So now that you know you are qualified, we're going to give it to you straight.
If at any point in reading this, you think this is some kind of scam, then do yourself a favor and move on now. Don't waste your time. We realize that the internet is full of scammery and that it's hard to trust, but we need people who aren't going to go into this with doubt.
We have an empire to build.
By way of some background here, our fearless leader and founder of StandUp, Inc., is a 17 year veteran of the publishing industry. In addition to having worked at Simon & Schuster, Hyperion, and Putnam, she also established her own successful literary agency and authored two well received books. She's pretty much done it all.
"In my opinion, the old publishing paradigm no longer works. New technologies are not being properly utilized by the industry. The dinosaur refuses to evolve."
With an eye on the future of publishing, Christina envisioned what this new publishing company might look like. She determined what wasn't working, and set out to fix it.
Royalties
Currently authors are paid royalties twice a year and three months after the close of the period. That worked when accounting departments were calculating royalties off ledger books using an abacus, but c'mon people. We have computers and royalty software. They don't update the system, because first of all, who is going to make them, the authors? And secondly, do you know how much interest they earn in holding onto your money?
Authors who publish with StandUp, Inc. will be paid royalties quarterly and one month post close of the royalty period. More information here.
Lead Times
Why it still takes publishers over a year to get books out to the public is beyond comprehension. The thinking behind this is that editors need time to edit, and then catalogs have to be designed and printed, and the sales force has to have time to hit the bookstores and presell so publishers know how many copies to print since excess books and warehouse space hurt the bottom line.
Firstly, we print as orders come in, so as soon a book is ready, it's available. And since we don't take our books out of print, there are no worries about it not hitting in that first crucial year. And let me just tell you, not only do editors really not do all that much editing anymore, we're writing recipes in a standard format and watching each others backs for mistakes. And as of last year, more books were sold on the internet than in actual stores and Amazon will be taking all of our books. So as we said above....as soon as the book is done, we're printing.
Publishing Lists
Publishers are completely out of tune with the people who live between the two coasts. Case in point: Chicken Soup. The creators of this series met with 20 publishers in New York who all turned it down for being too sappy. Peter Vegso of Health Communications in Deerfield Beach Florida took a chance and published the book--and lo and behold, a publishing phenomena. Why? Because it hit at the heart of America. The traditional publishers publish two kinds of books anymore: celebrity driven books that come with built-in media so that they don't have to spend money marketing, and books that the Vassar grads who work in publishing want to read.
At StandUp, Inc. we publish what you want published. Our publishing lists are dictated by the interests of you, the StandUp Chefs. We have a long list of suggested titles, and we're open for more suggestions. Tell us what America wants, then let's write and publish it!
Royalty Rate Structure
The standard royalty structure in publishing now is an average of 10-12% royalty on hardcover books, 7-8% royalty on trade paperbacks and about 5% on rack size books. First of all, this never made sense, since hardcovers are so much more expensive to produce than a trade paperback, so why would you offer up more royalty? But also, these standard royalty rates are based on the profit margin for printing costs of long ago. Books used to be really expensive to produce. You had to create plates and duplicate film, there was laborious cutting and pasting, then books had to be delivered by horseback, okay, so a little exaggeration, but you get the point. Books cost the publisher a fraction today of what they used to cost. Are they passing this savings on to you? No. And look at the cover prices. Book production costs have dropped dramatically, yet every year you pay more and more for books and the royalties haven't gone up. Does anyone smell a rat?
Once again, at StandUp, we're real about costs. In fact, we actually print our books on our own printing press to further reduce book production costs. What this means to you, is a royalty rate that actually reflects your true value as an author. We pay out more than 3 times what traditional publishers are offering--because we believe that without authors, there wouldn't be books. For more information on pay out structure click here.
Book Accessibility
If your books are not out there, how are you supposed to sell them? Most books published by traditional publishers are available for a year. If it did well in hardcover, you might get into trade paperback for a second wind. Yes, once you've hit OPI (out of print indefinitely) you can get your rights back--but not for a whole 6 months after they've ceased publishing it, completely killing any sales momentum that you had started.
At StandUp, books never go OPI. Our printing press allows us to continue to publish as orders come in. Whether we have an order for one copy or a thousand, today or in five years, we are happy to accommodate.
We will also put any Out of Print books that you've done in the past, right back in print. Just provide us with a digital copy of your book, together we will negotiate costs/royalties, and whammo, you are back in action.
We will also provide you with the lowest costs on author's copies of any publisher out there, because we are not trying to make money off you trying to promote your work. Your promotion of your work will make us all money in the long run.
The Publishing Company
As it is today, the traditional publisher divides the company into a variety of departments. and again with new technologies, this system's efficiency often breeds inefficiency. Marketing, publicity and subsidiary rights should be working together, and should be involved in acquisitions and defining the publishing lists. But they aren't. And, unless you are Rachel Ray, the authors like you, don't even hit their radar. Those authors who don't have fame and fortune at their back, who are "lucky" enough to be acquired by a traditional publishing company will be expected to do their own marketing and publicity. In fact, your acquisition is reliant on your ability to do so.
Well we expect that here too, at StandUp. But we make it profitable for you to do so. We also provide you with all the information you need to promote. Like all publishers, we have databases of every newspaper, tv station, radio station, bookstore, library, magazine, catalog, etc. in the nation (and some Canada and UK as well.) The difference is, we share.
We will provide you with everything you need to promote your books, including press kits, galleys, and contact information for the media. We will guide you through the process, teach you media preparedness and help you all along the way. Because after all, the more money you make, the more money we make, right?
In fact, you, as authors, will be a part of your book's life from beginning to end. We're putting an end to the antagonistic relationship between publishers and authors.
In addition, this phenomenon that we are creating, this new publishing paradigm, this is a built-in publicity campaign. Who are these StandUp Chefs? What is this new Publishing Company? Together as a team, we create a brand and together we help lift each other's success.
Yes, many of our titles have already been done, but not by the StandUp Chefs. Authors can only be in one place at a time. Together, even as individual authors, our brand can be everywhere at once. Our strong brand will provide you with an inroute to local and eventually national media. And Christina will tell you from experience, there is little that is more fun than seeing yourself in the paper, on television and your name on a book in the bookstore.
So, who is ready to StandUp and write cookbooks?
A little side note, we're starting with cookbooks because Christina came up with amazing cookbook design that is sure to get us a whole lot of attention and break us out into the media and retailers, but we have every intention of expanding into other genres of publishing. So stay tuned for that.
