What is it and what do you need to know about Bindery, the new publishing method that is taking Tiktok by storm. Look no further, I can tell you exactly what you need to do.
Log into Tiktok and follow @rebecca.thorne on Tiktok.
When Bindery launched onto the booktok scene newer writers thought it was an alternative to the abysmally disappointing route of trad publishing, and a less work intensive/intimidating route than self publishing. Bindery looked like a chance to change the publishing landscape, but was it?
Cue Rebecca light some sort of caped super hero onto the scene much to the relief of us who’ve not quite “made it” but have been around long enough to give Bindery a good study from a long distance away. You know, in case it explodes, as history has often taught us that it does. (Looking at you Tiktok Publishing).
At first it seemed pretty golden. Unlike many small indie presses or even self, Bindery offered a US$10k advance (yes the currency matters when you’re not in the US), as well as 50% royalties. While the percentage is staggering compared to trad offers or even small press, it came with some uncertainties like the fact it is net, not gross, which could mean anything.
Then some other alarm bells started to ring when they said you’d need to be presented by a literary agent OR a Tiktok influencer vouched for you. The idea was that once a booktok influencer found your book they’d be your hype, your partner, the person vetting for and spreading news about the book, leaving the author to focus on the book itself.
It quickly became apparent that you’d need to hold some sway, either by already having a literary agent or by being connected with booktok influencers and while this all has it’s own can of worms that Rebecca kindly goes into (in incredibly detail), I had another thought.
Much of booktok isn’t wise to some of the things I’ve seen transpire with literary agents in the last five years, let alone beforehand. Despite the masses fleeing Twitter thanks to it’s new robot overlord, there was a lot of advantages to it. There were whisper networks.
Many shady publishers and agents have been outed on Twitter for their behavior in the past, some of it grossly unacceptable but gone unless you know where to look. I remember an author I’d long admired had some troubling stereotype themes to her book and when I found them bordering on outrageous I checked the publisher, and not content, found her agent to be someone who was outed on Twitter as a complete racist.
Hint: if you want to know if a publisher is shady, go to Writers Beware and check out their list. They are for the SFWA (Scifi/fantasy writers association), and will have publishing and agent beware lists for recorded bad behavior. Also try googling the agent or publisher name and adding controversy to see old blog posts about agents and publishers and their history. Maybe they’ve improved but forewarned is forearmed.
It occurred to me watching Bindery go off that many people aren’t aware of it, in the same way they aren’t aware that most literary agents, even reputable ones, have treated booktok like it’s a waste of time. I’ve had a well known literary agent openly scoff at my thoughts and others on booktok’s influence.
Yet that doesn’t change the trad publishing reassessing it’s view of books on booktok. I’ve seen heaps of trad publishers pop up with accounts run by fresh faced (and always pretty) people working within the trad agencies. Literary agents are now popping up in spades on tiktok, late to the trend, but still with quite a lot of gatekeeping influence when it comes to publishing, including Bindery.
Why does this matter now?
Well you see, prior to booktok a way to tell a writer worth investing in by traditional publishing was to see if they made the NYT Bestseller list. It is a gold standard for an author to make that list.
That list is curated, meaning that the NYT decides who makes it, but what they don’t do is eliminate those who cheat. A few years ago I got word of a rich author and her agent/publisher/whoever the hell was getting her onto the scene, buying up heaps (thousands) of copies of her books as pre-orders to get it on the NYT list. This was when I discovered how it really worked.
See, when a book sells well in big brand name stores in America, it can count as a NYT Bestseller. Apparently you only need five thousand but I’ve known authors to do that and not make the list. Here is what they do when they think a publisher or author has tried to get around it by buying books for themselves under another name. They put a little dagger next to it.
So… rather than not list it, even though it’s a curated list anyway, they put a dagger next to it.
I don’t remember the day or time that the NYT list became meaningless to me, but I remember the soulless hopelessness I felt at that empty and hollow title. It was not a measure of how popular your book was, it was if you cheated to get there, and even if you didn’t you may never make it at all.
But what about booktok? Booktok has been hyping up huge amounts of books that would otherwise have not made the NYT bestseller list. Bookstores are capitalizing on trending books by having booktok tables in their stores and marking books as trending on Tiktok, which quickly changed to booktok.
The world of publishing is shifting…
When Bindery makes an offer that seems too good, I wonder at the long term implications of booktok’s power. Of these agents starting to infiltrate a community of self, trad, and indie authors where if you were self it didn’t matter.
A long standing animosity of trad publishing towards self faded on booktok. It’s bitter bite of worthiness bled into nothingness in the support of new and unique voices. Of strong storytelling not gatekept or watered down to fit “marketing” needs.
I’ve loved discovering rawer stories, stories outside trad molds, stories that swept me away.
What does this have to do with Bindery? Well if booktok influencers start taking their cues or becomes more mainstream trad focused authors I see what happened to smaller less known authors when Amazon made it so easily to self publish.
The world builds around success, around what they let through, around people who are connected and then the same problems come back that I found on Twitter when I first ventured from self to indie and then onto trad.
But that’s not what this post is about. This is for those who aren’t aware of these things. Who see changes to the industry as good but it comes with a grain of salt. Huge thanks to Rebecca Thorne for her detailed analysis of Bindery itself, even if you aren’t on Tiktok, it’s worth signing up for the watch.
E. J. Dawson 