Sherrill’s SBPRA Info
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 fifth book published by SBPRA to be released in 2013. Here is why: (By the way, I am not an employee of SBPRA, I am only one of their many successful authors. I am happy to post relevant comments from readers that will help other authors, but I will not post derogatory propaganda… there is way too much of that already!)
“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 my receiving twelve National Awards in 2011-12 for my four books, including also The Magic Word and Peter and the Whimper-Whineys and Gimme-Jimmy. 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 and international expos. 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…”
Addie
SBPRA has also provided me with two Fundraising Websites, enabling me to help others by offering to send 50% of the cost of the books to the participatingFundraiser organization. This is now available for the Women’s Economic Council Foundation (http://sbpra.com/wecf/) which provides programs and scholarships for women. My newest one is for CureJM (http://sbpra.com/curejm/) which is to help find a cure for Juvenile Myositis – which affects 17,000 kids in the US alone. This photo is of 7-yr-old Addie, who suffers from this disease. I learned about her while preparing Gimme-Jimmy for publication, and put her name on the Acknowledgements page as one of my “Prayer Children” for whom I wrote the book. You can see she is happy about it! She and kids like her are the reason for my CureJM Fundraiser. SBPRA has been wonderful – setting up the websites and handling the administrative portion – and should be credited for also sharing their profits. Not many publishers I know will do that! Please check out these websites if you get a chance!
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 is over 2000 – 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!
Hi Sherrill,
SBPRA has just published my book. MELTING LOVE MOMENTS Lynne Pickering A feel good romance novel 240 pages. It was released on Amazon.com and Barns&Noble , and Booktopia.com and several others now . SBPRA have been very professional and the fees are up front in a scheduled list. I originally submitted my manuscript to a London Literary agent whose every author they seemed to publish had no less than a PHD or several degrees letters after their names. They were really not interested in first time authors. Christmas is upon us and it is hard to get delivery so close so I am planning an advestisment in my local town in Australia and a book signing for January in the local library and I thought I will contact some large stores and offer then I can do a book signing. I have 5,000 art customers all around the world so I am emailing them with my details of the book and where to purchase it. I know that marketing the book is the hardest. I want to know have you had any interest from your books by other publishers via book fairs ( International) I recently paid $795 for my book to go to the book fairs in 2013 have you had any feedback on those?. I am very happy with the quality and finished book. I think the authors have to make an effort as well. My son in law found alot of the negative blogs on the internet and went out of his way to show them to me saying I had made a mistake in selecting my publisher. I have been in business for many years and you will always get some disagreeable person especially if things are not going right for them I want to know how regular are you receive your royalties? Every 90 days? So far SBPRA has been totally professional in everything they have done, now I have to think of marketing ideas to get the book out there besides the online stores. On YOU TUBE I did a short video and linked backed to my facebook page only yesterday. The writer beware blogs are disturbing, but I believe in taking people on face value on not on rummors or some disgruntled author or authors. I would love to hear from you in relation to this matter. I hope my customers receive their book soon so they can give me a book review.
So good to read these timely posts. I am so glad I found this forum. I too, have been offered a contract with SBPRA only recently. I feel so much better for having read all the positive comments. Sherrill, can you please enlighten me a little more on… The next book is published free! Thank you.
If you want to know something, ask those who know!!!
Really appreciate you being here Sherrill…
Janet Scott
Hi Rebecca – Congratulations on being selected to be offered a contract for your book. Yes, I am afraid that with so many submissions, they probably do use what seems to be “form-emails” to get the initial information out to prospective authors – but no, they do not send offers to everyone! They also don’t send the same offers to everyone!! I cannot really comment on what kinds of contracts are offered, since I am a children’s author and not an employee and I only know about my own! SBPRA does try to give qualified authors a chance to get their books published, without lengthy delays (or no answers at all) – and the philosophy is that the public should decide which books are going to be bestsellers, so why not give talented authors a chance? If you think your book is marketable, and you have faith in your talent, then the choice is yours as to whether or not to publish. Good luck and best wishes!
Hi Lynne -
Congratulations on the publication of your book. I wish you the very best. Thank you for the positive input for SBPRA!!
I find book signings and any type of publicity essential to the success of books. There are so many books out there, and it’s up to the author to help find potential readers. If you have 5000 art customers, you are off to a very good start!! I, too, have participated in the Book Expos and believe that now they are finally coming to fruition. It takes a long time to establish contacts and working relationships, but SBPRA has been at the forefront of this and I think that this is a very good time to stay on their lists! I am sorry your son in law read the negative stuff – always so many more complaints than praises – and there is one witch-hunter in particular who seems unable to accept that there are so many happy SBPRA authors to don’t waste their time complaining. As for royalties, they are listed monthly and paid quarterly. They have to be above a certain amount though.
