Is There A Book Inside You
Screaming To Get Out?
Are You Serious About Competing with
Other Titles In the Bookstores?
What Does It Take to be
A Successful Self-Publisher?
We Have the Answers to All These Questions:
Spear’s Mint Editions
If you have always yearned to see your words in print while keeping control and all your rights to your book, we are one of the few who can help make that happen.
It’s a known fact that self-published books do not sell well to bookstores. Vanity presses have so clouded the market with non-edited books with poor quality writing, that it’s given self-publishing a bad reputation.
Traditional publishers won’t take the risk of publishing first-time authors because they’re afraid they can’t recoup their investments. That’s why it’s so hard to get published.
According to a recent industry survey, the probability of a first-time author being accepted by a major publishing house is about 1 in 50,000.
So What?
Just because it’s next to impossible to gain acceptance doesn’t relieve one's need to be seen and heard, even if it’s just by friends and family. Imagine what it might feel like to place an attractively bound book of your poetry into the hands of a loved one—your mother or a grandchild perhaps. Think of the feelings of understanding, pride, and accomplishment it might bring to both of you.
Self-publishing makes sense as a way to build a “platform”—a fan base. Once this has been done, the big guys may take notice of you. After all, you’ve done the initial work with your own resources and proved your book has an audience that is willing to buy it.
Look at the Paolini family for instance. Fifteen-year-old Christopher wrote Eragon, a classic sword and dragon fantasy. His parents self-published and he did appearances at bookstores, libraries, and schools in medieval costume for two years until a famous mystery writer on vacation bought a copy for his reluctant reader step-son. The kid couldn’t put the book down, so the father read it and then contacted his editor at Random House’s Knopf imprint. They took it on, and it sold over 750,000 copies in the first three months after its release. It's now a movie and the second book, Eldest, was released last summer.
We can help make that happen!
OK, you say, how can we do that? We are writing, publishing, and marketing professionals—we do this for our living and have been doing it for many years. More importantly, as successful authors and self-publishers we know what you feel. We’ve been there too. We uniquely understand that crying need deep inside each of us, yearning to get out into the open. Perhaps you want to help others to get through feelings and times like you have had. Maybe you have a rousing good story to tell. Perhaps you have a great how-to book for a popular subject.
Maybe you’ve been working on this book for years. Perhaps you have participated in writers’ groups and conferences, carefully honing your skills. You have learned the importance of having your book professionally edited, typeset, and cover designed. You have come to realize in these days of a very competitive book market (over 175,000 new books were published in the last year alone) and a shrinking readership base (younger people would rather play computer games than read), it is becoming increasingly difficult to bring positive notice to the book buying public. Authors (even those published by the major publishers) need marketing and distribution assistance.
Spear’s Mint Editions has been designed
For people just like you—Serious Professionals
Who want to break into the
Competitive bookselling market!
We are book packagers looking for a few good books!
Not everyone has reached the level of writing skill required for today’s market. If you feel like you have improved your skills to that point and still haven’t been able to get published, maybe self-publishing is for you. If we don’t think you’re quite ready, we will be frank and not try to snow you. You deserve honesty, and you certainly don’t want to waste your money based on someone’s fake enthusiasm. We may suggest where you can get some book-doctor help, or we may say: go back and get some more writing experience. Again, this sets us apart from many vanity publishers.
Are you ready to pay what it takes to get the help all authors need to compete at this level? Do you want...
•Professional Editing and Proofing?•A Professional and Eye-Catching Book Interior Design?•A Professionally Designed Book Cover Purposely Designed to Catch the Book Buyer’s Eye?•PR, Publicity, and Marketing Assistance to Beat Your Drum?•Directions on Which Distributors Will Work Best for You?These are the essential aspects that set us apart from many vanity publishers. We can’t guarantee your book will become a bestseller like some of them do, but we can provide the professional touches you’ll need for the best chance to successfully compete on the open market.
Let’s Talk About Rights!
When we register your work for the copyright, it is done in your name alone. Unlike some companies who will tie up your rights for seven years for a mere $1, we want you to keep all your rights. You can pull your book out of our system at any time. In fact, we hope you develop a great platform so that one of the big publishers takes notice and offers you a contract. That only makes us look good because we were able to help you get there.
What About Printing?
We are located just thirty miles north of Kansas City on the Missouri River. That puts us close to one of the best kept secrets in the book industry—a great printing community. Why? Because Hallmark Cards is headquartered in Kansas City. They have production plants scatter all around the area (there are two here in Leavenworth). Ever now and then they job out a short print run to one of the local printers (their short runs are enough to bring any smaller printer a good year.) Hallmark has very high quality standards which the local printers must meet if they want a shot at Hallmark’s golden ring.
What does that mean to you? A pool of printers who are very good and very hungry. We use whoever is hungriest and best fits our client’s needs at the time. We even have a topnotch print on demand printer who is very competitive with the major national level POD printers within 26 miles of us. That means you’ll have an excellent POD resource for galley proofs and short runs. Print on demand is an wonderful way to test the market viability of a new book without having to invest too much in a large offset print run.
We watchdog your book through the printing process, relieving you of some of that worry, including shipping of your books to your designated address in the United States (out of country shipments will require a special charge).
OK, so how do I get started (Contact Us)?
What Professional Services Do We Provide ???
We use both in-house and topnotch outside freelancers for our services. If you have someone you prefer to use, that’s fine, but their competence needs to measure up to ours or we can’t accept the work.
