If accepted into the royalty program, many authors are
interested in a bit more information about what the programs entail.
Because of this, we've developed this frequently asked questions pages.
Q. Does
this program transfer my rights to my work? A.
No - the program allows you to give permission for reproduction specified
in the contract only. You retain all of your rights.
Q. What does electronic form mean? A. Currently our
preferred electronic media/E-book is in CD in restricted printing PDF (Adobe)
format. Preferred formats are subject to change though.
Q. How many books do you print at one time? A. This depends on projected
yearly sales...If it
looks like we might sell 5 in a year, we usually print 6, if it looks like
we might sell 200 in a year, then approximately 200 would be printed at a
time.
Q.
Do you wait until a certain number
are ordered; say 20 orders, then print 40 copies? A.
As soon as we receive the manuscript, we send it into very small limited
production and it stays in print from that time. Infrequently there is the exception of
unforeseen backorders, when more orders than anticipated arrive and the new
printing is not complete.
Q.
If I buy books from you, do I
still make the 15% on those books? Or do I get a discount on books I may
want to order? A. For a book
here and there, you'd order like everyone else and get the 15% back
annually. However, since you still retain all your rights, you can
have us (or anyone else) print small quantities for yourself at any time based on current
prices.
Q. Is there a cost for storage of royalty
program books? A. No
Q.
Please give me an estimate to
what 15% is actually equal. About what do I earn on each book? A.
Depends on quantity printed for each printing and what we decide to sell the
book for. Before being accepted into the program, we will not "do the
math" on a project, as we feel all royalty books are worth the expense
due to their nature. Additionally, 15% may be
a different figure for different printings in a given year. The
breakdown will be included in the annual check and report mailing.
Q.
What sort of
distribution system do you have in place for your royalty books?
A. Our standard marketing is to place it
in our online catalog and give it a turn as the catalog
spotlight, inclusion in
our next printed catalog, sometimes we do a press release
online while providing
you with copies for local distribution. We also do a limited number of
flyers you can network with and may go as inserts to book buyers.
Additionally, we carry royalty books with us to most genealogy events we
exhibit at,
post it on an elist or two, etc.
Q.
Do you secure the ISBN,
register the title with Amazon and major book sellers or do any sales and
marketing? A. Many times for a
royalty book we will assign it an ISBN,
though this is not a term of the contract. If you feel the book would benefit from an ISBN,
you can secure one through us for our standard fee. An ISBN is what
many book stores use for their list of "special order" books. At this
time, we don't register with Amazon at all.
Do
not send originals or manuscripts at this point! No submitted approval materials will be returned.
* If you produced the book yourself
and no one else has filed for the Copyright, you are the Copyright holder, with
or without completed Library of Congress paperwork.