Thanks for your comments, and please stay in touch. My email is sherrillcannon@aol.com
Hi Janet -
Congratulations on your contract offer, and thank you for your positive comments. Unfortunately, I don’t “know” everything, especially when it comes to the contracts! There are many different contract offers, and I am only an author and not an employee, so I cannot answer your question. You should send a reply to your offer email and ask more questions about this issue, since I’m not sure everyone is given this option! Please stay in touch…
Hi Sherrill,
So glad to see others on your site who have been published and giving SBPRA positive input. New authors can get so scared about letting publishers have their work. But it looks as though SBPRA is being trusted more, because of authors like you, who have sites like this one. I know one thing for certain, this site really does help the unsure author. I hope you always keep it. I’m very glad you started it.
I’ve been very busy working at my job, and working on my second book “Wake Me Nots — Two”. More exciting twists and turns, with jaw dropping impacts. Thrilling Mysteries!
To your readers, and for the record, I owe it all to SBPRA. They’re terrific!
Thanks, Sherrill — and thanks for the books. My young nieces love them.
Kind Regards, always,
Brenda Chaput (SBPRA author) …
Hi Sherrill,
Just wanted to say HELLO and say I’m glad to see more happy published authors on your site. New authors can get very scared about giving their work to publishers, but it looks as though, with the help of your site, SBPRA is getting more and more positive comments and reviews about what they’ve done to help the new author. I’m very glad you have this site. I hope you always keep it, and I’m very glad you started it.
I’ve been very busy at my work, and writing “Wake Me Nots — Two”. More spine tingling tales, and action packed mysteries, coming soon! … And to your readers, I owe it all to SBPRA.
Thanks, Sherrill, for your continued help on this site. And thanks for your books. My young nieces love them!
Kindest Regards, always,
Brenda Chaput (SBPRA author) …
Hi Brenda – thanks for the nice comments. Good luck with your new book. I am getting ready to announce mine…maybe today!
Sherrill,
All the best with your new book. I’ll be watching for it. Where are you going to announce it? I’ll continue to check on your sites. I’ll let my family know when I see it. We have lots of little kids in our clan. Can’t wait to see it and read the good example you’ve put in there.
I hope you had a good holiday. I hope you have a great New Year! I’ll catch you later.
Kindest Regards, and best wishes, always, Brenda Chaput ……………………………………..
Did you have to pay extra cost to get your book on eBook on Amazon and Barnes and Nobel through SBPRA?
Yes, I had to pay to get the books converted to the eBook formats, including the ISBN’s. It is worth the investment, however, to make the books available in all formats. The royalties are handled separately also. It is entirely up to you, though.
Hello Sherrill.
It is like a dream! My book, which is a literal translation of the HESIOD THEOGONY 800-700 BC, is on the final stage and in few weeks will be published.
I must thank SBPRA for all their work and effort all this time.I also must thank you, your books and your website for making me put aside all my doubts and trust SBPRA. Now I understand all the negativity and mudslinging against them.
It is because SBPRA has set a milestone on book publishing, away from agents and publishers who most of the times underestimate the work of the new authors.
I insert a quote of OEDIPUS TYRANNUS.
“Only time can show the honest man, while the wicked man is exposed in just one day”
I wish you all the best.
Dimitrios Kiriakopoulos
I am publishing my first book and I been selected to offer contract from SBPRA, I am very happy and very scared to send my work to them . I been reading negative and positive. Things about them. But this forum really made me more confident about the co. Thank you very much girls you made my life easy .
Thanks Sherrill giving all the positive answers ,I can trust you and SBPRA. Happy new year ,and good luck to every one.
Hi Dimitrios,
Congratulations on your pending publication! Thank you also for your thoughtful comments. It is always nice to get positive feedback, and I appreciate you taking the time to do so. I wish you the very best!!!
Sherrill
Hi Rosie -
Thank you for your candid comments. You are right that it is both thrilling and frightening to submit to a publisher, and even more so to commit to a contract. Congratulations on being selected, and I hope that the publishing process will be a wonderful experience for you. Just please be sure to follow their suggestions as much as possible, since they have your best interests in mind and want you to succeed as well! Also, my most important piece of advice to any author is to have your book edited before final submission. Good luck!!
