Dear Author:

Being Informed Is Essential to Your Success
Thank you for taking the time to read through the Petersen Publishing web site http://www.petersenpublishinggroup.com. Additionally, thank you for taking the time to contact us and to listen to our recorded message on the author’s information line at 800-782-4888. If you have any additional questions after reading the following letter, email us at info@publishingquest.com or call Toll Free 888-824-4344.

Regardless of the type of book you have written—novel, fiction, nonfiction, self-help, reference, children’s, scientific, how-to, thesis, or any other type or subject—the following information may be vitally important to your future success as a published author. We realize that there is a lot of information both on our website and in this letter, but both have been written to give you a more in-depth view of the publishing world. Reading all the materials carefully could mean the difference between failure and success for your book.

We know that if you have read all the pages on our site, you are excited about the many possibilities that exist for you as an author. Although few books become bestsellers, there is always a chance that your book will be one of them. A bestseller will not only make you famous, but will also allow you to enjoy a substantial yearly income. Consider the following facts:

• Book sales in the U.S. totaled $26 billion in 2002.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sold over 1.7 million copies on the first day of its release in the UK.
• Seabiscuit has sold over 4.3 million copies to date.
• The South Beach Diet has 1.2 million copies in print.
• The Publishers’ Weekly hardcover nonfiction bestseller list for August 8, 2003, includes titles ranging from diet books to biography, history, politics, business, self-help, and education.

As you can see, great success is possible for books across a wide variety of genres. But all these books have one thing in common: real marketing. Their publishers worked hard to make these titles become household words.

We appreciate your enthusiasm about the possibility of having us help you publish your book, and we hope that we will have a long-term, fruitful relationship with you. But the real purpose of this letter is to let you know that we believe you should be informed of all your publishing options. And yes, we also believe that you should be wary of the many companies calling themselves publishers that are annually robbing authors of hundreds of millions of dollars.

If, after you read this letter, you decide that we are the company for you, we will be excited about receiving your manuscript for review. Once we read and review your manuscript, if we too decide that you and your book are a good match for our company, a publisher’s contract will be issued to you by one of the publishing team.

Please do take a few minutes to carefully read the following. The path you choose for publishing your book may be one of the most important decisions in your writing career. Success or failure could be dependent on the path you take.

Who We Are
Petersen Publishing Group is a group of independent publishing professionals and publishing companies dedicated to helping authors. We got our start manufacturing books. Since 1965, almost forty years ago, thousands of companies have had beautiful paperback and hardbound books printed at our various plants. Many books from the world’s premier publishers and authors, including the Harry Potter books, have been manufactured at these same plants, which produce the publishing industry’s highest-quality books. We are known for producing beautiful-looking books.

Because we had so many requests from authors around the world asking if we would also offer publishing, editing, distribution, sales, marketing, and other publishing services, Petersen Publishing Group was born.

The members of the team are ready to assist you by evaluating your manuscript, placing it with one of our group’s publishing companies, referring you to some of our skilled, professional editors and designers, manufacturing your book, and most importantly, marketing your book as mutually agreed by you, the author, and the publisher in the book publishing contract, with the goal of giving it the greatest possible chance of succeeding in today’s highly competitive book market. Each member of the team that works on a given book works directly with the author. Separate agreements spelling out various specifications, services, and costs are issued by the various team members, so that the author is informed, participates, and retains creative license, which is so often taken away by many publishing companies. The author oversees each step of the manufacturing, including cover design and book layout.

Petersen Publishing Group is one of the few companies anywhere comprised of teams of independent publishers and publishing services, making it possible for authors to receive all the services they need. Instead of the author having to find a major literary agent, which usually requires that the author be well known, Petersen Publishing Group fills the role of an agent in introducing the author to the publisher as well as to the other services. And unlike literary agents, Petersen Publishing Group does not charge the author any percentage on the sale of the book, because we are a trade organization.

Real Publishing, Real Marketing
What is real publishing? According to Webster’s dictionary, “to publish” means “to announce publicly” and “to reproduce for sale, especially by printing.” In a nutshell, real publishing means not only producing, but marketing and selling your book.

