Parson Place Press LLC
Frequently Asked Questions
On this page are some of the most frequently asked questions of Parson Place Press, a Christian publishing house devoted to giving Christian authors and readers a fair deal. If you don't find your question answered here, email it to us at info+parsonplacepress.com, and we'll do our best to answer it as promptly as possible. Moreover, if we deem it to have a broad enough application, we may even add it to this list. Thanks for your interest in Parson Place Press!
- What does it cost me for Parson Place Press to publish my book?
- Does Parson Place Press offer subsidy publishing?
- What rights do I relinquish when I publish with Parson Place Press?
- Will my book have copyright protection when it is published?
- Will my book have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN)?
- Does Parson Place Press consider book proposals from authors outside the United States?
- How long will it take for my manuscript to be published with Parson Place Press?
- How many complimentary copies of my book will I receive when it is published?
- How may I obtain more copies of my book later?
- How much will I have to pay for additional copies of my book?
- Will my book be available for ordering by bookstores and others?
- Will book sellers, like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, etc offer my book for sale?
- Will my book be available in eBook format?
- Will I receive an advance for my book when I publish with Parson Place Press?
- What royalties will I receive when I publish with Parson Place Press?
- How often will I be paid royalties?
- How will I receive my royalty payments?
- What are "returns," and why do they affect my royalties?
- What about publicity for my book?
- What about review copies of my book?
- How long will my book remain in print?
- How do I submit my manuscript to Parson Place Press for publication?
- What does it cost me for Parson Place Press to publish my book?
We do not charge submission fees, reading fees, publication fees, or printing fees. We absorb all up-front costs with the hope of recuperating our investment through future sales, which we share equally with our authors, as you'll learn when you continue to read these FAQ. We are not a vanity or subsidy press simply because we use the print on demand (POD) method of printing, binding, and distribution.
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- Does Parson Place Press offer subsidy publishing?
No, Parson Place Press does not offer subsidy publishing (sometimes called self-publishing) as an option for publication.
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- What rights do I relinquish when I publish with Parson Place Press?
With Parson Place Press as your publisher, you retain full control over your author's rights. You must, however, grant us both print rights and reprint rights world-wide, as well as world-wide electronic rights, in order for us to be able to legally publish and distribute your work anywhere in the world in both print and eBook formats. You must complete and sign a standard agreement which we will provide you with instructions for completing it before publication for granting those rights.
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- Will my book have copyright protection when it is published?
According to U. S. copyright laws, any work presented in a final form, such as printing or publishing, whether or not it bears the copyright symbol -- © -- is protected by U. S. copyright laws. It is not required that a work be registered with the U. S. Copyright Office for it to be protected by U. S. Copyright law. Nevertheless, it is strongly recommended that a work be registered with the U. S. Copyright Office as a preventive measure against potential legal challenges after a work is widely published. A valid U. S. copyright registration number will instantly resolve any legal challenge that may arise. Since all works published by Parson Place Press remain the property of the respective authors, the obligation and/or responsibility to register a copyright therefore rests with the author. You must obtain this application from the U. S. Copyright Office. Then you must complete and return it to the U. S. Copyright Office with the appropriate registration fee. The U. S. Copyright Office will then notify you when it is registered and provide any additional information they deem pertinent at that time.
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- Will my book have an International Standard Book Number (ISBN)?
Yes, your book will not only have its own ISBN, but it will also have an accompanying bar code that will make it salable by booksellers anywhere in the world. This unique number will distinguish your individual book from every other publication in the whole world.
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- Does Parson Place Press consider book proposals from authors outside the United States?
Yes, but all book proposals and manuscripts must be composed in fluent English. By "fluent English," we mean that the content must be in mostly correct English that is easy enough to understand. Therefore, manuscripts that require an inordinant amount of editing for grammar, spelling, and clarity, even if composed by an author from the United States, will not be accepted for publication.
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- How long will it take for my book to be published with Parson Place Press?
