I just answered a question from a reader about my experiences with SBPRA and thought I should include my answer here as well. I have been very happy with SBPRA, and will have my fourth book published by SBPRA (Gimme-Jimmy) released very soon. Here is why:
“After several years of sending occasional queries to various publishers who, if they responded at all, either informed me that they were “no longer accepting unsolicited manuscripts” or recommended I find an agent, (who responded that they only chose to accept published authors), I made the most important decision of my literary life: I submitted Santa’s Birthday Gift to SBPRA (Eloquent Books and Strategic Books) which has ultimately resulted in receiving seven National Awards in 2011 for my three books, including also The Magic Word and Peter and the Whimper-Whineys. SBPRA has been with me every step of the way: connecting me with my awesome illustrator (the Kalpart team), and then helping with marketing opportunities, offering progressively better contracts as each book was submitted and showed evidence of strong sales – as well as providing entries into the world of eBooks and iTune Apps. I have discovered that their philosophy of giving every qualified new author a chance – rather than have an over-worked editor in some large publishing house determine whether or not a book will be successful – has worked very well for me. I had faith in my books, and made a commitment to get them into print and let the children decide their worth…”
If anyone has any further questions, please let me know. I will be happy to help if I can…
Since this post, I have received several questions about how I feel about SBPRA, so I have decided to add a condensed version of my latest response to a potential author who has had his manuscript accepted by SBPRA. He had some reservations after reading some feedback he found online.
“I am sorry you have read some negative propaganda, although it is good that you are doing some research about something so important. I will try to answer your questions as best I can. First of all, let me say that I do not want to try to talk anyone into anything. I personally have been very happy with SBPRA – and go on record about that often. I can only speak for myself – although I know lots of other authors who are very happy with SBPRA as well. It seems that one can find a lot of griping and complaining on line, but not so much praise… There are also a few linked websites that seem to be on somewhat of a witch-hunt as far as I can see. I try to stay out of the fray as much as possible!
I am often asked about royalties, and I must stress that each contract is different, so I only know about mine. However, I have found that many authors don’t understand the allocation of royalties as determined by the amount of books sent to online stores by the printer. Amazon sales, for instance, does not immediately translate into royalties – because there’s always quite a lag, and difficult to track. Amazon will buy so many books, but the author and publisher get no payment until after the books are actually sold, so there is delay involved. Eventually it evens out…and I have never had a problem getting paid.
It also seems that many authors do not read or understand the contract offered to them. SBPRA is pretty clear about what they expect from you and what you can expect from them. They are not a Self-Publish Press which has authors buy a set amount of books upon publication. I refer to them as “Help-Publish” since they do a lot and we, the authors, have to do a lot too. They get your book to the marketplace, such as amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and lots of others, and then you have to help with social networking and responding to things like Google Alerts and looking for other marketing opportunities, to get your work recognized. Their philosophy seems to be that they will offer to publish books that they feel have potential, giving opportunity to many authors who otherwise might not find a publisher willing to even read their manuscript, and then provide extra support to the “break-out” authors. You have to be willing to help market your book, although you will be given a lot of advice on how to do that. If you wish to pay for extra help, that is also available – according to what you think you need. This year there were about twenty authors who reached 1000 sales, and they have been provided with a lot of free marketing. I was lucky enough to be one of them!!
Many of the large publishing houses offer advancements (although most of them require you to pay them back if sales don’t equal the advance you were given.) Small Presses, as far as I know, do not. I contributed a relatively small amount to the publication of my first book, Santa’s Birthday Gift, because I had faith in my book and a willingness to help get it out to the children and let them decide whether or not it would be worth buying. The book has won two awards, and was on the amazon best-seller children’s list in November & December. At this point, my book will probably be at over 2000 after last month’s sales – and my other books are also doing very well.
As for editing, I don’t know. Children’s picture books require much less editing. I don’t know about novels, but I would think that it might be a good idea to invest in editing if you haven’t done so already. Books with grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors are not going to get very far…and you can’t rely on spell-check which sees aisle, isle and I’ll as perfectly acceptable!!!
