There are a number of things on the website that concern me:
New Libri Press Website:
New Libri Press is a small independent press dedicated to publishing new authors and independent authors in both eBook and traditional formats.
There are plenty of good presses out there that are doing well with ebooks, but physical books remain a tough market given distribution issues. Unless there's evidence that New Libri can actually get books into stores (which is different from just making them available to order in stores), I wouldn't want to sign away print rights - and to be fair, I'd be hesitant about signing away electronic rights unless I was certain about how they were going to promote and distribute my book electronically.
New Libri Press Website:
We are keeping our initial call for manuscripts broad, and will consider genre fiction, literary fiction, and non-fiction. At this time we are only excluding romance and religious popular fiction.
The fact that they are open to pretty much anything doesn't fill me with confidence. New presses generally do better by focusing on particular markets and establishing their reputation in the same before branching out. By being open to pretty much anything I'd be concerned that they won't have specific marketing and distribution strategies in mind.
New Libri Press Website:
One is the very traditional publishing model where we accept your manuscript and publish it completely on our dollar, the other is a shared risk model, where some of the upfront costs are shared by the author in return for a larger percentage of profits.
Under commercial publishing, authors are paid an upfront advance for their work with the publisher taking a risk on making the sales. Here, New Libri Press only seems to be either taking money direct from authors or sharing the risk of sales.
New Libri Press Website:
New Libri is the publisher resembling the traditional author publisher relationship. There is no fee to the author. We are very selective in this category--as are all publishers. We encourage you to submit to this model, but warn you ahead of time on the limited number of titles per year a small publisher can do. We may encourage great authors, when we are unsure of the market, to examine Model Two.
As said, the "resemblance" between this and commercial publishing is misleading. Publishers who offer a vanity/co-publishing model in addition to "traditional" publishing usually say that they're selective in who they offer "traditional" publishing to, but you've only got their word that they are and it suggests that they're much less fussy about who they take under their vanity/co-publishing model. If I was considering this press, I'd be concerned about who my work will be released next to and if you're book is from a publisher who is putting out vanity slush, then it doesn't generally reflect well on your own book.
New Libri Press Website:
We simply know that we don't always get it right in predicting the market and want to increase the pool of new authors that have a chance to break into the marketplace.
It's not so much predicting the market as having a good idea as to what will sell or not. If you're charging your authors to publish, then you don't anticipate sales being made in significant numbers to earn you a profit and why should an author subsidise that when they can self-publish for free and keep everything they earn?
New Libri Press Website:
Author and New Libri share costs of publishing. Author gains larger percentage of profit. In all other ways this resembles Model One. We are quite selective in the group, but more willing to take a chance on something that we feel is less viable, or that we simply do not understand the market well enough.
If you don't understand the market, then you shouldn't be releasing into it period. If you don't think that something is economically viable, then you shouldn't be releasing it period.
It's all very well saying that you're "selective" in who to offer co-publishing to, but all too often small presses find that selectiveness easing off when there are cash flow problems.
Also as an author you need to think of it this way - if you're paying up front and only getting a percentage of the profit - how many books do you need to sell to earn that up front cost back?
New Libri Press Website:
Typically, these upfront publication, editing, and marketing costs run us ten thousand dollars per title. We generally ask for a shared risk model that is 50% or less of these costs and generally the author's percentage of profits is much higher.
I'd like to see the breakdown of how it's $10k per title (not saying that it's not but I'd like to see the justification). So authors will typically be asked to pay $5k up front for an unspecified "higher percentage of profits" without any detail on how those profits are calculated. Doesn't sound like good value to me.
For $5k you could probably hire your own editor and cover artist, slap it up on Amazon (where you'd have control over the price) and keep most of the profits for yourself (less Amazon's share).
New Libri Press Website:
You may want to consider self-publishing, but we do encourage you to consider the full costs of self-publishing and the read some of the articles on the value of a publisher-editor relationship with the author.
That would be a fair comment if there was any information on the New Libris website about who its editors are and what their experience is. Unfortunately there isn't. As such, if an author self-publishes and chooses to seek an editor they can at least get information on their credentials and negotiate the price before hand.