Most first-time authors don’t fully understand the complexities of publishing a book. It takes a tremendous team of publishing professionals to edit, design, lay out, print, distribute, and sell your book. (See the last page of this letter for a detailed checklist of the steps involved in the publishing process.) Months of planning go into hundreds of details before your book is ready to be presented to the world. Yet the process of producing the book is just the beginning—now we have to get it off the shelf and into the hands of buyers.

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh” (Ecclesiastes 12:12, NKJV). Solomon wrote those words several thousand years ago, when books were handmade and only the elite could read and write. Imagine what he would say if he walked into a typical megabookstore today! More books are being made than ever before, and getting one noticed is increasingly difficult. Nowadays we might paraphrase Solomon’s saying thus: “Of making many books there is no end, and selling them is wearisome to the flesh.”

The first step in selling a book is to get it reviewed. There is no way that a book will ever reach the New York Times bestseller list without first getting into the hands of reviewers. To get a book reviewed by well-known reviewers, or to get an author on major TV and radio shows, or to have stories written up in major publications, often takes dozens to hundreds of hours of letter writing, phone calls, mailing of biographies, author’s photos, news releases, etc., before the book is ever accepted or reviewed. Tens of thousands of dollars can easily be spent to get a book to press, and far more to generate major sales for the author.

Of the 50,000 or more authors that we were in communication with last year, we were surprised at the number of them who stated they had given money to some print-on-demand or vanity press, only to find out later that few or no books were printed, and that there was no real marketing. Yes, their book’s title showed up on a list with hundreds of other books, and yes, some of the so-called publishers listed their title on one or more services such as amazon.com, and some even helped lay out the book, but the reality was, there was no real marketing.

There are literally hundreds of venues available to the hard-working publisher as places to peddle their books. The library system alone could mean thousands of book sales, and then there are product and book catalogs, major book chains, business-to-business resources, direct mail, TV, radio, print media, bundling, book clubs, and much more. But to exploit each one of these avenues requires a lot of contacts and a lot of hard work. In other words . . . real marketing.

The PPG Approach
Our goal is to market books for our authors. Without marketing there will be no sales. But real marketing costs money. Each publisher has an annual marketing budget allocation. Each book receives a share of this budget based on how well the publisher expects the book to sell.

The associates at the Petersen Publishing Group many years ago understood and launched the principle of partnership publishing, making it possible for authors to receive much higher royalties in exchange for their personal active participation in book signings, TV and radio appearances, and so forth. In addition, the author shares in the cost of manufacturing and/or marketing the book, thus allowing the publisher to test market the book.

Every product from chewing gum to automobiles is test marketed to see if the consumer is interested. For example, even blockbuster books do not have first printings of millions of copies. The first run is always small to see how the book will do. If the book takes off and the reviewers eat it up, more money is poured into the project, and as a result more books are sold. This is how bestsellers are marketed.

Authors are excited about the fact that we have placed our clients on shows like Art Bell, The Oprah Show, and other major TV and radio programs, in addition to major publications and other media. Many of our books are in the major bookstore chains, such as Borders, and on the major websites like amazon.com. But unlike many so-called publishers who also offer such distribution, we work very hard to get our books in such a position that readers know they exist. An unknown book or author is easily swallowed up in the masses of books available in these venues. To make people aware of your book so that they can find it takes real marketing.

There are many approaches to marketing a book and many types of buyers beyond those who shop in bookstores or on the web. Not all authors should be on The Oprah Show or have their books reviewed in the New York Times. Each author, each book, is unique. Therefore, it is the goal of this marketing group to look at each book individually to determine where to market and sell that particular book, and the best approach to use to achieve the best results, as spelled out in the agreement between the author and the publisher.

We want our potential authors to understand clearly that publishing a book at any level is both hard work and a tremendous risk. It is no easier for an author to become the next big celebrity than it is for a band to become the next Beatles, or an actor to win an Oscar.

In other words, we don’t want our authors to be caught in the illusion that their book will positively be the next Harry Potter or even be on the bestseller list. Becoming a world-renowned author takes a lot of writing skills, a tremendous amount of work on the part of both the author and the publisher, a great-looking book, top-notch marketing, distribution, and sales, great reviews, and of course, a little bit of luck. And let us not forget the critical element of timing.

