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Publishing Dreams Come True

On the road to traditional publication, your query letter plays a central role in getting your book noticed. In fact, when it comes to landing literary agents and publishers, a compelling and properly formatted query letter is just as important as a good manuscript.

This is in regard to seeking traditional publishing if you are seeking an agent to submit your book to a large publishing house.

We are open to all self-publishing submissions as long as it is not pornography or considered unapproved by Amazon. If you want to be self-published and keep all the rights and royalties please go to our “Home Page” to find the package that is suitable for you and your book.

For those who are seeking traditional publishing please keep reading and follow the “manuscript submission” instructions on this page.

Our Literary Agent division is open to review submissions for fiction and nonfiction submissions. Though we look at every query, we regretfully cannot respond to everyone. Please note that we are very particular about who we work with, as we tend to represent people and not just projects. If we feel that you are a fit, we will be in touch.

We know how important it is to put your best foot forward. Please review this page to learn the general submission guidelines. If you do not submit according to the guidelines you will not be considered.

 

*For manuscript submission:

  1. A proposal detailing the title, audience, uniqueness, sales handle, and reasons why you believe the work will attract a readership.
  2. A list of current titles with Amazon links that would help a publisher understand how your book will compete in the current market.
  3. A description of your book marketing plan.
  4. A table of contents and chapter outline in which you share a brief description of each chapter
  5. The first two to three chapters. (approximately 50-55 pages of the work)
  6. A complete biography with your publishing history and an explanation of why you are qualified to write this particular project.
  7. List your Social Media links, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube channels, etc., and list the number of followers you have.
  8. Tell us if you have copyrighted your manuscript. (Some publishing houses will not accept previously copyrighted material).
  9. Do not submit any illustrations. If you have them, you can tell us but do not send them.

*Please submit all of the above in ONE (1) email to: EmpirePublishingLiterary@gmail.com

If these exact steps are not taken you will not be considered for traditional publishing.

PLEASE NOTE: It can take up to 4 to 6 weeks to receive an email response – if we would like to take your book into consideration.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Making Publishing Dreams Come True (1)
To submit your manuscript for publishing these are the rules for submission:

Email your documents to our project manager Francesca@EmpireBookPublishing.com

 Call Francesca for a written publishing agreement at 702-292-4638 

Sign and email back the Publishing agreement form by email or click here: Sign Up To Publish

  1. You must have a completed manuscript in a Microsoft Word document, or similar. If you submit in a PDF format, it will take an extra week longer because it will require extracting which causes additional editing/formatting, this is due to when the PDF is extracted it can drastically jumble and transpose words and numbers all throughout the manuscript.  There may a small upcharge for this service.
  2. If illustrations or images are to be inserted they must be in a separate file in a JPG format, and it should be 300dpi or higher. The higher the resolution the better it will print. The printer will reject anything under 300dpi. Please mark in <RED BRACKETS> the name or number of the illustration on the page you want it to be on.
  3. Our standard ETA from the time you submit payment and your word doc manuscript to the time you receive your first electronic proof is approximately 8 to 10 weeks. (Add 1 week if you submit a PDF file to allow time for correcting the format).
  4. All manuscripts are kept 100% private and will only be seen by the team at Empire Publishing and will never at any point be in unsafe hands. We do not sign a non-disclosure because we are non-competing agents providing services and have no stake in royalties at any time. Regardless of the content or the success of the Author. Your privacy is the number one priority. We do not share any information with anyone at any time.

 

Note:

  • All Publishing packages can have add-ons for marketing tools and services. Please specify what you want to add-on and we will send you a publishing agreement with an invoice.
  • All publishing packages the Author receives 100% rights and royalties.
  • All publishing packages have their own account where they can buy books at wholesale and can make changes or adjustments to their book pricing and will have the ability to run advertising promotions.
  • All publishing packages receive Amazon worldwide distribution unless otherwise stated that the Author does not request worldwide distribution.
The best self publishing company

Thoughts From Francesca’s Desk

Can we talk?