New Libri Press Website:
Both of our models have one thing in common: collaboration. This means hands on editing and encouragement of collaboration between our authors. It means we insist on the author working with us on everything from artwork to marketing.
I'd want to know what's meant by "collaboration". If I'm being asked to pay $5k up front, I don't want to be doing almost everything myself - particularly when it comes to artwork and marketing. I want to write books and I want to earn money from those books. Statements like this always give me the heebies because it suggests to me that the publisher doesn't know what it's doing either.
New Libri Press Website:
Q: Why should I use you versus going to a large publisher?
A: In general, you should approach us only if you are satisfied that your option of going to a large publisher has been explored. If you are a new, or unknown author, we may be a better alternative. The model of profit sharing is different. Also, as a small publisher the relationship is different. It is more of a partnership. Over 300,000 new books are released each year in the traditional publishing world, with a staggering 3 million new titles in the non-traditional world. This means that there is a new title for every 100 people in the United States. If book buying was evenly distributed, you would sell 100 copies of your book!
The attention a large publisher pays to each of these varies. In general, large publishers like to bet on sure things. Since we form a partnership and often share the risk, we can make different decisions versus the large publisher.
I agree that you shouldn't look at New Libri until you've really run through all your other options.
The statistics on the number of new books released each year is misleading because commonly, it captures everything that's released with an ISBN (which can include pamphlets). In practice though, most vanity published books do only sell up to 100 copies. Now, if you've paid $5k up front and you only sell 100 copies, you're probably not going to make your costs back. Unless you've got money to throw away, it's therefore not worth your while.
New Libri Press Website:
With the changing landscape of publishing and book consumption, the old communities that both authors and readers could depend on are disappearing. Yet, there is an opportunity for new community. Third places facilitate and broaden creative interaction. Our mission is not to "just" be another publishing company, but a third place, a new kind of publisher for new books: New Libri.
I honestly don't understand what this means, let alone how New Libri thinks that it's creating some kind of third alternative (which, as a Brit, brings to mind a grinning Tony Blair and look how well that turned out).
New Libri Press Website:
Our early adopters naturally will get some bonus time and breaks.
Huh? As a publisher, I'd want to know when final versions of books are being delivered as it goes to my release schedule.
New Libri Press Website:
Our model is different. We ARE a publisher and have skin in the game. We have a model that through shared risk will allow more authors an alternative to self-publishing.
No, it's not different. There are plenty of vanity/co-publishers/investment publishers out there and they all generally represent bad value for an author.
New Libri Press Website:
The old bible of getting published is still worthy:
Writer's Market.
We are too new and perhaps too hybrid, to be listed in the current hard copy edition. There is a big emphasis on agents in Writer's Market. We recommend double checking any information there with a search of the market, or agent's, website as Writer's Market does age and there have been some complaints that the website is harder to use than the book. (Trial available, but not free)
Or maybe you just didn't get an application/fee in to Writer's Market in time to be listed there.
New Libri Press Website:
As an author you may wonder if you should submit to us, versus a more established publishing house. We encourage you to do both--submit to us and submit to others. All of us at New Libri are, and have been, authors (and editors and entrepreneurs); we know how hard it is to break in
There's no information on New Libri's editorial or entrepreneur experience and unless the people behind New Libri have successfully self-published themselves, nothing to suggest they know how the publishing industry works.
New Libri Press Website: (Comments in Bold Capitals are mine)
Why an independent, small, new, press is advantageous:
- We deal with new authors. SO DO COMMERCIAL PUBLISHERS.
- We are more hands on than large houses. THIS DEPENDS ON YOUR DEFINITION OF "HANDS ON". IF IT MEANS AUTHORS GOING OUT THERE AND DOING MOST OF THE MARKETING, SELLING AND DISTRIBUTION THEMSELVES, THEN IT IS NOT A GOOD THING.
- Our eBook process is not generic conversion. SO? IN COMMERCIAL PUBLISHERS THE EBOOK WILL BE THE SAME AS THE PRINTED BOOK.