We tell all our authors before we enter into any kind of agreement with them that the publishing industry can be as risky as the stock market—and like the stock market, sometimes it pays off big. But again, it’s a gamble even with the best team, a lot of work, and a significant amount of money. We are only interested in authors investing their money with ours if they are confident in their book and are only spending money that has been set aside for high-risk ventures. We will refuse to knowingly accept your share for manufacturing or marketing if that money comes from a loan on your house, your children’s college fund, your retirement money, or any other funds necessary for the survival or well-being of you or your family.

If you believe in your book, are ready to dig in and work hard with us, and have extra money that you could use for a vacation in Hawaii, playing the slots in Vegas, the stock market, or a second yacht, co-publishing with our company might just be the ticket for your success. If not, we suggest exploring other options, some of which are outlined below.

Other Publishing Options
So that you can make an informed decision about what kind of publisher to choose for your book, we have provided a summary of the options below. Publishing options are expanding daily, and there is considerable overlap between the types mentioned here, but these are the most common and readily available options. As you will see, they range from the viable and respectable to the exploitative and illegitimate. We’ll start with the latter.

The Vanity Press
The area where an author will find the most come-ons and con jobs on the Internet is the vanity presses. Unfortunately, until you really do some serious research, you will never know that these so-called publishers are not real publishers at all. They state that they will produce your book, provide you with an ISBN, list your book with the Library of Congress, and place your book on amazon.com and other websites. Some offer several different “Starter Kit” programs. But the truth about vanity presses is that they are not real publishers and do not do real marketing.

They will be glad to take your money. You might even receive a little booklet on “How to Become a Successful Author” or some such nonsense. But at the end of the day, or several years later, you will have few or no sales to show for your money spent. Some vanity presses as well as the on-demand companies (see below) can really provide you with a polished brochure or author’s kit. But it’s all show and no go. No real marketing, that is.

Beware, vanity presses under any name are not the same as self-publishing, traditional (old-school) publishing, or partnership and real co-marketing. Keep in mind that for less than the cost of a good dinner for two, you can, in a few weeks and with no business background, procure the items listed above with little effort. You can self-publish your own book without paying a dime to anyone (except, of course, the printer). But of course, without marketing, there will be few or no sales.

The Print-on-Demand Publisher
Print-on-demand publishers range from unethical con artists to legitimate book producers. They are fundamentally similar to vanity presses, but generally charge less because they print books only as they are ordered and so incur no financial risk. The unethical members of this category simply reproduce the author’s typescript on a copy machine, spiral-bind it, and sell it for an exorbitant price. The better on-demand publishers offer editing and design services and produce books of comparable quality to conventionally printed books (though the unit cost still tends to be higher); they may even be able to offer placement with major distributors. But generally speaking, like vanity presses, these publishers do not offer real marketing.

Books-on-demand publishers are usually web-based, meaning that if someone wants to purchase your book, they order it from the publisher’s website. Then a copy is printed and bound and mailed to the customer. The problem with this approach is that no one will find your book on the web without major marketing. There are so many tens of thousands of authors on the web that unless you are in the top few, you and the title of your book are lost. Imagine being hit number 10,106 on Yahoo—you would never be discovered.

Imagine walking to the edge of a huge lake with an eyedropper full of red food coloring and dropping one drop into the lake. Imagine that the one red drop is your book on the World Wide Web. Your drop looks beautiful until it hits the millions of gallons of water in the lake, and instantly, in the blink of an eye . . . it’s gone. If your book is not marketed with a real marketing company, it will, just like the red drop, be lost in the millions of other books presently offered for sale throughout the world. That’s what it’s really like having your book sold through the Internet without any serious marketing. No one will ever know you and your book exist.

And to make matters worse, there are millions of book buyers who don’t even have a computer, or who refuse to order anything on-line using a credit card. According to a recent survey, the lion’s share of book purchases—32.8%—are still made at traditional bookstores. Internet sales account for only 5.5%.

The Traditional Publisher
The traditional publishers, of which there are hundreds, were, until recently, one of only two ways to publish your book. Today, they are still one of the few ways to get published and really get your book marketed. The traditional publisher is a good approach for the author who will accept a small royalty (typically eight to fifteen percent).

