Basic Book Publishing:What These Publishers Do
Basic book publishing companies are just that, your basic publishing company. They publish an author’s work from beginning to end. The basic publishing company usually assigns a coach or ‘helper’ to the writer to help him or her through the full process of publishing. This differs from when an agent shops your manuscript around. Most agents only work with the big name writers or authors who have had at least one major successful book published.
The beginning is the concept a writer has. Is it sellable? Do people really want to read what you are going to write about? Many times an author skips this part and has already written a manuscript and has it formatted and ready for publishing. His or her coach will go over the manuscript and proofread and edit it for grammatical errors and anything that doesn’t sound correct. This is part of the basic book publishing contract. Part of the flat fee or taken out of the royalties at the end when you sell your book.
Basic book publishing companies can either give you an advance against your royalties, which means they give you a small portion of what they think the book will make and then once the book makes over that and all costs are paid, you get the rest, the rest of the money is your royalties. Another way basic book companies handle the money is they charge you a fee and publish the book and you get to keep the royalties of every book sold because they have already been paid by you to print the book.
Once the manuscript has been edited and proofread for errors and mistakes, it’s ready to go to the printer. Now, depending on which type of basic book publishing house you choose, you might be in charge of what the book will look like. This is called print on demand (POD) or vanity press. Many publishers go with print on demand because of the cost factor. It is more cost efficient to print a few books at a time than a few thousand and have them sit there waiting to be sold. If the basic book publishing company knows that a certain bookstore wants so many of your book, then they print that exact number to deliver to them. POD allows you to have more control over the finished product and the amount you will charge, thus your royalties as well. The media portion of the basic book publishing company will make sure your book is publicized in print material, on television if possible, radio, in bookstores and have you do book signing tours the moment the book hits the shelves. Another division of the basic book publishing house is the distribution center. They work with the bookstores and shops who order your book. One of their jobs is to make sure the books for the bookstores and shopping malls arrive when and where they are supposed to. They don’t however; work with individuals purchasing your book.
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