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I'm Stuart, the owner of Fiction4All, and this story
is all about how, and why, I created Fiction4All and developed it into what
it is today. Fiction4All was established in February 2005. It
seems a long time ago now, but the reason for setting up Fiction4All is as
fresh in my mind today as it was back then. At the turn of the century I
decided to do what a lot of wannabe writers do - they write a story. That
took a year or more of my life and then I started the daunting process of
looking for an agent - without success. Undeterred, I then decided to send my
precious script off to a number of well-established
publishers here in the UK, where I am based, and you guessed it - before long
the rejection letters from some started to arrive. Then, of course, there
were the organisations that never bothered sending any form of reply. By chance, and an ill-wind, I spotted an advert in a
newspaper for a publisher seeking authors and I jumped at the opportunity. At
the time I had never heard of vanity press so it was inevitable I would fall
for it. They wanted just over GBP2000 to get my book published in print (the
internet was not a major player in those days) and they promised the earth -
book signings, advertisements and so on. So I paid them the GBP2000 and
waited. And waited. To cut a long story short my book, which was a private
investigator story that their review panel had lauded (yes I know it was a
con now, but at the time it felt great to get a positive response), sold
exactly 4 copies in the first year and then they decided to kill it off! That
was the final straw for me - they took GBP2000 for effectively nothing.
Modern Word Editor has made a better job of the "editing" phase
than their expert supposedly did in those days. So, some head scratching later, and a chance contact
with another author who had been similarly treated, and I decided to do
something about it. The big publishers were apparently seldom interested in
new, aspiring authors, and the only alternative option seemed to be the trap
I, and countless others, had fallen into, and continue to fall into right up
to today. Fiction4All was established with a view to making it
relatively easy for authors to see their work on sale without it costing them
a fortune to do so. Actually, the ethos of
Fiction4All was to make it free for an author to get their book published,
where the author submitted their well-written story in a presentable manner,
according to our guidelines - the advent of the digital age made this easier
than some might believe possible. So, going the route of selling online, the
model I started with was if a book sold online then it was worth creating a
print edition, even though at the time things were not as straightforward as
they are today. For several years now, Fiction4All spent time and
money acquiring other UK publishers and their imprints, and for the sheer
need to make money by selling what people were buying online, this involved a
foray into the world of adult fiction. Over a few years Fiction4All acquired
three well-established publishers from the world of adult fiction, namely The
Olympia Press, Silver Moon Books and BDSM Books. In 2019 Fiction4All added AdultEbookShop to its growing portfolio. Together with their authors and contact lists, this
made it possible for us to grow into a wider market, exploring the growing
number of websites selling this kind of material, while at the same time
reminding ourselves of our roots in General and Young Adult fiction. In 2020 Fiction4All added to its General Fiction
portfolio by acquiring Double Dragon Books and some of its former authors. In 2021 we decided to expand our interest into
audiobook production. In 2023, amidst growing concerns of children being safe
online, we split the adult books away from our general fiction and
non-fiction and the adult books now all live on A1AdultEbooks, though the
submission and publishing processes remain on Fiction4All. In 2024 Fiction4All hired a professional marketer
who is working to get our brand more widely known and attract a younger
customer base than we have previously enjoyed. This is leading to a raft of
changes as Fiction4All moves into a new, and exciting future, so there will
be much more to tell you about in 2025. With the need for new skills on the
block, we are also making plans to welcome narrators, editors, artists and
others to our sites, making their skills available to authors. At this point in time Fiction4All has about 900
authors who we have published or acquired from the above publishers. Not all
these authors continue to write but a significant number do and on a regular
basis. We have a substantial online presence with the option to distribute
our own author books on sites such as Barnes & Noble, Smashwords/Draft to
Digital, Google Play and various other sites. Please see our other guides for more information on
what we publish and where we distribute books. We publish books in 4 sizes:- Micro books range from
5000 to 15000 words Short stories range
from 15000 to 25000 words Novellas range from
25000 - 45000 words Novels are any book
over 45000 words All books, with very few exceptions, are firstly
created and sold as digital editions, and, where authors opt into our
distribution packages, books are distributed on various sites according to
each author's choice. We also produce some books as paperback editions.
Please read our document on paperbacks for more details. Fiction4All provides for two types of authors. Type 1 - the author wants Fiction4All to do all the
work, including script layout, formatting and checking on things like grammar
and spellings. The author wants us to distribute their work where we can.
These authors used to be called "Exclusive". Type 2 - the author wants Fiction4All to use the
script the author provides and sell it on Fiction4All/A1AdultEbooks, as well
as optionally create a paperback in our Novels4All imprint ()if opted in to
this program), where the book is a suitable size. These authors are
effectively often called "Self-Published". If you are a Type 1 or 2 author, please take time to
absorb the information in our style guide, it is there to make it quicker to
get your book published in both digital and where appropriate, print formats. Regards Stuart CEO Fiction4All |