How We Work
TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT WITH BEDFORD FALLS PUBLISHNG
My initial fee.
I will take your original work (including any illustrations) and process it into a suitable format for printing
including the front matter, index, illustrations, header and page numbering £50
Additional work if required, depending on the form in which the work is provided to me,
e.g additional work will be required if content has to be typed up from a handwritten manuscript,
or if difficulties arise with formatting from your document. Up to an additional £50
ISBN and barcode if required. (This will be necessary if you intend to sell via retail outlets.) £50
Cost of printing including initial set-up and delivery charge. This depends on a number of factors.
Size of book; number of pages; hard or sift cover; shrink wrapping; colour pages; etc. £??
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On delivery I take 20% of the books printed to sell for myself to sell via my website and pass on the remainder to you.
Once I have sold my allocation, all additional sales via the website will be credited to you. (P&P cost is borne by the customer)
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You receive 80% of the books to sell at the rate agreed on publication. All proceeds from these sales remain with you. Should you need a re-print (which will always be cheaper per copy than the first run) I take just 10% of the stock, leaving 90% with you.
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Here are a couple of examples to show how it works in practice.
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John has a book of 130 pages. It's A5 size; it has no illustrations and it is black and white throughout. It has a soft back and 80-gsm paper throughout. he has 100 copies printed. I format the work for him, and there are no difficulties. Everything goes well and he takes delivery of the books.
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He pays for my formatting and set-up time -£50
He buys an ISBN number and barcode for the book -£50
The printing and delivery costs come to £340 (£3.40 per copy) -£340
Total payable, in advance -£440
We agree a selling price of £11.99
I take 20 books to sell via my website
John keeps 80 books to sell at £11.99 each
He covers his costs with the sales of 37 books
The remaining 43 books realise a clear profit of £515
He prints a second run of 100 books which cost just £2.26 each -£226
I take 10 copies and he sells the rest for £1080 making a profit of £854
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Total return for 2 print runs of 100 copies sold £1360
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Janet has a book of poetry and watercolour drawings.
It is just 80 pages long but it is A4 size, in landscape orientation.
It is printed completely in colour on 115gsm gloss paper
and with a hard back.
It has a paper dustjacket and a ribbon to mark pages.
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She pays for my formatting and set-up time -£50
She buys an ISBN number and barcode for the book -£50
The printing and delivery costs come to £1175 (£11.75 per copy) -£1175
Total payable, in advance -£1275
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We agree a selling price of £22.99
I take 20 books to sell via my website
Janet keeps 80 books to sell at £22.99 each
She covers her costs with the sales of 55 books
The remaining 35 books realise a clear profit of £805
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She prints a second run of 100 books which cost just £10.50 each -£1050
I take 10 copies and he sells the rest for £2070 making a profit of £1020
Total return for 2 print runs of 100 copies sold £1825
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HOW OTHER PUBLISHERS WORK
Royalty rates vary slightly, but on average, you can expect the following from traditional publishers:
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Hardcover sales: 15% (i.e. publisher takes 85%)
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Paperback sales: 5% (i.e. publisher takes 95%)
Some contacts include graduated royalties. For example, you might earn 10% on the first 5,000 hardcover copies sold, 12% on the next 5,000, and 15% on every copy thereafter.