There are days I want to plead with first-time authors to please learn as much as they can about successfully launching their book. I always get the call from the excited first-time-author on the other end of the phone that is telling me about how great their book is and how they believe they will sell millions of copies. Usually, because the content is unique and they have a great title. This is awesome! I get excited with them and I want to see them sell a million books. Even though I do not take one penny in royalties nor does the publisher, I still desire for them to have great success. After all, that is what I do, I am an Author Representative, much like a Literary Agent

Then, next, I ask a few questions; Do they have a fan base? How many followers do they have on Social Media? Do they have a marketing plan and a budget to advertise? Have they had the book edited? Have they copyrighted the manuscript? Have they sent the manuscript out for reviews by a professional review company?

The answer I get 9 times out of 10 is, “I don’t do much on social media, I think I have a Facebook account that my kids made for me, but I have a lot of friends and family that are waiting to buy my book though” and then they ask the question, “Won’t my book be on Amazon?” It is almost as if they think that they will automatically sell millions of books simply by having it on Amazon.

I don’t care how great your book is, I don’t care how great your title is, I don’t care how awesome your cover is – IF YOU DO NOT MARKET YOUR BOOK YOU WILL NOT SELL BOOKS. Amazon is not the answer, it is nothing more than an “opportunity” for authors.

This is definitely a sore spot for so many Authors. Marketing is expensive if you go through the big marketing and advertising agencies. The Royalty that an author makes on a book is basically pretty small. (Approximately only 30% or less of the retail price). So if you do the numbers, 100 books sold at the retail price of $11.99 the author makes about $400.00. Any professional marketing plan is going to start around $3000.00, which means that the author’s first 750 books sold are just causing them to break even with the cost of advertising. See the frustration? 

Recent studies revealed that most self-published books sell 100 copies or less in their entire lifetime. (Science Fiction and Fantasy tend to sell a few more, the average sale for Science Fiction and Fantasy is about 200 books, for the life of the book). That’s not what we at Empire Publishing, want for you and your book. It is possible to sell a lot more books, That doesn’t mean I think you need to spend months or years planning your book. You just need to get clear on a few key things before you start putting words to paper.

Let’s start with a broad view. Whether your publisher is Penguin, Random House, Empire or yourself, your book will go through the same steps. Here’s a brief overview of those steps:

  • Planning
  • Writing
  • Editing
  • Proofreading
  • Choosing a title
  • Designing the cover
  • Selecting formats (hardcover, paperback, Kindle, ePub, audio)
  • Formatting the book
  • Producing the book (in print and/or electronic form)
  • Pricing the book
  • Releasing the book for sale – Distribution
  • Promoting the book

 

Setting your book up for success—before you write it

Many new authors start to work on a book by sitting down in front of a keyboard to write. Here’s why I don’t recommend that. If you start to write without a game plan, chances are it will take longer, the writing will be more difficult, and the book will be less effective when you release it. Instead, I recommend that you do a little planning. That way: When you go to write the book, you’ll already know what you want to say, so you won’t have to deal with overwhelm or writer’s block, and when you release the book, it will actually sell.

What if you have already written your book and self-published it, sold 35 copies and now are wondering what happened or what went wrong? Well, it is not too late to actually do a redo and start from scratch with your original first book. A simple change like adding a sub-title or updating the cover with an added review to the back cover will qualify as a “Second Edition” and then you can do all the recommended steps and actually launch your book with a bang!

One of the best ways to plan a great book launch is to pre-prepare (my own word), for your launch, long before you even finish writing it. Or at least before you publish it.

The failure of most authors is due to not having a well thought out plan. For an author to generate book sales, a platform must be developed. However, many authors get lost in trying to learn how to do that, or they don’t have the personal time to dedicate to building that platform for marketing or they simply just don’t know where and how to build a solid platform. There is no secret formula or a plan that works for every author. Most occasions it takes extensive research to locate your target market to reach the optimal area of marketing for potential book sales.

