Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Types of E-publishing

Basically there are five types of publication available to authors: house, subsidy, self cooperative and broker. This articles explains each along with their pros and cons.

1. House Publisher: A house publisher is based most closely on the model of a traditional, royalty-paying publishing company. An author submits a query or a partial submission to the publisher.

A complete manuscript is requested if the publisher is intrigued by the submission. Some electronic publishers in this category simply request that the full manuscript be sent most often as a file attached to an email as the initial submission.
If the publisher accepts the manuscript and the contract is agreed upon, the house publisher provides most, if not all, of the services normally associated with a traditional royalty-paying publisher.

The manuscript is carefully edited cover art and back covers are collected, advanced review copies or advanced ready copies are sent to reviewers and initial promotional marketing begins. Following publication the author and the publisher work together to promote the book.

The benefit for the author is that there is little risk involved. The publisher pays for the costs of production and distribution. While the author receives royalties ranging anywhere from 25% to 50%

The disadvantage is that as in the traditional, final editing and creative control is left with the publisher rather than the author.

2. Subsidy: Authors who contract with a subsidy e-publisher choose from a menu of services, each with a separate fee or contained within a “package” deal. The subsidy e-publisher prepares and converts the books as well as provides exposure for it on the publisher’s website.

The advantages of subsidy e-publishing are that the author who might not be computer savvy can obtain the services more easily without having to worry about obtaining a credit card server or a website from which to sell his book.

The disadvantages is that this form puts the author if financial risk if the book is not successful in sales

3. Self Publishing: Rather than visiting a traditional printing press to arrange for print runs the self published author either prepares the book himself and converts in into digital prepares the book himself and converts it into digital format or arranges with an independent contractor to perform the conversions.

The other facets of the publication--editing cover art, and promotion--are also left to the self-published author as well as the creation of a website for sales.

The benefits are that the author has complete control over the final presentation of the book and the author also receives all the proceeds from the sales.

The disadvantages of this form of publishing are that the author must promote and market the book without the benefit of the awareness already afforded to established e-publishers. The author is responsible for the publication costs, which varies with level of computer skills possessed by him.

4. Cooperative publishing: In this model, the publisher bases it’s operation on the traditional houses model, with the associated book preparation and royal payment. The cooperative publisher offers the basic editing cover art and website preparation, offers the book in its standard formats and markets the book.

However, if the author wishes to have the book presented in formats not normally offered by the publisher; the publisher will either convert the book, for a fee, or refer the author to a third party contractor for the conversion. The publisher will then also offer that format for the sale from its website. The same is true if the author desires to provide the cover art.

The advantage is the same as for house publishing.

However, the disadvantage is that the authors, if they choose, place some money at risk of they decide on obtaining conversions or original cover art.

5. Broker: A broker publisher simply offers the author the opportunity of displaying his book at the broker’s Website and takes care of the selling and distribution of the book.

The advantages of this sort of publishing lies in the fact that the author does not need to create a website to sell from or worry about selling and distribution.

The disadvantages are that the broker normally offers no services such as editing no service such as editing, or promotion. If the broker does offer these of services, it’s usually at a cost in either a fee or in royalty points. Otherwise, this is left to the author, which puts his funds at risk.
This type of publisher normally charges between 25% and 75% brokerage of an authors book.
As in any publishing endeavor, it’s very important for an author to thoroughly investigate every aspect of a publisher before signing a contract.