I have found the SBPRA client communication very profesional. They make books available to the authors at a reduced rate, and will allow you to get them for review purposes at about the wholesale rate. I do not try to sell my books, preferring to let them be purchased on-line or at the stores that carry them – although I do have several fund-raisers where schools or organizations can buy the books at a reduced cost to them, and then sell them for whatever they wish to their supporters. I usually go to those events to sign them and read to the children as well – because that is a lot of fun for me!!! I also have had quite a lot of Barnes & Noble book-signing events in my area, where they sell very well even if they are not on the shelves. (My printer does not put the title and author on the spine of picture books, so they tend to get lost on the shelves.) I set these up myself by going to the store and talking with the CRM (Community Relations Manager) and giving her a copy of my book. It sold itself.
My first book was published in Nov. 2009. SBPRA has provided opportunities to send my books to their international expos, they have offered me support and advice whenever I have asked – and I have been very happy there. I do not want to talk anyone into anything, but I will be happy to answer questions. My only other point is that you also need to take into consideration how long you want to wait to get feedback from other submissions you may have made to any of the big publishing houses. It’s really up to you!!!
2/15/12 – I just received a couple more emails with questions, so I will post my answers here… One of these days, maybe I will have answered them all! (not)
Pitch us now and if we like your pitch, there is no charge to publish your book. (from SBPRA information website) Does this happen often? – It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. They have all kinds of different contracts for different types of books – and it would depend on your ability as well as your marketability, and what they think will sell well. I know they used to have an offer that if you would guarantee a certain amount of books pre-publication, they would offer a contract along those lines.
What do they do to help the author (author help) personally from beginning to end publish a manuscript? Do you pay for each segment like the illustrator, editor, designer, printing, etc? - I really can’t comment except about children’s picture books. Yes there are illustration expenses if you don’t have your own illustrator – and that was the largest part of my investment because I fell in love with Kalpart’s illustrations and was willing to invest in their artwork to help sell my books. Their illustrations are awesome– and I can’t say enough about their covers. You know the “don’t judge a book by its cover” line? In the children’s picture book world, your cover helps sell the book!!! Anyway, once you are under contract they walk you through the rest, which is included in the initial charge. Their contract is very clear about what they will do, and what you will have to do to help market the books. I covered a lot of this in my Sherrill’s SBPRA Info link on my website.
Do you feel comfortable giving me some idea of the “author help” cost? – I am willing to tell you what my initial “help-publish” cost was in 2009: $399. The illustrations were a per/illustration cost, and I don’t feel comfortable quoting anything about that, since I have no idea what kind of book you are hoping to publish nor what kind of illustrations you need. That would be between you and the illustrator. I also have no idea what the initial costing is now – but the best way to find out would be to submit and find out what they offer! You don’t have to accept anything!
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the info! I had a partial manuscript looked over by SBPRA (the prologue and first 3 chapters) and they have agreed to publish the work based on just that and sent me 2 separate contracts. Each contract would result me me sending them x amount of money to cover what I assume is the cost of the book going to the presses. There seems to be an equal amount of good and bad things people are saying with SBPRA and I am concerned that either I am getting some how scammed or that I am being taken advantage of. I do not mean to accuse anyone of anything but my question is in your dealings with SBPRA did you have to also give x amount of money up front for your books? And does the negative flak out their have an affect on the authors such as yourself that they are publishing ?