If you don’t have time or you don’t know how then that means you either need to take the time and learn how or you must pay someone who already knows how. Well, there is a solution! Pay as you go, only $299.00 down and $200.00 a month for 6 months, and you will have a one on one personal book marketing agent that you can team up with and you will see success and not break the bank! Click here to contact a professional! There is a form you can fill out at the bottom of the page after you click on the link. Book Marketing Assistant

Next, launching your book at the correct price can make a HUGE difference in your overall sales numbers.

More often than not, people make the mistake of pricing their book either too high or too low. It seems that the people who are a bit nervous about if their book is good enough, tend to price their book too cheap. While others, who think they have written the “THE BOOK OF THE CENTURY” tend to price their book too high.

The thought of some people, is “I need to recoup the investment I made in getting this book published” so they think that if they have a higher price then when all their friends and family go to purchase their book they will make a lot more money out of the gate. The problem with that thinking is actually nothing more than ignorance when it comes to selling books. Your 35 friends and family sales are not going to recoup your investment unless you are selling the book for $100.00, and if you did, how many of your friends and family would pay $100.00 for the book? Do you see how the mentality behind pricing the book too high is actually not so great?

It can be easy to assign a peremptory price to your magnum opus, but if you do, you’re setting yourself up for failure. There are actually certain guidelines that should be followed by self-published authors as well as professional publishing houses. I will explain it to you and explain why having the right price point will help you in overall sales ranking down the road, which will result in more revenue in the bookselling venture.

if you price your book too high, you will alienate your audience. You will most definitely miss out on potential sales because you have overpriced your book. If you price your book too low, then you can lose potential sales and also manage to alienate your audience. So much goes into the pricing of your book— from your experience to your subject matter to genre and page count, you have to take into account every element that you’ve invested in your book.

Now, do you and me both a favor for a minute and push your ego aside. Reach down deep for that humility, because in all fairness, you are not yet a master writer, if you were, you would not be reading this post.

Let’s slip into the wonderful mystical world of book pricing. Shall we?

PRICING MATTERS!

This question is the cause of more anxious (or panicked) messages and phone calls from clients than any other. They see that the publisher has their book at a price they were not expecting, little do they realize the publisher knows more than them about how to price a book. I hate to sound cliche, but book pricing is both an art and a science. Luckily there are ways to help you determine what is best for your book. Albeit, there is no set formula for pricing your book. In the end, it boils down to positioning, but also other contributing factors, that I am getting ready to delve into.

Typically, people have both print and digital books. They will both need to have the correct price in order to achieve better success. I will address the print book pricing first then address the digital pricing issues.

Let’s discuss positioning. If you are scheduled to be on the Oprah show or some other famous talk show, you can sell your book for whatever you want! At least while it is hot. You must have content or a calling card that plays on the emotional side of people to create an emotional purchase of your over-priced book. That is not impossible, however, let’s face it – it is not likely for the average self-published author.

Check out the competition. No matter what the category is or the genre, everything has already been written about, you have competitors vying for the sales from the same audience. Unless, of course, you are writing an autobiography and you are someone people want to know. It’s important that you know what your audience is already paying for similar books. When you know how much readers are willing to pay, you’ll be able to set your own book price at a comparable rate. be careful not to be tempted to undercut your competitors by charging a much lower price for your self-published book, because it has the deleterious effect of making your book look less desirable than the competition. Prospective readers will reason that you’re charging such a low price because your book is actually inferior to your competitors.

How many pages? Is it color or Black and White? This will determine the wholesale cost of your book. The “industry standard” is to take the wholesale number and times it by three and add it up the nearest .99 because ending in 99 is always the best. The second best is ending in .95. Harvard studies have been done to show that people respond to making purchases when the product ends in 99 or 95. So here is an example of how to price your book based on the wholesale price. If the book costs you $3.57 to print that would be your wholesale cost. and if you times $3.57 by 3 you get $10.71, however, you would do better to sell the book at $10.99