Sherrill
Hello Sherrill,
I have a book of romantic poetry. I have been offered contracts by four different publishers (self-publishing). Another told me that people don’t read poetry these days. There is no market. I believe in my work and the positive feedback I receive from acquaintances, friends and strangers,plus online venues like poetry.com and others. So, I, on a whim, decided to test the waters with SBPRA. I like the professional manner of their communication. They offered me a contract. They stated they don’t offer everyone a contract. Unlike some self publishing companies that will sign you up as long as you have the money.
My questions, because I am leaning towards SBPRA; how quick are they with their responses to your questions? Did they create your website for you? How much input did you have regarding the content of the website? Did choose the pre-sale option, no, better way, were you offered the pre-sale option?
I am so grateful for your comment section.
All the best,
George
Hi George,
Congratulations on being offered a contract by SBPRA. I am glad that you followed up on your “whim”! I love poetry, but I do understand that not everyone does… However there are certainly enough people who do, to create a market, if only a small one. One of the nice things about SBPRA is that it provides a means for talented writers to get their works published and then let the public decide whether or not the book is worthwhile! Of course you will have to help get that book to readers, which means commit to doing some marketing (which is the other half of becoming a published author!)
SBPRA has always been very responsive to me, especially since I take care to try to send my questions to the right place! They have a wonderful “clientcare” operation, which is very helpful. They do create an author website for you – my official author site is http://sbpra.com/SherrillSCannon but I also paid a yearly fee for this one you are commenting on (http://sherrillcannon.com which is linked to the aegauthorblogs for SBPRA authors.) Now that I have just had my fifth book published, and am capable of keeping this site running on my own, I no longer have to pay the fee. They are great about helping invest in authors who invest in themselves!
The pre-sale option was not available when my first book was published, although if you have a lot of people ready to invest in your book, it seems to be a great way to go. I can’t comment much about the contracts, since I am not an employee of SBPRA, but rather a very happy author who was tired of negative comments. Since I feel that most complainers take the time to send negative comments, and the rest of the happy authors are too busy to write positive comments, that I would give back to SBPRA a little, because of the wonderful opportunities and support they have given me! I wish you the very best!!!
Thank you, Sherill, for sharing your story of success with SBPRA. I had read some of the negative comments written about this company, and was feeling discouraged.After reading your letter of success; I now feel confident in submitting my manuscript. I am also a children’s picture book writer and related well to the numerous attempts to publish my books with receipts of we are not accepting material at this time. Receiving letters with no interest is also disappointing. I, like you,have faith in my material and believe writing for children is a special gift. Gifts are to be given to others. Thank you, for sharing your story.
Dear Glenda,
Thank you for your nice comments, and I wish you the best in your manuscript submission. I especially like your phrase, …”writing for children is a special gift. Gifts are to be given to others.” That is a lovely way to describe what writing means to a children’s author. I don’t know if you have selected an illustrator, but I love my illustrator, Kalpart, who has illustrated all of my children’s books. (http://www.kalpart.com/childrenStoryBook) My only other suggestion is to be sure to get your book edited before final submission. Too many potentially good books fail if the spelling and punctuation are inaccurate!! Please keep me posted… Sherrill
Hi Guys thank you all soooo much for posting your comments and stories, I have just signed a contract with SBPRA for my Childrens Book When the Twins met Toby, I was so worried when a friend of mine sent me a link to ‘writers beware’ site…but thanks to you I feel much more confident in my choice and am looking forward to getting my book out there.
Thanks
Samantha
Hi Samantha -
Congratulations on signing a contract for your children’s book, and I wish you the very best with its success! I get very tired of that site, since the person who runs it has her own problems and really ought to remember the adage about glass houses!! Just please remember to have your book edited, and to get involved with marketing (which is the other half of being an author.) Please stay in touch! Sherrill
I had just received a contract from them and they said not many gets into their market. They loved me and willing to work with me. The only thing is that I heard alot of bad feedback. I’m starting think that its a lot of bad writers that makes these complaints. I’m going to continue on praying and hope this work out for me and than tell you my experience. Oh and Congradulations!
Dear Sandy,
Congratulations on being accepted by SBPRA! My only advice (which I give to everyone) is to be sure to have your book edited before releasing it. As for the bad feedback, most of it comes from a disgruntled former employee who happens to have a website. It’s not just bad writers who make these complaints, but mainly from writers who have not contributed much to the marketing of their books. Marketing is the other half of being an author, and it will be up to you to help promote your book – by ways such as Facebook and Websites and Blogs! I wish you the very best – keep on praying – and please let me know how it goes!