Editing/Proofing:
We provide line/copy editing and mild content editing. If a book appears to need more help that that, we will turn it back to the author with suggested book doctor resources. Line and copy editing will take care of misused words (such as using there for their or to for too), mechanical problems such as spelling and punctuation.
We cannot guarantee perfection in the editing process, which is why we recommend the book be proofed as well with another set of eyes to catch things the author and the editor might have missed. The more eyes that look at a manuscript, the better.
Interior Design/Typesetting:
This includes font selection, style sheet layout, footer, header, and chapter head design. We check for widows and orphans (lonely first and last lines on a page that belong to a paragraph.) This requires costly software and someone experienced in using it. Trying to lay out a page in MS Word® just does not work well. We use Adobe InDesign® to do the layout work and render interim and final products in pdf format with the fonts embedded, which is what printers require.
Cover Designs:
We use talented, experienced freelancers who have been taught by us as to what bookstore buyers and customers expect in an attractive cover design that has the best chance of being noticed in a positive way on the shelves with other books.
Marketing and Public Relations
Once the book is printed, the real work is just starting. We offer a basic marketing package.
GENERAL INFORMATION
•We will be available via telephone and e-mail to discuss overall publicity and promotion questions.
We will be available via telephone and e-mail to discuss overall publicity and promotion questions.•We will make ourselves available to brainstorm with the author about other promotion ideas.
We will make ourselves available to brainstorm with the author about other promotion ideas.•We will provide the author with other appropriate leads for visibility.
We will provide the author with other appropriate leads for visibility.•Copies of any review sent to us will be forwarded to the author.
Copies of any review sent to us will be forwarded to the author.•The author is responsible for all shipping costs, telephone/fax expenses, photocopying, and supplies (which may include mail bags, envelopes, media kit materials, postcards, etc.). These are billed monthly; receipts included on request. An administrative fee is added to cover trips to copy center, printer, post office, Federal Express, etc.
The author is responsible for all shipping costs, telephone/fax expenses, photocopying, and supplies (which may include mail bags, envelopes, media kit materials, postcards, etc.). These are billed monthly; receipts included on request. An administrative fee is added to cover trips to copy center, printer, post office, Federal Express, etc.•All invoices are payable within 30 days.
All invoices are payable within 30 days.•Primary out-of-pocket expenses (release/postcard printing, postage/shipping costs for major mailings, etc.) are due PRIOR TO MAILING.
Primary out-of-pocket expenses (release/postcard printing, postage/shipping costs for major mailings, etc.) are due PRIOR TO MAILING.•We can handle press release mailings (includes having releases printed, envelopes stuffed and mailed) and review copy mailings (assemble books, media kits, review slips if applicable, and personal notes when appropriate).
We can handle press release mailings (includes having releases printed, envelopes stuffed and mailed) and review copy mailings (assemble books, media kits, review slips if applicable, and personal notes when appropriate).•We can provide updates to distributors, wholesalers, bookstore chains, independent booksellers, industry trade publications, and/or other targeted markets.
We can provide updates to distributors, wholesalers, bookstore chains, independent booksellers, industry trade publications, and/or other targeted markets.•We can arrange for books to be exhibited at local, regional, national, and international industry trade shows and events.
We can arrange for books to be exhibited at local, regional, national, and international industry trade shows and events.•Our goal is to help authors create the optimal publicity plan to give their book(s) maximum exposure; to complement authors’ own efforts; and to fit authors’ individual budgets.
Our goal is to help authors create the optimal publicity plan to give their book(s) maximum exposure; to complement authors’ own efforts; and to fit authors’ individual budgets.•Once the elements of the project are decided, an agreement will be prepared, outlining specifically what is expected of the author and what is expected of the publicist.
Once the elements of the project are decided, an agreement will be prepared, outlining specifically what is expected of the author and what is expected of the publicist.There is never a guarantee of any specific level of success from any publicity effort. That’s one reason some publicists insist that you sign up for a full package of services over a period of months. They know that a particular mailing of review copies for example, may or may not yield good results. But they believe the odds are good that with a variety of promotions, the overall campaign will be a success. We, however, will take on individual projects as well as full-blown publicity campaigns. We recommend a project only if we believe you will get your money’s worth, based on our experience. But publicity is never a perfect or completely predictable science.
What we CAN guarantee is that we will effectively introduce your book to journalists who have the power to get the word out about it. A reviewer for a major publication, for example, is likely to receive over a hundred review copies of books each day, and may only look at ten or so, then choose two for review. With our media kit, and our relationships with media people, the likelihood improves that your book may be among the ten or so that are considered.
But all we can do is make sure the book comes to the attention of appropriate media people. They won’t follow through with reviews or bookings unless they decide that the book is good enough or important enough to warrant that effort. We can never guarantee that the media will like your book, no matter how much we may like it.
All services are provided on an “as-available” basis. We take pride in the quality of our work as well as the quality of our interaction and time spent with each individual author. Please understand that we may or may not be always instantly available, but will gladly schedule your personal publicity/promotion media campaign in as timely a fashion as possible.
What else do you get when you choose to go with
Spear’s Mint Editions?
•A chance to be seen as a serious, competitive writer.
A chance to be seen as a serious, competitive writer.•An outlet for that book screaming to be let out.
An outlet for that book screaming to be let out.•A sense of pride in what you’ve accomplished.
A sense of pride in what you’ve accomplished.•Attention and admiration from those you know and love.
Attention and admiration from those you know and love.Don’t Delay—Act Today!