Hi Jason – I decided just to answer questions here… I already answered the one about “in your dealings with SBPRA did you have to also give x amount of money up front for your books?” (see my other answers in case you missed it.) As for “does the negative flak out their have an affect on the authors such as yourself that they are publishing ?” I have won 7 National Awards with my three books in 2011, so I would have to say no. I am proud to be a SBPRA author, and happy that I have had all these wonderful opportunities to share my books with children! If you really are
“concerned that either I am getting some how scammed or that I am being taken advantage of”, then you probably should look elsewhere. I was honored and thrilled that they were willing to take a chance on me – and I had enough faith in my books to help get them published. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
jasondimpel@yahoo.com
jason
0
Thank you for your post in regards to SBPRA. I am working on a novel and it is in its raw version and I understand that there are many cases of first time writers stepping into the quagmire of contracts, etc but I have always been with the knowledge that no money should part hands from the writer to anyone they send their work to unless they advertise costs through advertising (which usually ends up being in the vanity publishing fold that should be avoided.) My concern is this…I am writing this book in order to get it out of my head and I am in no financial position to contribute any financial stakes up-front, so would this mean my work would never be seen? Also, there are many cases regarding copyright infringements, mistreatment of first time writers etc and I know for a fact that after the months of torment in my head getting this out, then if I got abused or mistreated by anyone financially or contractually I would be extremely miffed off possibly to the point of insanity as I do not like not accept mistreatment of others let alone myself. What guarantees would I have this wouldn’t happen to me?
Hi Sean- This is a difficult post to answer. It sounds as if you have a wonderful novel in process and wonder where to submit it. Most help-publish and self-publish publishers require some financial investement from the author. SBPRA has many kinds of contracts which are dependent on the quality of the manuscript as well as its marketablilty, so there are no “set fees” advertised. Once you submit your manuscript, and it is accepted, then a contract would be offered – which would be enitirely your decision whether or not to accept it. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees! The big publishing houses do not require any kind of financial upfront money from the author, and even provide an advance if the manuscript is accepted (usually with the understanding that enough copies will be sold in order to cover the advance.) Since you feel you are not in a position to contribute right now, my suggestion would be to try submitting to the larger houses – and try to find an agent who will help you with that. Good luck!
I have already had a book published through Amazon’s Creatspace. For the book I am working on now, I wanted to find a literary agent. I submitted part of what I have to them and they have offered me the choice of two different contracts. The first is Option 1: Joint Venture Publishing Agreement:Bonus To You at 1000 Sales and 2) Option 2: 100 Pre-Sales Publishing Agreement. Which one would you choose?
You didn’t mention the initial outlay for either option, nor what kind of book you are hoping to publish, but the answer would depend on whether you feel you know 100 people who would be willing to pre-pay for a copy of your book. Since you already have one book out, at least your friends and fans know your writing style so it might be easier. If you feel your book is very marketable, then the bonus sounds great – but keep in mind that it takes a lot of marketing effort to reach 1000 sales. (You also didn’t mention the royalty structure for each contract.) Since you asked, I personally would go for the bonus, since I know 1000 sales is possible – but it doesn’t happen right away, so be prepared to wait. However, I hope you know that this is a decision that only YOU can make! Congratulations on having received not just one but two contract offers for your book. That is awesome!!
Option 1: Joint Venture Publishing Agreement:Bonus To You at 1000 Sales
______________________________
My novel is a paranormal romance and will end up being a triliogy. Here is what they offered me:
option1:
When you achieve sales of your first 1000 books we will pay you a $1000 bonus and subsequent books by you will be published at no charge. Thus, you can really consider this a “no cost” option. The joint venture program allows you to go from your manuscript straight to a professionally printed book as quickly as possible. We include all typesetting and cover design necessary to finish your book and will make your book available to thousands of book outlets around the world as well as direct sales from the website we will create for you. There is a one time payment $995 that covers our costs of production. In the spirit of a 50/50 joint venture, we ultimately offer a 50% royalty.
We do offer a payment plan for the $995 if needed. The agreement below may be filled out online here, including signature if this is your preferred Option.
