a few more considerations, though.
One of the great things about getting published by a traditional publisher is having an editor who chose you. The editor believes in you, champions you, has a vision for your work. You get to work closely with this person to develop the story and make it the best book it can possibly be.
With the Bindery model, the tastemaker/influencer chooses the book. Then an editor from Girl Friday Production is assigned.
They don’t get to choose the author’s book. And the author (via their agent) doesn’t get to choose the editor — the right editor with the right vision for the story, the right enthusiasm to make the book a success.
Perhaps that vision and enthusiasm will be coming from the influencer? And . . . the subscribers, who are also promised a voice in the book’s production?
So a question that keeps popping up in my mind is . . . how much do everyone’s opinions weigh? How much of the book is actually the author’s own vision? How much of it is decided by the community?
In an industry where authors infamously have very little control, how much more control is a Bindery author giving up to someone else’s subscriber base?
This very long post is almost over
I promise, I am not trying to burst anyone’s bubbles here. I understand that folks are (rightly) looking for ways to shake up the publishing industry and do better by authors of all stripes. And that also, this is a natural extension of the conversation about the work influencers do — and their desire to be compensated for it.
So I hope it works out. Truly, I hope it becomes a strong business with good returns for all the creatives involved — the authors and influencers, and all the folks working to produce the books. I hope it’s worth it for the subscribers, too; a lot of this relies on them coming on board to begin with.
Honestly, publishing could do with a little shaking up.
But before I would even think about entrusting my work to Bindery, as an author, I would need a lot of questions answered. And better terms than what I am understanding from the website and PW article.
Writers, no matter what you decide to do — whether or not this is something you want to pursue — it’s important that you’re informed about the business you’re in. This is your creative work we’re talking about, the product of months and years of passion and effort.
And overall, make sure you talk to your agent.
Last bit (with buttons!)
I know I’m missing things in this (already super long) post, from representation of marginalized voices to other back-end business stuff, like the staff, their experience, and where the startup money comes from. I wanted to keep the scope of this letter to how it looks for authors in general (a topic I felt somewhat qualified to speak on!), but if you have links to deeper dives on specific subjects, please drop them in the comments.
As always, I hope this was useful to you. Please consider doing the button things — like, share, and subscribe.
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I haven’t seen what the benefits to each tier is yet, but I assume the higher tiers come with more access and different formats of the book and, perhaps, more access to the author and influencer.
I can’t put the whole thing in the caption, but here is their philosophy, if you can’t read the screenshot:
“We've watched from the inside as the publishing industry has become a winner-take-all blockbuster game. Only 1% of writers — the mega bestsellers — command publishers' marketing budgets and retail shelf space, leaving the rest with no support and little chance at success.
85% of books on bestseller lists are by previously bestselling authors. The standard practice of publishers' acquiring books based on comparable strong-selling titles makes it nearly impossible for new voices to break out.
Over the last few years, tastemakers have reinvigorated the entire industry. With strong taste and direct connections with readers, tastemakers have reached new groups of readers and illuminated overlooked self-published and backlisted authors, rocketing many to bestseller lists and the big screen.
We believe tastemakers are the future of publishing. By empowering tastemakers to publish, removing the gatekeeping, and changing the economic structure of publishing, we're building a framework for a new world of books.”
Yes, I keep bringing this back to how things affect authors, since that is what this post is truly about. But I hope you can see that I am also concerned about what kind of deal this is for the influencers. Again, I believe they’re probably all lovely people, so when I think about the mental and emotional load this is going to put on them — it’s a lot!
wow wow wow. This was a great, thorough read and I loved it. I feel like some of the details are things that are useful to keep in mind even for traditional publishing. Thanks Jodie for sharing this amazing post!
Incredible article Jodi, thank you so much for all the mental energy you put into this!