Is This the Future of Traditional Publishing?! [CC]

I chat all about Bindery which is described as Patreon meets publishing. This is such an interesting project and I break down what it is, who's involved, how it compares and contrasts to typical traditional publishing, and share my thoughts on potential outcomes and questions I have as a big five traditionally published author.
Timestamps
00:00 - 02:15 Introduction
02:15 - 09:22 What is Bindery?
09:22 - 17:38 Comparison to Typical Trad Pub
17:38 - 27:44 Potential Outcomes
27:44 - 33:05 Lingering Questions
33:05 - 35:20 Final Thoughts
☀️ MORE INFORMATION
The PW Article: www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...
Bindery website: binderybooks.com/
EVERY CHILD MATTERS
Please consider donating to the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society, and educating yourself about the experiences of Survivors and their families and communities so we can help foster truth and reconciliation
www.irsss.ca/home
nctr.ca/
STOPASIANHATE
anti-asianviolenceresources.c...
✊🏾 BLACK LIVES STILL MATTER
blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
blacklivesmattercanada.carrd.co/
#Authortube #TraditionalPublishing #Bindery
📗 BUY MY BOOKS
lisellesambury.ca/books/
📗 ADD MY BOOKS ON GOODREADS
Blood Like Magic: / blood-like-magic
Blood Like Fate: / blood-like-fate
Delicious Monsters: / delicious-monsters
Tender Beasts: www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Tales of Eternia: Lost in the Void: / he-man-and-the-masters...
All These Sunken Souls: / all-these-sunken-souls
✨ CONNECT WITH ME ON SOCIAL
lisellesambury.ca
/ lisellesambury
/ lisellesambury
/ lisellesambury
/ lisellesambury
🎶 MUSIC CREDITS
Music by 8thDimensions - Shining - thmatc.co/?l=2579F04F
📹 EQUIPMENT I USE
Camera: DJI Osmo Pocket
Editing: Premiere Pro CC

[@LiselleSambury]

I wanted to share the link to this series of TikToks from Rebecca Thorne where she talked to the Bindery Founders and some of the questions I proposed came up in that for people interested in more related content: vm.tiktok.com/ZM2tC9k7x/

[@akossiwak]

I'd like to hope that maybe this venture will become a healthy competition for tradpub to do better by the authors they sign.
But I'm mostly ambivalent about it for now.

[@LiselleSambury]

I feel like that’s a legit feeling this early on. And it would be great if this sort of competition increased better royalties for authors overall for sure, I guess we’ll see. I hope this ends up being a positive thing

[@Spider-Manders]

I feel like this could be a ripple effect from Brandon Sanderson's very successful kickstarter campaign. It's got that crowd-funded feel, but add in the 🌟power of influencers to broaden the horizons. It'd be interesting to see if it worked, but I could also see how vantiy presses and other vulture type agencies could exploit the model. I think tradpub does need a decent rival to liven things up and it'll be neat if this is it.

[@LiselleSambury]

That’s very much what it feels like to me! Even though it’s different because it’s a very established author, there’s certainly a feeling like that’s the spirit of it. It showed that the reading public can fund the production of books on a high scale.
Yes, I wondered about how a less than great agency/agent might exploit this as kind of a “whatever I’ll throw you over here” and maybe not get them the most favorable terms. But I guess technically those agents are doing that with the rest of publishing anyway 😅 but I agree, it does seem to have the potential to shake things up if it goes well. I’m very interested in that

[@LynnaKatriel]

I'm cautiously optimistic. I feel like the biggest hurdles for this system are 1. Not enough subscribers. Even though the tastemakers have thousands of followers, that might not translate. Subscribers also might ultimately be unhappy with the benefits of subscription. 2. I know I would be veeery hesitant to publish my book through this avenue if there was a chance it might still get traditionally published. I'm sure there are other authors who feel the same way. I am worried that it might draw in authors who would be desperate enough to accept a contract with concerning terms. That being said, it's definitely a plan that could bring a lot of opportunities for new authors if it does work out!

[@LiselleSambury]

Yeah I feel those are really big hurdles. I know some content creators do really well with their Patreon but I imagine they wouldn’t let this replace Patreon so it would need to have enough content to be worthwhile.
And yeah, I do kind of worry about schmagents tossing a bunch of their authors over because it’s easy the way some schmagents mass email out subs. But they are choosing which agencies to send to so I would hope those agencies would be reputable enough to not just let their clients accept anything. But I guess we won’t know until those first few contracts go through

[@esthermarieandujar]

Sounds interesting with so many questions and uncertainties attached to it. Hopefully it works and it grows as they see what’s the reception.

[@LiselleSambury]

Yeah, pretty much, it’s hard to know how it’ll go without seeing it in action

[@booksvsmovies]

As a former bloger (very small time) essentially becoming an aquisition editor on top of doing the book social media stuff sounds like a LOT of work. While getting paid for that sounds nice being a book blogger with only 200 followers became too much for me so i cant imagine how much more hassle it would be if i had to read through slush and be a part of the production side of a book whe also managing your own socials especially as a bigger creator. I don't quite understand the appeal. To me, it likely won't be able to reproduce the organic community elements that make things like Bigolas Dickolas moments like we saw with This Is How You Lose the Time War

[@LiselleSambury]

It does seem like a lot of work doesn’t it? 😅 I did wonder a bit if that’s why they’re doing agent submissions only, to try and decrease the number of subs. But I guess they can’t know how it’ll be until they try. And if they say agencies can only submit to one imprint per project, that could narrow things down too. Though on the chance that the books do very well, it could potentially fund creating full time for some creators so then it may be worth it.

[@marcellarussell]

So helpful and informative! Thank you!