Advantages of the JV (Joint Venture) Publishing Agreement
1.Publishing can begin immediately
2.Royalty begins immediately on book sales
3.1000 dollar bonus at 1000 book sales
4.You get a World Class Professional Author Website
5.You get a professional Press Release
6.Payment plans available
7.Exceptional Customer Service
Option 2: 100 Pre-Sales Publishing Agreement
__________________________________
Our presell publishing program will cost you nothing to publish your book as long as you can pre-sell 100 books. Many of our authors know they will sell 100 books or they just buy them right away. Many of our authors have friends and family and organizations that support their writing and they buy the 100 books to help the author. Once 100 books have been sold, either by your direct efforts or via the website that we create for you, then we will move ahead with the publication of your book from start to finish. There is a one time fee of $150 for which you receive a permanent ecommerce selling website for you to use in achieving and tracking your sales. We will build the selling website for you, it is your responsibility to sell the books. Advance sales of books is fairly normal in the industry.
The 100 Presales Option Agreement is below. The agreement may be filled out online here, including signature if this is your preferred option.
Advantages of the 100 Presale Publishing Agreement
1.Initial cost is very affordable
2.We provide an immediate World Class Professional Author Website to help you sell
3.You receive royalty plus a $1000 bonus at 1000 book sales
4.You get a professional Press Release
5.Unparalleded Customer Service
Conclusion/Summary
Hi Julie – I really don’t think I can offer advice on this, because it is something only you can decide… My focus on my first book was to get the book out ASAP and let the readers decide its worth. You are very fortunate that you don’t have any illustration costs, because that is the most expensive part when publishing a picture book. I invested a lot in my illustrator, but I feel it was a wise investment for me. Only you can decide what is best for you! Whatever you decide, I wish you the best!
Thanks.
I’ve pitched SBPRA and in a few hours I received a reply saying that they have reviewed it and would like to take the next step with me.. Who has this happened to and what should I think of it? It sounds too good to be true:(
Hi Meera,
Congratulations on the quick acceptance of your submission. It’s usually a longer process. There have been several people who have asked me about my experiences with SBPRA, and most of what I have to say is already on my website. Perhaps you should see what the next step would be? Good luck and best wishes.
I am so grateful for the info, I just submitted my manuscript of poetry, being scared to send my novels, only my best friend/editor reads those. My manuscript got accepted, I was offer two contracts, but it is hard to decide which to select, I also have my lawyer looking over them. Your info has helped a great deal and now I think I can make my decision without regrets or questions. Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing, and please keep me up to date if you get a chance. I love poetry!
Hi Sherrill,
I’m a young author and have recently bucked up the courage to send in a query which I got an email back from SBPRA about saying that they are interested in my work. As I said, I’m a young author, older than 18 let’s say, and am a little weery about this kind of thing. Don’t get me wrong I’m also very happy that they want to take a look at my stuff, but I was wondering if you have any suggestions or advice for me about the SBPRA process or just the company itself? I don’t want to get scammed and you seem like an open honest person.
Hi Sam
Please read as much as you can of my SBPRA Info page, including comments to and from others, since I have tried to be candid about my experiences with SBPRA. I have been very happy, and feel that they have helped me a lot. Their philosophy seems to be to provide opportunities for qualified writers to get their books published, to offer guidelines for marketing (which is the other part of being an author!) and also additional opportunities to invest in more extensive marketing if desired – and then to give extra support to those who excel. You sort of have to determine how marketable you think your book really is, and then decide. There is some investment involved – more if you are a children’s picture book author who can’t draw – like me! – so then you have to invest in an illustrator as well. My fourth book is now at the printer’s, so you can tell that I am very happy with SBPRA – and I have another ready to go for next year! Good luck with whatever you decide.
Hi, I’ve been reading the questions on here and I’m in a similar position to Sean. When you say ‘Bigger Houses’, who would you recommend? I’ve been offered the same two contracts as Julie more-or-less, which was quite a surprise (regarding the fact that I am a teenage writer). Obviously, I would not be able to pay the costs currently due to the fact that I am yet to leave school etc.
is SBPRA trust worthy…i mean they arent fraud cause i found about it on the internet and i am really confused about it…so can you advise me on this.
Hi Angelina -
I would have to offer you the same advice as I gave Sean and Sam. Please take the time to read through my website’s SBPRA Info page, since I have tried to answer most of the questions there. I am very happy with SBPRA, they have just published my fourth book, and I will be releasing another in 2013. Each author has to decide whether or not you feel your book is marketable, and then only you can make the final decision.
