After a brief discussion between Macmillan editor Will Atkins and myself, in the comments section of a previous blog post, about what it is like to be published by Macmillan New Writing, I thought it would be appropriate to ask an author exactly what it is like to be an MNW writer. I tentatively approached Alis Hawkins and to my delight she not only kindly found the time but has written a lovely long piece that I am sure will interest anyone with a first novel languishing awaiting attention from the wider world. There has been much written on the subject of Macmillan's new(ish) imprint so it is good to hear from an author exactly how things really are from the writer's point of view. Here's Alis...
I was delighted, a little while ago, to be invited to give readers of Juxtabook an author's view of what it's like to be published by Macmillan New Writing. Having recently sent off my second book to my editor, I got down to work…
In January 2007 I got the email that all unpublished writers fantasise about - an offer to publish my book. The publisher in question was Macmillan New Writing, an initiative from established publishing house Macmillan to discover and promote the work of new novelists.
MNW is that rarest of rare beasts in the industry: a publisher that actively wants to see your 
unsolicited, unagented novel. For those familiar with the near impossibility of securing the attention - still less the services - of an agent, MNW's welcome feels almost improbably open-armed: anyone with a completed, polished, double-spaced MS on their hard-drive can submit it for consideration. And, though MNW may not offer to publish your work of towering genius, you know that your MS it is going to be taken seriously. It's not going to be given to the work experience girl, it's not going to be used to prop doors open, it's not going to be sent back, unread, with a 'not right for our list' figleaf. It's going to be assessed by experienced professionals who, over the last three years or so, have proved themselves adept at spotting novels with promise.
Once your book has been accepted, perhaps the most significant element of the Macmillan New Writing experience is the personal attention you get as an author. When you ring Will Atkins, MNW's commissioning editor, he answers the phone himself. There's no hiding behind PAs, assistants or interns; you just get him. It's Will who commissions your book, he who works with you through the editing process, he who steers you through the novelties of proofs and copyediting and he who comes and celebrates with you at your launch party. Yes, launch party. Most established publishers these days only seem to throw parties for the glitterati in their lists, but MNW has no glitterati so it treats every author as a potential star.
The other highly personal strand of the MNW experience is working with Sophie Portas who is in charge of MNW's marketing and publicity.
Authors who are published by small imprints often complain about the negligible or non-existent marketing budget; all their publisher's scant resources are taken up in producing the book and it falls to the author to do most of the shouting about it.
Despite the fact that it belongs to the PanMacmillan empire, MNW is a small imprint. It only publishes twelve books a year - one hardback per month on average - which is not a huge output by anybody's standards. But that doesn't mean that its authors are reduced to touting our books around or bungee-jumping from the top of Salisbury cathedral in order to draw attention to ourselves and our work.
Before my novel, Testament, was published I met with Sophie to talk about the marketing that would go into the book and to discuss any particularly interesting avenues she could follow. As a result of her efforts, in the weeks following the book's publication I did four local paper interviews, made several appearances on BBC Radio Kent, got a national newspaper review, did a signing event in a bookshop in Cambridge, a Q-and-A spot in a new library's launch event and spent an evening talking about my book to ticket-holding punters at an independent bookshop. No bungee jumping and no effort on my own part but to accept invitations gratefully and turn up.
While we're on the subject of marketing, it's worth remembering that, as a Macmillan New Writing author, you don't have to fight bigger names or their bulging best-sellers for a slice of attention. Because of MNW's unique position in the industry - it exists purely to publish debut full-length fiction - there's no danger of the marketing budget being squandered on writers who are already sure-fire bestsellers whilst your masterpiece languishes, spine-out on the shelf.
So far so rosy; so why is it that MNW hasn't always received glowing publicity from those who write about books and publishing, one of whose number suggested that MNW was 'the Ryanair of publishing'? Is MNW getting new authors on the cheap? Are we being offered a cut-price deal? Are we, in short, being ripped off?
No. I don't believe we are.
The Ryanair quote from 2005 (variously attributed to Charlotte Higgins of The Guardian, Robert McCrum of The Observer and writer Hari Kunzru) is proving remarkably durable. Perhaps people want to believe that writers are getting ripped off. But the description in no way fits the Macmillan New Writing that I know.
