by Tom Ashford

Welcome to the SPF Weekly Write-Up, where each Wednesday we’ll be collecting together the self-publishing news of the week so you don’t have to.

This week: Danny Boyle’s new film seems to rip off a self-published story, a much-hyped traditionally published book bombs in the UK, and you can now listen to Mark’s BBC appearance.

Yesterday… or Should That be Enormity?

Yesterday is Danny Boyle’s upcoming film about a man called Jack who wakes up following an accident to find himself in a near-identical version of Earth in which the Beatles never existed.

Enormity is self-published Australian author Nick Milligan’s 2013 novel about a man called Jack who travels through space and finds himself on a planet that’s nearly identical to Earth, but in which the Beatles never existed.

No, I can’t see the similarities either.

Apparently Milligan isn’t too offended by the situation: “The tone of both, outside of the central premise, appears quite different. Yesterday is a more light-hearted family-friendly film, where Enormity is far more dark and twisted. It’s probably just a horrible coincidence and they mean me no disrespect.”

Hopefully it is just a coincidence – would be concerning if Hollywood though they could snatch self-published story concepts and get away with it. You can read the full, original article here.

Traditional Publishing – Still a Gamble

A big advance/ deal with a traditional publisher pretty much guarantees your book is going to be a success, right?

Nope.

Kristen Roupenian’s short story collection, You Know You Want This, sparked a bidding war from publishers following a great deal of media hype surrounding the would-be author… but according to Nielsen data, her book has only sold 1,385 copies in the UK since launching earlier this month.

That’s not bad if you’re doing it all yourself, but even if her five-figure advance was on the absolutely lowest-end possible (which it wasn’t) – £10,000 – then the publishing house will have trouble making that money back from total sales (and that’s not taking in account any marketing spend).

Good luck to her in getting another traditional deal… following a loss like that, she might need it.

Read the original article here.

Listen to Mark’s BBC Appearance Now

Last week we mentioned that Mark was appearing on BBC Radio 4’s MoneyBox programme to discuss the benefits of indie vs traditional publishing. For those of you who couldn’t catch it last week, here’s the link! You can also find the video at the top of this article. Enjoy!

Tom Ashford

Tom Ashford is a professional copywriter, author of numerous dark fantasy and sci-fi novels, and the Head of Content at the Self Publishing Formula Blog. His books include the Blackwater trilogy and the Checking Out series.

He lives in London with his wife, in an apartment that doesn’t allow pets. Find out more about Tom here.