Five Mile Press Publisher Janet Rowe: How to be a Five Mile Author

Everyone thinks they've got a good book in them, but not everyone gets published.  What percentage of manuscripts do you accept?

Unfortunately, too many unsolicited manuscripts are written by people who have done very little research in what sells and in what subject areas and styles people actually want.  For some reason it appears that there is an assumption that the creative exercise of putting pen to paper is all that's required.  If this were so, publishers wouldn't need to exist!  We all know how much work and effort publishers go to in order to produce a good saleable book.  

Creating a manuscript in isolation with no thought for who will read it is probably the main mistake a young author can make.   The assumption that the manuscript is perfect when it reaches the publishing company is also another common mistake.  Young authors need to understand the importance of editorial input. 

Since Five Mile do commission quite a lot of material to fit particular projects we may be working on, my advice to young authors is that they would be well advised to learn how to write to someone else's brief.  This is a great skill to have and one which will help hone their own writing abilities.   

Your Web site says "Australian books with a difference" - what do you mean by that?  What do Five Mile Press books have in common with one another? 

On the children's side, our books have a strong novelty component.  We try to combine high production qualities, a competitive price and some sort of added extra.  Over the past years we have produced for example many jigsaw books on many different topics.  We have done well with stencil books, books with CD's, picture books with many layers of treatments on them (glitter, foil, embossing, flocking, etc). 

On the adult side, we have quite an eclectic list and we have tried to follow trends in our own local marketplace.  Traditionally we have published a lot of Australian nonfiction.  This includes historical material, general family material and, rather bizarrely, Australian true crime.  Again, the books we create are what I'd term 'accessible' to everyone.  They are well priced, aimed at a very general audience and available in the big mass market retailers where most people shop.   So I suppose our adult books reflect mainly local interest, but always trends of interest, with a focus on general accessibility in whatever subject area we are working in.

Did you have any big surprise hits this year?

In the first half of the year we had some very good sales for a little book called Five Minute Microwave Bottling.  The surprise is that we originally published the book many years ago and the author (who is now in her seventies!) has updated it for the 21st century and it appears to be a new phenomenon all over again!

What kinds of books do customers gravitate towards when the economy is bad?

On the adult side, people are looking for books on how to make their money go further - cooking cheaply, saving money on bills, books on things to do at home rather than going out.    The price points on these books are usually very modest.  The books are paperbacks and written for a local market, not generally imported.

On the children's side, our plan has been to increase our licensed presence and ensure the majors are buying regularly from us.  They always support the big kids movies and bestselling children's characters. To date, our strategy is paying off as we have increased our licensed sales dramatically.  Our mass market is up substantially on last year.