Genealogists owe a debt of gratitude to the thousands of genealogists
before us who recorded their research results in genealogy books. We use these
books to find the information that others have already discovered. Valuable
family history information is then handed down from generation to generation
via these limited-production publications. If you visit any major genealogy
library, you will notice that the books are well worn from use by later genealogists
who built their research on the efforts of earlier generations.
Publishing a genealogy book is no small feat, however. Publishers
rarely pay an advance to the author of a family history book. In fact, the author
usually has to pay the publisher! Most family history books are published as
"vanity press" publications in which the author pays a publisher to
print the books. Sales of the book are then left to the author although several
of the publishers dealing in genealogy titles have additional sales outlets.
It is not unusual for an author to pay $10,000 or more in advance
to have a few hundred copies of a book printed. The author then stores hundreds
or even thousands of books in his or her basement or garage while trying to
sell them. In fact, it may be years before they are all sold. Several authors
have told me that they never recovered the production costs of their books.
This seems sad when so many people benefit from the authors’ hard work.
In the past few years, a new twist has been added to the vanity
press industry, called "print on demand." These companies will receive
a manuscript from an author and then wait for the orders to arrive. When an
order is received for one book, they will then print exactly one book. If they
receive orders for ten copies, they print ten copies and no more. Today’s technology
allows for "print on demand" (or PoD) at lower costs than were available
before the invention of the high-speed computer printer. The advantage is that
the author doesn’t have to spend much money up front or store a large amount
of inventory.
Another option that has appeared in the past two or three years
is called e-books. An e-book is not published on paper; instead, it is stored
on a disk drive and read on a computer screen. E-book costs are generally still
lower than PoD books.
BookLocker.com is now actively seeking authors for print on demand
books as well as for e-books. All you have to do is write your book and promote
it yourself. You supply camera-ready output to BookLocker.com. The company handles
all the printing and shipping of the books for you, in a print on demand format.
There's no inventory, so you don't need thousands of dollars or connections
in the publishing industry to get started. A modest set-up fee of $199 is required
to get everything formatted for printing. If you like, BookLocker.com will also
handle e-book sales and requires no set-up fee at all for a pure e-book deal.
BookLocker.com also claims to pay higher royalties than their
competitors (I will admit that I haven’t verified that claim). They pay 70 percent
royalty for e-books that cost $8.95 or more, 50 percent royalty for cheaper
works. For Print-on-Demand books, they pay 35 percent royalties and even higher
if the author is willing to purchase 50 or more printed books at a time.
BookLocker.com does not specialize in genealogy books; they publish
all sorts of topics. In fact, they will publish almost any book, provided it
meets their standards for quality. They also sell the books in their online
bookstore. This looks like an easy way to handle the publishing and sale of
a book that you write. Create a Web page that publicizes the book, and then
place an "Order Now" button that links to BookLocker.com’s order form.
You get a 35 percent royalty on the sale, and BookLocker.com provides the secure
order form, the book, the packaging, and the packing, as well as the mailing.
For more information about BookLocker.com’s print on demand publishing
as well as e-book publishing, look at: www.booklocker.com.
Dick Eastman Online
