I am completely new to this. I have written a story for children which I submitted to Olympia Publishers. They have offered me a contributory contract with £2500 towards costs and 20% royalties. I have not got a clue if this is good or not. This is one story but I have already got a follow up in the planning so want to get this right for me and my family. Any advice is welcome. What do I do next please?
Regulars on this site must have known that one of the La Gr@not@ team would jump in here!
@ Diane Little: Pay no money to a company that doesn't explain just what you get for that money! As Lorraine has written, Olympia is on several blacklists under that name and others.
She did make a mistake, though. Since they pay you 20% royalties, you would have to sell (and yes: it would be YOU who would have to promote the book: why should they waste time and money on promotion when they've already made a profit off you? Because that £2500 "towards" costs is a euphemism: that amount would more than cover their costs, especially if they operate the "print on demand" system.) not 500 copies, but 2,500 copies before you saw a single penny of profit. And 2,500 copies is SUPER-best-seller league stuff when it comes to children's books!
La Gr@not@ isn't on anybody's blacklist (yet) as far as I know. Author+illustrator+translator share 50% of the profits. (25% go to a worthy cause to be decided by creative team and publishers together. We keep 25%.)
Because we're tiny, we can't afford huge print-runs, BUT
a) You are free to self-publish the same book at the same time.
b) You retain all rights, so that you can drop us like a hot potato as soon as you find a publisher that you like more.
There is one small catch, though: We have to feel enthusiastic about your book. We're not about to risk our money on a book that WE can't feel proud of.
Intrigued? http://la-granota.com/crazy.htm
Advertisers are businesses with services to sell. What one should pay for those services is up to the individual, I guess.
You might expect to pay for editing, a cover design, manuscript formatting and print set-up, ISBN etc, All these are legitimate costs. Or you could do some (or all) of those things yourself. Self-pubbing is very flexible like that.
£2500 might sound reasonable to some. My first novel was self-pubbed for £50 because I did the editing, formatting and cover art myself. I just depends on how comfortable you feel about the process, bearing in mind the ultimate judges will be your readership who will (hopefully) be paying for the privilege. So you have to do the best job you can for their sakes.
Don't all the publishers mentioned on this site in the self pubishing providers section want a contribution? or are these people different somehow?