Submissions FAQ
Welcome to our writers' corner. Here we'd love to share what we do, what we can do for you, how it works, what people have to say about us, and more. Look around, and when you think of questions - and you will have questions Don't waste any time getting answers. Please feel free to email us at admin@booksyoucantrust.com or fill out a contact form on our website.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU - (Please note that there are NO COSTS to you & NO HIDDEN FEES)
•Answer your questions.
•Evaluate your submission & offer critique & encouragement.
•Work with you on revisions.
•Develop a professional front and back cover with your input.
•Professionally edit your manuscript and discuss changes we feel are needed in collaboration with you.
•Professionally proofread your manuscript through multiple readers.
•Obtain ISBN numbers (print & digital.)
•Submit advance reader copies and solicit Beta readers.
•Format and Typesetting of manuscript.
•Submit for print and conversion to e-book formats.
•Establish price point and establish a pricing range with you.
•Assign free and promotional opportunities.
•Send you a proof copy for final inspection/corrections.
•Secure and assign an Internet domain name for your book.
•Develop book web page to market your book.
•Develop Facebook author fan page.
•Work with you on development of social media markets including Twitter, Google +, Facebook and more.
•Develop and submit press releases, media marketing materials, articles, self-generated marketing items to general and specific media markets.
•Set up author interviews and book signings locally, as available.
•Make copies of book available to you at cost. (Note: You have no obligation to purchase any.)
•Submit quarterly sales reports to you.
•Encourage you to write more books.
FAQ
[Note: These are actual questions that have been sent to us. If you have a question you would like answered, scroll to the bottom of the page.]
• How many rounds of editing need to be done? Would I be charged if additional editing is required? No charges are incurred by the writer at all. After the book sells we equally share the royalty. We aim to get a great book out and each book is different and requires differing levels of editing. I cannot say how many rounds of editing will be needed, however, I can tell you that there is no cost to you.
• Will I have any input on the final naming and look of my books? Yes - we work WITH you. We will make suggestions based on our experience. As the writer you can express your ideas, although the goal of working with BYCT is for our experience.
• I don't see BYCT quoting reviews from anywhere other than individuals and Amazon. Are review copies sent to newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, and online book review sites? We send reviews , articles, videos, sample copies, bio sheets and more to the above named outlets. In addition, we target independent bookstores and specialized stores. We are always in the process of getting feedback. As for an online book review site, they are either paid or comprised of individuals who read the book. We have quotes from people who read the book and were not paid. Right now we are focused on getting our books (both in print and e-formats) to as many people as we can, to get their reviews and quotes. Like all things, that does takes time.
• How are covers designed? We have professional graphic designers working on our covers and print layouts. Graphic art comes from a variety of sources including original designs and composite works. It all depends on the look we are after. Authors are included in the design process.
• Why does the BYCT catalog appears to only contain a handful of titles? This does not constitute any kind of track record. Books You Can Trust is a relatively young company. We were formed in January 2013. That is not a secret. The formation of this company is based on the experience of the key players and those backing the company. This experience spans decades of writing, editing, graphics, sales and marketing both in the field of books, newspapers, magazines, as well as digital formats. It should be noted that our titles are free of graphic violence, graphic sex and profanity, as mandated by our publishing policy. With our recent acquisition of new titles, expect to see the number of books increase rapidly.
• Wouldn't it make more sense to get a mainstream publisher? Absolutely. We believe our company to be your #2 option for publishing available. Read PUBLISHING OPTIONS. The likelihood of you getting a mainstream publisher as a new author is slim. I won't depress you how slim, but here is a quite from a best selling author, Ian Irvine who wrote: "Lesson 1: Got expectations? Lower them. Feel free to write the most beautiful, thought-provoking words in the English language. The public will feel equally free to ignore them. Here's the sad truth: most people who write a book will never get it published, half the writers who are published won't see a second book in print, and most books published are never reprinted. What's more, half the titles in any given bookshop won't sell a single copy there, and most published writers won't earn anything from their book apart from the advance."
Read the whole article - it answers a lot of questions http://www.ian-irvine.com/publishing.html
• Your contract grants you total control over your work for a period of time, after which his control automatically extends unless you take action to terminate. During the period of control you pay for nothing, and you might expect some editing fees, billed to you during rewrite. And the rewrites may be substantial. The contract requires you to provide whatever rewrites the publisher asks for ("We don't like the ending; you must write a new ending").
I am not sure WHAT contract you are reading; but it is not ours. Our contracts offer many choices. They run from a one year to a five year term, the latter offering a higher net royalty. Many publisher contracts run longer. The reason we want a set period is to be sure that after we have provided all the services you see on our services page, you do not just say "goodbye" and go sell your professionally readied book elsewhere. We sink in about $4000 - $6000 worth of services that cost you nothing. There are NO editing fees, nothing is billed to you at all. We are not publishing dictators - we work with you from start to finish, a collaborative effort. During the period of the contract we want your book to sell well. You can renew the contract if you want. If not, 60 days written notice and you are done and your book is no longer exclusively ours to sell. Since we are a business built on reputation, it would defeat the point to create a negative image or the wrath of writers posting across the Internet. In this age of mistrust it is easy to pull anything apart. We have tried to be as upfront, transparent and clear about how we work. If we have missed anything let us know. We will post the answers here.
• It looks to me like you are a fairly typical vanity publishing deal: the publisher takes total control of everything, the writer pays for a list of incidental expenses and the publisher provides little real service to the writer.
