10 Reasons To Publish With Defender

1. PROMOTION: 

The BIGGEST difference between Defender and other publishers is our plan to promote every author. If we publish your book, it will be because we believe in it and will promote it aggressively. Another advantage we have over other publishers is that we own our own news service, have full-time publicists who target media outlets, and have affiliate relationships with dozens of radio hosts and top newscasters who routinely interview our authors. This means that Defender publishing will promote you and your book, not just print it. Our goal is to get you reviewed, interviewed and in the news, so that your book has the best chance of reaching a tipping point and becoming a great seller.

One word of caution we give every author is that no matter how much promotion goes into pushing a particular book, there is no guarantee it will become a best seller. Any publisher that promises you otherwise is lying. We have had books that became #1 in their genre with very little promotions and others that became great sellers through a lot of hard work, and finally some that did not become best sellers no matter how hard we tried. The reasons for this are varied and can include whether current world news relates to the authors book or how well the author comes across on radio or television.

What we can promise you is that we will work hard to make your book do well in the market, in hopes that it will even become internationally known. At a minimum, each author we publish is featured on news and affiliate sites, interviewed on radio shows, reviewed by book reviewers and promoted aggressively as outlined in our Standard Publicity Program below. This outshines anything other publishers do except for maybe 1% of their top 'A' list.

Our Standard Publicity Program:

• Author Directly Marketed By Mail/Phone To Interviewers / Reviewers
• Amazon Top Seller’s Campaign (the goal is to create an Amazon #1 bestseller)
• Leading Newswire Service to Between 60,000 and 100,000 Global Media Contact Points, Newsrooms
• Authors Book Featured by Google News and Yahoo! News, the #1 Leading Websites in the World
• Publicist Promotion To Book Reviewers
• Publicist Promotion To Radio & Television Interviewers
• Press Releases To Dozens Of News Services
• Promotion In Trade Magazines, Sell Sheets
• Book Reviews At Raiders News Service, Elsewhere0
• Author Tools For Self Promotion, Such As "1001 Ways To Promote Your Book" (a pro trade book)
• Reviews At Amazon And Other Major Internet Sites
• Routine Exposure At Raiders News Network For 1 Year

When you consider the hundreds of hours represented by the publicity program above, you understand why some publishers would charge in excess of $15,000.00 for these Standard Defender services, more than what it costs the average Defender author to purchase 1000 copies of their book! So, if you are part of our Partnering Program, it’s like getting your first 1000 books FREE anyway.

2. DISTRIBUTION: 

STL Distribution is our distributor. They are the only full-service distributor serving Christian publishers and manufacturers. They are managed and led by committed Christians with many years of experience in the Christian publishing and retail industry selling to the Christian chains and catalogers including Family Christian Stores, LifeWay, Cokesbury, Mardel, Christian Book Distributors (CBD), Berean and others. STL works with the wholesaler distributors including Baker & Taylor, Ingram, and Anchor, and also distribute into the largest independent Christian retailers through their association with Genesis Marketing Group. They are widely regarded as one of the best rep organizations in the US and are experienced in selling a wide variety of products from books to gifts and more.

In addition to our distributor's sales teams efforts: 1) we advertise every book by every Defender author in the STL catalog (see sample) for the sales teams to use in promoting our books to book buyers during regular sales meetings; 2) we create special sales sheets for the STL sales teams to use to promote our books during sales meetings; and 3) we aggressively promote each author during our Marketing and Publicity Program, getting him or her involved in radio, book reviews, interviews, and more as spelled out above, in order to generate motivation for the sales team to push our books. We do this because we believe promotion of your printed book is more important than any other aspect of the book-writing/publishing process. Frankly, any publisher worth their salt can edit, typeset and design an attractive book cover. But promotion is the big imperative because this is a competitive business, driven by hard-nosed, intelligent people who can be ruthless at maximizing the dollar. If the publisher is not working hard to get your book promoted, it is easy to get buried in the shuffle no matter how good your book has been written or how important its message.

3. COMMITMENT TO HARD WORK:

When a manuscript is submitted to Defender, it is reviewed by a committee that makes a recommendation. The committee may recommend: 1) against publishing the book; 2) publishing the book under a standard royalty agreement; or 3) offering to partner with the author. Partnering with authors to get their book published in a legitimate publishing house with real distribution is a relatively new outgrowth of market changes over the last twenty years. As explained elsewhere, trends in publishing have raised risks for publishing houses significantly. As a result, nearly all traditional publishers have scaled back or eliminated altogether their willingness to publish new authors. This has spawned entirely new methods of getting books in print, including Print-On-Demand (POD), Self-Publishing, Subsidy Publishing and Partnering. Industry insiders acknowledge that Vanity, POD and Self-Publishing can severely damage an authors chances of ever getting real distribution, and much has been written about the dangers and delusions of this type publishing. Subsidy publishing is hardly better, producing books typically viewed by bookstore buyers as undesirable. Thus partnering with a reputable publishing house is slowly emerging as the best answer for great writers that otherwise might not be able to get a publisher to take on their book.

