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)?
- 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?
- How do I get online book sellers, like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, etc. to offer my book for sale?
- 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?
- What about publicity for my book?
- 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. That said, we may choose to offer the subsidy publishing option in exceptional cases. Read question #2 below for more details.
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- Does Parson Place Press offer subsidy publishing?
Parson Place Press may choose to offer subsidy publishing (sometimes called self-publishing) as an option for very narrow topics with extremely limited target audiences, but these will be the exception, rather than the rule. Our same standards of publishability will apply to these books as to our other titles. Be sure to read our Author Guidelines for full details of our publishing criteria. We will negotiate cost-sharing, etc. when we elect to publish a subsidized title.
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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, in order for us to be able to legally publish and distribute your work anywhere in the world. You must complete and sign a standard agreement which we will provide you 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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- 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 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 until you are certain it's ready for printing. 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 a special authors' order page where you can submit your orders.
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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 55% 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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- How do I get online book sellers, like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, etc. to offer my book for sale?
You do not need to do anything for this. 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. This normally takes anywhere from one to six weeks. 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 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 $25.00.
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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 of all wholesale purchases of your writing when you publish it with Parson Place Press. The net amount is what is left after the cost of printing and shipping is deducted. 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. However, to keep our administrative costs manageable, we require a minimum payout of $25.00, so if your total royalties payment is less than $25.00 at the end of each 120 days sales period, we will withhold payment until your cumulative royalties payout meets or exceeds $25.00.
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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 a limited number of press releases by both email and fax, 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.
- 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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