The Anomalos Partnership
If you have sent a query letter or manuscript
to dozens of publishing houses only to be turned down again and again, you are
not alone. Current trends in publishing have raised risks significantly. As a
result, nearly all traditional publishers have scaled back or eliminated
altogether their willingness to publish new authors.
The reasons for this are simple economics. Ever
since mega-retailers like Costco and WalMart began carrying the A-list
authors’ books at big discounts, many local store owners, where lesser known
authors are typically discovered, have found they cannot compete with these
Titans. The result has led more and more publishers to view investment in
promising but unknown writers as too risky.
Anomalos was designed as the antidote to this
problem: to provide a solid method for great but unknown authors to be
published in a real publishing house with industry distribution and a solid
marketing plan.
Where Anomalos Publishing Comes In
At Anomalos, we provide all of the professional
services of a traditional publishing house, from professional editing to cover
design and everything in between, plus authentic distribution by STL
Distributors into the retail trade and a marketing
plan second to no one.
To accomplish this while at the same time
remaining financially viable, we require authors to join us in the initial
print run of his or her book and to purchase a pre-determined number of copies
for their private uses. The author's copies are discounted from retail and can
be resold by the author at profit during the radio shows and other Anomalos
sponsored marketing endeavors, not to mention to their private circle of
friends, churches, personal ministry, websites and constituency. Most authors
have enough sphere of influence to easily resell at profit the minimum books
we require, even without our marketing efforts. By purchasing a select number
of their books in this way, a portion of the production costs related to their
book (the very thing that keeps most full-service publishing houses from
seriously considering new or lesser-known authors to begin with) is offset.
Anomalos Publishing House joins the author (the partnership) by paying the
remaining lions share of investment in their book: the copies printed for
warehousing and distribution, publicists fees, print, audio and electronic
advertising, marketing, media kits, media review copies, press releases to the
national news desk and more.
Trumps POD, Self-Publishing, Subsidy Publishers
Unlike POD, Vanity or even typical
"subsidy" publishers, Anomalos does not make money by selling books
back to the author. Anomalos makes a profit if the author's book sells in
retail. This is why we only publish books we believe will sell well. It is
also why if an author doubts he or she can sell a minimum 1,000 copies of his
or her book (which is extremely conservative in the trade), it is too high of
a risk for us. We do this because we actively seek books and authors that have
the potential to become best sellers. Anomalos authors often order as many as
10,000 to 20,000 copies of their book for their own uses, but 1,000 is the
minimum we require.
For any author that is reasonably confident his
or her book will sell at least 1,000 copies, Anomalos Publishing is less
expensive per book than self-publishing or POD and offers the favorable
opportunity of being published in a real, full-service publishing house with
global marketing and distribution. Let me repeat. If you have faith that your
book will sell at least 1,000 copies, Anomalos Publishing will cost you LESS
money than POD or Self-Publishing and will provide aggressive global marketing
and distribution.
The Anomalos Publishing advantage is clear. You wind up published by a
legitimate publisher with an aggressive
marketing plan tailored around you and your book and distribution into the
retail CBA (Christian) and ABA (secular) marketplace. You earn royalties on
retail sales along the way, and we promote you and your book as outlined in
our Publicity Program. We put this in writing, in the contract. The goal is to
make your book a top seller and you a known author. Meanwhile, both the
publisher and author benefit from royalties.
How To Compute The Author's Discount
While purchasing 1000 copies of your book at
discount is the minimum author requirement, note that the more books an author
orders at the time of the initial print run, the higher the discount per book
and, therefore, profit to the author. For authors who have the constituency to
distribute books to a direct or regular, sizable audience, we highly recommend
larger quantities in order to increase the author’s profit per book. Below
is the current discount schedule for books of approximately 200-500 pages with
no inside color.
1,000-1,999 copies . . . 30% discount off
retail
2,000-2,999 copies . . . 40% discount off retail
3,000-3,999 copies . . . 50% discount off retail
4,000-4,999 copies . . . 55% discount off retail
5,000-7,500 copies . . . 60% discount off retail
7,501-9,999 copies . . . 67% discount off retail
10,000+ copies . . . 75% off retail
Why a descending scale on price? Printers
charge for setup and take down time. A small order has to carry the same setup
fees as a large order. The longer the press runs, a wider number of books
absorb the initial setup expenses, and the cost per book goes down. As an
example, if your book is a 250-page trade paperback that retails for $12.95
and you order 1,000 copies, your cost would be 30% off $12.95. If you ordered
10,000 copies, your discount would be 75% off each book from the retail price.
Your profit goes up quickly with a higher initial purchase.
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