Tuesday, October 28, 2008

How to Finance Your Book Project


Our authors have used a number of methods to meet the cost of producing their books. Here are a few that may help you:
• Gifts and Grants: You may be able to cover the cost of your book’s production, or a substantial portion of it, with gifts or grants from those who co-labor with you and share the vision the Lord has given to you.
• Pre-Selling: Once production is under way, you may offer your book at a “pre-production discount” to those who are eager to see your book published. This could include entire churches, or those attending your Bible studies or seminars.
In the “Pre-Publication” sales program, the single most important area to make it work is…
A group of people who will buy your book...this usually is the congregation from a pastor’s church, people at a conference or seminar, or a large mailing list. If the person does not have a group to present their offer to, then they are not going to have very good results doing a pre-publication sale of their book.
Once that group is identified, then two additional items are needed:
1) A large poster of the front of the book cover.
2) 6” x 9” envelopes, pre-printed, with copy that essentially says, “Enclosed is your Charter Copy of (name of book)”. The people address the envelope themselves, and insert their “pre-publication” check inside. CSN Books and Legacy Line publishing can create any amount of envelopes the author needs.
In a pastor’s church, or in a conference or seminar, the author tells the people, “You are addressing the envelope that my publisher will use to send you your book when it comes off the press.” This builds the confidence of the audience; the rate of sales in this program are almost as high as if the books were already printed. CSN Books and Legacy Line publishing will prepare the poster and envelopes for a pre-publication program at a very reasonable cost.
• Contributions: You may choose to offer a complimentary book in exchange for a contribution to a non-profit organization. This may be greater than the retail price of the book.
• Acknowledgment Page: Offer to record the names of major contributors on the acknowledgment page of your book. Again, these could be individuals or organizations.
• You may have friends who believe in your book project, and you could propose that they partner with you with an interest-free loan (repayable in monthly installments) so you can meet the production costs.
• Investors: There may be one or more individuals or organizations who would love to invest in the ministry of your book, seeking the return of their investment plus a small profit.
• Here at CSN Books and Legacy Line Publishing, we do accept four major credit cards: MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express.
• CSN books and Legacy Line publishing also make provision for our authors to pay as each task is performed. For example, most book projects start with editing and proofing. A client may pay for those services first, and when they are completed, he/she would pay for the next step in the process, such as typesetting or cover design. In that way, the book project can be paid “as you go” - in stages.
We would be happy to discuss these and other methods of payment with you in further detail.

Dr. Mike Wourms

CSN books offers all publishing services including proofing , editing , and cover design.
Our printing is high quality, and we offer marketing and distribution.



No comments: