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Frequently
Asked Questions... |
Table of Contents
- How do I submit a book ?
- What types of books
do you accept?
- Why does my book have to be edited?
- Where can I find editing services?
- Who owns the copyright on my book?
- Why do I need an ISBN?
- Why should I want to print the price on
the cover?
- Who sets the price on my book?
- Can bookstores order my book?
- What formats are acceptable for book
submissions?
- What if I work on a Mac?
- What exactly do you mean by "original cover design?"
- What are the limits to an original cover design?
- What is involved in creating the
cover?
- What about interior art?
- Do I have to setup the text in any
way?
- Should I put in page numbers
manually?
- How long will it take for my book to be ready?
- When and how do I get paid?
- What will my book look like when it's
finished?
- What goes on the website about the book?
- What is the cost for author's copies?
- Are there any hidden costs?
- Why do books printed in the UK cost more?
- What is an affiliate and how can I become one?
How do I submit a book?
You submit a book by agreeing to our contract,
filling out our submission form, choosing the service you desire, paying by
credit card, and uploading your manuscript to us. Alternatively, you can
print out our submission form, and agreement,
sign and fill them out, and mail them along with payment and your book either on a floppy
disk or CD.
Why does my book have to be edited?
We don't accept every book that comes in "over the transom," and there's a good
reason for this policy. There are companies that will publish anything,
but that's because they make their money through the initial setup fees, and it
doesn't matter (to them) whether or not the book ever sells a single copy.
Booksellers and libraries are well aware of who these publishers are, and they
know not to buy from them. Llumina, on the other hand, cares about its
reputation and won't put anything under their imprint that will detract from
it. That's one reason why we insist that all our books be professionally
edited. The other is that we wouldn't feel comfortable selling a book we
knew to be poorly written. For more questions and answers on editing click
here.
Where can I find editing services?
There are many reputable editing services available over the internet.
Just look up editing in your favorite search engine and go from there. Or,
if you prefer, you can use Llumina's editors to help you polish your work.
What types of books do
you accept?
We accept all types of books except hard-core pornography and
hate material. Everything we publish is well-written and is of
interest to someone whether that's a large audience or a small one.
Although we're very open minded, we do reserve the right to reject any book that
we find offensive.
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Who owns the copyright on my book?
Your book is yours. We suggest you register the copyright with the
United States Copyright Office. This can be done very easily by going
to www.loc.gov and downloading Form TX.
Then you send your printed out manuscript, the filled out form, and the fee to
the address on the form.
Why do I need an ISBN?
A new International Standard Book Number is issued for every new book that's
reproduced. If the title, publisher, author, publication date, or format
is changed, a new number is issued. That means you need a different ISBN
for an ebook and a print book. You need ISBNs because all book
databases and all bookstores and libraries use these numbers to keep track of
their books. If your book doesn't have one, you will only be able to sell
it to individuals.
Why should
I want to print the price on the cover?
You don't have to print the price on the cover. All that's required is a barcode with ISBN and
EAN information.
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Who sets the price on my book? We decide what the price of your book should be based on the cost of
production. We also look at similar works and try to keep the price as
competitive as possible. If we find that the price it too high due to the
costs of POD, then we may suggest lowering it by reducing the distributor
discount. See
www.llumina.com/pricingbooks.htm.
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Can bookstores order my book?
Yes. Your book is automatically set up on the Ingram and Baker & Taylor databases as well
as being listed in Bowker's Books in Print, and in the Amazon.com and
Barnes & Noble online databases. Ingram is the largest book
distributor in the United States. Bookstores can order your book through
them. Ingram usually buys books from publishers at a 55% discount. That's
why authors receive a 10% (of list) royalty on books sold through third parties
rather than the 30% (of list) royalty they receive on books sold directly by Llumina. (See
www.llumina.com/royalty.htm.
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What formats are acceptable for book submissions?
We accept MS Word, Corel WordPerfect, MS Works, Adobe PDF, and most other
formats. Contact us if you're not sure.
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What if I work on a Mac?
There's no problem if you use MS Word or Word Perfect.
If you're using another program, please contact us.
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What exactly is an original
cover design?
An original cover design is original to your
book, goes on the cover, and is designed by an artist. Most of the covers on our
books (check them out in the bookstore) are
original cover designs. Original cover designs use images that are either in the
public domain or supplied by the author. We might take an image and use part of
it, or pair up two images. Our artists may use an existing image and add effects
to it to give it a special look. An original cover design is unique to your book
and will have a powerful, professional look. But there are limits: If you want
us to use more than two images on the front cover (that we have to research and
manipulate), then we are discussing a custom cover and there is an additional
cost for that.
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What are the limits to an original cover
design? An original cover design is not original art; it's a
design. This means that there is a limit to what can be done. We cannot create
images that don't already exist. For instance, we cannot turn horses into clouds
or create an image of a car sprouting wings. We can't create scenes that
only exist in your imagination. For that, you need an artist
to create original art, which can then be used on the book cover. Please check
with our Graphics Dept. graphics@llumina.com,
and ask us about freelance illustrators we can recommend.
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What is involved in creating
the cover? Our artists generally spend 1 day to 1 week
creating your cover, sometimes more. The Graphics Department has 6 weeks to
complete the cover process. We will ask for your ideas and then create
a cover for you to approve. If you don't like it, we'll do another one
incorporating as many of your suggestions as is possible. If, at that
point, you're still not happy with our designs, we will do one of two things:
finish one of the covers we've already designed or start over. If we are going
to finish one of the covers we've already designed, we will do up to two
revisions on it at this point. If
we have to start over, graphics time will be billed at $75 per hour (1 hour
minimum).
If you feel your idea will take too many hours to create, we advise a
CUSTOM COVER DESIGN - This will be charged at a flat rate of $250.00 and no
extra hours to be charged.
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What about interior art?
As long as your artwork is black and white and on a disk or embedded in your file
(scanned in at 600dpi), there's no problem and there's no extra charge. If we have to scan
the pictures in, then the charge is $5 per picture. You can send us your
artwork on CD or upload it to us. We will accept up to 7 graphics free of
charge. For more than 7 pictures there is an additional charge of $5 per
image for the additional formatting time required to handle pictures.
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Do I have to setup the text in any way?
You do not need to setup the file, except for the following: 1) make sure that all the chapter
breaks are clearly marked and the chapter titles are bold. 2) Send
your work to us in an easy-to-read font like Times New Roman (10-12 point),
Bookman, or Arial. 3) Send us one MS WORD file (or other word processing
file) containing all the chapters. 4) Do not use hard returns except at the ends of paragraphs, 5) indent
paragraphs by using the Tab key, not the space bar. 6) Do not manually hyphenate
words at the ends of lines. Let your word processor do it, or don't do it at all and we'll do
it. 7) Do not put double spaces between paragraphs unless there is a scene
break. 8) Don't put in any section breaks. 9) Do not insert any hidden codes.
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Should I put in page numbers manually?
Never, ever, put in page numbers manually. This creates a lot of work
for our typesetting department because what is input manually has to be taken
out manually. It's best if you send the book without numbers and let us insert them.
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How long will it take for my book to be ready?
It normally takes about six to eight weeks for us to send you an online proof
of the work. This is a typeset copy of your book. You will have to
proof it and make changes where there are typographical or editorial errors. Once
that's done, it will go to cover design. This can (but doesn't always) take another six weeks.
After you've approved the cover, the book will be submitted to the printer. After it's printed in book form,
you should receive a proof to verify that the book is ready to print (a
physical proof is optional).
The whole process usually takes from twelve to fourteen weeks unless editing is
involved. In that case, add another four to six weeks to the production
time.
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When and how do I get paid?
You get paid bi-monthly (This means February and March royalties are paid in
July; April and May royalties are paid in September etc.). The
reason there is a delay is because we have to wait until we get paid by the
Ingram/Lightning Source. Checks and
statements are sent out on or around the fifteenth of the month if the
amount of royalties earned is $20.00 or more.
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What will my book look like when it's finished?
Your book will be printed double-sided on high quality, cream or white paper
(depending on the size) with a
full-color, perfect bound, laminated paperback cover. The quality is on a par
with the Trade paperback books you see in bookstores. Hardcover books are
available in two forms: laminated full-color hardcover or clothbound
hardcover with full-color dustcover. For more information on the
appearance and quality of your book click here.
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What goes on the website about the book?
Your webpage will have an author's bio, a picture of yourself (optional), a short synopsis of the book,
a three or four paragraph description of the book, and a picture of the book cover. If reviews are available on the book, they will also
be included. Your webpage will be linked to our bookstore pages as well.
And if you have a personal website, we can link to that as well.
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What is the cost for author's copies?
If you want to sell your books on your own (through your local bookstore for
instance), you can purchase single copies for 30% off the list price. Or
you can order in larger quantities. If you order 25 books or more, the
price is usually* 45% off list price. If you
order 200 books or more, the cost to you is usually 50% off list, and if you
order 500 or more books, the cost is usually 55% off list.
*Lower distributor discounts will affect author
discounts.
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Are there any hidden costs?
No, we don't keep anything hidden. Everything necessary to get your
book into distribution is included in the publishing packages: ISBN, LOC#, EAN,
barcode, formatting and layout, up to seven pictures or images, original (or
custom) cover design, distribution through Ingram and Baker & Taylor (which gets
the book on Amazon, B&N online, and on the databases of 25,000+ bookstores
etc., a web page on our site, and caring personal service by an experienced
publishing team. The only time additional costs would be incurred are 1) if
there are more than seven images or if your images need to be scanned; 2) if we
have to create an index or other special formatting; 3) if you order a hard copy
proof when the book is ready to print, which we strongly recommend; 4) any
revisions that you ask us to do. There is also a yearly maintenance fee of $20
that is required to keep the book up on Ingram and Baker & Taylor.
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Why do books printed in the UK
cost more?
The cost of production in the UK is higher than the cost of production here
in the US so books must retail for more to cover these costs, the author's
royalty, distributor discount etc.
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What is an affiliate?
An affiliate is one of our partners. When you join us and send
customers to our site, we pay you a commission. Simple as
that.
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I'm
ready to submit my manuscript!
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Copyright © 2001 llumina press. All rights reserved.
Revised: August 28, 2007
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