Sherrill
Dear Sherrill, I am a new author with SBPRA. My historical fiction, “Etta’s Lessons” should hit home this summer. I to read a lot of ugly stories about this company. I thought long and hard before I made the choice to go with them. My book is in the final stages. Being edited and soon the cover design to be done. My pre-sale web site is up and running. Book orders are coming in. Thanks to family and friends. I have had a good experience with them so far and see no reason to think things will go south from here. I plan on going onto other authors sites to check out their books, and hope the same happens for me. We write because we love the story. We hope others will love it as well. I wish everyone good luck with their books. I will keep watching the new book list and picking up the books that interest me. Keep Writing Everyone! TinaMarie
Thank you, Tina, for your nice message. Congratulations on being a new SBPRA Author, and I wish you lots of success! Having such a positive outlook is a wonderful way to start on your professional journey… Thank you for sharing! Sherrill
Sherrill,
So glad you can get around to answering scared authors. How do you do that? I know you’re very busy. And people sure are glad you answer them. Sbpra sure does need the support. And I can see that you do what you can as soon as you can. There’s quite a few possitive letters above. It’s growing.
It’s always interesting to come to this site. Calming for some. Catch you later, Sherrill …
Many “THANKS” always, yours truly, Brenda Chaput (just so readers will know. Another published new author through SBPRA):Brenda Chaput:WAKE ME NOTS.
Thanks, Brenda. Always nice to hear from you! Sherrill
@Janet Scott
Hello again Sherrill, I have finally decided to take the plunge and consider a contract with SPBRA. I almost gave up writing for a spell there, then, I got another email from SPBRA. After returning to this page, and reading through all the comments… I realised, you had actually answered my own questions in regards to SPBRA. Thank you for your kind reply, it is truly appreciated. I also appreciate the comments from all others, thank you guys. It is indeed a little scary… more nerve wracking at times. WAKE ME NOTS sounds delightful too Brenda, and I agree… this site is very calming. Look out guys for my own offerings that may soon be heading SPBRA ways. MOONBEAM… the story told in rhyme, as to where twinkle, twinkle little star came from, and how it became the brightest star in the sky. Then there is LUCY GOOSE… A CHRISTMAS TALE…
@Sherrill Cannon
Hello, Sherrill:
I have been offered a contract by SBPRA for a western, one of a few in a family saga. They want about $1,000 up front; next book, if there is one, I would get about that in an advance.
I want your advice on whether that seems like a good deal to you. I want very much to be published, but I know that it at least used to be the case that publishers got paid when your books sold, not by you in advance. Has the market changed?
Any advice and knowledge you can pass along will be appreciated by this would-be author.
Sincerely,
Randy L. Robinson
Hi Randy -
I’m not really an authority on the types of contracts offered by SBPRA, since I am just a children’s author who is very happy with SBPRA (not an employee.) It seems fair to me. Traditional publishers do offer authors an “advance”, which will usually be requested to be refunded if your books don’t sell very well, and they keep the rights to your book. Help-publish publishers, such as SBPRA, tend to give you an option to pre-sell your books before publication, or give you incentives after you sell a certain number of books after publication, and you keep your rights. Since you are planning a series, it seems that their offer would be a good one. But please remember that I am just giving you my opinion – not based on any real contract information! At any rate, I wish you the very best – You have to make the final decision!!! Good luck, Sherrill
Hello Sherrill,
I am so very glad I found your website! As so many have said I was concerned about the amount of unpleasant information I was reading about SBPRA and as I am about to publish my novel “Caitlin and The Cafe Man” with them, I was so pleased to find you!! Congratulations and thankyou for being a light in the darkness of angry blogs and for standing up for a company who are trustworthy – despite the negativity out there – are good at what they do and really look after their authors from the very beginning!
All the very best to you Sherrill… Ashlee North
Hello Ashlee -
How exciting – and congratulations on being offered a contract with SBPRA! Yes, there are a lot of negative comments out there, and it’s a shame. It’s sad to consider how many authors have given up on their dreams because of disparaging comments from those who have been unsuccessful. No publisher can guarantee success, but you will find that SBPRA will offer support every step of the way, especially to those who help market their books (the other half of being an author!) Just be sure to have your book edited!!! Good luck, and thanks so much for your note!
Sherrill