1. How is SleighFarm Publishing Group different than a traditional publisher? SPG does not pay
advances to authors nor perform the expensive distribution and
marketing tasks that traditional publishers perform. However, we
are more like a publishing service bureau that helps an author publish
and market their own book.
2. How is SPG diffrerent than other companies for authors that self-publish? We are a group of creative people -
writers, photographers and artists mostly spurned by commercial
publishers - that decided to work together to get our own books in
print. After finding our way by trial and error, we decided to
offer our services as "experienced frontier guides" to others. We are
quite aware of how very expensive some of the other
publishing-assistance sites are, so in an effort to hold down costs, we
provide only those services that the authors request to get their books
out there. Our clients can choose from our palette of story
editing, copy editing, formatting, cover creation, copyright
registration, library of congress registration, ISBN/EAN registration,
e-book conversion, marketing, and professional consultation. 3. Must my book be printed on demand - one at a time? No. In fact, we will gladly assist an author that wants 100 or more copies of their book printed en-masse at a
commercial press. We are very familiar with commercial printing
processes as well as the more recently popularized print-on-demand (POD)
processes. 4. Who will be listed as my book's publisher? It is your choice.
Some authors want their
own imprint as the publisher of their book. Others want to draw
upon the reputation of an established publishing house. SPG will
accept most titles under our imprint and provide space on our webstore
for those titles
as part of the growing SPG library, but does not require that an author
list us as their publisher. Some print-on-demand suppliers will
provide an ISBN/EAN at no cost listing the supplier as the publisher of
record. There are significant costs involved
for authors attempting to acquire an ISBN/EAN listing themselves as the
publisher, often more than $100.00 per title. 5. This offer sounds too good to be true. What is the downside? There are several
consequences an author should consider before self publishing and
before choosing SPG as their advisor. Since SPG does not pay
advances, an author must promote and sell copies of their own book to earn
income. SPG does not independently market or distribute books to
bookstores, so the author is responsible for generating interest in
their book and cultivating retail outlets, thus generating sales.
Our services, while reasonable, are not free of charge. We do
encourage our clients to learn from us and even to compete with us for
additional clients.