The time it will take to publish your book depends upon the length of your manuscript, how much editing is required before sending it to the printers, how many changes you wish to make to your proof, and whether or not it has extensive tables, charts, graphs, photos, etc. Note that all tables, charts, graphs, photos, etc. will be printed in black and white. While full-color printing is available, it is considerably more expensive, even to the point of being cost-prohibitive. Therefore, unless your proposed book is a photo or art collection, full-color printing is not recommended. Note, too, that changes to your proof should be minimal when you return it. This is not the time for a re-write of your text or any other major alterations! Significant changes to your proof will greatly delay its readiness for printing and may even result in having your book rejected for publication. Be sure your book is ready for publication when you submit it to Parson Place Press. The purpose of receiving and reviewing a proof is to correct any misspellings, poor grammar, or typographical errors that were missed up to that point, or such other problems as incorrect pagination on the contents or index pages, improper hyphenation of words, or unequal page margins, to name a few. The bottom line is this: it will take as long as it takes to get it right, though you should never expect it to be absolutely flawless.
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- How many complimentary copies of my book will I receive when it is published?
You will receive three complimentary copies of your book upon publication. That's one for yourself and two for whomever you choose (like the one who gave you the most encouragement to keep writing and who never doubted for an instant you'd be published one day).
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- How may I obtain more copies of my book later?
If you wish to order more copies of your book for other relatives and friends, or if you want to sell them on your own Web site or even out of the trunk of your car, we will provide you with special ordering instructions upon request.
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- How much will I have to pay for additional copies of my book?
As a special privilege to authors, you may purchase copies of your book at the same wholesale price as other book distributors and sellers. This will usually be anywhere from 40% to 50% off the suggested retail price.
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- Will my book be available for ordering by bookstores and others?
Yes, when your book is published, it will also be listed in the Ingram Book Group books in print database and the Bowker's books in print database, as well as in Advance (for all books), Christian Advance (for explicitly Christian books), or both (at our discretion), depending on whether it may appeal to a non-Christian audience as well as a Christian audience. The Advance and Christian Advance book catalogs contain the ISBN, title, author, and a brief description of those recently published books who pay for the listing. Both catalogs are published by Ingram Book Group, the largest book distributor in the world. Many other book distributors, wholesalers, retailers, libraries, and others use both Ingram's and Bowker's books in print databases, as well as Advance and Christian Advance, to make their stock ordering decisions. For local bookstores, you can provide them with the book's ISBN, and they can order it from their usual book distributor, because it is listed in the digital database for Ingram Book Group and Bowker. This will make it much easier for you when you do local book signings, by negating the need to carry cases of books in your car, as well as eliminating the negotiation of special arrangements with bookstore managers for consignment sales (for those rare managers willing to make such deals in the first place).
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- Will book sellers, like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, etc. offer my book for sale?
Yes, since these online retailers monitor the Ingram and Bowker books in print databases, they will automatically list your book as a new release when they receive the updated database from Ingram and/or Bowker, though they will not stock your book in their brick-n-mortar stores without patron requests. Therefore, you should urge your family and friends to make frequent requests of their local chain bookstores to stock your title. It normally takes anywhere from one to six weeks for your book to appear in these online stores' stock lists. Just check their sites everyday by searching on your book's ISBN until you find it listed. If you find any errors in their listings, however, please notify Parson Place Press immediately, and we will contact them for correction.
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- Will my book be available in eBook format?
The Parson Place Press Managing Editor is currently working to convert all existing Parson Place Press titles into the two most popular eReader formats: Kindle and Nook. Future published titles will be made available in each of these formats as soon as feasible after they are published in their hard cover or paperback formats.
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- Will I receive an advance for my book when I publish with Parson Place Press?
No. In order to keep costs low, Parson Place Press does not pay advances to our authors. The good news, however, is that you can begin receiving royalties from sales of your book as soon as they equal or exceed $5.00.
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- What royalties will I receive when I publish with Parson Place Press?
