The Telemachus Press Blog

Entries for September 2011

23

We get asked a lot of questions by prospective authors. A lot of questions! The questions run the gamut from process to pricing, from fonts to formatting, from Kindles to kerning. They’re all good questions asked by intelligent and curious people – many of them our future friends. We never mind spending whatever time is necessary to fully answer each and every inquiry, each and every question. Just so you know, never hesitate to call or email!

There is one question that not only comes up frequently, it is sometimes even posed in the email introducing the author to us – our very first exchange! The question is: “I already have a cover created. How much will this reduce the fee that you charge?” Well, this is just about the only question we get asked where the answer is maybe not what the author wanted to hear. The answer is, unfortunately, it will not reduce our fee.

How can this be? After all, part of the Telemachus Press fee is the creation of a cover for the eBook or Print-on-Demand book or both. If you show up with a manuscript and a fully developed cover, doesn’t that drastically reduce the workload? Actually, no. Amazingly, no. In fact, it adds to our workload. We have tracked many development efforts and have the actual data to back this up.

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Posted in: Self-Publishing
21

Before you sign up with any self-publishing company, there are several parts of the publishing agreement where you need to take a moment and focus before signing on the dotted line. I’d like to talk about just one of these today: your publishing rights, sometimes included in sections like “The Grant” and “The Territory” or maybe you will find it somewhere else. As a new author you might be moving quickly to get your book published, but just so you know, this is a big one. Slow down.

The contract might reference the fact that you continue to own your copyright, it will always be yours and lead you to believe that this by itself is all the intellectual property protection that you will ever need. In other parts of the contract you will note, if you give the document a careful read, that you might very well be (and almost definitely will be) granting to the self-publishing company your publishing rights. The agreement might vaguely reference “General Publication Rights” in different media and different geographies or it may specifically include “Primary Rights,” “Trade Edition Rights,” “Mass Market Reprint Rights,” “Book Club Rights,” “Transcription Rights,” “Direct Mail Rights,” “Secondary Rights,” “Dramatic Rights,” “Movie Rights,” “Television Rights,” “Foreign Language Rights” and my all time favorite, “All rights not specifically granted herein.” You really need to seek competent legal counsel to understand just what you are giving away. Are you really locking your book up with this company and under their control forever? The implications of this are very, very significant.

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Posted in: Self-Publishing
20

When it comes to money, we hate being surprised by unexpected and unplanned costs. And boy do we hear from angry authors who have been surprised by bait-and-switch artists in self-publishing. We’d be plenty mad, too!

At Telemachus Press, we value our author relationships and pride ourselves in being completely upfront about what it will be like to work with us. We want you to know about all aspects of our upcoming relationship, especially what the actual cost will be to publish your book. Just so you know, there are only three places where you can spend money with us. Only three – no surprises.

The first is our publishing services fee. For eBooks it is $1,495 and for a Print-on-Demand Soft Cover, the fee is $2,495. If you are interested in both eBook and POD, the total fee is $3,795.

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13

Congratulations to Amy Lewis Faircloth and Joanne Lewis for “Wicked Good” Fiction Drama!

2011 BronzeArcher Falcon manages to maintain a successful law practice but in her private life she feels inept, especially when it comes to her adopted son, Rory who has been diagnosed with both bipolar disorder and Asperger’s Syndrome.

Rory is a teenage boy struggling in a world that doesn’t understand him. He is intelligent, witty and creative as he is destructive. Like all teenagers he seeks a sense of belonging and decides that his birth parents might just understand him better.

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Posted in: News