The problem is that the publishing industry has changed so drastically—because of technology, the enormous number of books in print, and because of the huge book chains demanding up to 65–70% discounts—that the traditional publisher’s door is almost impossible to open unless you are a big celebrity or have a top-notch agent. Usually the top agents deal only with well-known authors and celebrities. We continually hear from authors with stories like, “I sent out over fifty manuscripts to the major publishing companies and never even received an answer.” Or the author received a form letter saying, “We do not read or accept unsolicited manuscripts.”

With millions of titles in print, the only way a book can be sold is with expensive and intensive professional marketing. Because of the amount of effort and cost required to run the traditional publishing company and the often tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to market a single book, the traditional publishing house mostly looks only at potential authors who have been solicited by the well-known literary agents. And again, those agents usually represent only celebrities.

For these reasons, although the traditional publisher is a good alternative for some (especially those who are internationally known), for most authors it is a dead end and a tremendous waste of time and money. To have a copy center make up fifty copies of your 300-page manuscript would cost, at ten cents a page, $30 per manuscript or $1,500 for fifty copies, all with no full-color cover. Additionally, the cost to mail the manuscripts might be $3 each. That’s a lot of money for an author to spend to send unsolicited manuscripts that will only be rejected by the traditional publishers.

Self-Publishing
Self-publishing is the second of three legitimate ways to become a published author. Anyone can self-publish. You need to get an ISBN, register your copyright, file with the Library of Congress, and print one to two thousand books to get started. Once your books are printed, you need to find distribution for your books and market them.

The problem for almost all authors is the marketing. Marketing books requires a small army of people, including writers, editors, artists, layout people, publicists, distributors, sales organizations, people to make all the phone calls and write all the letters, and a lot more. And the combined hours of all these people can run into the thousands over the life of a book.

If you are a person with all these resources and the money to pull it off, and of course, lots and lots of free time, self-publishing is an alternative. But few go this route, and even fewer succeed.

Partnership Publishing or Co-publishing
The Petersen Publishing Group is comprised of both traditional publishing and co-publishing resources. Partnership publishing is very attractive to many authors because, if they know they have a great book and we agree, the author and the publisher pool their funds and go in on the marketing and/or manufacturing costs together. This allows the publisher to release more titles in a year, and of course allows the author to get published.

This also allows the book to be marketed to sources agreed on by the author and familiar to the publisher. If the book sells a relatively small number of copies, both the publisher and author can recoup their costs and break even. And from there, if the book takes off and lots of sales are generated, both the author and publisher win. With this scenario, the author can receive up to fifty percent of the profits in exchange for sharing the financial risk with the publisher. It can be a win-win scenario for both the author and the publisher.

Petersen Publishing Group receives manuscripts from authors, then has those books evaluated for publishing contracts by one or more members of our team. We help most kinds of authors and books get published if the author feels that the book has a place in the literary world. However, we do not accept every manuscript we receive. Some books are so poorly written that we feel that even if the author were to pay all the costs, it would be unfair to the author for us to print the book, as it would have no chance of being properly marketed. We try to pass on to the publisher only books that are well-researched, well-written, and have a chance to bring success to both the publisher and the author.

In all cases, we want you, the author, to know the pros and cons, the success or the failure that you might expect with your book. You must realize that marketing a book is costly and requires a great deal of effort, and the chances of becoming a major author are slim. Additionally, you must realize that investing money in your book is risky, regardless of how great you feel the book is. The Harry Potter success stories are few and far between.

But co-publishing is a wonderful alternative if you are a really serious, hard-working author who is willing to share in the financial risk and to go the extra mile through your own hard work as a team player. And the rewards of your hard work can be tremendous. There are few greater moments in an author’s life than when you have a book that becomes popular.

Thank you for taking the time to carefully read our website and to read through this informational letter. We welcome phone calls from you with additional questions.

Regardless of which publishing approach you decide is best for you, we wish you the best of luck with your book, and truly hope you will become one of the world’s next known authors.

Sincerely,

Dane Petersen
President, Petersen Publishing Group