Hello,

Thanks for the great information which you sent. Luckily I have been fortunate enough to find what I needed

recently. Happy writing.

                                                                                    Ariel R.

There are several. It just depends on what you genre is. Depending on what that is will give me a better picture on what I can help you with.

Hi Ariel, 

Have you considered crowd funding your book? 

Hi Judith,

     I am looking at different avenues in regard to small presses. I will wait this one out and see what comes. For now I am working on my projects and going back to work full-time, so I cannot even do any marketing.

Hi Ariel,

I joined this group because I first worked for and then owned a regional small press for over 10 years. It isn't cheap to publish books and small presses just don't have the capital that allows them to take a chance on unknown authors.  That's the bad news.  The good news is that technology and the internet has made independent or self publishing a viable (not free) solution.  If you believe enough in your book, you should be willing to contribute to the cost of publishing it.

That said, you need to look for a small press publishes vs. a vanity press. Ask for references from author's that have been published by the company. If you can't talk personally (actually in person or over the phone) with authors - run. Run far and fast.

Here are some things to look for in an honest, reliable small press publisher.

A proven record of publishing quality books (meaning content and appearance)

Published authors you can speak with for reference.

The publisher has a good relationship with area independent and chain bookstores

Local libraries (meaning local to the company, local to the author and/or local to the subject matter) have the publisher's books on their shelves.

Additionally, here are some tips.

Research some online publishing houses to get an idea of appropriate costs of publishing your book. Then you will know if an independent publisher is taking advantage of you with his/her prices.

Understand that you are going to be responsible for the majority of marketing your book. Based on my experience, this blog post offers the best advice on marketing your book I have seen. I suggest reading it to get an idea of what is involved in self publishing and marketing, because if you don't market your own book, it won't sell.

http://michaelhyatt.com/bestseller-launch-formula.html

Understand what you are paying for.  Are you paying a fee and getting several boxes of books and no further assistance from the publisher?  Are you only getting a certain number of comp copies and the publisher retains the rest?  If the publisher retains any copies, do you get a royalty on sales and how will that be accounted to you? Are you and the publisher both contributing to the cost of producing the book? If so, will you split the copies and go your own way?

In my company, I split costs of producing the book with the authors. This cost included my fees for editing, typesetting and preparing the manuscript for printing, as well as actual printing and shipping costs.  The author received a small number of comp copies to do with as he/she pleased (if sold, author kept the money).  I marketed the books wholesale to retail outlets, and paid the author a hefty royalty up to the point that their investment was recovered. After that point, the royalty dropped down to about 10%.

With this plan, we were both invested in the marketing and sales of the book. The more that sold, the quicker the author recovered his/her investment and realized a  profit on sales- and the sooner I would be able to do the same with continued sales.