Surely a 'Ryanair of publishing' would offer its authors a smaller percentage of royalties than is 
standard in the industry rather than a larger one? MNW authors receive a 20% royalty on sales, significantly higher than that offered by most mainstream publishers. Admittedly there is no advance paid to authors but, speaking for myself, I'd just as soon receive money after I've earned it as before, especially as the advance made to the vast majority of debut novelists is a very small number of thousands of pounds; nothing like enough to give up the day job and take a year off to compose your next masterpiece. (A month, possibly two if your mortgage is small, but not a year.)
A suspicion also seems to exist that being asked to sign a standard, non-negotiable contract is exploitative. Well, like any other contract, nobody forces you to sign it. And it's not as if you're signing away the life of your firstborn, however much your book feels like your baby. Basically, on signing a MNW contract you agree, for fixed royalties and a stipulated percentage of revenue from foreign sales and e-books, that MNW will have world rights in the book they have offered to publish and first refusal on your next book.
This acquisition of all rights to your book has raised more than eyebrows as most commenters seem to feel that authors should be free to sell their book where, when and in whatever format they wish. Well, I'm sure that's all very freemarket and laudable but I wouldn't know how to sell a foreign right to save my life. OK, so that's what agents do and maybe they do it more profitably for their authors than the very experienced Macmillan rights department does for me. But hey - I don't have an agent. More to the point, I didn't need one to get signed by MNW which is kind of the whole point. And if an agent would like to do better for me than selling (to date) German, Spanish and Latvian translation rights for my novel then they're welcome to take me on once I'm out of contract to MNW.
And I'll be out of contract sooner or later. Sooner if MNW decide not to publish my second book, Not One of Us, later if they take it on. Unlike the more conventional 'two book deal' in which you contract to write two books for your publisher for an agreed advance, the MNW 'two book deal' specifies that the publisher, once it has published your first book, retains the right of first refusal on your second book. MNW is not obliged to publish it, but you are obliged not to offer your second book to any other publisher before MNW has seen it.
But what if you don't want to sell your next book to them, people asked me. What if you could get more money elsewhere?
I think this question demonstrates the persistence of the (mistaken) assumption that, once your first book is published, you only have to offer subsequent MS to a publisher and they will fall on your neck weeping with gratitude and pushing wads of money into your faintly-protesting hands.
Not quite. In reality, unless you've managed to acquire a huge and adoring fan base on the basis of the simple brilliance of your debut novel, it's almost as hard to get your second book published as your first. Actually, if the first hasn't done very well, it's potentially even harder.
In that kind of market, I'd be mad not to offer my second book to MNW. They know me, they know what they might expect in terms of sales from my book and commitment from me. What writer in their right mind would go elsewhere?
(Not to mention the fact that, if you are of a remotely grateful cast of mind, simple decency would dictate that you would stick with a publishing house that was prepared to make an investment in you when nobody else would.)
And maybe we MNW authors are all of a grateful cast of mind. It's often commented that, as writers of very disparate novels, the one thing that seems to unite us is an uncommon loyalty to our publisher and I suspect that the tone of this post is going to do nothing at all to challenge that. So what is it that gives rise to such loyalty?
I think it comes from a sense of personal commitment. Fundamentally, as an MNW author you feel that your book matters, that you matter.
This feeling of group loyalty is given a tangible form - or perhaps I mean forum - by the Macmillan New Writers' collective blog which each new author is invited to join at the time of their book's publication. The blog gives us the chance to comment on each other's work, talk about our own work and just chat about writing generally.
The blog means that, unlike most novelists, MNW authors genuinely feel as if we are part of a creative community. And, in contrast to the authors of most other publishing houses who are in competition with one another, we feel a kind of investment in each other's success as each new MNW cheer goes up. Cheers like Eliza Graham's Playing with the Moon being shortlisted for the Books Worth Talking about award linked to World Book Day last year, or Brian McGilloway getting rave reviews and being nominated for the Irish Crime Novel of the Year for his Inspector Devlin novel, Gallows Lane, or Ann Weisgarber's The Personal History of Rachel DuPree being nominated for the Orange Prize and the Orange New Writers Award. We are delighted for each other, we support each other electronically and, sometimes, in person by turning up to each other's launches. I know that other authors envy us our collective forum and our sense of shared journey and it's something I appreciate hugely about being an MNW writer.
But don't take my word for all this - why not visit the collective blog at http://www.macmillannewwriters.blogspot.com and ask other MNW authors what they think of being published by Macmillan New Writing?
And if you want more details on how to submit your work to MNW just Google 'Macmillan New Writing' and follow the links on the homepage.
And now, all that remains is for me to offer many, many thanks to Juxtabook for the kind invitation to be a guest on her wonderful blog. Thank you, Catherine!
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