- We are focusing on the community of authors we bring on board. Authors participate in the process and in shaping the company. AS AN AUTHOR I WANT TO BE PAID BY THE PUBLISHER. I DON'T NEED A COMMUNITY.
- Your contract is author friendly. NICE TO KNOW BUT NO COPY OF THE CONTRACT IS UP ON THE SITE SO THIS CAN'T BE VERIFIED.
- All publishers expect the author to handle a lot of the marketing--we are just more upfront about it! AND HOW IS THAT A GOOD THING? COMMERCIAL PUBLISHERS WILL HAVE AT LEAST PAID THE AUTHOR AN ADVANCE, WHICH NEW LIBRI DOESN'T EVEN DO. SO IN THE WORST CASE SCENARIO, YOU'VE PAID $5K AND ARE NOW DOING ALL THE HAWKING YOURSELF IN RETURN FOR ONLY A PERCENTAGE OF THE PROFIT. TO REPEAT, SELF-PUBLISHING WOULD AT LEAST ALLOW YOU TO CONTROL COST AND PRICE.
- We have a shared risk model that is quite unique. LIKE I SAID, THERE'S NOTHING UNIQUE ABOUT VANITY PUBLISHING.
- You always retain the rights to your manuscript and if anything should happen to us, we give you the ebook and print layout formats to use. IF NEW LIBRI ARE PUBLISHING THEN THEY NEED A LICENCE TO PUBLISH FROM THE AUTHOR SO THEY'RE TAKING FIRST PUBLISHING RIGHTS IN PHYSIAL AND ELECTRONIC FORMATS. ONCE THOSE RIGHTS ARE GONE, THE AUTHOR CAN'T SELL THE BOOK AGAIN. IF NEW LIBRI GO UNDER THEN DEPENDING ON HOW AND WHERE IT'S INCORPORATED THE RIGHTS MAY SIT WITH A RECEIVER WHO CAN SELL THEM ONTO ANOTHER PUBLISHER WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S CONSENT. HOWEVER WHAT GENERALLY HAPPENS WHEN A NEW PUBLISHER GOES UNDER IS THAT THE PEOPLE BEHIND IT DISAPPEAR LEAVING THE RIGHTS IN LIMBO
New Libri Press Website:
We encourage direct submissions, but agents are welcome. Include full name, postal mailing address, telephone number with area code, and e-mail address.
No reputable agent will submit to New Libri because there's no money to be made. Anyone with the slightest inkling of how publishing worked would be aware of that.
New Libri Press Website: (BOLDING MINE)
New Libri is a new company. Not surprisingly, that means we are excited to build our community and we are interested in authors who are early adopters. Those early adopters will receive added incentives--primarily added attention in editing.
Huh? It's in New Libri's interests to make sure that all books it plans to publish are given appropriate editing attention. The fact that you're one of the first people to sign off shouldn't mean you get extra special attention (which is completely immeasurable anyway).
ISBN_Writer:
I did have an offer to publish from New Libri Press. Does anyone know anything about them?
It's usually better to do your due diligence before submitting rather than afterwards because it means you don't waste time and emotional energy on publishers who (in my opinion) don't offer anything more than you could do yourself with self-publishing.
ISBN_Writer:
The individual I am working with is the co-founder of the press. He has a lot of experience in computer programming and management and is working on a MFA.
None of this represents publishing experience. Why go with a (nice) but unqualified amateur?
ISBN_Writer:
They offered to publish my book using the first method--the traditional press, which means they cover all costs, help market and get reviews, and only make money when I do.
It's not traditional publishing because they're not offering you an advance. At best, it's royalty-based publishing. What are they specifically going to do to market and sell your book? Where is it going to be available? Can they place it in stores? How much will the cover price be? What percentage of royalties do you get and how are those royalties calculated?
ISBN_Writer:
I am seriously considering their offer. Any advice?
Don't be their guinea pig. Wait and see what happens with their initial releases and see if they're still in business in 2 years time.
MM
D), 
