Publishing 101: 10 Questions to Ask a Potential Publisher

These days you can’t be too careful in choosing a publisher. Just the other day we had a woman who was all the way down to being ready to go to print. The secular publisher had done all the levels of editing, but their copy editor didn’t understand what the initials that showed up after a scripture verse meant. They also, once that question was answered, were ready to go to print. Our Managing Editor reviewed the document and detailed 3 pages of revisions needing to be made for the book to be ready for publication! Ouch! Too often this is the case of publishers who sell “package” deals that are supposed to include editing. But there are other important questions to ask, so get ready, here we go!

1. Who owns the rights?If you are investing in your manuscript with the intent of making it the best it can be, you deserve to own the rights. All of the rights. Not only to the print or ebook, but foreign rights, audiobook rights, film rights.
2. What formats will my book be available in, and who sets the retail price?Depending on the genre of your book, an eBook and audio book may be a good fit in addition to soft and/or hard cover. With our hybrid model, you can contract for all formats at once or as needed.
3. Who has the last say on design or editorial decisions?When you invest in your book, you should most definitely have the last say in creative control. At Redemption Press we give you professional advice to make sure your book does not look or read self-published. Should you decide to make a design or editorial decision outside the boundaries of customary traditional publishing for the Christian market, we may choose to remove our imprint from the book and help you publish it directly onto Amazon and Ingram Spark.
4. Will my book be returnable? If so, what do you charge?Many “Christian” self-publishing companies charge $900 to mark your book as returnable. Since traditional bookstores including Barnes & Noble and all Christian stores require a book to be returnable, we make this a part of the distribution terms without an extra charge. Books ordered “on demand” and then returned will be deducted from your revenue account.
5. How do you calculate my cost on purchasing copies of my book?Many of our competitors mark up their printing prices by 150% or more. Some set an extremely high retail price and then offer very low discounts unless you purchase 500 or more copies. We pass along the standard printing rate from our printer with a very small markup (12%). This covers our administrative cost and handling normal customer service tasks for the author (damaged copy replacements, shipping issues, order quantity questions, etc.).As an example, Xulon Press, known well for their aggressive sales tactics, sets your 200 page book price at $16.49. If you want to order 50 copies, you only receive a 35% discount (and they That means you pay $10.71 per copy. If you only order 25 copies you receive a 30% discount, which is $11.54 per copy. Our other largest competitor is Westbow Press – sadly promoted as a Christian publisher since they are the self publishing arm of Thomas Nelson – but what most don’t know is they outsource all the sales, production and distribution to a secular company with a terrible reputation, Author Solutions. They showed a 200 page softcover selling for $17.95 and offer 10% off for 25 or less (yep, that’s $16.15 per copy to you, the author, who paid them to produce your book!). 25-50 copies gets you a whopping 20% off or $14.36 per copy.

For a 200 page soft cover book the Redemption Press author price runs $5.92, with larger quantities receiving a discount. That’s 60% less than our biggest competitor! Note: These rates are current as of Summer, 2023.

6. How often do you pay out royalties/profits?Most publishers in our market pay quarterly and some semi-annually. Mid-pandemic, we made the choice to move from quarterly to monthly payouts to better serve our authors.
7. Do you work with professional editors who have been vetted by the Christian Editors Network?Our editorial team is the highlight of our company. Led by long-time industry veteran and known as the “Queen of Editing” Kathy Ide. She’s the founder of Christian Editor Network, Christian PEN, The PEN Institute, and PENCON, as well as the Christian Editor Connection, sponsor of the Editor’s Choice Award for excellence in editing. Her team of editors is made up of some of the best editors in the Christian publishing industry.
8. Have any of your books won Awards in the Christian market? (Selah, Golden Scroll, Editor’s Choice, etc.)Many Christian self-publishers are known for a distinct lack of professional editing and reputation within the Christian publishing market. Because Redemption Press is committed to publishing excellence, we consistently have our books qualify as finalists (and often times winners) for Selah, Golden Scroll, Editor’s Choice, Christian Indie Award, and others. This year Redemption Press books hold 4 of the 5 spots for Memoir of the Year in the Selah Awards.
9. Are your books distributed to the trade (both secular and Christian bookstores, online and brick and mortar) as returnable and with standard wholesale discounts?Working with trade distributors and wholesalers takes a lot of work and dedicated attention, which we feel is important in the industry. That’s also why we are a top sponsor of the Christian Product Expo where Christian retailers from across the country gather to find and order new product available by credible Christian publishers. We have our own independent Christian bookstore in our historic downtown so we appreciate the ministry of Christian bookstores across the country and do all we can to support them.
10. How do you support your authors after they’ve been published, what kind of marketing, publicity and promotion is available?

Many of our competitors will lead you to believe that they will “take care of everything” and you only need turn over your manuscript and money and that’s it. So often those authors come to us with a poorly edited and produced product they aren’t happy with and no tangible support on the back end. As a professional and well-respected publisher in the Christian publishing market, we develop a custom strategy to publicize, promote and market your book in collaboration with you as the author. Oftentimes our peers who work for royalty publishers exclaim how much we perform for our authors that far exceeds what they do. There clearly is no “one size fits all” publishing or marketing strategy … customized services need to be made available and a team committed to the author’s success on point to follow through on all promises made.

By Athena Dean Holtz, Publisher at Redemption Press

We’re here to help you achieve publishing success! Redemption Press is a Christian-owned-and-operated hybrid publishing company. Our business model promotes excellence in independent publishing services by using the project management style of a traditional publisher. We empower Christian authors to fulfill their publishing dreams without giving up creative control or rights to their work.