Now let’s discuss the eBook (Kindle, Nook, iBooks, etc.) This is something of a paradox in comparison to what I just said in regards to the print book price. I am going to use Amazon Kindle eBook pricing/royalty as my example. If you sell your ebook (Kindle) on Amazon.com, you’ll receive 35% royalty for ebooks priced between 99 cents and $2.98. And for ebooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99, you’ll receive 70%. But, ebooks priced between $10 to $200, Amazon will drop your royalty percentage back down to 35%. Amazon KDP has a USD List Price Requirements for Amazon.com  You can click on this link to view: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200634560

I know this is all so confusing to the new first-time author. So let me just cut straight to the chase here. There has been enough research data to confidently say that there is a “sweet spot” in regards to higher sales rankings on Amazon for ebooks. And that is $3.99. An ebook priced at $3.99 will outsell a book in the same category that is selling for $2.99 or for ebooks priced between $4.99 and $9.99. (Stats can be found on this through many sources – here is one to verify that $3.99 is the magic number – especially for new self-published authors.  (If you are James Patterson or Anne Rice, then we would not be discussing this now, would we?)  Read it and weep…

eBook Pricing Strategies to Sell More Books and Maximize Author Earnings

A $3.99 ebook sold on Amazon will earn you $2.79, but a print book at a brick and mortar bookstore, you’ll get between $1.59 and $2.19, and then you have to subtract the printing costs from that. So there is a better profit margin on ebooks.

I hope this information helps!

If you would like to ask more questions about launching your book please contact us!

www.EmpireBookPublishing.com

The best self publishing company

Visit Francesca’s Blog here:

Successfully Launching Your Book

New first time Authors claim that marketing their book is an uphill battle. Do not feel discouraged, stick with it and have an organized plan, you can gain momentum — and more book sales!

I always tell all of my first-time Authors, “Consistency and patience is the key to success.”  If you were to go through the blog posts archives that I and other’s have written for Empire Publishing, you will see that book marketing info is one of the most common blog posts. Why? Firstly, because we are dedicated to our Authors success and secondly because it seems to be the one thing that all first-time Authors struggle with. I have attempted to explain this to some Authors, but they have it in their mind that because their book is so amazing it will automatically sell itself. But that is a false reality. If it were that easy, then every first time Author would be wealthy. Author’s are like starving artists in a lot of ways. They are talented, hard-working and under-appreciated by the public for their efforts.

(This post will contain many links that will require time, perhaps it may take an entire day to learn and/or apply each aspect that I am going to cover here today. But I promise you, it will be the MOST rewarding in terms of royalties and followers, so please set aside a large block of time and incorporate each task that I have linked in this blog post for your benefit.)

I am not just a random blog writer. I am an Author Representative for Empire Publishing. I could have gone to work for any publisher in the country, but I chose Empire Publishing because of the integrity that the company keeps. Every Author gets more than they paid for. And one of the things they get more of – is education on being a Self-Published Author.

Some publishers will blow smoke up your “you know what” and tell you that you are going to make a lot of money selling millions of books. Pie in the sky promises! Is it possible to sell millions of books? YES! But does it happen simply by publishing and being on Worldwide Amazon distribution? No. What about being on the Barnes & Noble Website? No.

All of those online distributors are showing your book (and millions of others) on their website. Who are they showing your book to? Ahhh… Now that I presented that question your wheels are turning. Does your book just magically appear to everyone who logs into their Amazon account? NO! So how does your book get seen?

When well-known authors (such as James Patterson, Anne Rice, J.K. Rowling) publish new books, they generally have the resources and support from their publishers to build out a comprehensive marketing plan. Not to mention, those publishers pay millions of dollars to the big books stores to get front placement shelving in key locations of the store. However, it’s a whole different story for self-published authors, you have to think outside the box for unique and cost-effective ways to promote your work and your author brand. While it can be challenging to get started, especially if you’re new to marketing, there are simple tactics you can use to be successful. Keep reading as I explain the importance of book marketing and how to do it cost-effectively and I will provide links for you to go to and you should use the links if you want to get real about book marketing.