[@LiselleSambury]

Glad it was helpful!

[@cassie_hart]

I hadn't heard of the Bindery before, but it's very interesting! Thanks for your breakdown and all the information about it so far. Will be following to see how it all pans out!

[@LiselleSambury]

Happy to have shared what I learned, definitely an interesting project!

[@LeahRummel]

Really interesting summary of all this thank you! I’m so interested to see how this plays out especially as a potential competitor for trad pub. Time to go sleuthing 🧐

[@LiselleSambury]

Do that sleuthing! I think this is definitely going to be interesting to keep track of as it develops

[@one_smol_duck]

This is a very cool idea and I'm interested to see where it goes. But I'm also a little wary.
My biggest concerns center around the uncertainty of working with a tastemaker whose only criteria is that they were capable of amassing 500 followers. What happens if they quit, need a break, or lose their audience overnight to some scandal? Does the whole imprint die? Is my book still going to be published, but without the marketing push I was promised in my contract? What if my book has already been published and is making enough sales to stay in print, but my tastemaker quits? What if my tastemaker is extremely unprofessional, or is someone _I_ discover that _I_ don't want to associate _my_ brand with?
I think I want the person leading my imprint to see that as their full time job, not as one of many social media platforms they are part of. I might feel more comfortable with this model if each imprint was "led" publically by a small group of influencers, with the understanding that if one person steps away someone else can fill their shoes. That model comes with its own risks, but it seems more stable to me in the long run. I just wouldn't feel comfortable trusting my book to a single influencer.

[@LiselleSambury]

Rebecca Thorne on TikTok had a chat with the founders which I pinned that link to this comment section and they did answer a few of these questions. But essentially their answer was if the influencer leaves or doesn’t do what they’re meant to, bindery then can take over and use their portion of the royalties to use for paid promo or another tastemaker can take them on. So I guess in some ways similar to if your editor leaves the publishing minus the funds being used for promo.
But I feel like wariness is a very natural response because there are so many unknowns right now. I feel like we’re all waiting to see it in practice and get that sort of first hand feedback

[@eleanorball7906]

I’m very wary right now but appreciate your analysis. Would love to see an update after the imprints start publishing and some titles have been out for a few months.

[@LiselleSambury]

I feel like wariness is very legitimate. I think especially in capitalist systems that so often take advantage of people. I might look into doing an update in the future!

[@andeeharry]

Bindery followed me not long ago on twitter and I went to thier website to find out about them and they had nothing. No info, no, contact details, no idea who they are, no previous, no results, no nothing. When I commented this to them on a post, they said ''they are a private discreet family that doesn't want exposure. It is good for the team to be private and transparency.''' Yeah, I am not sure about this sort of thing

[@LiselleSambury]

That’s interesting! I feel like they’ve been adding some info and stuff but yeah, hard to trust when you can’t see a lot of information

[@writenowdream3882]

The PW article said they will
work with lit agencies for manuscripts-- but do they cut the agent from royalties? Are they benefiting from the agency's work to find quality manuscripts to step in and take a potential client? Or do the manuscripts come from the slush pile?
I think this model could work for YA books, but not sure about MG or adult. And am I still gonna have to pay a monthly subscriptions fee if I didn't vote for any of the books that actually make it to publishing? Right there they already got the cost of a book out of a subscriber--who is uninterested in the book. This seems scammy. I have so many questions..

[@booksvsmovies]

I assumed the agent would get their standard 15% of author advance and royalties as they do with trad pub deals

[@LiselleSambury]

Yup, like @booksvsmovies said, the agent would still get their cut from the advance and the royalties which is standard.
But yeah you would owe your monthly regardless of whether things went your way or not. I think that subscription model is where I have the most questions. You would really need a lot of content or to really love the tastemaker to be on board. I think that’s the biggest question mark

[@akossiwak]

I was like wut??? A video on Saturday??? 👀

[@LiselleSambury]

Haha yeah very out of the ordinary for me, I’m not often attempting to be timely 😂

[@emroseehret]

this seems like a massive undertaking for the tastemakers on top of their role as influencers. i was initially really happy to see influencers I enjoy get this opportunity, but it seems like they're taking on a lot of risk here, which is maybe why the membership/royalty split seems really good for them? but how are they going to have time to read all their submissions??
cautiously optimistic about the way that readers would be able to influence decision making here, but as we know, bad and prejudiced things can be extremely popular? what's to prevent a random social media grifter from using this system to elevate bigotry or falsehoods? maybe their audience won't go for the $5 membership buy-in? i'm not sure

[@LiselleSambury]

Someone else mentioned that and I think that’s a really fair point. I’m beginning to wonder if they have something in place to help? 🤔 I feel like the content creators would have considered that when they signed up but I guess they won’t know until the subs come in.
And that’s also a legit point re: what readers tend to enjoy. That’s why I wondered about the system that seems to allow anyone who meets that subscriber minimum to become a tastemaker. I think they would definitely have to monitor it in some way. I assume that’s likely why they’ve started with this small group of creators whose content and tastes are known.
I also feel cautiously optimistic haha it’s very much a wait and see sort of thing currently. Excited to see how much more they announce in late august

[@Neverrgreen]

I feel like something like this could easily lend itself to bad actors that will take the seeming legitimacy of this platform to start publoshing things that trad publishers wont touch...

[@LiselleSambury]

Could definitely very easily become that, unfortunately. Though some of the things trad pub doesn’t want to touch aren’t necessarily bad projects. So there’s also the potential to find hidden gems. But I guess we won’t know until they start actually putting things out

[@alicepetyablackburn1498]

Writer Beware

[@LiselleSambury]

Could be or could not be, I guess time will tell