Cypress House Publishing Estimate

The Business of Publishing

If you're serious about publishing, we'll do everything we can to help you succeed. A word of caution, however: publishing may sound glamorous, but it can be costly and tedious. Before proceeding, ask yourself these questions:

•	Can I afford it? It will probably cost several thousand dollars to publish and promote your book. It could cost a lot more and there's no guarantee that your book will sell well. Publishing is not without risk.
•	Am I business oriented? If you lack business acumen, publishing may not be right for you. On the other hand, if you're willing to learn, you'll probably find publishing highly satisfying as well as financially rewarding.
•	Do I want to sell books or just have a few copies to give away? If you only want 50 or 100 copies, you're probably better off having a local printer produce your book. It won't be trade quality, but 50 or 100 copies isn't trade quantity.

Still with us? Good!

If you'd like a general idea of what it costs to publish a typical book, this scenario will interest you.

If you'd like to do some research before investing in a publishing venture, start by checking out our list of recommended books.

If your book is suitable for independent publishing, we'll estimate the costs involved and provide plenty of options. Then, we'll draw up a bid proposal based on the options you select and your budgetary constraints, and guarantee prices for thirty days, so there's no deadline pressure. If you'd like an estimate now, please answer the following questions:

Is Your Book Camera-Ready?
YES
NO
I'm not sure

Just because someone can drive a car doesn't mean they're ready for the Indy 500. At a minimum, your camera-ready pages will have:

Crop marks inserted, indicating trim size and margins for right- and left-hand pages (recto and verso);
True quote marks where appropriate; inch marks and foot (prime) marks where appropriate;
True em & en dashes where appropriate; true ellipses and fractions;
Heads and subheads kerned;
Pages vertically justified, with orphans and widows eliminated;
Letter spacing and tracking properly adjusted; proper hyphenation;
Signatures calculated and the book padded with blank pages, if necessary;
Blank pages empty -- no headers or footers;
Frontmatter, including the copyright page, properly sequenced and formatted;
Pages output at 600 dpi or greater on one side, or correctly Postscripted for the output device.

These are some basic features of camera-ready copy. You can't do them all with a word processing program like Word or WordPerfect, or even with most low-end publishing programs. On the other hand, if you're experienced in Quark, PageMaker, Frame or Ventura, you may have prepared excellent camera-ready copy, and we'll be pleased to continue the process. Of course, we'll have to see your book before agreeing to handle promotion or distribution. We won't compromise our reputation or our clients' books by representing titles about which we're less than enthusiastic.

So, just to be sure, let's repeat the question: Is your book camera ready?
YES
NO