Did you know that Amazon uses its own algorithms? If you don’t know what an algorithm is then that is the very first thing you need to know as a self-published author. Once you apply the correct input for search engines and Amazon Search then you are off to a great start in helping your book be shown when people type in keywords of items, topics or books they are searching for on the web or on Amazon Search. This doesn’t cost you any money if you have access to your book details and can change your keywords and description. All self-published authors should have this access even if they hired a Publishing Service.

That is only Step 1. Now the task of marketing. If you thought writing your book was hard work, then you are in for a big surprise, because that was the easy part. Now you must learn how to market your book wisely. If you do not take the time to learn how to do it you can ultimately spend all of your money in the wrong places and not see any return for the dollars spent.

At the bottom of the page, I will provide a list of places for you to market your book if you want to get things going. For this post, I am only going to discuss two sides of Book Marketing.

The two most important you need to know right now:

1)   Online/Social Media Marketing

Social media is an extremely effective tool to reach your audience when you do it the right way. It is important to be careful about how you approach your audience in your posts. Social media interactions should be a conversation. While there is room for direct promotion, your audience most likely is not interested in a sales pitch.

Instead, focus on organically creating or adding to a conversation or discussion with unique viewpoints and content. This helps you do two things:

  1. Build a brand. Your brand is all about your perspective and point of view and less about the products you sell, i.e. your book.
  2. Drive followers. Followers need content that spurs them to engage. This type of post needs to elicit an emotional response. Just posting a photo or link to your Amazon page doesn’t do that.

Did you know that there are many free tools and engaging features now available to you on Social Media? For example, Facebook Live or IGTV can be used to hold a live Q&A session based on comments from your readers. If your book is nonfiction, you can use social media to share tips from your book. This is FREE ADVERTISING! Taking advantage of free marketing and advertising is crucial for Authors, because keeping the marketing budget low is vitally important when you want to make a profit.

Social Media is also important to build your network of peers, friends, and family who want to help spread your message. If you ask each of them to share or engage on your posts it will help to draw others to your page. And if you have someone in your circle who is a blogger, they can do wonders for you. Consider bringing them into your fold. If you do not have anyone in your close circle who is a blogger then follow these steps:

  • Manually search for bloggers using a simple Internet or social media search.
  • Get bloggers’ contact information from their websites and take note of any pages about collaboration or advertising.
  • Create an outreach template that includes one sentence about who you are, another one-to-two sentences about the book, and your request. Keep it short — if they’re interested, they’ll ask for more information.
  • Follow up seven days after sending your initial email. Often, the first one gets lost. Not to mention, a second shows you’re serious about your pitch.

Word-of-mouth marketing is still one of the best ways to encourage new readers to purchase your book. A study from BrightLocal found that more than 90 percent of millennials will trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

2)  Physical Marketing Tools.

Conferences and speaking engagements are a great way to promote yourself and your book. You’ll stay connected with contacts and prospects through digital channels, but to make the most of your face-to-face interactions at the event, leave people with something tangible to take with them — like printed promotional items.

Business cards are important, but there’s more you can do. Such as Postcards or Bookmarks. Sometimes people make brochures for their books, especially Self-help books or nonfiction books. These items allow for more text and images that you couldn’t include on a business card. Plus, these promotional items are small enough to toss into a swag bag and command more attention than a business card will. Basically you get more bang for your buck.

  • Don’t clutter your design, leave room to breathe and highlight your most important message.
  • Add a custom web URL or QR code to drive people to specific sites and track engagement from the event while driving book sales and web traffic.
  • Call out your social media channels to encourage followers.

You don’t even need to get a booth to hand out brochures and postcards — keep them in a book bag and hand them out as you walk around. Staple a business card to each brochure to make sure the people you meet can easily carry both.

Do not be shy! I know for some authors that may be asking a lot. Authors tend to enjoy being more reclusive, they can sometimes be introverted, but when it comes to getting your first book to hit the charts, then you have to step out of your comfort zone. The rewards will pay off.