Thanks for all of the great advice. I just submitted the manuscript for my second novel to SBPRA yesterday. This morning I was having second thoughts about having done it. The information here sets my mind at ease.
Hi Jeffrey -
Thanks for letting me know, and good luck with your second book. Please keep me posted!
I am the founder/managing editor of a literary journal, a selected collection of poetry, prose, aesthetic essays and art by 20 contributors. I have self published the first two issues through AuthorHouse. My book is submitted as a combined manuscript with all the layout, fonts, cover art all press ready. I approached SBPRA because I wanted an alternative to self publishing costs. I have pre-sold books. Was this a mistake? I gave them the full manuscript without a copyright. Now I’m worried.
Hi Ann -
No worries. SBPRA will send you information about how to apply for a copyright when they publish the book. You do have to be careful that you have permission to use the collection from the contributors. It sounds like a wonderful book, and congratulations on pre-selling the copies!
Dear Sherrill Cannon
I have written a self-help book and I come from South Africa. I was offered a contract by SBPRA and I spoke to some of my close friends and even my mom – and they seem negative about SBPRA and think it is a scam as having read negative comments on the internet. I want to sign on with them, but they encourage me to look at South African publishers – which I did, but again, you get the entire: “You need an agent. We don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts. We won’t respond to your e-mail if we choose not to sign you on, but a response takes 6-9 months (or some other ridiculously long time frame).”
Your website seems very encouraging about them and I want to know if you think it would not be a risk to sign with them.
Hi Gemma,
I can only speak from my own experience with SBPRA and I have found them amazing to work with. I know that there is a lot of unfortunate negative information out there – most of it generated by a former employee (I have heard) who seems to be on some sort of witch hunt. It really depends on how quickly you wish to become published, and how much you and your family feel that your book will be marketable. (It takes a lot of effort to market a book, once it is published, so you need to be prepared to do your part to help with that too.) As I mentioned before, I have just had my fourth book published – and also my fifth book accepted for next year’s release. You are the only one who can decide what is best for you – and I wish you the best in whatever you decide. Please keep me posted…
Dear Sherrill
Like Gemma, I am also an aspiring writer from South Africa. I signed a contract with SBPRA almost ten months ago and things have been going smoothly up until now. We’ve reached the ‘Print Production’ stage, which was only supposed to take a few weeks, but has already stretched out over almost three months. The publishing process seems to have come to a grinding halt and nobody over there can give me a straight answer. I know there a lot of factors that determine the amount of time it takes to get a book published, but how long did it take them to publish your work? Some of my family members think that my novel has been set at a lower priority because I’m stuck all the way down here in South Africa. Any new information you could give me would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Gerhard,
I am sorry you have experienced delays in the print production stage of your book. My last book took a much longer time as well, perhaps because there are so many more new authors all waiting for their books to be printed. I know that books do tend to get stuck in a long production queue, which has less to do with where the author is located than which production facility is printing your book. I know there is a “when will my book be ready” selection on the SBPRA author site. http://sbpra.com/clientcare/ Have you tried submitting the “Contact Author Support Form” on the page? I will do what I can to try to find more information, but please let me know if you have tried these procedures – and whether or not you have received any news. My email is sherrillcannon@aol.com, if you would prefer to communicate that way. Please keep in mind, though, that I am merely a SBPRA author and not connected to the publishing company in any official capacity!
Thank you very much for the info, Sherrill!
I’ll try out your advice. It’s not that I’m being impatient, it’s just that this is my first novel and I’m very eager and excited to get it published (especially after all those damned ‘It’s just not South African enough’ rejection letters from the local publishers down here). I’m particularly looking forward to the cover design phase, and when the process came to a stop it made me restless and uneasy.
Thanks again, and have a happy Worker’s Day!
Hi Jimmy -
I have tried to answer that question in comments to others who have wondered the same thing… The problem is that no one can answer that question but you! I wish you the best in whatever you decide.