We believe that there is more than one publishing model that can be used. And industry standards are only rules made up to play a game you are not invited to.
The publishing industry has a standard deal. A writer finishes a book — often after years of work — and if they’re lucky enough to find a publisher, they receive an advance against future royalties. The advance is rarely life-changing. The royalty rate is typically between 8% and 15% of net revenue. And unless the book earns back its advance, that royalty rate never activates at all.
The publisher carries the financial risk. In exchange, they take the majority of the reward.
We think there’s a better way.
The Simile Press Publishing Model
Simile Press operates on a profit-share principle. We don’t pay advances. We don’t offer token flat fees. Instead, we do something simpler and, we believe, fairer: once a publication has covered its costs, every rand of profit is split equally between Simile Press and the author or contributors.
Fifty percent to the author. Fifty percent to Simile Press.
That’s it. No fine print designed to delay your earnings. No accounting tricks that make a successful book look like it hasn’t earned out. A clean, transparent split, applied consistently across everything we publish.
How Costs Work
Before profit-sharing begins, direct production costs are recovered. These are real, documented costs — editing, proofreading, cover design, formatting, print-on-demand setup, distribution fees — and they are shared openly with every author we work with. You will always know what costs are being counted and why.
We keep our cost base lean by design. We are a digital-first publisher. Our primary print format is print-on-demand (POD). This means physical copies are printed as they are ordered, with no large upfront print runs, no warehousing, and no pulping of unsold stock. As a title grows its readership and market demand justifies it, we move toward larger print runs — but only when the numbers make sense for everyone.
This approach keeps the barrier to profitability low. The sooner costs are covered, the sooner authors start earning.
Transparency as Policy
Every author and contributor who publishes with Simile Press receives:
- A clear, plain-language agreement before any work is finalised
- A complete breakdown of production costs for their title
- Bi-annual sales and revenue reports — every six months, you see exactly what your title earned, what was deducted, and what your share amounts to
- Direct, prompt payment of your share on each reporting cycle
We don’t believe authors should have to chase their publishers for information about their own work. Transparency isn’t a feature of our model — it’s the foundation of it.
Your Rights Stay Yours
Traditional publishing agreements often require authors to assign broad rights to a publisher for the lifetime of a copyright — sometimes decades, sometimes longer. At Simile Press, we take only what we need.
We acquire first publication rights and the right to keep a title in print and distribution for as long as the agreement is active. Authors retain ownership of their work. If a title goes out of active distribution, or if an author wishes to end the agreement, rights revert cleanly. We will never hold onto a work that we’re not actively publishing and selling.
For anthology and magazine contributors, the terms are similarly limited: we acquire first publication rights and the right to republish within future Simile Press collections under equivalent terms. Everything else stays with the writer.
Why We Work This Way
South African publishing punches above its weight in terms of literary talent. It has always produced exceptional writers. But the commercial infrastructure around those writers — the advances, the marketing budgets, the international distribution — has historically been concentrated in a handful of large publishers, with independent voices struggling to find sustainable footing.
We started Simile Press because we believe that the economics of publishing have shifted enough to make a genuinely author-centred model viable. Digital distribution has near-zero marginal cost. Print-on-demand has eliminated the tyranny of the print run. A small, carefully run press can reach readers globally without the overhead that made the old model necessary.
The profit-share model is our response to that shift. It asks authors to share the early risk — there are no guaranteed advances — but it rewards them proportionally when a title finds its audience. We think that’s a more honest arrangement than one that pays a small sum upfront and then keeps the majority of what follows.
What We Ask of Authors
Publishing with Simile Press is a partnership, and partnerships require something from both sides.
We ask that authors:
- Engage genuinely with the editorial process — our job is to help your work be the best version of itself, and that requires real collaboration
- Participate reasonably in promoting their work — you know your readers better than we do, and your voice in that process matters
- Give the title time to find its audience — books rarely succeed overnight, and the profit-share model rewards patience
In return, we commit to doing our work well: careful editing, strong design, wide distribution, honest reporting, and a genuine investment in the success of everything we publish.
The Name
A simile doesn’t replace one thing with another. It holds two things alongside each other — this is like that — and in the comparison, something new becomes visible.
That’s what we want publishing to be. Not a transaction where a writer hands over a work and a publisher hands back a cheque. A relationship where two parties bring what they have, stand alongside each other, and together make something more visible than either could alone.
That’s the model. That’s the press.
If you have questions about how our agreements work in practice, or want to understand the model in more detail before submitting, you’re welcome to contact us. We’re happy to talk it through.