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What is the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing?
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A traditional publishing company picks up the initial costs of publication, such as cover design, layout, and editing. For this, the traditional publisher requires long term control (generally 5 – 7 years) of an author’s rights to his or her book, and pays the author royalties of about 8%-12% of the book’s cover price.
Self-publishing a book means that the author pays upfront for all of the publishing components (cover design, layout, editing, etc.). Because the author assumed all of the risk, they control all of the rights to the book and should make most, if not all, of the money from the sales of each book.
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Why should I publish with Mill City Press?
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If you care about:
· having complete control over your book (you own all digital files of the layout and cover, so you can publish them anywhere at any time);
· Original cover designs custom made for your book;
· Making all of the money from the sale of each book (yes, 100% of all revenue from each sale is yours); and
· Always paying the exact wholesale book printing costs without any mark-up--
then, Mill City Press is the publishing company for you.
Plus, you can always talk to a live person, as we make it our priority to be very hands on with our authors.
Additionally, we employ some of the most cutting-edge online marketing strategies for books.
Finally, Mill City Press was designed by Mark Levine, the author of the best selling book on the self-publishing industry, The Fine Print of Self Publishing. Since not even the best self-publishing companies could satisfy the Author’s Bill of Rights (created by Mark), Mark, along with a team of people from the traditional publishing arena, developed the concept that has now become Mill City Press.
Review our publishing package -- if you can find any other publisher to offer all that we do for $1,367, let us know.
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Do I need to register my book with the U.S. Copyright Office?
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As part of our basic publishing package, all you need to do is fill in the forms, and we take care of the rest. We'll send everything to the copyright office, keep track of your submission, send you a certificate, and make sure your book is protected.
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Is it better to self publish or use a company like Mill City Press?
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Mill City Press is set up in such a way that having us publish your book has all of the best aspects of pure self-publishing (authors make 100% of each sale and control all rights in the book) without any of the hassle - the author doesn’t have to individually find and contract with cover designers, layout specialists, editors, website designers, book printers, etc.
For an author who enjoys handling every minute aspect of the book publishing process (e.g. hiring a layout specialist, interviewing and contracting with a cover designer, dealing with editors, figuring out contracts and payment schedules, etc.) instead of just the creative elements of publishing, going the a la carte route may work.
If you want all of the “un-fun” aspects of publishing handled (including many you probably wouldn’t ever think about), then Mill City Press is for you. Since you make 100% of the money on each book sold, pay only the actual wholesale printing costs for your books, and can terminate your contract at any time (in case you decide to do it on your own), there is no downside. Click here to view our author-friendly contract.
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What is an ISBN number and why do I need one?
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The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a 10-digit number (and now a 13-digit number as of late 2006) which uniquely identifies books and book-like products. They are handled and sold by R.R. Bowker, a company that handles massive amounts of publishing data.
The ISBN allows libraries and bookstores to find information about the author, the author's book, the book's price, ordering information, and other related information.
You’ll need an ISBN to sell your book through any online or offline bookseller. Each edition of a book, whether in paperback, hardcover, e-book, audio or other such form, requires a separate ISBN.If you self-publish a book on your own, you will need to buy ISBNs. The smallest block available for purchase is 10, which will cost you approximately $300.
If you publish with Mill City Press, we will provide you an ISBN. It will list us as the publisher (as it’s one of the ISBNs we’ve purchased), but, should you ever want to terminate your contract with us, you can remove the ISBN from the book cover and put a new one on.
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What is a barcode and why do I need one on my book? What is the difference between a Bookland/EAN b
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All books use the Bookland/EAN bar code because it allows for the encoding of ISBNs. Almost all book retailers and wholesalers require the Bookland/EAN bar code somewhere on the back cover of a book, as this is what the retailer scans at the point of sale to identify the price and information from the bookseller's database. Like any other bar code, the computer then automatically reports the price to the cash register.
For mass market books, which are sold in drug stores and other non-bookstore retailers, a UPC bar code will likely be required since these non-bookstore retailers are not properly equipped to scan the Bookland/EAN symbols.
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What is a Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN)? Is it the same as a copyright registration?
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The Library of Congress Control Number (LCCN) is a unique identification number that the Library of Congress assigns to titles most likely to be acquired by the Library of Congress.
Librarians use the LCCN to access the associated bibliographic record in the Library of Congress's database or to obtain information on various book titles on other databases.
The publisher prints the LCCN on the back of the title page in the following manner: "Library of Congress Control Number: 2001012345."
The LCCN is NOT the same as a copyright registration even though both are filed with the Library of Congress.
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Do I need to register my book with the U.S. Copyright Office?
