If you've been to the Tate Publishing
web site, you'll know what I mean - it is, for the largest part,
missing any information that would help you make a decision about
whether or not to use Tate Publishing to produce
your book.
Try and get a sense of the cost of publishing with Tate - without actually having to submit your contact information so that a salesman can call you. I'm always concerned when a company feels the need to 'hide' their costs from customers until a salesperson can call and 'explain' them ...
One additional way to follow up on a company
is to do a 'reality-check' on its reputation in the market. Often
just a quick Google search will reveal volumes. While the great
world of the 'net is not a good place to get all your information,
sometimes measuring the overall tone of the information on the
web is helpful. I'd encourage any reader to perform their own
search, but here are two widely respected sites in the publishing
industry - along with a link to the threads about Tate Publishing.
Tate
Publishing information at AbsoluteWrite.com (I've linked to
the most recent posts)
Tate
Publishing comments at Writers.net (you'll need to scroll
down to get to the recent comments about Tate)
There is a section that outlines the ways that
Tate produces books:
"Your manuscript will be reviewed for one
of three possible contract options. First, it will be reviewed
to see if the work merits a negotiated royalty advance. Second,
it will be reviewed to determine if Tate Publishing will absorb
all production and distribution costs with no investment by the
author. Lastly, you may be offered a contract in which Tate Publishing
absorbs the bulk of the production and distribution costs with
a refundable author investment."
The first option is what is typically thought of as 'traditional'
publishing, option 2 is 'sort-of' a traditional publishing model,
and option 3 is typical self publishing. While the site outlines
how the books may be produced, I still am not aware of any author
cost outlines. Item 3 - what I call a 'self-publishing' model
has the interesting wrinkle that publishing fees will be refunded
at certain sales levels - recent information from Tate indicated
this was at 2,500 or 5,000 units.
Tate is complex enough that we can't really
get all the pieces on here - so if you have questions that aren't
answered here, please call us so that we may answer you directly.
Our belief is that authors should be able to get a very good
idea of cost of publishing their book and services that will be
rendered by the publisher without having to speak to a sales representative
- and our site reflects that belief. To understand costs
and actual services for Tate Publishing requires that you contact
a sales person at the company.
Please don't rely solely on our research - it is imperative that
you also check out each publisher directly. And, calling Tate
Publishing isn't a bad thing - they are a very professional company
- but do your homework and don't assume that publishing with Tate
won't cost you anything. If you are offered the opportunity to
publish with Tate, but you have to pay some money up front, you
really need to explore what you believe will happen.
When you fully explore the true costs of producing a salable
book with a realistic wholesale discount and decent profit margin,
you may find what you thought was a great deal actually costs
more in the long run.
It appears Tate Publishing has different levels of publishing
services - from a traditional model where they
pay you, to a self publishing model where you
pay them. Our comparison is only concerned with
the Tate Publishing 'self publishing' model where an author pays
a fee to be published.
I've dug through the Tate Publishing site to
see if anything can be gleaned without having to call a sales
person - here are my notes.
1) Bookstore availability - most of the self
publishing companies make their books available at the exact same
places as Tate Publishing. The 'Why Choose Tate Publishing'
page seems to lead readers to believe the books are physically
on shelves in Barnes & Noble and Borders stores. This may
be true for some of their books, as it is with any publisher.
However, in 9-out-of-10 titles I checked, it was not true. Just
like most self publishing companies, the books are available to
special order. Just like most self publishing companies, some
books were available in stores, on shelves.
Here is what I recommend you do - get a list of 'mature' Tate
titles (meaning books released more than 90 days ago - anything
more recent may not be fully represented in the market), get the
ISBN and call your local stores. You can also check store inventory
at both B&N and Borders Stores on their respective web sites.
The process I followed was slightly different - working more
from the 'best selling' titles side of things - I visited Amazon,
looked up Tate Publishing under Advanced Search in Books, listed
the titles by "Best selling" - got the ISBN and called
our local stores. I also checked store inventory at both B&N
and Borders Stores on the B&N and Borders web sites.
2) "only 4 percent of manuscripts
submitted make it through the acquisitions rigorous requirements"
- I don't know if this means only 4 percent of all submitted manuscripts
get published at all, or that only 4 percent of manuscripts submitted
qualify for publication without the up front cost of nearly $4000.
It is certainly something you should explore when you speak with
your representative. We'll update this piece of information as
we research the topic further.
3) "The highest royalty earnings!"
- again a direct quote from their site and it isn't true in the
broader self publishing market. Dog Ear and many others pay much
higher author profit rates. See below for more detail on this
part. Tate employs a sliding-scale for royalties - you earn more
as the numbers go up - but the base (and most likely) royalty
scenarios are lower than many in the industry.
"...we pay the highest royalty in the industry (15%)..."
- no, they don't. Many companies pay this rate - and Dog Ear Publishing
pays far more. Tate does pay a much greater royalty rate for sales
from direct sales or other digital sales. We always recommend
authors sell books via methods OTHER than distribution - so this
may be a win with Tate Publishing. However, their base direct
sales profit still isn't the highest in the industry.
