May 18, 2023
Mark interviews Alexandria Brown from Rising Action Publishing about her role in acquisitions and works with sub-agents on subsidiary rights.
Prior to the interview, Mark shares a word about this episode's sponsor.
You can learn more about how you can get your audiobooks distributed to retailers and library systems around the world at starkreflections.ca/Findaway.
During their discussion, Mark and Alex talk about:
- Alexandria starting off doing lifestyle and other non-fiction publications such as Thought Catalog from New York
- Her first two books that focus on dating and romance, and mental health and traveling the world
- Getting her PhD at the University of Gloucestershire
- The focus on how to write trauma in fiction in Alex's PhD (How cross-cultural characters and trauma can impact fiction and bind people together)
- How Alex got involved in starting up Rising Action Publishing with a co-owner she met in Humber College
- The tremendous value, uniqueness, and diversity that independent publishers can bring to the market that traditional publishes often aren't able to
- Their partnership with Black Bird Books from South Africa
- Why it's really important for independent publishers to be part of a supportive and collaborative community
- How Alex and Tina did a lot of freelance editing in order to generate enough capital to get their publishing business started
- Leveraging subsidiary rights for things like audio rights to help bring in money for publishing expenses
- How the publishing partnership between Alex and Tina is very much like a marriage
- The types of fiction and non-fiction that Rising Action Publishing is looking to acquire
- The difference between domestic suspense and thrillers
- The wonderful challenge and problem of getting so many great submissions as a publisher
- Some of the errors that some writers have made when making submissions
- A few of the books that Rising Action will be releasing
- Advice that Alexandria would offer to writers near the beginning of their journey
- And more...
After the interview, Mark reflects on a few of the things that Alexandria talked about and goes into detail explaining how the big traditional publishers of today have a lot more in common with indie authors than at first meets the eye.
Links of Interest:
- Rising Action Publishing
- Findaway Voices
- Buy Mark a Coffee
- Patreon for Stark Reflections
- Best Book Ever Podcast
- Lovers Moon Podcast
- The Relaxed Author
- Publishing Pitfalls for Authors
- An Author's Guide to Working with Libraries & Bookstores
- Wide for the Win
- Mark's Canadian Werewolf Books
- The Canadian Mounted: A Trivia Guide to Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Alex Brown has over ten years of experience in marketing and creative writing. Alex has a Bachelor’s in Communications with a major in Public Relations, a Master of Fine Arts - Creative Writing from the University of Gloucestershire, and is a Creative Writing Ph.D. Candidate currently at the University of Gloucestershire. She has two traditionally published nonfiction books. She’s a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. Alex’s primary role is acquisitions and marketing as well as working with sub-agents on subsidiary rights.
The introductory, end, and bumper music for this podcast (“Laser Groove”) was composed and produced by Kevin MacLeod of www.incompetech.com and is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0