FAQs For Authors
Questions About General Issues:
- Layout and design
- What is the return policy?
- What about Amazon.com or B&N.com?
- Worldcat.com lists 450 copies of my book by libraries
- How many free copies can you send me?
- Can you clarify the copyright issue for me? What does it cover?
- Do I have to do something in order to protect my rights as an author?
- Could you give me a rough estimate of the retail price you envision for my book?
- There are a few illustrations that I would like to have in the book. Can you use them?
- Will I have some input into the design of the book\'s cover? While I am not a graphic designer, I have an idea of some basic elements that I would like to see on the cover, and that I would like to convey to your design team.
- Would it be possible for you to give me more free copies of the book? Apart from personal reasons, I would also like to actively promote my book and for that I will need more copies. If you could send me at least 50 copies, that would be ideal.
- Could you give me a rough indication of your approach to marketing and promoting the book? If possible, I would like to be involved in the process.
- How can we make sure that the book will be recognized as a major contribution in the subject area that I am writing about? I am convinced that my approach is competitive with the most successful titles in its field and should appeal to the same audience.
- Is it possible to receive an advance on the royalties for the book? Since my book will appear some 6 - 10 months from now, it will be a long time before the actual royalty payments begin; an advance would be very helpful.
A: We all should agree that an author's responsibility is to produce a good manuscript. On matters of book design, production, printing, etc. we are best qualified and we expect the author to leave these matters to us.
A: Bookstores and wholesalers allow themselves the right to return any unsold book for up to a year.
A: All our books are carried by both of the major online stores and anyone can order through Amazon.com and B&N.com; the results there are the real test, producing measurable results (sales ranking). For more on this topic, see the the discussion posted under Promoting Your Book on our website.
A: We certainly salute everyone's efforts to understand the intricacies of the distribution of ebooks, but all of this is a lot more complicated than one may think.
Most of our ebooks are sold through netLibrary (a subsidiary of OCLC). For one, ebooks are sold for the most part to consortia of university libraries: i.e. one copy may be sold to a 50-library consortium. Each one lists the book as available, but it is not an actual purchase by each library.
This practice gives a lot a people a lot of headaches. Besides, netLibrary changes its model every few months as they are trying indeed to get each consortium to buy more than one copy.
On a positive note, if your book is listed on WorldCat then it is available to the public through all the major libraries in the world. Unfortunately, sales revenues are not comensurate, because these libraries do not buy as individual institutions but as a consortium.
The ebook market is still suffering its growing pains. So far it only looks good on paper :)
A: We support an author's promotional efforts. Of course, we need to do it according to what we consider to be cost effective; that means striking the right balance between distributing free copies to every individual request versus sending "review" copies that create sales.
You, the author, can be far more liberal in your choices, but you have to take that responsibility upon yourself. Every author that we know orders additional copies from us, beyond the free courtesy copies, to have at hand for their own promotion, in many and personal ways. Some order a dozen, some order a few hundred. You have to consider what is in your best interests.
Depending on what kind of quantities you have in mind, we will grant you a discount that covers our own costs and that provides an incentive for everyone to be responsible in how he dispenses free copies. You, the author, are most familiar with each request and you can make the best judgment as to what impact a free copy will have. Sorry to say, but we also have evidence that there is a whole cadre of people out there who pose as reviewers so they can collect free copies, which they resell for their own profit, at a reduced price that steals sales from the legitimate parties. And then, . . . everybody is happy to get a free copy, anyway.
A: We invite you to take a look at one of the most widely used guides for writers (not publishers!), The Writer's Market (We still use the 2000 edition). When it comes to the copyright chapter, it says: "Some people are under the mistaken impression that copyright is something they have to send away for, and that their writing is not properly protected until they have 'received' their copyright from the government. The fact is, you don't have to register your work with the Copyright Office in order for your work to be copyrighted: any piece of writing is copyrighted the moment it is put to paper. Registration of your work does, however, offer some additional protection (specifically, the possibility of recovering punitive damages in an infringement suit) as well as legal proof of the date of copyright." The guide recommends: "Philosophically speaking, subsidiary rights will be best served by being left in the hands of the person or organization most capable of - and interested in - exploiting them profitably. Sometimes that will be the author and her agent, and most often that will be the publisher."
