Frequently Asked Questions

Because it's not just a numbers game with us. We care about what we are doing, we offer the opportunity for you to publish your work, and we may even offer to partner with you and assume financial risk on your project. When we started, we were in the same position that you are in. We soon experienced the thrill of personal success, and we enjoy repeating that thrill by sharing in the successes of others. We love what we do, and it shows in our work.

Here are the simple facts of publishing, and you don't have to take our word for it. Read this, and then search online to find the terms available at different levels of publishing. None of this is presented to scare you from publishing. We have been through the process to see if we could publish our books, so we had to investigate what was out there. For the small-town author, the local historian, and the genealogist, it can be disheartening. Remember, this is based on wanting a quality book with a professional experience. Here's what we found.

First of all, if your project does not have mass appeal, you won't be looked at by any major publishing firms. That's a simple matter of fact. Without the potential for sales of many, many thousands of copies, they won't look at you.

Assuming you manage to get your foot in the door of a big publisher, here's what happens. You don't own your book. The publisher owns it. They will assume all costs of production, marketing, etc, and that's great. In the end, IF they sell enough copies to pay their costs, you will then begin to receive a royalty from the sale of each book. In reality, this usually means between $0.50 and $2.00 per copy. But, before you receive royalties, they will need to sell the thousands of copies needed to cover their basic costs. That number will multiply beyond your initial calculations when you discover that major retailers (Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Borders) will expect a 40% to 65% discount from your retail price. So, your $20 book will be bought by stores for about $8 to $10 each, and they will then resell them for the retail price. Other charges will draw from your potential profit, so there is little left for the creator of the work.

It is simple reality that no big publisher will be interested in the smaller projects that attract us. Most authors become disillusioned as they learn the process of seeking a deal with a major publisher.

If a smaller publisher chooses to buy your book, again, you don't own it. They will produce it and market it. If they sell enough copies to pay their costs, you begin to earn royalties. With smaller publishers, you may earn from $1.00 to around $3.00 per copy if your book is priced in the $20.00 range. Lower those numbers proportionately as you lower the price you would ask for your book.

If you self-publish, you will be able to minimize costs if you can format your own book. Examine what each self-publisher offers. The basic costs often rise dramatically if editing, proofreading, and other services are needed. Still, if you need those services, you will have to pay for them, either to your publishing company or to someone you hire privately.

If you do format the book yourself, you need to be able to produce a document that a printing service will accept. Your document must be completely laid out (typeset) exactly as you wish it to appear, and must meet certain specifications of your printing service. Be sure to ask for their particular requirements, which often change from one printer to the next, based on their type of equipment and the software they use. There are many excellent self-publishing firms that will help you through this process, and you will own your book. (Be sure the ISBN belongs to YOU, not the publisher. Just tell them that you want to purchase the ISBN and own full rights to your book.)

Depending on the size of your book and the number of copies you will want to print, you will usually have to come up with somewhere between $6,000 and $12,000. You will own your book, and it will be up to you to sell it. Many of those firms offer marketing plans for your book, and other services, all at additional cost.

The fear that we experienced when we first self-published was that we would have to take on additional expenses, making it necessary to sell more books to prevent any losses. At that point, the printing company had no financial risk in our project. We had paid thousands of dollars to have them print and bind our books, but now we had to sell them. We explored the normal avenues of advertising (newspapers, radio, etc.). We soon discovered that we would just be taking on more and more debt, meaning we had to sell more copies to pay for it all. Yes…the proverbial "vicious cycle."

We decided there had to be a better way, and we found it. Now we are sharing that experience through Partnerships with other writers, while still producing our own works.

Yes. If you aren't concerned with having a glossy, professional appearance to your book, and having a perfect-bound (glued) binding, then there are options, and they aren't all bad. Though it is considered lower-grade and less professional (partly due to the lack of a spine), consider having your manuscript stitch bound (stapled). It can be much less costly. The professional look and feel of a perfect-bound book is much more desirable, but we have many staple-bound books in our personal library. If we want the information that is in your book, and the only format available is staple-bound, we'll buy it. Remember, you'll still need to completely prepare (typeset) your manuscript for publication, or hire someone to do that part for you.

Yes, with a limit of 10% above the quantity you ordered. However, we at Bloated Toe can alert our printer that we do not wish to have an overrun. You may end up with 500 salable copies, or there may be a few dozen with blemishes, bent pages, etc. Still, you will already know your maximum cost, and may be eligible for a reduction based on how many good copies you receive.

Normally, you pay extra for extra copies, but remember that you WILL have extra profit from selling those copies. So, if you order 500 copies, you may have to pay for up to 550 copies. We work with our printer to avoid this from happening. A smaller overage of perhaps 15 or 20 books is no problem, but we realize that an extra 50 copies could involve substantial financing. This is something we try to avoid, as self-publishers are usually trying to minimize costs.

The overruns occur because it is difficult to predict how many books may suffer slight damage during production. If you order 500 books and 30 or 40 copies have blemishes that make them unsalable, it will skew your original sales and profit plan, since you can't sell 500 books. An overrun will put you close to your exact order number.

Don't let the thought of overruns worry you. It will very likely NOT be a problem, but we offer the information so that you will know what happens each step of the way in the production of your book.

In most cases, you will pay the shipping costs of having your books delivered to you. If you're on a tight budget, this is important to know in advance, as it may cost hundreds of dollars, depending on the size of your order. (If you ARE on a tight budget, consider our Partnership Program.) The cost can vary dramatically depending on a variety of factors, including carrier, distance, shipment size, shipment weight, etc. FedEx and UPS are often used for small book orders. You can obtain some estimates online as to shipping costs.

To ship by truck through one of the major freight carriers, here's an example of what the cost might be. An order of 1000 books, packed in 40 boxes of 25 books each, shipped on two pallets of 20 boxes each, with a total shipment weight of about 1000 pounds, carried by truck half-way across the United States (from near the east coast to Kansas City), might cost in the vicinity of $500.00. Smaller orders shipped for shorter distances will cost less. Again, be sure to investigate the cost of shipping through other carriers. The scenario above is just a generalization to give you an idea of what to expect.