Free Places to market your ebook:

  1. Run a Free Kindle Promotion and promote it here: Author Marketing Club
  2. Do a free Kindle Countdown Deal every 3 months
  3. Submit your Kindle on EbooksHabit

You may be asking, “Why is there only listings to market my eBook for free and why not my Print book”? Well, the answer is simple, your eBook SHOULD be connected to your Print book, so essentially you are marketing both by utilizing these free platforms.

I hope you found this information helpful!

It may seem like marketing your book is an uphill battle, especially for new authors. While success won’t come overnight, if you stick with it and focus on what you can do, you’ll start to see the progress that pays off over time.

If you want to set up a custom marketing plan on a budget you can afford to help you get the process started, please fill out the form at the bottom of the page on this link: https://www.empirebookpublishing.com/book-marketing/

 

 

Publishing Dreams Come True

Children’s books are always a big selling product. Children are entering into schools and libraries with big eyes and imaginations into the world of reading every year. So the need to stock up on new children’s books every year is always growing.

If you are wondering about the actual over-all facts and numbers on how much you can earn by publishing a children’s book Please go to Hannah Holt’s Website, where she did the research and published it on her page which will include graphs and tables, as she broke down the various types of publishing. In her research, she also included data for self-published Authors and the level of marketing they did for their book. The bottom line of her report shows that publishing children’s books are profitable, no matter how you decide to publish (either self-publishing or traditional publishing), and oddly enough, in the end, the Authors of both categories ended up making the same amount of money. This is good news for those trying to decide which is the better way to go. Because the only thing that may make a difference, in the long run, is “time” because for every day you are not selling books, you are not making a profit. In this case, the option to self publish is a plus, because you can be self-published in a few weeks if you already have a manuscript and your illustrations all ready to go. Where waiting on a traditional publisher to accept your manuscript can sometimes take years. Then, once they accept your manuscript, it could be another 6 months before you ever see your book on the market. In my calculations, using the data provided by Hannah Holt, that would earn the average self-published author, approximately $25,000.00 more in profits from their book.

Now, let’s talk about the steps to get you started if you are a first time Author.

Obviously, writing the story has to be the very first thing you do. Creating a lovable character, that children can relate to. And hopefully, even a lesson in the Golden Rule is somewhere in the story. (Books that have a good moral message for children tend to sell more).

The next step is finding a good illustrator that can bring your characters to life. This is not as easy as it sounds. There are thousands of illustrators you can choose from. They all charge different prices and they all work at a different pace. Some will want 2% of the Royalties and others to just be paid for their work. Whichever you choose, it is always a good idea to offer to put the Illustrators name on the cover, (either front or back) because they will sometimes be so grateful for the gesture they will go an extra mile for you,

When doing Self-Publishing, it is recommended to pay an illustrator rather than to offer Royalties. Because doing the monthly break down, or even if you do a quarterly breakdown, can be time-consuming. And you will always have them breathing down your neck for spreadsheets of book sales data.

If you are in the process of looking for an illustrator, you can search Facebook by typing in the search bar “Children’s Books Illustrator” a long list of options will come up and you will be able to review their portfolios that they have posted on their page. This is helpful because you will be able to tell by the illustrator’s style if it “fits” with your story, and has the look of what desire. Another way is to contact your local Children’s book publisher and ask if they have a list of illustrators.

*PLEASE TAKE NOTE: Many illustrators have a preference to draw either vertical or horizontal. You want to make sure and be clear to the illustrator the trim size of your book and if your book is vertical, horizontal or square. Because of how this will have to be formatted in the book may cause the picture to be cropped, and that is not always desirable.

After you have your completed manuscript with illustrations and a cover illustration, make sure you have written your Bio. It needs to be very short and sweet. This can be included in the very back of the book or even on the back cover under the synopsis. Oh! And yes, you must have the synopsis for the back cover ready to go as well.

Once you have all the above finished and ready to go, you are ready to be published!

You can contact your Author Representative for more questions.

If you do not have a personal Author Representative please contact AuthorRep on Facebook or call 702-292-4638

 

 

 

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