Authors should be aware, however, that while partnering with a publisher is a legitimate form of publishing and many best selling authors have been published this way, not all partnering-houses are created equal. So let's be clear: The Defender business model is different from some partnering arrangements we have seen in several key ways:

1. We are not designed to make money on the books that authors purchase for their own uses: This is good news for our authors because we are highly motivated to market and promote every book, as we need to keep our business in the black by making royalty income from retail sales. Everybody wins this way.
2. We do not publish every author that contacts us: Unlike POD, Vanity and Self-Publishers, we are not interested in operating a "book mill". Our manuscript review committee carefully reviews each manuscript and makes a decision to recommend publishing based on writing style, marketability, author willingness to participate in media promotion, and other key factors.
3. We only publish authors that want to be promoted: In addition to great books, Defender considers whether an author can be promoted successfully. For instance: is the author willing to do radio and other interviews? Is the author motivated to promote their book when given opportunity? Does the author have a business, website, ministry or other interest that can benefit from our media work and the success of their book? Our experience tells us that these personality types are the most likely to have great selling books.
4. We do not have a limited promotion period: If you have ever hired a media company to promote your book or products, you know that each time you write them a check you are only buying a certain number of promotional days. It is easy as an author to spend $20,000.00 or more and only wind up on a few radio shows, a couple of reviews, and a report from the media company a month later letting you know the promo period has come to an end. At Defender we have one simple philosophy. We do everything possible to jump start a book's sales, and then as long as it is selling we keep pushing it. If your book is selling a year after it comes out, you will find us working to keep it -- and you -- in media. And we do all this at no cost for our authors.

4. IT'S ABOUT AUTHORS, NOT JUST BOOKS:  

While Defender is interested in publishing books we believe will sell well, the best match for a partnering agreement between us and a potential author occurs when the author envisions their book as accomplishing something more than just being a good read. In other words, the author believes in the "message" contained in their book and they envision it becoming a tool for extending a higher interest on their part, a way to communicate to the world things that are important to them about their business, ministry or social concerns. These type authors almost always sell the most books because they are passionate about their message and hungry for opportunities to share. Regardless of background or experience, these kind of authors can become the preferred interviewees that media outlets will interview over and over again. Because they are engaging and audiences respond to them, these are the type authors we are most excited about publishing and promoting.

5. WE EXTEND YOUR WEB PRESENCE:

The internet continues to astonish with its ability to reach ever-larger numbers of people worldwide. More than one of our authors have websites visited by millions of people each month from hundreds of countries. Defender publishing is actively involved with some of the highest ranking online publishers, and often we are successful at getting authors in these massive electronic outlets. In addition, Defender can provide an author with a personal web page that serves as an online media kit where potential interviewers and reviewers can read their bio, see excerpts from their book, download audio or video of recent shows, contact the Defender publicist to discuss an interview with the author, or request a review copy of their book and more.

6. EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION STANDARDS:

The editors, typesetters, cover designers and marketing experts employed by Defender Publishing Group are world class. Once we contract to publish your book, our chief editor places the book into the production schedule. Technical and creative editing ensues with three manuscript galleys produced, each approved by the author. During this time our graphics artists also go to work, crafting an expertly designed and eye-catching book cover that not only captures the essence of your book but is visually stunning. We want your book to leap off the shelf at consumers! Meanwhile, data production, ISBN, barcode graphics, catalog advertising and important issues such as registration of your book with the Library of Congress and Bowkers Books in Print is being done. Finally, our expert typesetters format the interior of the book for style and layout, and the book goes to the printer. At that time we have copies printed for shipment to STL's two US warehouses for distribution into the retail trade. 

7. ROYALTIES:

In addition to income our authors can earn from selling their personal copies, Defender pays each author royalties on the net income derived from the sell of their book in the retail marketplace.

8. COPYRIGHT:

At Defender Publishing, we copyright your book in your name and you maintain ownership of the copyright of your book throughout your agreement with us.

9. INTEGRITY:

Defender Publishing Group does what it says it will do. We cannot guarantee that your book will be an international best seller, and anybody that promises you that is lying. What we can guarantee is that we will do everything within our power to produce your book with the highest standards and to promote you widely among our media contacts. We will work with you firsthand and answers every question to ensure we have earned your trust.

10. RESPONSIVENESS & SUPPORT:

Because we hand select every book we publish based on our faith that the book can sell well and that the author is somebody we can promote, we do not have the burden of being a "book mill", which slings books out as fast as they can, burying the author in the wake. We have earned a reputation of being responsive to our author's needs both BEFORE and AFTER the book is published.

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