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Copyright protection arises automatically the moment the author fixes the work in a tangible form (i.e. when a writer writes her story and prints it on paper), without the author having to ever file a copyright registration with the Library of Congress. But there are many reasons why you want to register your book, including being afforded all of the statutory protections under the U.S. Copyright laws. Click here to read the 5 Good Reasons to Copyright Your Book. http://www.book-publishers-compared.com/why_copyright.asp
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What’s in the Mill City Press publishing package?
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All of the details of our publishing package are at http://www.millcitypress.net/pservices.cfm
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Why doesn’t Mill City Press take any royalties? Is this for real? What’s the catch?
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It’s your book. You should make all of the money. You pay us to publish your book and some authors pay us to provide marketing services. You’re paying us, so why do we deserve royalties? We don’t. When a traditional publisher invests a lot of money into marketing your book, a hefty royalty is earned. In the case where you pay for any marketing services, you should be insulted by any self publishing company’s justification for royalties.
Not taking royalties is a concept foreign to every other self-publishing company. We are all about the writer, not about how to make money from every angle of the publishing process. By not taking royalties, we are the first self-publishing company to buck the system. Our competitors aren’t happy about it, but you will be. If you are considering another self-publishing company, make sure you ask them why they take a royalty if they are not spending any money to market your book.
Learn how not paying Mill City Press royalties can save you up to 600 dollars for every 100 books that are ordered by the public. http://www.millcitypress.net/selfPublishingCompanyRoyalties.cfm
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What type of book editing services does Mill City Press offer?
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We offer everything from a basic grammatical edit to a publishing-ready edit, which is what the big publishing houses do prior to publication. Our editing packages range from $.009 per word to $.03 per word. Click here to learn about our editing packages. (LINK TO http://www.millcitypress.net/bookEditingServices.cfm )
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Why don’t you offer template book cover designs like other self-publishing companies?
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While in life it's proper not to judge a book by its cover, in publishing, it's mandatory.
We believe that if you don’t want to spend a few extra dollars to have a great cover, we can’t in good conscience take your money to help you market and promote your book. A template cover screams “self-publishing” and such a cover will ultimately hurt your ability to sell your book. Remember, you have seconds for a potential reader to be convinced to purchase your book. The cover plays a huge role in that process.
To see examples of our book covers go to http://www.millcitypress.net/bookcoverdesign.cfm
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Can I design my own book cover?
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Once you start the publishing process with us, one of the first things you do is complete a questionnaire designed to help our designers design the cover you've imagined. You will get two concepts to choose from, and then we tweak and refine the concept you choose.
Many of our authors have created a cover and/or have photos that they want to include in their cover design. We can either incorporate your cover ideas into the ones our designers create, or you can have our designers create two original concepts (and still use your design if you continue to prefer it).
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Do you provide me an ISBN number?
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Yes. If you want to use your own ISBN number, special arrangements can be made. However, you will need to purchase a block of 10 ISBNs for $300 (from www.isbn.org), even if you only require one.
Remember, because you own all digital files to your book, if you ever decide to publish on your own, you can purchase an ISBN at that time and simply substitute the new number for ours.
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Where will my book be sold?
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Your book will be available through I-Page, the book ordering system which is used by over 25,000 bookstores and retailers.
Your book is automatically listed on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and these other online retailers and wholesalers:
Ingram Book Group, Amazon.com, Baker & Taylor, Borders, Bowker’s Books in Print, Amazon.co.uk, Powells.com, Bamm.com/Booksamillion.com, Barnes&Noble.com, Froogle, Gardners, Nascscorp, Alibris, Abebooks, Bertram books
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How can I get my book in bookstores?
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This is always challenging for new authors. We have a complete bookstore and library distribution program. you can learn more about it at http://www.millcitypress.net/Book-Store-Sales-Industry-Review.cfm .
Also, we offer participation in the Booksense program, in which a blurb about your book is submitted to hundreds of independent bookstores around the country. Interested bookstores can request a courtesy copy of your book and, if they like what they read, they may order copies for their stores. Click here to learn more about our Booksense program. http://www.millcitypress.net/bookSense.cfm
We also offer our Bookstore Sales Review http://www.millcitypress.net/bookStoreSalesReview.cfm in which we review your book for in-store retail potential and then submit your book to our contacts with major retailers and book distributors.
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How long will it take for my book to be completed and ready for sale?
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Much of this depends on whether or not you have us edit your book and how long the book cover design process takes (should you decide to make five rounds of revisions with our cover designer, obviously the process will take more time). These factors work together to determine when your book will be ready for sale.
However, most books can be completed within 45-60 days from the date you order our publishing package.
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Does Mill City Press register my book with the U.S. Copyright Office?
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Yes. Our parent company has operated www.ClickandCopyright.com for seven years and has helped thousands of writers, musicians and artists copyright their works.
