Ghostwoods Books is open to submissions of finished books in all areas and genres. The philosophy is simple — great books, great prices.
The Case for eBooks
Despite what you may think, author’s royalties on printed books are generally pretty bad. They’re can be as low as $0.15 a copy, and even with horrible advances at just $3000 or below, books not on the A* list often don’t earn out their advance. It’s a complicated issue, but the sad truth is that everyone wants a big chunk of the sales price, and the author is right at the bottom of the pile. Unless they’re celebs, of course. But we’re not, and we assume you’re not, either.
Publishing eBooks gives a chance to cut out several stages of the feeding frenzy. Publication costs are also minimal, which helps reduce overheads. There are no print or shipping costs. Despite this, mainstream publishers have a tendency to grossly overprice electronic copies of their books, and it is really annoying readers.
Electronic publishers take between 15% and 50% of the cover price. This is pretty huge, but even in the worst cases — like Kobo — it still leaves a reasonable amount of money per sale, and that money is profit. That profit deserves to be split equally, because despite publishers’ opinions, writing a book is hard work that deserves a fair reward.
The Ghostwoods Books Approach
We’re looking for top-quality novels and non-fiction works to publish, initially electronically, at a reader-friendly price, somewhere between $5.00 and $5.99. All books will be thoroughly developed and edited before publication, as you’d expect. They’ll be properly laid out, ISBN’ed, and given attractive covers. Then they’ll be listed with every useful eBook publisher out there. We may record them as audiobooks, too. We’ll back all this up with promotion and marketing, review copies, press releases, submission to all relevant major awards and competitions, and lots of info as to how you can also help promote your work effectively.
Ghostwoods Books will only publish genuinely good books. No ifs, no buts, no back-handers. Particularly in eBook publishing, it’s vital to build a reliable reputation. The Ghostwoods Books seal will guarantee a top-quality publication. That’s worth more than a whole pallette of bus-stop posters and corny marketing stunts.
As well as electronically publishing and promoting your work, we’ll also represent your book as literary agents to the mainstream publishing industry if you want us to — and yes, that includes handing over electronic rights. The time will come when we’re able to offer print contracts ourselves, but it won’t be for a while. In the mean time, we’ll help you get there with other people, in return for standard agents’ fees. Selling just 5000 copies of an eBook is enough to get publishers to take you very seriously indeed, so we’re in the unique place of being able to bolster our agenting efforts with meaningful hard numbers.
Because our business model relies on very low up-front costs to get started, the one down-side is that we’re only able to offer a nominal advance against royalties. I know that sucks. Sorry. Normal agents wouldn’t pay any advance of course, nor publish electronically. To make up for it, we’re giving you a get-out clause.
How to Submit a Manuscript to us
If you’re interested, please email your manuscript — in a format MS Word can deal with — to ghostwoodsbooks@gmail.com. All genres / styles are welcome; ditto self-published works. We’re interested in non-fiction, too. We’ll get back to you as swiftly as possible regarding your work — very quickly, to start with, but it’s likely to slow down when things get really busy.
Things to include: A one-sentence strap-line that says who and what the book is about; a short synopsis of the book; some thoughts on things you could do to help market the book; a little info about yourself that people might find interesting, if appropriate; any other info you think is relevant; and the finished book.
Things not to include: PDFs; file formats MS Word can’t open; ZIPs, RARs, Executables, image files or viruses; ludicrous bravado; unfinished books; Public Domain works you’ve copied; manuscripts you don’t own all the rights to; books substantially shorter than 70,000 words or longer than 150,000 words; and poetry — simply because I know nothing about it.
Things that don’t matter: Page size, double-spacing, and other bits of over-anal formatting nonsense.
perhaps not the right place to ask this but would you consider illustrated/graphic novels as a format?,..
Interesting question. Yes, although the artwork would have to be stellar.
Again, probably not the correct place to ask the question – would you consider a series I am developing?
I have written Volume 1 (a novella), with plans for at least 2 further volumes.
I can provide further details, using the guidelines above, if this is something you would consider.
Kind regards.
Yes, of course. Novellas would have to have a cheaper price-point than novels so as to play fair with the reader, but if you’re okay with that, I’m happy to consider them. As for series, I’m generally in favour of them, so that’s not a problem.
I have several books available, the most likely being a collection of quirky speculative tales for teenagers, totalling about 57,700 words.
Incidently my first volume in a trilogy of SF & macabre tales, set in Tenerife, won the top award in the SF category in last year’s ‘New York ´Best read on the Beach’ contest, and has an introduction by the legendary SF author Harry Harrison.
That sounds very interesting, Tony. Please do email it over to me at ghostwoodsbooks, and I’ll be happy to have a look at it.
In 2007 I self-published OPERA INSIDE OUT, but only my friends would buy it. Since then I added six chapters (i.e., 6 more operas), took out sections that didn’t work, and rewrote most of it. It’s about an opera world most people, including opera aficionados, don’t know about. I sang for 15 small opera companies in NYC for 35 years, singing 40 opera roles while I worked full time during the day. If my story could be told I believe we could raise opera awareness to new heights and bring opera to people at affordable prices. At the same time it would give singers more opportunity to be heard and compete for jobs at the major opera houses around the globe. Could you help me with this project? – Bob Mitchell, Tenor
I’d love to have a look at Opera Inside Out, Bob. Please do email it to me.
How about books that are already on Lulu, Smashwords, kindle etc?
That’s fine, as long as you’d be prepared to take down the editions you’ve already got up there before Ghostwoods Books listed it. I’m not precious about things having never appeared anywhere before!