The
Defender Partnership
If you have
sent a query letter or manuscript to
dozens of publishing houses only to be
turned down again and again, you are not
alone. Current trends in publishing have
raised risks significantly. As a result,
nearly all traditional publishers have
scaled back or eliminated altogether their
willingness to publish new authors.
The reasons
for this are simple economics. Ever since
mega-retailers like Costco and WalMart
began carrying the A-list authors’ books
at big discounts, many local store owners,
where lesser known authors are typically
discovered, have found they cannot compete
with these Titans. The result has led more
and more publishers to view investment in
promising but unknown writers as too
risky.
While
Defender publishes some of its authors the
old-fashioned way with a standard royalty
agreement, we were actually designed as
the antidote to the problem of new authors
going unpublished: to provide a solid
method for great but unknown authors to be
published in a real publishing house with
industry distribution and a solid
marketing plan.
Where
Defender Publishing Group Comes In
At
Defender, we provide all of the
professional services of a traditional
publishing house, from professional
editing to cover design and everything in
between, plus authentic distribution by STL
Distributors into the retail trade and
a marketing
plan second to no one.
To
accomplish this while at the same time
remaining financially viable, we require
some authors to join us in the initial
print run of his or her book and to
purchase a pre-determined number of copies
for their private uses. Many of our #1
selling authors started with us this way.
The author's copies are discounted from
retail and can be resold by the author at
profit during the radio shows and other
Defender sponsored marketing endeavors,
not to mention to their private circle of
friends, churches, personal ministry,
websites and constituency. Most authors
have enough sphere of influence to easily
resell at profit the minimum books we
require, even without our marketing
efforts. By purchasing a select number of
their books in this way, a portion of the
production costs related to their book
(the very thing that keeps most
full-service publishing houses from
seriously considering new or lesser-known
authors to begin with) is offset. Defender
Publishing Group joins the author (the
partnership) by paying the remaining lions
share of investment in their book: the
copies printed for warehousing and
distribution, publicists fees, print,
audio and electronic advertising,
marketing, media kits, media review
copies, press releases to the national
news desk and more.
Trumps POD,
Self-Publishing, Subsidy Publishers
Unlike
POD, Vanity or even typical
"subsidy" publishers, Defender
does not make money selling books back to
the author. Defender makes a profit if the
author's book sells in retail. This is why
we only publish books we believe will sell
well. It is also why if the manuscript
review committee recommends a partnering
agreement, and the author doubts he or she
can sell a minimum 1,000 copies of his or
her book (which is extremely conservative
in the trade), it is too high of a risk
for us. We do this because we actively
seek books and authors that have the
potential to become best sellers. Defender
authors often order as many as 10,000 to
20,000 copies of their book for their own
uses, but 1,000 is the minimum we require
under the Partnership publishing plan.
For any
author that is reasonably confident his or
her book will sell at least 1,000 copies,
Defender is less expensive per book
than self-publishing or POD and offers
the favorable opportunity of being
published in a real, full-service
publishing house with global marketing and
distribution. Let me repeat. If you have
faith that your book will sell at least
1,000 copies, Defender will cost you LESS
money than POD or Self-Publishing and will
provide aggressive global marketing and
distribution.
The Defender partnership advantage is
clear. You wind up published by a
legitimate publisher with an aggressive
marketing plan tailored around you and
your book and distribution into the retail
CBA (Christian) and ABA (secular)
marketplace. You earn royalties on retail
sales along the way, and we promote you
and your book as outlined in our Publicity
Program. We put this in writing, in the
contract. The goal is to make your book a
top seller and you a known author.
Meanwhile, both the publisher and author
benefit from royalties.
How To
Compute The Author's Discount
While
purchasing 1000 copies of your book at
discount is the minimum author requirement
under our 'Partnering Agreement,' note
that the more books an author orders at
the time of the initial print run, the
higher the discount per book and,
therefore, profit to the author. For
authors who have the constituency to
distribute books to a direct or regular,
sizable audience, we highly recommend
larger quantities in order to increase the
author’s profit per book. Below is the
current discount schedule for books of
approximately 200-500 pages with no inside
color.
1,000-1,999
copies . . . 30% discount off retail
2,000-2,999 copies . . . 40% discount off
retail
3,000-3,999 copies . . . 50% discount off
retail
4,000-4,999 copies . . . 55% discount off
retail
5,000-7,500 copies . . . 60% discount off
retail
7,501-9,999 copies . . . 67% discount off
retail
10,000+ copies . . . 75% off retail
Why a
descending scale on price? Printers charge
for setup and take down time. A small
order has to carry the same setup fees as
a large order. The longer the press runs,
a wider number of books absorb the initial
setup expenses, and the cost per book goes
down. As an example, if your book is a
250-page trade paperback that retails for
$12.95 and you order 1,000 copies, your
cost would be 30% off $12.95. If you
ordered 10,000 copies, your discount would
be 75% off each book from the retail
price. Your profit goes up quickly with a
higher initial purchase.
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