A publishing company has offered to edit & publish my book for a fee of $1700.00. Is this practice normal?

Question

The company has said that they are interested in the work but they are not buying copyrights now. The contact informed me that they would be willing to make sure my book in market ready by offering services such as proofreading, cover design, marketing, manuscript analysis, and online advertising. For this service, the fee is $1700.00 and I would be required to pay $5.00 per softcover book and $10.00 per harcover book printed to sell

Does anyone have any opinions about this practice?

Answer 1

I think that is an outrageous price! How can they justify charging so much?!?
I published a book. Completly FREE.
I self-published a book of poetry through http://www.lulu.com/ (you don’t need an agent for self-publishing)
Lulu is completely free and very easy to use. You can then buy a global distribution, or ISBN, which will put your book on Barnes and noble, borders, Amazon.... I really like lulu, I think they are great. They also offer a great customer service if you get stuck. Once published with them, you automatically get the copyright, and you keep all rights to it. You can have books printed in b/w or colour, hardback or soft back, and in a variety of sizes.
Lulu offer service providers who can professionally edit, proofread, format, cover art... They are very reasonably priced. Some service providers are extremely cheap, and very reliable. I've never had any problems with Lulu, or their service providers.
The only down side is that you have to promote the book yourself, even though some of Lulu service providers also do that.
I think no one should ever pay to get their book published. If anything the publishers should pay you. It is your book. You wrote it. And you should never give up the copyright to it. If you give up the copyright to the company, they can then change the story completly, and it will end up being nothing like what you wanted.
I really don't think you should pay that much.
Hope this helps. Good luck with your writing.
For any more information about Lulu you can contact me at [e-mail] (if you do contact me, put Lulu in the subject line, or I might report as Spam)
Cheers, Deanna.

Answer 2

No. It's a scam. Publishers pay *you*, you never pay *them* for anything.

No reputable publisher would offer such services for a fee. Publishers never charge the author for copies (they might after the first 5-100 free author copies, depending on the author's fame, but it's not usual).

Run from them as fast as you can. If you're really interested in seeing your work in book form, check out Lulu.com. They'll print it for you, get you an ISBN and onto Amazon.com & Barnes & Nobel.com but you'll have to do all the marketing as Lulu is simply a printer, not a traditional publisher.

Answer 3

$1,700 seems a bit excessive for proofreading. While the other services they are offering (ie: cover design, marketing and on-line advertising) along with the required fee to print the book are typical of a vanity press. Basically, you would be paying to get your book published. I would not recommend using a vanity press unless you have exhausted every other avenue.

Answer 4

This is a scam. Lots of publishers do this, and believe me you won't sell a single copy. You have to persevere- remember that even the best novelists have to send their manuscripts to scores of publishers before they get a bite. That's just part of the game- be patient, send your book to as many reputable publishers as you can, and make sure your manuscript is neatly typed and visually easy to read.

Answer 5

If it's a reputable publishing company, then you do NOT pay them. This company you are referring to sounds like a vanity press. You'll want to talk to other people who have published with them to see how they feel about their services if you are genuinely interested in self-publishing.

See if they are listed on Preditors and Editors. Check what they have to say about it.
http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubabout.htm

Answer 6

NO it is not. First of all, you never sell your copyright. This is a scam. A self publisher/vanity press, and the cost is VERY high. Could you contact me with the name of this company and I will research it for you. send to [e-mail]
Please tell me the name before you sign anything. Pax - C

Answer 7

I think that if someone wanted to publish your book, they would do it for free, and pay you. It doesn't look like they would put a dollar into helping you sell your book. It looks to me like they are offering you a service, rather than seeing that you are offerring them one.

Answer 8

My opinion is to run.....fast.

Any publishing company that is legit will publish and promote the book at no cost to you.

You're both supposed to make money on the deal. This is a scam. If you read your question, you will see that you are covering all of the "costs" and they are making all of the money.

Bad deal, forget about it.

Answer 9

No, DO NOT give them any money! If you want to self publish your book, try this website:

Cafepress.com

It cost money, but you will be in control.

A real publisher would never ask you for money to publish your book for any reason. They should be advancing you a little money if anything. Don't sign anything!

Answer 10

A publishing company should never charge you. You should have a contract and be *paid* an "advance on royalties" (a calculation based on the publisher's anticipated sales on your book). You will keep that advance and, if you earn more royalties down the road, the publisher will continue to pay you. You should never have to pay for a book to be published unless you can't find a publisher (e.g. it isn't as good to the market as you think it is) in which case, you can hit up a "Vanity Publisher" who will charge you - often at a per-printing price.