Bindery: A New Approach to Publishing
More and more in order to be an author, you need to understand marketing. Whether you’re self-published or traditionally published, an author has to become their own number one cheerleader. They have to put themselves out there to be seen, heard, and read. However, many writers dread the notion of having to market themselves. It’s a lot of work to think of an effective marketing strategy and also work on writing. Then we have influencers, who are doing much of the heavy lifting when it comes to marketing that traditional publishers just aren’t doing. They’re championing their favorite books, shouting to their built-in audience. All that work and often for free. It’s on their own time and dime.
Bindery seems to have a found a way to help both parties, by merging these two seemingly separate entities together. Jaysen Headley (ezeekat) described this business model as “Patreon meets publishing” in the very first TikTok he posted about his new and exciting partnership—a Tastemaker under Bindery.
According to Bindery’s website the company “is an independent publisher building a more diverse and equitable world of books. [They] partner with influential bookish tastemakers to identify stories that resonate, then publish them with the support of an enthusiastic network of book influencers.” But what exactly does that mean? What even is a tastemaker? How is it different from traditional publishing?
For those unfamiliar, Patreon is a subscription-based site where a creator or influencer can set up tiers ranging from as little as 1 dollar to 25 dollars where the subscriber, can gain access to certain content based on their tier subscription. It’s a great way for creators, authors, and influencers to get some side income to help support their larger projects. So, what does it mean that the patron model is meeting traditional publishing?
A Tastemaker under Bindery is someone who has a large built-in following, a community already committed to following them, their content, and anything they may champion. It isn’t tied to social media numbers, leaving the possibility of being a Tastemaker open to multiple different avenues as long as the community has consistent engagement with the Tastemaker. In this new publishing model, the Tastemaker has their own micro imprint under Bindery, they choose what books they want to publish.
Rebecca Throne on TikTok did an in-depth deep dive into Bindery, even contacting and speaking with Cofounders Matt Kaye, and Meghan Harvey. She explains that the job of the Tastemaker is to “give their subscribers a front row seat to the novel process”. The Tastemaker and their audience will weigh in on key creative decisions such as the cover design. This isn’t all that different from traditional publishing, many traditionally published authors don’t really have much say in their cover, or other creative decisions in the beginning. It’s really only an established author that can fight for certain things. Essentially, the Tastemaker is leveraging their audience to ensure the book they’ve chosen matches with their audience and that the author’s vision is fully realized.
Authors will not be required to make content, or any marketing that they aren’t being paid for. The author is being paid for the book, and they will decide how involved they want to be in the book community the influencer has curated. As Throne put it, “the influencer markets, the author writers, that’s the business model here.”
They won’t have the powerhouse distribution system of the big 5 but they are partnered with 2 Rivers, (Igram Spark’s off shoot), the same distribution system used by small and mid-level presses to get into bookstores. Once money comes into Bindery from Ingram it will be split three ways, 25% to Bindery and the Tastemaker and 50% to the author.
Do authors need to have a literary agent? As of now they are accepting submissions from literary agents on a rolling basis and will host seasonal pitchfests to review submissions from authors without agents.
Whether or not this model of publishing will lead to success for everyone involved, the influencers, authors, and Bindery remain to be seen. This launched in August of 2023, it’s only two and half years old, with only 15 currently released or about to be released book. A pretty small sample size. However, there’s something exciting about this patron meets trad pub and having the book community work as whole, under one umbrella—Bindery.
