Start up publisher experiments with new ways

Schrijversmarkt (writer’s market) the “new publishing initiative”, is exploring a new horizon in pubishing in The Netherlands. Schrijversmarkt aims to create an online platform where aspiring writers can post their work. Readers are invited to vote for their favourite work. When a manuscript receives more than 250 votes, the presses are started and the book will be published. The voters will receive a first print as a gift for their support.

The initiative is not completely new. In the United States, WEbook has been doing the same for some time. But, says Schrijversmarkt’s founder Folef van Nispen: “I’ve been thinking about this for two years. It is not a WEbook derivative. We do hope to emulate their success.”

The business model is simple, and the same as in traditional publishing: selling books. As many as possible. But the way in which is determined what is published and what isn’t, is different. Schrijversmarkt trusts the audience, the community to decide that. Thus, this is beyond printing on demand, there is a form of quality check, albeit in a different format than in traditional publishing. Van Nispen: “We focus on the process in which the writer is looking for a publisher and, meanwhile, count the voice of the audience.”

Schrijversmarkt has yet to be launched officially. The launch is planned for this fall. The initiators hope to present 40 manuscripts to the community at the start. A year later, this figure should have risen to a few hundred. The expectation is that only a fraction of those will be published.