Thank to Siobhan Haime, Publishing Technologies Librarian at Birkbeck, University of London, for the offline reply which I am posting here for the benefit of the wider community.
In my experience, where university presses publish fiction, there usually is an ‘academic’ element. E.g. anthology based on a research project / links to a creative writing course / part of a larger project. I also cannot recall seeing anything but short stories or short story anthologies in university presses, which makes sense from a logistics POV!
My apologies if this is something you already know, but in my experience:
Fiction requires different types of editing / marketing etc. - a full length novel would require an experienced copyeditor and a developmental editor. There are usually also different (service) expectations between author and editor when publishing fiction - many of which academic presses aren’t really equiped for. I have also never seen a developmental editor at a university press + authors usually need to be paid for their work as well!
Additionally, the only instances where I know of works remaining available online fully open are usually select chapters from short story anthologies. E.g. some content is available as a ‘taster’, to motivate a reader to buy the anthology (but get a sense of the content). (Though my industry knowledge may be getting a bit dated.)
In practical terms, I think you are after Amazon self-publishing - it allows you to retain copyright over your work, get print copies and set your own prices. I am not sure if you can set an eBook to be free or if it would require a symbolic 1p charge? I think that you can archive a digital copy somewhere after the embargo period? You will retain copyright, but you will need to check the distributor rights. I haven’t personally worked with Amazon, but from experience I expect there to be at the very least an embargo period (I suspect they aren’t invested enough to try to fully stop you from sharing digital copies.) Archiving a digital copy on IA may be an option?
The key things to keep in mind:
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If you self-publish a title through Amazon, you can no longer pursue traditional publishing for that title. (Trad publishing 9/10 times doesn’t want to pick up works that have gone through Amazon first.)
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If you do this, make very sure you have gone through Amazon itself. There have been predatory presses using purposefully similar names to scam people.
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You will need to acquire an ISBN for the print edition, from memory: Amazon-provided ISBNs are online only and have some weird link to Kindle?
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Print publishing through Amazon is a bit trickier - you need to consider covers / formatting / paper / font etc.
Now, you may not wish to do all this yourself (the appeal of a publisher), the only other way I can see:
- If you happen to be lucky and there is a local publisher who happens to work in the area you’re writing in and is effectively willing to do you a favour (low chances in this economy as many I know are either 100% hobbyists or struggling to stay afloat). They may be open to the digital copy being archived somewhere? But I would be surprised as it would be a first for me - though this is the area of publishing I am least familiar with? I know some people on here run small-presses and imprints in their free time, so they may know more.
Note on print on demand:
- It is harder than you think - get to spend more time thinking about fonts, covers, paper types, binding, ink etc. than you thought you would in your live. (I’ve mostly worked on magazines-type pubs and it always took up more time than I thought it would.)
Absolutely out of the (deep) left field, for anyone considering publishing: for web novels and fan works, Royal Road is where a fair number of people distribute their works. But except if your great-aunt was an invested 1960s Star Trek fan, I suspect it may not meet her needs.
Generally, I like to try and vet any service/publisher/(large) printer through Reddit since the writing community loves to share their experiences.
All this being said, I haven’t worked with fiction for a hot second, so my knowledge may be a bit dated (and I’m not a writer)!
If memory services me well, Southampton has a creative writing MA. Their staff will almost definitely have much better, up-to-date industry knowledge. I would recommend sending them an email.
Thanks very much Siobhan! Does anyone else have more tips / ideas they’d like to share?