Publishing by GL Design
Notes from Cameron Powers, Owner:
What I am trying to offer people is a way to get their manuscripts out there NOW rather than later or never... My service is for people who have something gathering dust on a shelf or in their minds and they suddenly say one day: "no more waiting around! I just want people to be able to walk into any bookstore small or large and Order My Book!"
This costs a little bit to achieve, about $700 thru my service.
Print on Demand electronic printing is used. There is no warehousing of books required. The cost of books in any quantity from 1 to 500 is the same. (Quantities greater than 500 become more economical.)
The printer I am using is a division of Ingrams called Lightning Source. Ingrams is one of the two largest wholesalers in the world, Baker and Taylor being the other, so there will be no doubt in the bookstore owners' minds that these books really are available.
Plus I'm taking care of the bar-code, ISBN number, Library of Congress number and doing the layout and artwork in professional-quality programs.
My research shows me that my prices are only about half of the next best deals out there.
Getting books out there without having to spend anything on pre-ordering inventory is a real plus. If a book really takes off and sales get into the tens of thousands, there is nothing to prevent a switch to offset printing technologies, which would be somewhat cheaper in those quantities.
There is no contract required by GL Design. Ownership of a book remains with the author. If an author gets picked up by another publisher who has a budget for doing extensive promotion for free, there is nothing stopping that process. There is nothing "exclusive" about this arrangement.
Most of the tales told about going with larger publishers are woeful, however. I have met the most widely-distributed translator of Rumi books and found that he ends up making so little from those book sales that he still has to have a day job!
Plus when the larger publishers promote a book it's usually in one short shot and then its over and the burden falls back on the author. So I don't make false promises in this department.
Most of the folks who want to use GL Design have already come to terms with the reality that their work will probably never get off the shelf unless they make a small investment in seeing that happen. At least this way they can get it into bookstores now rather than maybe later.
Plus, the percentages of dollars on actual sales coming back to the author, according to my formulas, are much higher than what comes back to authors from 'traditional' publishing companies. Those authors who use GL Design stand to make decent percentages on sales. And since the author retains ownership, if it becomes in their interest to personally take on and manage distribution, there is nothing preventing that.
It is worth reiterating this important point: it's never necessary to invest a penny in inventory (except for the few books you want to pass out or sell yourself to your friends).
When someone orders your book through a bookstore, the order is automatically sent down the line by the wholesaler and books are delivered in any quantity from 1-500 at the same price. If orders over 500 start coming in, then the price goes down further. So really, for the approximately $700 set-up price, your book is out there and no inventory investment is required.
GL Design: Book-Publishing Company
Having gone through the process of learning how to self-publish and self-distribute our own books, we have realized what fun it would be to make this service available to others.
Do you have a manuscript sitting on a shelf?
Do you have one in progress?
Do you want to get it out into the world?
What we can do:
GL Design can print your book for you so that it looks as polished as most other works in the bookstores.
GL Design can get your book into the lists of All Books in Print, Amazon and into the hands of wholesalers from whom the bookstores and libraries all make their purchases.
What we can't do:
Our printing methods are electronic. This makes it economical to print books with full-color covers but not with lots of full-color artwork on the inside pages. We can now offer an option to include some interior color artwork through one wholesale channel, however.
We can't offer to subsidize writing time or to launch major advertising campaigns for new books, but we can offer some advice to our authors about how to proceed.
We can offer very economical prices since we don't have a large staff to support, but we cannot work for free.
What do we like to publish?
Books which contribute to the dispelling of fear-based realities in all arenas, personal through international, are of special interest to us.
Of course anything related to the Arab world is of prime interest.
Books on all topics will be considered for publication.
More specifically what can we offer?
We can print your work, give it an ISBN Number and barcode, register it with the Library of Congress and make it accessible to the large bookselling chains, Amazon and to libraries through giant wholesalers, and place it in the permanent list of All Books in Print.
We can handle printing, proofing, help with cover art and design. And we can offer suggestions for advertising your books.
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