At Parson Place Press, we share the profits equally with our authors. Therefore, your royalty will be 50% of the net profit from all wholesale purchases of your book when you publish it with Parson Place Press. The net amount is what is left after the cost of printing is deducted. The cost of shipping is excluded from royalty calculations. In the case of eBook sales, Parson Place Press will share 50% of the net proceeds we receive from Amazon (for Kindle eBook sales) and Barnes and Noble (for Nook eBook sales). We believe this to be the most generous plan in the industry right now.
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- How often will I be paid royalties?
Since it usually takes at least 90 days for book buyers to settle their accounts with us, we will settle with you when buyers settle with us. Therefore, we require a minimum of 30 additional days (a total of 120 days from the closing of the sales period during which a purchase was made) to pay out royalties to our authors. It could take less time than that, but it may also take longer. Furthermore, if there are returns, your royalty payment will be withheld until your previously paid royalty amount corresponding to these returns is recuperated.
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- How will I receive my royalty payments?
All royalty payments to Parson Place Press authors will be paid in U. S. dollars (USD) by business check, unless arrangements can be made for electronic funds transfer (EFT) to a U. S. bank. For authors without a U. S. bank, payment by business check via the postal service is the only option available at this time.
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- What are "returns," and why do they affect my royalties?
Returns are when a book buyer (usually a retail bookseller) returns the books that did not sell from a previous order. This often happens when an author has conducted a book signing in which a significant number of books are ordered but do not sell during the book signing event, though there are also other possible reasons for returns. Therefore, the bookseller usually returns the unsold copies to the distributor, who returns them to Parson Place Press, thus generating a loss for Parson Place Press. To recuperate the previously paid royalty portion of this loss, Parson Place Press must withhold paying future royalties until this deficit (commensurate with your previously paid royalty amount only) is overcome. You will have the option of purchasing some or all of these returns at the usual wholesale price (less your royalty share, plus shipping and handling), if you wish to try to resell them yourself, but this is not a requirement.
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- What about publicity for my book?
Parson Place Press is a small publishing house with rather limited resources available for promotions and publicity. Therefore, while we will be glad to assist with the distribution of an initial press release announcing your book's publication by both email and fax to your local media using a contact list you provide, we simply cannot compete with the big budget publishers on television and radio and in magazines, newspapers, etc. As we grow in both number of titles published and income, we expect to do more of these kinds of promotions. Nevertheless, publicity and promotion of any book is as much the author's responsibility as the publisher's. Thus, you may check out our Author Resources page for links to resources that will help you publicize and promote your book(s), among other things.
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- What about review copies of my book?
Since Parson Place Press is a POD publisher, there are no pre-release review copies or galley copies available for distribution to reviewers, or for press kits, etc. It is therefore your responsibility to provide review copies of your book upon a reviewer's request. You may purchase additional copies of your book at the usual wholesale price (minus your royalty share) for review copies after your book's release, or, if you wish to launch a publicity campaign through a publicist prior to your book's release, the public release of your book may be delayed and advance copies may be printed for the purpose of distribution to reviewers, etc. before it is finally released to the public. Since this needs to be decided before your book is released to the public, you will be given this option at the time of your book's publication.
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- How long will my book remain in print?
A book's life in print lasts only so long as the reading public's interest in reading it. The reading public's interest is gauged primarily by quantity of sales. When a book's sales drop below a bare minimum of ten per year, it is no longer worthwhile to keep it available, since there is an annual fee to list it in the books in print database, and after splitting the net profits with the author, Parson Place Press must earn at least enough to cover this cost to justify maintaining the title in its list of published books. Paltry sales is a sign either of poor promotional efforts or reader disinterest or both. Therefore, when a book's sales decline below this minimum, Parson Place Press will give the author the option of purchasing the balance of the shortfall below ten copies each year when the annual database renewal fee is due or letting the book go out of print.
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- How do I submit my manuscript to Parson Place Press for publication?
Simply follow completely the instructions on the Author Guidelines page. If you still have questions after reading that page, email us at info+ parsonplacepress.com for help.
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