Is Our Partnership Right for You?

Traditionally, there was only one way to publish your manuscript:

1. For a long time, the only way to get published was through the traditional, royalty-based method (also called trade publishing). A publisher accepts your manuscript, sends you a book contract (often with a cash advance against royalties), and pays for all the costs incurred to edit, design, typeset, print, advertise, market and distribute your book. Naturally, this is what all authors prefer. But few new authors need reminding that this is only done for books that publishers feel confident they can sell well. Most publishers will only move forward with proven authors, because it requires significant funding to produce and market a book into retail channels. Publishers are increasingly unwilling (or unable) to take risks on new authors. Of course, this puts new authors at a big disadvantage.

Then, along came “self/vanity” publishing:

2. A new technology called Print on Demand (POD) was invented a few years ago that is capable of printing copies of your manuscript one at a time after you are personally satisfied the manuscript is ready to print. Often called “self-publishing” or “vanity publishing,” this is undoubtedly the least expensive way to “publish” a book. You then distribute copies to your friends or constituents, charge them whatever you want, and it is done. There are thousands of companies that specialize in self-publishing. Some are legit, many are scams. You will find hundreds of companies that will print books for anyone who can write a check. Tens of thousands of books are “self-published” in this way every month. POD publishing allows books to be printed one at a time, as ordered or needed.

The three problems facing most authors with self or vanity publishing is: A) the book still requires professional editing, typesetting, and cover design to be accepted in a highly competitive book marketplace; and B) your book needs an effective marketing and distribution system to deliver into channels where it can be found by potential readers; and C) there are a lot of scams advertised online that requires buyers to be aware. Most POD and vanity publishers will tell you they have all systems needed, but in reality they sell very few books on behalf of their authors. Most of them have a laundry list of add-on charges if you want editing or marketing assistance. Some self-publishing packages (after adding up the basic “extras”) can run as high as $25,000 or more.

Thirteen years ago, Deep River Books pioneered a THIRD option we call Partnership Publishing:

3. The third way is the Deep River Books publishing partnership. While most major publishers will not take risks on new authors, we feel there are many writers who have something significant to say, but for various reasons do not receive a contract from other full-service publishers. Deep River Books is a full-service publisher, but we also feel that finding new authors and helping them launch their writing ministry is our niche. Most authors understand that if their book is to be successful, it requires a professionally edited manuscript with a good title and a great cover design. We know that new authors dream of having a chance to succeed beyond their own sphere of influence, and this is the type of author we can assist. That does not mean we accept all manuscripts. We know that only quality books have a chance to sell, and since we need to make a profit from the sales of your book through our retail distribution efforts, we must limit our acceptance to quality manuscripts that we believe have a chance to succeed.

In this partnership, we enjoy working with new authors who have a constituency to distribute books direct, or with authors who are willing to work hard at developing a fan base. By partnering with the author, we can provide the professional services he or she needs while sharing the risk. The way we “share the risk” is by asking the author to purchase a pre-determined number of books for his or her own distribution at a discount off the retail price. The discounted price we offer, while substantially less than retail, is more than just the cost of printing. It helps cover our other costs, including editing, cover design, pre-press typesetting, marketing, advertising, and overhead. We pay for the above services as part of the expense. The more books the author orders, the bigger the discount he or she receives. In this partnership arrangement, we ask the author to order a minimum of one thousand copies at the time of the original printing to help defray the up-front costs of publishing the book. This is the only cost to the author. There are no hidden charges or upsell fees.

The discount we offer is on a sliding scale, depending on the number of books the author agrees to purchase with the initial printing. It ranges from 30% to 75% off retail, depending on quantity. See our Discount Schedule for more information.

We have your copies shipped to you, and we ship our copies to our distribution warehouse in Ohio. Our salesforce then gets to work pre-selling your book, and it is also listed in our catalog, in national book databases, and in other selected places.

The advantage to our plan is that you end up with a high-quality, professionally edited manuscript with a uniquely designed cover that is distributed in bookstores nationwide. We will pay you a royalty on any copies we sell through the retail bookstore outlets. And, unlike “self-publishers” or “vanity publishers,” there are no add-ons or hidden charges.

We hope this helps you understand how we work, so you can decide if you should take the next step. If approved for publication by our editorial team, we would be delighted to help make your book concept become a reality. We look forward to hearing from you if you think our system will work for you.

William Carmichael, President
Deep River Books