- Joined
- Nov 11, 2005
- Messages
- 69
- Reaction score
- 6
Greetings!
My name is JC De La Torre and I'm the author of Ancient Rising. I originally published the book via Lulu.com before I decided to start my own small publishing company, Luna Brillante Publishing. Hopefully some of you remember the name as I have been on Absolute Write for awhile...
Anyway, I decided I wanted my company to specialize exclusively in Speculative Fiction (SciFi, Fantasy, Horror, Alternate Realities, etc.). My plan was to start releasing books via POD and then as the company grew, transition into off-set and try our damndest to be the next Baen or Wizards on the Coast type niche publisher.
Things started well as we began to receive manuscripts. We had an agreement with the sensational graphic artist who did my cover and the cover for my wife's book, Dark Dragon, set up. We had our editor, who did a great job on my book. I have a computer background so I was able to produce a great website ( http://www.lunabrillantepublishing.com ). We had our ISBNs and our contract with Ingrams Wholesaler set up. We had distribution to all the online stores secured and were actively searching for a brick-and-mortar distributor. We got a great manuscript from an author we really, really liked.
We were raring to go....and then the financing dropped out.
The company itself has lived on albeit via life support and I still have the dream of having a company that will produce some great works of speculative fiction from exciting, new and brilliant authors.
I just realize now that we cannot exist as a traditional publisher. We simply don't have the financial backing to do it so I’ve wrestled with the decision to turn Luna Brillante Publishing into a true POD publisher, ergo, charge for the services of producing a book.
It was a tough decision, to say the least. However, I still feel that LBP can still achieve the dream I set out so long ago.
So I wanted to come to you, the POD writers, and ask you – what would be your ideal POD company?
What is important to you when you decide between one POD publisher and another?
Of course, I know price is a big one but what about services? I know Lulu will give you a book for cut rate prices – but they offer little in terms of services.
What services would be important to you?
What is the ideal contract for a POD publisher?
What’s the biggest mistake a POD publisher would do?
What is a fair royalty?
My vision is to form partnerships with my authors. We’re in this together. It’s my company’s name that your books would represent – so I’m not going to produce works that aren’t going to be marketable. I won’t be producing just anything. I still see Luna Brillante Publishing being a Spec Fic force and I DO NOT want LBP to be a vanity publisher.
In the spirit of partnership, LBP would do all the leg work for the author. We’d format the book, typeset it, arrange for editing and if the author did not have their own cover, arrange for a cover to be professionally produced. No templates at LBP, real true artwork. Once the book was ready to go, we’d assign it an ISBN (both 10 and 13), send ARCs to reviewers, and prepare a release date. Once the book was released, we’d have a professional press release sent to all the relevant news feeds. The books would be sold at all the major online retailers as well as our own website. As an add on, an author could choose our returns program (which would be significantly less than what I’ve seen sold at other sites, btw) and make their books marketable.
In this business model, since we’d be charging fees for these services, I don’t believe it would be fair to offer the low industry standards of 15% royalty on net sales. My initial thoughts would be 60% for the author on netsales.
So really…I am looking for opinions on what makes an ideal POD, what's fair pricing in today's POD service marketplace and perhaps some suggestions on what I can do to achieve my dream yet not lose my shirt in the process.
I look forward to hearing your opinions!
Thanks!
My name is JC De La Torre and I'm the author of Ancient Rising. I originally published the book via Lulu.com before I decided to start my own small publishing company, Luna Brillante Publishing. Hopefully some of you remember the name as I have been on Absolute Write for awhile...
Anyway, I decided I wanted my company to specialize exclusively in Speculative Fiction (SciFi, Fantasy, Horror, Alternate Realities, etc.). My plan was to start releasing books via POD and then as the company grew, transition into off-set and try our damndest to be the next Baen or Wizards on the Coast type niche publisher.
Things started well as we began to receive manuscripts. We had an agreement with the sensational graphic artist who did my cover and the cover for my wife's book, Dark Dragon, set up. We had our editor, who did a great job on my book. I have a computer background so I was able to produce a great website ( http://www.lunabrillantepublishing.com ). We had our ISBNs and our contract with Ingrams Wholesaler set up. We had distribution to all the online stores secured and were actively searching for a brick-and-mortar distributor. We got a great manuscript from an author we really, really liked.
We were raring to go....and then the financing dropped out.
The company itself has lived on albeit via life support and I still have the dream of having a company that will produce some great works of speculative fiction from exciting, new and brilliant authors.
I just realize now that we cannot exist as a traditional publisher. We simply don't have the financial backing to do it so I’ve wrestled with the decision to turn Luna Brillante Publishing into a true POD publisher, ergo, charge for the services of producing a book.
It was a tough decision, to say the least. However, I still feel that LBP can still achieve the dream I set out so long ago.
So I wanted to come to you, the POD writers, and ask you – what would be your ideal POD company?
What is important to you when you decide between one POD publisher and another?
Of course, I know price is a big one but what about services? I know Lulu will give you a book for cut rate prices – but they offer little in terms of services.
What services would be important to you?
What is the ideal contract for a POD publisher?
What’s the biggest mistake a POD publisher would do?
What is a fair royalty?
My vision is to form partnerships with my authors. We’re in this together. It’s my company’s name that your books would represent – so I’m not going to produce works that aren’t going to be marketable. I won’t be producing just anything. I still see Luna Brillante Publishing being a Spec Fic force and I DO NOT want LBP to be a vanity publisher.
In the spirit of partnership, LBP would do all the leg work for the author. We’d format the book, typeset it, arrange for editing and if the author did not have their own cover, arrange for a cover to be professionally produced. No templates at LBP, real true artwork. Once the book was ready to go, we’d assign it an ISBN (both 10 and 13), send ARCs to reviewers, and prepare a release date. Once the book was released, we’d have a professional press release sent to all the relevant news feeds. The books would be sold at all the major online retailers as well as our own website. As an add on, an author could choose our returns program (which would be significantly less than what I’ve seen sold at other sites, btw) and make their books marketable.
In this business model, since we’d be charging fees for these services, I don’t believe it would be fair to offer the low industry standards of 15% royalty on net sales. My initial thoughts would be 60% for the author on netsales.
So really…I am looking for opinions on what makes an ideal POD, what's fair pricing in today's POD service marketplace and perhaps some suggestions on what I can do to achieve my dream yet not lose my shirt in the process.
I look forward to hearing your opinions!
Thanks!