Once a book is published, however, the author is recognized in all possible ways and by all means. In every catalog where the book is listed; at the Library of Congress, where book is registered; at R.R. Bowker for the Books-in-Print directory, on the cover of the book, etc. and in all publicity for the book, the name of the author is clearly and unambiguously stated, as the author.
A: In other words, when it comes to intellectual property, the author's absolute rights are enshrined in the work even if no copyright is claimed in any formal way. Under U.S. publishing law, an author's work, by definition, is not a work for hire; the author is not an employee of the publisher. What is specified in the copyright is the fact that an author's work is protected and negotiated by the publisher in the author's name.
A: We cannot decide on a retail price at this time. Most of our titles range from $19 to $30. In general, the more "popular" the book is, and the more it is targeted to the casual reader, the lower the price. Academic books with a highly specific audience are priced higher. We decide the suggested retail price when we are closer to the finished product.
A: Yes, illustrations (black and white) are fine; .jpeg files with a resolution of 300 dpi are best.
Q: Will I have some input into the design of the book\'s cover? While I am not a graphic designer, I have an idea of some basic elements that I would like to see on the cover, and that I would like to convey to your design team.
A: We have found that many times an author's input in the cover design process can be helpful, so -- yes, we are open to an author's suggestions. Of course, we have our own benchmarks for quality and general professionalism.
Q: Would it be possible for you to give me more free copies of the book? Apart from personal reasons, I would also like to actively promote my book and for that I will need more copies. If you could send me at least 50 copies, that would be ideal.
A: We can provide an author with any reasonable number of books for promotional efforts -- we only need to know, in advance, where and how the author plan to promote the book. Terms to be decided, depending the quantities you have in mind.
Q: Could you give me a rough indication of your approach to marketing and promoting the book? If possible, I would like to be involved in the process.
A: We advertise our forthcoming books in several publications. The flagship of the industry is Publishers Weekly, where all major publishers are present on a bi-annual basis, according to the calendar of the major book-buyers. In addition, we are engaged with all major pre-pub reviewers, such as Library Journal, Choice, Kirkus, Booklist, etc., and we often manage to secure favorable reviews. We also welcome any input or contribution from the author at any time.
The author and the publisher team up to publish and then promote the book. No major organization in the book publishing industry (such as wholesalers, retail stores, review magazines, etc., etc.) deals directly with millions of authors or would-be authors. That's why publishing houses represent the authors; that being said, the publisher and the author together are responsible for promoting the book and without the author’s full cooperation we cannot make the book a success.
Q: How can we make sure that the book will be recognized as a major contribution in the subject area that I am writing about? I am convinced that my approach is competitive with the most successful titles in its field and should appeal to the same audience.
A: Unfortunately, no amount of paid promotion can replace the attention given to the book by the mainstream media. Whether a book takes a contrarian view of the mainstream wisdom or not, a book becomes popular only when the mainstream media hails it as a significant work. In the absence of such free publicity, the book will not be recognized as a major work. Some works get the attention of their contemporaries immediately, while some develop such attention over time. Such developments are as predictable as the stock market. We do what is needed to start the process; ideally, there is a ripple effect. And, yes, the author also needs to get the word out.
Q: Is it possible to receive an advance on the royalties for the book? Since my book will appear some 6 - 10 months from now, it will be a long time before the actual royalty payments begin; an advance would be very helpful.
A: When we schedule books, we have to allow a full six months for pre-publication publicity. Titles have to be entered in the Books-in-Print cataloging system, presentations are made to the buyers for major bookstore chains (such as B&N), reviews are requested -- far in advance -- at various publications, and ads to announce forthcoming titles are published months before the publishing date.
With the exception of the highly advertised best-sellers, the book industry runs on very thin margins. Nine out of ten books just do not catch on with the public.
We, as publishers, incur the upfront costs of crafting (most often) a raw manuscript into a polished literary work, incur printing costs (about 30 percent of the retail price), distribution costs (another 30 percent up to 50 percent), advertising and publicizing costs, etc., with no guarantee of success; the writer also invests time and talent, up front, with a long wait for any possible reward.