Gina wrote to me with the following question:
I am wanting to get my first christian book published. I came across Strategic Book Publishng company who say they want to publish my book. They are telling me I need to pay $995.00 and will get royalty of 50%, then after selling 1000 books I would get a bonus of $1000.00.
Does this sound legit to you? Have you heard of this company?
Please let me know what you think.
My response?
I’m probably not the best person to ask since I’ve never paid a company to publish my work. Since I’m commercially published, I usually submit my work to a publishing house, and if they decide they want to publish it, they offer me a contract. The contract usually grants me an advance and after I’ve earned the advance back, I get royalties. I don’t get 50% in royalties, commercially published people usually get royalties somewhere between 5%-15% per copy sold, give or take…BUT commercially published people USUALLY sell several thousands of copies of books since our books are distributed widely via bookstores and places like Walmart, Kmart, etc.
Also, you have to remember, it’s a major feat to sell 1,000 copies of a self-pubbed book because you have to practically hand-sell each copy. Your book won’t have the same distribution as the books you’ll see on the shelves of most stores. Do you have a platform, or a means to sell your books so that your money is not wasted on this venture?
If you decide to pay to have your work published by this company, I’d see what kind of marketing support they give you. Also, you might want to see if there are any other writers online that have used Strategic Publishing’s services. You may want to ask Strategic Publishing’s customers if they’ve found their services useful. I just visted the site and saw that they have books advertised on the sidebar. I’d look through those published books to get authors to contact, and then see what they say.
You might also want to see if you can find other self-pubbed people who use other companies besides Strategic. I’ve heard you can publish your stuff cheap nowadays and I’ve heard others state that $1,000.00 is a bit pricey?
Another option would be to use Lightning Source to publish your novel. They’re cheap, BUT, your manuscript needs to already be edited and you’ll need your cover before you approach them. I’ve heard they publish the book “as is” so you’ll need to be sure it’s perfected before you send it to them. You might want to hire a professional editor to edit your book before you publish it yourself.
Hope that helps!