1. Is I Publish Press a vanity press?
2. How is I Publish Press's co-publishing model different from self-publishing or a vanity press model?
3. How are I Publish Press's services more valuable to me than a service like that offered by Lulu?
4. What is included in a standard contract?
5. Do I retain copyright to my work?
6. What rights does I Publish Press contract from me?
7. What happens if I am offered a contract for my book by a major publisher?
8. Does I Publish Press handle all the marketing and promotion for my book?
9. What kind of marketing and promotion does I Publish Press offer for new titles?
10. I have already published my book. Does I Publish Press offer services for me?
11. I have already had a book published and retain digital and/or audio rights to my book. Does I Publish Press offer digital-only or audio-only publication?
12. I have some interest in entering your competition, but the entry fee makes me nervous. I've heard that payment-up-front to any "publisher" is the sign of a scam. Why do you have an entry fee at all?

If your question isn't answered here, please feel free to contact us.

1.   Is I Publish Press a vanity press?

No. I Publish Press is not a vanity press, but a small press that operates with a combination of different publishing models tailored to each author's needs and strengths. In some cases we publish in the traditional way (accepting submissions from represented and unrepresented authors and paying a royalty on sales) and other times using what is called in the industry a co-publishing model (where the costs of initial production and promotion are shared with the author and the author receives most of the money from sales).

2.   How is I Publish Press's co-publishing model different from self-publishing or a vanity press model?

Straight self-publishing is where the author writes or compiles a manuscript and usually takes it to a printer who will produce a run of books that it is then incumbent on the author to distribute or sell. In effect, the author is also the editor, the publisher, the marketer, and the retailer. With the Internet and desktop publishing software, hiring a printer is not even necessary anymore. Every blogger out there is self-publishing. With the advent of print-on-demand technology, it is often very economical for authors with a small, specific market (e.g. a family history) to go this route. All the costs and all the risk are the author's because there is no one else involved. Usually there are few if any sales.

A vanity press is where the author pays a sizeable fee for a publishing and promotion package sometimes in exchange for a small royalty. The vanity press is banking on authors wanting to count themselves as published. They purport to do promotion but often do relatively little, and they are often "blacklisted" from marketing channels. Why? Because they don't care about the content or quality of what they publish-they're just after the original investment and reviewers and bookstores know this. Some of the more unethical ones will even hold on to the rights or trick authors into buying back the stock that was printed.

When I Publish Press co-publishes with an author, we are interested in quality-we won't publish just anything. We see that our reputation is tied in with all of the books we publish. At the same time we see that it is increasingly difficult for good authors to be published, especially those with a niche market. Therefore, we have a flexible publishing model, combining different aspects of self-publishing and traditional publishing in order to maximize exposure and moderate risks.

• we share production costs with the author
• with the exception of a small administrative cost, money from sales go directly to the author (in effect, a royalty in the neighbourhood of 80%)
• we will use all the marketing channels at our disposal to promote the author’s book, and we will constantly be searching for new avenues of promotion; at the same time we will expect that authors will contribute to their own marketing strategies
• we will use a variety of publishing formats to further extend the marketability of our books: print-on-demand, electronic, audio, and if there is enough of a market or enough of a demand, offset printing

For more information about the differences between self-publishing, vanity presses, and co-publishing see the Aeonix Publishing Group's page on Vanity or Subsidy Publishers.

3.   How are I Publish Press's services more valuable to me than a service like that offered by Lulu?

Online POD (print on demand) publishers are, in effect, vehicles for self-publishing. Like the printers of the past, they will print your book (or in some cases offer it digitally online) and give you a venue to sell it, but they do not promote or market your book. For being the POD middleman and providing some distribution, they take a 25% cut plus cost of production off every sale. All the upsides and downsides of self-publishing apply. Visitors to such online publishers are, for the most part, other authors--not readers looking for books to read. And readers who do visit have no guarantee of quality so they might be rather reluctant to buy something by an unknown author.

