Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What do you charge to publish my book?
A: Nothing! If we accept a book for publication, we pay
the author a payment, called a royalty, for each copy we
sell.
Q: How much is my royalty?
A: It varies depending on how much we will have to do to
make the book ready for publication and how much we must
spend to promote and sell the book. Typically, royalties
vary between 2% and 10% of the price we sell the book for.
Q: Why is the royalty so small? If I publish the book myself I can keep all the money.
A: The royalty percentage is exactly half of what our
profit for the book is. In other words, after every expense
related to creating the book, printing the book, selling
and marketing the book is paid, we split the remainder,
which is the profit for the book, in half. You receive half
the profit, we keep half the profit. We earn the same
percentage on the book as you do.
True, if you publish the book on your own, you keep all
the money earned BUT you also must pay all the expenses up
front. This can run into tens or hundreds of thousands of
dollars. With a royalty publisher, you do not have to pay
anything up front; you simply take your share of the profit
from the sales. It's so much easier for you.
Q: I can publish my book myself over the Internet. Why should I use you or any royalty publisher?
A: That's true. You can indeed publish your book over
the Internet. But publishing a book involves far more than
writing it, using software to lay out the pages, and
getting the book printed. How will you sell your book?
Royalty publishers, like ourselves, have available to us
many resources that are not available to the public and
which cannot be found over the Internet. Royalty publishers
have access to proprietary market research information rhat
enables us to fine tune your book for maximum sales appeal.
Royalty publishers have writers, proofers and artists who
can enhance the writing of your book and the "look and
feel" of your book to make it more enticing and fun to
read. Most bookstores won't stock self-published books.
Royalty publishers can negotiate shelf placement of your
book into those bookstores and also sell your book through
channels that otherwise would not be available to you.
Royalty publishers can arrange publicity events and media
exposure that are beyond the reach of the general public.
Royalty publishers can better defend the book against
copyright infringement than an individual author on his or
her own can. In short, royalty publishers can get more done
than an author on his or her own can, therefore the book
will sell better than it otherwise would, thanks to the
efforts and unique resources of the royalty publisher.
Q: Are you the best publisher for my book?
A: That's impossible to say until we see your
manuscript. If we decide we aren't the best publisher for
your book, we'll tell you. It does us no good to accept a
book for publication that we cannot sell effectively. We do
not earn any money unless the books we publish sell well.
If you do not choose us for your publisher, then please
choose some other royalty publisher rather than publishing
the book yourself. We'd like to see you succeed, even if we
are not involved.
Q: How do you select which books you publish?
A: Through an evaluation of both the manuscript itself
and the author. If we do not feel that the manuscript will
result in a book that we can sell well, then we won't
publish it. Similarly, if we feel that the author will be
difficult to work with, we won't accept the book for
publication. We need the freedom to do what we feel is the
best for the sales of the book. Otherwise, we're wasting
our time and money, and not representing the author's
financial interests adequately. It does us no good to
accept a book for publication that we cannot sell
effectively. We do not earn any money unless the books we
publish sell well.
Q: Stephen King sold a million copies of one of his books over the Internet. I bet I can do the same. How many copies will you sell?
A: Stephen King is an internationally acclaimed author
and he can sell a million copies of anything anywhere. Keep
in mind that he received widespread, pervasive media
publicity that spurred on those sales. Are you an
internationally acclaimed author? Can you generate
widespread, pervasive media publicity on your own? Unless
you can answer "yes" to both questions, then Stephen King's
success is not a predictor of your success. No one can
guarantee a set number of sales, but if we do not feel that
we can sell at least 1,000 copies in four months, we will
turn down the book for publication. Nevertheless, this is
not to be interpreted as a guarantee of sales. Never
forget, we do not earn any money unless the books we
publish sell well. So we do everything we can to sell our
books effectively.
Q: Do you sell over the Internet?
A: Yes, we sell over the Internet, but our main efforts go into sales to bookstores and direct sales campaigns. Although e-commerce sales figures are impressive, the Internet accounts for only 1.8% of non-business consumer sales of books and other non-durable, non-staple goods. An effective Internet marketing campaign can cost as much as a traditional nation-wide radio, TV, and print media ad campaign. All that money for e-commerce advertising and you reach only a paltry 1.8% of the possible book buying public. So it doesn't make good business sense to focus on e-commerce sales as the main selling venue. Maybe we're greedy, but we'd rather reach every possible book buyer.
Q: I understand that e-commerce is the wave of the future and anyone can get rich overnight thanks to e-commerce. Isn't that right?
Yes, e-commerce is the wave of the future, but for now the "big money" isn't in e-commerce -- it's in bookstores and direct sales as it always has been. Maybe the future will bring the "big money" to e-commerce, but it hasn't happened yet and won't for many years. The stock market is proof of that. Remember the "dot com bomb?" Of course, a few individuals have gotten rich with e-commerce. Frankly, a few individuals manage to get rich no matter where they sell their product. The secret to getting rich isn't using e-commerce, it's what it's always been: hard work, patience, vision, innovation, marketing savvy, the willingness to take big risks, and hard work, hard work and more hard work. That's the way it's been since people have been making money, and it isn't going to change. The Internet and e-commerce isn't going to make getting rich any easier for anyone. Anyone who tells you it will is just plain wrong or is scamming you. Regardless, we'd encourage you to roll up your sleeves, get out there, sweat and strike it rich! Go for it! Make your dream make you rich!