Publisher and self-publishing services in Devon

Please Support your Local Bookshop

While you can purchase our books online via this website, we would encourage you to use your local bookshop if you are fortunate enough to have one. If you don’t use it, you may lose it.

To encourage you to use bookshops, and because postage makes a big dent in our margins, we are now charging £2.50 flat rate P&P charge for UK addresses. This is a flat rate., so if you buy one book or ten the postage fee is the same.

For a list of bookshops in North Devon (and beyond) click here.

We love libraries too.

Also, we are happy to see our books borrowed from libraries. The author still gets paid something for each time their book is borrowed thanks to the PLR scheme.  It is a great way for readers to discover new authors. If people regularly borrow books then the library will often buy more copies to meet demand. Please support your local library.

Libraries Unlimited who run Devon libraries have most of our titles. If they don’t have the one you want, please ask them to stock it. If you live outside Devon and want to borrow any of our books, do ask them to buy in stock. The worst they can do is say no.

About Blue Poppy Publishing

Blue Poppy Publishing is still a small one person publisher based in North Devon with, currently, four eight a couple of dozen authors, and growing all the time. Most of those authors are from the local area, and we tend to prefer books with a connection to Devon, although most our books still have a broad appeal too. We get small print runs done and then usually move to print-on-demand due to dealing with very small volumes. 

Although begun as a self-publishing collective, it is now moving towards a more traditional approach with an increasing number of books published on a traditional publishing model.

The History of Blue Poppy Publishing

Blue Poppy was set up in 2016 to publish the “Wise Oak” series of Books by Oliver J. Tooley. Then it seemed natural to offer the opportunity to other authors to get their books published under the Blue Poppy imprint in order to benefit from mutual experience and promotional efforts. As a result, in 2017 three new authors joined up. Each year more and more authors have self-published through Blue Poppy and more recently, starting with The Cream of Devon, Blue Poppy has begun publishing books in a more traditional way while still helping self-publishing authors. At any one time there are at least four projects in various stages of development.

Blue Poppy – Traditional Publishing Deals

Since the publication of The Cream of Devon, my first traditionally published book, there have been a number of new titles published under a more-or-less traditional basis. This is the direction that Blue Poppy Publishing will increasingly be moving in the future. Watch out Penguin Random House, I am coming for you. 

I don’t have a big budget for traditional publishing but if a book looks like it could sell in significant enough numbers to make a profit then it is highly likely that I will offer a traditional deal in which I pay the author and cover all costs of production and marketing. So just to be clear, if I offer you this deal, there is no cost to you. I would in fact be paying you. Not a lot, but something. 

Self-Publishing with Blue Poppy Publishing

I set up Blue Poppy Publishing to publish my own books. Since then, I have helped a number of authors to self-publish.

Unlike a lot of hybrid publishers, I was determined to build a business model based on making money from selling books, not from producing books.

So you will only be offered this type of deal if the book is well written, with enough appeal to be able to sell a few hundred copies at least.

Also, I wont put my logo on a book unless it has had a full professional edit and a professional quality cover – for which the author will pay, but the author also owns everything, including any books we have printed. 

The cost of doing it this way is partially subsidised by me working for well below market rates because I want to make money from selling your book, not from producing it. 

Self Publishing Services

Whether it’s a personal memoir, family history, or other niche work, or if it is a book with broad interest which is not a good fit for Blue Poppy, I am willing and able to assist with design, layout, finding a professional editor, cover design, and arranging printing. 

You can find out more about this option by contacting me, but it is very hard to give you any idea of costs without knowing more about your project. I never ask for payment up front and I won’t chase you up if you lose interest. (I won’t remember!)

D.I.Y.

If you want to do it all yourself that’s fine too. There are useful notes on self-publishing basics starting here.
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