As part of our publishing package, you receive Click&Copyright’s $142 verified copyright package.
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What royalties will I make?
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You make 100%. Period. No fuzzy math.
If you’re considering any other self-publishing company, ask them why they take a royalty? You pay them to publish your book and they still get to make part of the profits? Smells a bit fishy to us.
You will be amazed to learn how much more you’ll make by not paying us a royalty. http://www.millcitypress.net/selfPublishingCompanyRoyalties.cfm
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How much will it cost me to buy additional copies of my book?
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You pay the actual printing cost of each book plus any shipping to wherever you want them sent.
Every time you order books, we charge a $23 administrative fee. That’s the same whether you order 10 books or 500. This covers our time to place the order with the printer and make sure the books arrive.
If you think you might be ordering books throughout the year, you can pay a yearly fee of $100 which will cover all administrative costs associated with ordering copies of your book for that entire period.
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Who handles the fulfillment of my book orders made by the public?
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At Mill City Press, our authors have many choices when it comes to book fulfillment. First, any books ordered through Amazon.com or other online retailers are fulfilled by Amazon.com (or the retailer), so you don’t have to worry about those.
Because Amazon.com and the other online retailers take about 50% of the retail price as a fee, you definitely want to sell books on your own. Here are your options with us:
*Sell directly through your one page website. We will set up a link to Paypal or a merchant account (that you get) for you. When orders come in, you simply send out the book. There is no additional fee for this service.
*Have us build you a backend fulfillment system so that you can manage your sales and keep track of things such as customer information, mailing date, the tracking numbers of your packages, etc. You will still need a merchant account or Paypal account to process your orders. We can build this for $500.
*Have us build the backend fulfillment system and have us handle your order fulfillment. You won’t need a special merchant account or Paypal account, as all purchases will run through our merchant account. This service costs $500 and we handle the first 250 orders for free, less than a 3% charge per order (which is our cost to process credit cards). After the first 250 books are fulfilled, we charge $1 per book. This system is included as part of the optimized website we build for authors.
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What is contained in the free book marketing plan? Is it really customized for my book?
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Yes, the book marketing plan is actually about your book. We research the search terms that potential readers of your book are already seeking out in search engines, and explain how we would build pages around those terms and make them relevant to your book. We also discuss how we may create an online advertising campaign for your book. Our social networking site marketing director will tell you which social networking sites will be best to create a buzz for your book and why. Finally, our public relations expert will provide you with some of the media outlets that we will prepare press releases for.
Click here to get your free marketing plan
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What types of book marketing services are available?
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All of our book marketing services can be found at http://www.millcitypress.net/bookMarketingServices.cfm
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Why are some many of the Mill City Press marketing services done online?
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By harnessing the power and scope of the internet, authors can get much more bang for their marketing buck by targeting individuals already interested in the subject and themes of their books.
We have had much success marketing our own books online and we employ the exact same techniques for our authors.
Whether it’s creating a buzz for your book on Myspace or putting together a targeted advertising campaign on Google, we can help.
To view all of our marketing programs go to http://www.millcitypress.net/bookMarketingServices.cfm
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What services do you offer to help me get my book in bookstores?
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This is always challenging for new authors. We offer two solutions. First, you can participate in the Booksense program in which a blurb about your book is submitted to hundreds of independent bookstores around the country. Interested bookstores can request a courtesy copy of your book and, if they like what they read, they may order copies for their stores. Click here to learn more about our Booksense program. http://www.millcitypress.net/bookSense.cfm
We also offer our Bookstore Sales Review http://www.millcitypress.net/bookStoreSalesReview.cfm in which we review your book for in-store retail potential and then submit your book to our contacts with major retailers and book distributors.
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How does a business development strategy help me sell more books?
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Our business development team actively searches for sites that are complimentary to the subject matter of your book. We then negotiate either link exchanges or partnership opportunities that are mutually beneficial to you and the other company (e.g. some companies may run specials that include your book as part of a package deal, or they may offer their visitors special pricing on your book).
Such business development efforts expose your book to thousands of additional people every day. Plus, links from relevant sites that connect to your website help you rank higher because of accurate keyword placement.
Click here to learn more about our business development services.
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What types of directories will you submit my book to, and how does this help me?
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We own www.Published.com, the largest free directory in the world for writers who want to post information about their books and links to their sales pages. In addition, we will also submit your book to these directories:
Click here to learn more about our book directory submission services.
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Why do I need anything more than a one-page website?
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The first step in creating an effective web presence is to build an optimized website. Such a website not only has the typical pages like “about the author” and “read a chapter for free,” but also contains pages that specifically relate to the topics and subject of your book. Those pages should be determined by the keyword terms that readers search when looking for books like yours.