I am not sure what site you are looking at. You are not describing our company at all. We do not have total control over everything. The writer pays no incidental expenses. We provide a lot of services. Vanity Press publishers charge a fee, require certain book quantities to be purchased by the author, and they will print anything submitted since they make their money from the fees. Our authors have no costs. We earn our money when the book sells and we still share the royalty with no hidden fees or costs.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU - (Please note that there are NO COSTS to you & NO HIDDEN FEES)
•Answer your questions.
•Evaluate your submission & offer critique & encouragement.
•Work with you on revisions.
•Develop a professional front and back cover with your input.
•Professionally edit your manuscript and discuss changes we feel are needed in collaboration with you.
•Professionally proofread your manuscript through multiple readers.
•Obtain ISBN numbers (print & digital.)
•Submit advance reader copies and solicit Beta readers.
•Format and Typesetting of manuscript.
•Submit for print and conversion to e-book formats.
•Establish price point and establish a pricing range with you.
•Assign free and promotional opportunities.
•Send you a proof copy for final inspection/corrections.
•Secure and assign an Internet domain name for your book.
•Develop book web page to market your book.
•Develop Facebook author fan page.
•Work with you on development of social media markets including Twitter, Google +, Facebook and more.
•Develop and submit press releases, media marketing materials, articles, self-generated marketing items to general and specific media markets.
•Set up author interviews and book signings locally, as available.
•Make copies of book available to you at cost. (Note: You have no obligation to purchase any.)
•Submit quarterly sales reports to you.
•Encourage you to write more books.
FAQ
[Note: These are actual questions that have been sent to us. If you have a question you would like answered, scroll to the bottom of the page.]
• How many rounds of editing need to be done? Would I be charged if additional editing is required? No charges are incurred by the writer at all. After the book sells we equally share the royalty. We aim to get a great book out and each book is different and requires differing levels of editing. I cannot say how many rounds of editing will be needed, however, I can tell you that there is no cost to you.
• Will I have any input on the final naming and look of my books? Yes - we work WITH you. We will make suggestions based on our experience. As the writer you can express your ideas, although the goal of working with BYCT is for our experience.
• I don't see BYCT quoting reviews from anywhere other than individuals and Amazon. Are review copies sent to newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, and online book review sites? We send reviews , articles, videos, sample copies, bio sheets and more to the above named outlets. In addition, we target independent bookstores and specialized stores. We are always in the process of getting feedback. As for an online book review site, they are either paid or comprised of individuals who read the book. We have quotes from people who read the book and were not paid. Right now we are focused on getting our books (both in print and e-formats) to as many people as we can, to get their reviews and quotes. Like all things, that does takes time.
• How are covers designed? We have professional graphic designers working on our covers and print layouts. Graphic art comes from a variety of sources including original designs and composite works. It all depends on the look we are after. Authors are included in the design process.
• Why does the BYCT catalog appears to only contain a handful of titles? This does not constitute any kind of track record. Books You Can Trust is a relatively young company. We were formed in January 2013. That is not a secret. The formation of this company is based on the experience of the key players and those backing the company. This experience spans decades of writing, editing, graphics, sales and marketing both in the field of books, newspapers, magazines, as well as digital formats. It should be noted that our titles are free of graphic violence, graphic sex and profanity, as mandated by our publishing policy. With our recent acquisition of new titles, expect to see the number of books increase rapidly.
• Wouldn't it make more sense to get a mainstream publisher? Absolutely. We believe our company to be your #2 option for publishing available. Read PUBLISHING OPTIONS. The likelihood of you getting a mainstream publisher as a new author is slim. I won't depress you how slim, but here is a quite from a best selling author, Ian Irvine who wrote: "Lesson 1: Got expectations? Lower them. Feel free to write the most beautiful, thought-provoking words in the English language. The public will feel equally free to ignore them. Here's the sad truth: most people who write a book will never get it published, half the writers who are published won't see a second book in print, and most books published are never reprinted. What's more, half the titles in any given bookshop won't sell a single copy there, and most published writers won't earn anything from their book apart from the advance."
Read the whole article - it answers a lot of questions http://www.ian-irvine.com/publishing.html
• Your contract grants you total control over your work for a period of time, after which his control automatically extends unless you take action to terminate. During the period of control you pay for nothing, and you might expect some editing fees, billed to you during rewrite. And the rewrites may be substantial. The contract requires you to provide whatever rewrites the publisher asks for ("We don't like the ending; you must write a new ending").
I am not sure WHAT contract you are reading; but it is not ours. Our contracts offer many choices. They run from a one year to a five year term, the latter offering a higher net royalty. Many publisher contracts run longer. The reason we want a set period is to be sure that after we have provided all the services you see on our services page, you do not just say "goodbye" and go sell your professionally readied book elsewhere. We sink in about $4000 - $6000 worth of services that cost you nothing. There are NO editing fees, nothing is billed to you at all. We are not publishing dictators - we work with you from start to finish, a collaborative effort. During the period of the contract we want your book to sell well. You can renew the contract if you want. If not, 60 days written notice and you are done and your book is no longer exclusively ours to sell. Since we are a business built on reputation, it would defeat the point to create a negative image or the wrath of writers posting across the Internet. In this age of mistrust it is easy to pull anything apart. We have tried to be as upfront, transparent and clear about how we work. If we have missed anything let us know. We will post the answers here.
• It looks to me like you are a fairly typical vanity publishing deal: the publisher takes total control of everything, the writer pays for a list of incidental expenses and the publisher provides little real service to the writer.
I am not sure what site you are looking at. You are not describing our company at all. We do not have total control over everything. The writer pays no incidental expenses. We provide a lot of services. Vanity Press publishers charge a fee, require certain book quantities to be purchased by the author, and they will print anything submitted since they make their money from the fees. Our authors have no costs. We earn our money when the book sells and we still share the royalty with no hidden fees or costs.