Universal Publishers, Inc.

[CaoPaux]

Recovered:

06-16-2006, 11:45 AM
Pookiestoop
One of the Locals

Universal Publishers

I found a book on Amazon that is published by Universal Publishers. When I looked them up I found that they charge a publishing fee. I thought publishers don't charge fees which is why they can be selective in their search for work. Any thoughts?

06-16-2006, 01:09 PM
MadScientistMatt
Empirical Storm Trooper

It appears there are several Universal Publishers.

One is an Australian map company. The website looks like one from a legitimate map publisher - of course, vanity map publishing is a pretty rare niche.

http://www.universalpublishers.com.au/

Then there is a fee-based POD service by the same name. Their website claims that they specialize in niche nonfiction that has an audience too small to be commercially viable. Such an enterprise is not a scam; they help fill a particular niche in the book world. Their specialization may (or may not) indicate that they have a staff of editors with expertise at proofreading non-fiction. It's probably not a good idea to go with a fee-based POD for a book that you expect to sell more than a few hundred copies or need to have distributed in bookstores, though - Uncle Jim posted a classic example of the sort of work where this publishing approach is appropriate.

http://www.universal-publishers.com/
__________________
Matthew Cramer

06-16-2006, 03:57 PM
Pookiestoop
One of the Locals

THANK YOU!

 

[chuksa]

Any more knowledge about Universal Publishers? Not much is written about them lol

 

[Momento Mori]

Are you asking about Universal Publishers Pty Limited or Universal-Publishers, Inc?

The former is a large, Australian map printing company.

The latter describes itself as a "co-publisher" and requires you to pay $495 up front with another $100 for cover art. It's aimed at the non-fiction, technical and academic markets. The contract is a joke - 2 paragraphs long. The author will basically do all the marketing and there's nothing to indicate books are available in stores.

MM

 

[Old Editor]

Universal Publishers

This name rings a bell with me for some reason, and I'm not sure who they are. Their website and FB pages don't say much. Anyone know anything about how they operate?

 

[Old Hack]

Can you share a link to their website?

 

[Old Editor]

I can give you the proposal page: www.universal-publishers/proposals.php. They are basically non-fiction publishers. All I could get from the website is that they are traditional with no advances and nice royalties. Couldn't find specifics, however.

 

[eqb]

Link to the main page: http://www.universal-publishers.com/

 

[Old Hack]

This worries me:

[h=3]Like traditional publishing houses we are selective about what we publish. However, because we are independent, we can publish many manuscripts that may not be profitable enough for large corporate publishers. By working closely with the author throughout the publishing process we have successfully published many manuscripts that would be difficult for other publishers. Although we do not offer monetary advances, we pay competitive royalties for nonfiction work.[/h]

If the books they publish wouldn't be profitable for other publishers, how can they manage to publish them? The only explanation is that they either don't do as good a job of publishing their books; or that they earn money from publishing in other ways--from the authors they publish, probably. Which would make them a vanity publisher.

 

[Old Editor]

It does sound fishy to me. Their Facebook page implies that a number of their books ended up as movies or TV shows or specials, with Disney's name floated around. I don't ever remember seeing them on Publishers Marketplace, and I look at them at least once a week. I'm going to see what they have on amazon, etc. Back when I learn more.

 

[Old Editor]

Oh, okay. I don't like the following that mentions "a variety of publishing options" in this pitch. Amazon presence is sketchy.

Universal-Publishers is a book and journal publisher, and parent company of three non-fiction book imprints specializing in textbook and academic titles (Universal-Publishers, BrownWalker Press & Dissertation.com). We seek nonfiction authors whose work addresses a specialized audience. Our mission is to expose new ideas and important scholarship. In exchange for distribution rights, we offer a variety of publishing options, major distribution, fair compensation, multiple media editions, and personal attention.

We have over 1000 nonfiction and how-to titles currently available in print and electronically, and release about 50 new titles each year. In addition to worldwide distribution through Ingram Content Group, it has an independent distribution relationship for some of its titles in India with Overseas Press.

 

[JeffYoung]

From the Publisher

I just came across your post and would be happy to shed some light on this discussion. I have been with Universal Publishers since 1999. We publish nonfiction, how-to, and academic books, with over 1000 titles in print. We profit from book sales, not author fees. Some authors do pay for manuscript prepress, such as layout and graphic art. Any funds that remain are used to subsidize the setup costs for those who do not pay.

This model allows us to support authors who might not otherwise have an opportunity to bring their work to market. For example, sometimes we receive a well-written manuscript that we would be happy to publish but are not confident that the book will sell enough copies to cover the cost to get the book to market. Rather than reject it, we may offer to publish if the author is willing to cover some of the setup costs. This often occurs when a book appears to be difficult to market, either because there are already many books on the same topic, the audience is expensive to reach, or the author is new to the field and has limited opportunities to promote their book. In the publishing world, these are usually good indicators of a difficult publication, however, many of these titles are among our most successful. If a fee is necessary, it usually takes about 200-300 book sales to recover in royalties.

 

[Old Hack]

I just came across your post and would be happy to shed some light on this discussion. I have been with Universal Publishers since 1999. We publish nonfiction, how-to, and academic books, with over 1000 titles in print. We profit from book sales, not author fees. Some authors do pay for manuscript prepress, such as layout and graphic art. Any funds that remain are used to subsidize the setup costs for those who do not pay.

This model allows us to support authors who might not otherwise have an opportunity to bring their work to market. For example, sometimes we receive a well-written manuscript that we would be happy to publish but are not confident that the book will sell enough copies to cover the cost to get the book to market. Rather than reject it, we may offer to publish if the author is willing to cover some of the setup costs. This often occurs when a book appears to be difficult to market, either because there are already many books on the same topic, the audience is expensive to reach, or the author is new to the field and has limited opportunities to promote their book. In the publishing world, these are usually good indicators of a difficult publication, however, many of these titles are among our most successful. If a fee is necessary, it usually takes about 200-300 book sales to recover in royalties.

I am glad this model works for you, but it's still not something I'd recommend. If a publisher doesn't think it can sell a book effectively, it is not the best publisher for that book.