There is no more precise way to reach your target reader than through the internet. Assume you’ve written a book on cat grooming. If you advertise the book in pet related magazines, you hope that the person reading the magazine:
1) Is looking for cat grooming products or other information (like a book) at the time he/she is reading the page in the magazine on which your ad appears;
2) Then, immediately upon reviewing your ad, takes the time to call or go online to order the book.
A more typical scenario: the person tears out the ad or marks the page, intending to return later. Once that delay occurs, your chances of making a sale decrease. On top of all of this, you need to run an ad dozens of times for people to start to recognize your book.
Take that same book and spend your advertising dollars on the Internet. For less than what it would cost you to run your ad twice in a decent sized publication, you can create a long-lasting web presence and start driving thousands of targeted readers to your book. And, unlike typical advertising, your web presence is working 24/7, 365 days a year.
Thousands of people are searching everyday on keywords that are related to your book. If they are already interested in the topic as a whole, they certainly may buy a book that involves that topic.
We suggest building your website so that it has specific pages built around targeted keyword terms. These will be your landing pages. When people search for those terms on search engines, links to your pages show up. The idea with such keyword rich pages is to get specific subject oriented, free traffic to your site. If someone is searching for X, the research shows that they want to come to a page on your site that talks about X, not the homepage that might talk about A,B,C,…Y and Z.
Think about this-- it is commonly known that at least 70% of a website’s traffic comes directly from search engines. Unlike typical author websites which are designed to merely provide information about the author and the author’s books, we design ours to draw traffic and sell books. The highly targeted world of internet search can work for you and your book.
Click here to learn about the optimized website services we provide for authors.
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Can you help me advertise my book on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc?
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When you have a website, a precise, well-managed pay-per-click (PPC) campaign is essential. PPC ads are the text ads you see at the top and sides of search engine pages. The position of the ad is determined mostly by how much the advertiser is willing to pay for a certain position. Depending on the keywords and industry, a PPC ad can cost anywhere from $.10 to $10 each time someone clicks on the ad.
We can help you set up your PPC campaign on Google, Yahoo, MSN and other PPC search engines. We also help you manage the campaigns for a certain period of time to help you determine which ads and keyword terms work best for your book. We also measure which terms are actually converting site visitors into book buyers.
Click here for more information on our PPC programs.
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Do you offer services to help me get my book in libraries?
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If you have a non-fiction book, we can submit your book to the largest library distributor in the U.S.
Click here to learn more about our library submission services.
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What is contained in a press kit?
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A press kit contains an author bio, book synopsis, press release and a sell sheet.
Whenever you want to promote your book to reviewers, newspapers, websites, or other media, you'll need a professional press kit.
Click here to learn more about our press kit services.
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Why do I need a sell sheet?
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Every book needs a one page piece that can be emailed, mailed, or faxed at a moment's notice. When a reviewer or bookseller wants to know more about a title, they turn to the sell sheet. Who is the author? How many pages? What's the selling price?
Do you have a one page sheet that shows your book cover, contains all the important information, including ISBN, binding, publication date, etc? Our professionally designed sell sheet will help you sell and promote your book. We make sure it includes all of the information that industry execs will want to know.
Click here to see a sample sell sheet.
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What traditional book publicity services do you offer?
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We offer PR services and the creation of press kits and sell sheets.
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What does it mean to market my book on social networking sites? Aren’t they just full of teens?
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Unless you live in a cave, you’ve probably heard of Myspace.com, a social networking site that people can join for free and connect with friends, post writings, and use to share information. More than 160,000 people a day are joining MySpace. Other large networking sites include Friendster.com, Xanga.com, LiveJournal.com, and Gather.com. All of these sites allow people to expand their circle of friends and develop close relationships with hundreds of other people.
As people turn to social networking sites, the influence of just one reader grows exponentially. Suddenly the one reader, who loves your book, can post a comment to hundreds or thousands of friends. A 2004 study by Forrester Research showed that more than 60% of consumers trust recommendations found in online sources such as discussion boards, blogs, and social networking sites.
These sites are a great way to generate buzz, interact with your readers, and translate that interest into book sales. Once you have a profile on one of these sites, it’s there forever. As people browse the Internet they will visit it and contact you. You will have hundreds of opportunities to sell your book, promote yourself, and become well-known to the right group of people.
Karina Taylor, our director of online book promotion, is an expert in promoting books and music on social networking sites. She’s the author of the book, Creating a Buzz for Your Band: How to Promote Your Band on MySpace (www.online-band-promotion.com)
And no, social networking sites aren’t just filled with teenagers.
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How is my book formatted? Do I have options to choose from?
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You have choices regarding the layout, font size, paper weight and more.
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Is having a blog an important part of marketing my book?
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More information coming soon!
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