I Publish Press takes a different tack entirely. Our focus is as much on readers as on authors. We are discriminating about what we publish, so readers will be just as assured of a minimum level of quality as they are when they buy a book from a major publishing house. We will provide readers with the ability to sample excerpts of books that they might be interested in. We will aggressively promote the books that we publish. By doing so, we're promoting I Publish Press. As well, we are just as interested in providing books in alternative formats as we are in print (whether print on demand or offset). There is a growing market for electronic format and audio books, and we want our books to be at the forefront of that trend.

For more information about online POD services see the Aeonix Publishing Group's page on Vanity or Subsidy Publishers.

4.   What is included in a standard contract?

We don't have a standard contract. We want to work with our authors to develop the best publishing contract for them, tailored to meet the needs of their book and their market.

5.   Do I retain copyright to my work?

Yes. As with most major publishing house contracts, authors published by I Publish Press retain their copyright. The author gives certain publication rights to I Publish Press, as outlined in their contract.

6.   What rights does I Publish Press contract from me?

We will customarily contract the right to publish your book in all the formats for which you currently retain the rights: electronic, audio, and if applicable, print (most likely using POD unless a larger demand requires).

7.   What happens if I am offered a contract for my book by a major publisher?

We'll break out the champagne! You will not have to buy back the print publication rights-we'll just retire your I Publish Press ISBN.

8.   Does I Publish Press handle all the marketing and promotion for my book?

No. We will use our marketing channels to do our best to promote your book. However, book promotion is a collaborative effort, even for big names at big publishing houses. We will consult with our authors to help them with their own promotion strategies (e.g. readings, book signings) and complement those strategies with ours.

9.   What kind of marketing and promotion does I Publish Press offer for new titles?

Here are some examples of the kinds of promotion we can undertake:

• press releases
• newsletters
• an advance readers program
• pre-launch reviews
• on site reviews
• placement in numerous online stores
• affiliate programs
• strategic distribution of free copies
• “look inside the book” for potential readers
• submission to Publisher’s Weekly for review
• joint promotion with I Publish Press

We will continually add to this list as we discover and evaluate new marketing channels.

10.   I have already published my book. Does I Publish Press offer services for me?

Yes. If you have self-published and own the rights to your book, we will gladly place your book in our store, presuming it meets our quality standard and legal requirements. You can also contract us to distribute and promote your book through our standard channels.

11.   I have already had a book published and retain digital and/or audio rights to my book. Does I Publish Press offer digital-only or audio-only publication?

Yes. If you have self-published or have been published by another publisher and you wish to have an e-book format or audio format made of your book, we will contract electronic and/or audio publication rights from you.

12.   I have some interest in entering your competition, but the entry fee makes me nervous. I've heard that payment-up-front to any "publisher" is the sign of a scam. Why do you have an entry fee at all?

It is wise to be wary of contest scams. It is not true that a competition entry fee is a sure sign of a scam. Many reputable competitions (including those conducted by I Publish Press) require payment of a reasonable fee* to cover administrative costs. In fact, a contest claiming to be "free" can be an indication of a scam (everyone who enters is a finalist or a winner and is persuaded to buy copies of the final product, to join fake associations at a high cost, etc.). For these reasons, and to prevent spamming or less than serious entries, I Publish Press has placed a reasonable entry fee of $15 on our competition.

For more information on evaluating the legitimacy of writing competitions and contests, see the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America page on contest scams.

Note that

• Winners of our competition will receive our basic publication and promotion packages free of charge. I Publish Press will not present any hidden publishing or promotion fees to winners.
• No author will be published by I Publish Press without signing a contract. Should a winner refuse the terms of the contract, he or she may withdraw their manuscript from consideration.
• In accordance with our Privacy Policy, we will not share an entrant's information with any third party.
• We do not conduct a multitude of contests with a high entry fee—in other words, we are not a “contest mill”. Our aim is to publish good quality books, not to make money off of running questionable contests.

*"Between $5 and $15 is average for smaller or amateur contests; larger ones may charge a bit more. Anything over $25 should prompt you to do some careful checking." says Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The Romance Writers of America charge $40 for members and $140 for non-members for their legitimate RITA competition.

Do you have other questions? Please feel free to contact us.