Since we can't get firm numbers from the site, I started the
process with Tate Publishing (submitting my own manuscript). I
was stunned by the email I received in response. (bold
text is quoted from the "welcome" email I received.)
"We are not a self-publisher in our approach, operation,
or philosophy." Anyone you pay to publish your book
is a self-publishing company. If Tate is NOT charging you any
money for the publication of your book, then this comparison does
not apply to your specific situation (and, ultimately wouldn't
have any value to you). If you are paying any fee to Tate Publishing
for the publication of your work, then they are operating as a
self publisher in their relationship with you. They are selling
services (design, production, editorial, distribution) to authors
- since Tate Publishing is the 'publisher of record' for your
book, they are a self-publishing company as commonly defined in
our industry. They may be different from many of my competitors,
but in the situations where they charge a fee for services, they
are operating as a self-publishing company.
"We will actually place our resources in a first-time
author's work." - this is important - and valuable.
Many self-publishing companies don't do any editorial, design
or marketing work for your book; they are simply a printing resource
for whatever you create. You know these companies as Lulu.com
or Wordclay.com. Tate Publishing uses real editors and provides
real design for your project - it's just too expensive.
"...and still participate with our investment in
your book of anywhere from $15,700.00-$19,700.00 of our resources
for the production and nationwide marketing of the work. With
a new author we expect an author participation of only $3,985.50."
- this is an interesting number... and an extraordinary claim.
Moving on, I'll provide you with a framework around which
to phrase some very direct questions to your author representative
- here is what I believe is important in choosing a company to
self-publish your book. (Note these are standard for ANY self-publishing
company you call...)
1) - CONTRACT - do you keep
all your rights and can you terminate your agreement at any time
without penalty? The author contract should be short and easy
to understand. It appears you do.
2) - RETAIL PRICE. Can you
set your own retail? Does the publisher force you into ridiculously
high retail prices? (see our page on setting your Retail Pricing
here.)Remember, to sell in retail outlets you need to set
your book's retail price at about 2.5 X your
cost... chains, big retail outlets, and wholesalers want at least
a 50% discount (though Dog Ear can go as low as 20%). So - if
your book costs $4 to print, you need to be able to sell it at
$9.95 to pretty much break even... which brings us to... Now,
that doesn't mean we can't offer a different discount structure
- as a matter of fact, we can offer your book to the wholesale
channel with as low a discount as you'd like - many books (usually
textbooks or business books) offer only a 20% discount.
3) - BOOK PRINTING COSTS. Your
Retail is almost always a function of your cost to print the book.
If your book costs more to print, you need to push your retail
price higher just to break even.
4) - AUTHOR PROFIT. Some call
it ROYALTY, we call it a NET SALES PAYMENT. Whatever it's called
- it's the amount you receive from each book sale. Don't let the
rep get away with talking 'percentages' - you don't pay the light
bill with a percent. Make them give you an example, based on page
count and retail price, of how much you'll make - in DOLLARS -
for each sale through Amazon.com (where 90% of your first year
sales will occur).
Be careful of any company that gives a huge royalty but forces
unreasonable retail prices on your book. It makes no sense to
get a "50%" royalty on a book that will never sell. Also watch
for royalties that are increased by REDUCING your WHOLESALE DISCOUNT
- again, if no store will buy it, what's the point of a royalty?
4) - CUSTOMER SERVICE - Tate Publishing appears
to excel at this. Staff seems incredibly knowledgeable and helpful.
Can you actually speak with someone who actually knows something
about the book industry? Do you have access to "decision makers"
that can make things happen for your book?
5) - BUSINESS MODEL - what is their business
model? Everyone is in business to make money - and that's an honorable
thing... but watch WHERE they make their money - look for hidden
charges, or charges that show up to actually create an effective
and salable book for you.
All of the companies we review here will be very different in
"personality" - but for the most part, they share the exact same
business model: bring authors in with an unrealistic price and
heavy direct marketing campaigns - then up sell each author to
to create a book that is actually viable. The most important thing
they have in common? Their entire business is based on moving
authors through the system as quickly as possible, and with as
little human interaction and a few real options as possible. It's
all about "cookie cutter" services and book building. Imagine
if McDonalds produced books.
Here are some numbers to let you get more in-depth with Tate
Publishing. Ask your rep to provide a comparison amount for each
item. Write 'em down, add 'em up - see what comes out.
The specs are pretty typical of the books produced in the trade
category at any self publishing house. Information and self publishing
costs are derived from the Tate Publishing web site and contract.
- 6X9 trim size, 150 pages, one color interior, 4 color cover,
5 interior images
- Paperback or hardcover
- ISBN and bar code included, Library of Congress Control number
- Custom cover and interior - not just choices
from existing templates
- PDF or laser proofs delivered to author,
- 100 additional paperback units purchased
- Available at Amazon and most major online retailers
- Available through major distributors like Ingram and Baker and
Taylor
- Available for order at over 25,000 retail bookstores.
(click here
to see the Dog Ear breakdown - our total cost for this package
and options is $1,327, and our per unit book
printing price is $4.28, and you get 10 free
author copies of your book.)
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