South African publishers are innundated with manuscripts, in a country where, in a regular book store, a bestseller is either a fiction book that sells more than 3000 copies or a non-fiction book that sells more than 10 000. They have to find the ones that will be bestsellers, otherwise they are out of business. They will be much more interested in your book if you arrive with a market - but then, you have to ask yourself, why go through a traditional publisher when you can self-publish and get all the profits for yourself? In a traditional publishing contract, authors receive only 5% - 15% of the profit of the books sold. The reason for this is because the publisher pays a large amount of money to put your book together, distribute and market it. And they still have to get that outlay of cash back before they make a profit. The last person to see money is the author. Your emotions and hard work simply don't count. If you can't make the publishers money, for whatever reason, they are not going to publish your book.
You'll be happy to know that there are a number of friendly South African self-publishers who can quickly publish your book for you. They can put your book together in a stock template with a basic cover and organise any needed editing. All self-publishers strive to help their authors with some sort of marketing and distribution; what they do varies from company to company. You can do the exact same process yourself, online.
Perhaps though, for you, things are a little different. You might have a market. That is:
You teach and students will buy your textbook (and you want it to be a professional work!)
Your blog is hot and many of your ten thousand followers will buy your book.
200 of your closest friends have pledged to buy the book should it ever be published.
You don't care about the money, you just want to see your name in print.
You're going to give the book away to family members.
Your book contains information currently in no other book and people in your field of expertise would buy it.
You'll sell the book yourself.
Most importantly, you are prepared to foot the publishing bill in exchange for: A real, beautiful, quality book with an ISBN number and your name on it.
If any of these apply to you, then you have a reason to self-publish with ada enup.
ada enup has an exclusive self-publishing arm. We follow an exquisite process. We work closely with the author. We work intimately with the text, offering suggestions for flow, sequence and accuracy. ada enup publishing does not use templates – each book is a work in craftsmanship. We work with superb illustrators and perfectionist editors. With us, the little details, those critical differentiating factors in font, layout, and format, accuracy, thoroughness and design that distinguish a well published book from a self-published one, will be there. You will also be able to put it under your own publishing house as the ada enup logo only graces books that have gone through our traditional arm, (a rigorous, passionate process for books containing unique content). We are in contact with you during every phase; and at the end of the process is a book of which you can be proud.
Should you choose to publish with us, we will give you detailed local and international advice, to help you develop a short and long term marketing plan, if it is required. We can also advise on e-books, distribution, international publishing and US tax.
Your book is more than a physical object - it is a process, and ada enup will guide you through it.
