You pay for the book printing, which means you own the books. The cost per book depends on the size of the book, the number of pages, whether it contains images (color or black-and-white), and how many images there are. An approximate average cost is about $5 per book. Your book will always be available for printing on a POD (Print-On-Demand) basis with our distribution and printing partner, IngramSpark.

Yes, and we can help you with this decision. Many authors choose to print short runs of their book, making a conservative decision about how many books they personally can reasonably sell. It can be safer to print 100-200 books to start and use them for promotion/publicity, local bookstores, for friends and family, and sales through your own website. We can also help you figure how many ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) you want to print to send to book reviewers and others who may "blurb" the book prior to printing. These days, however, most reviewers and publications are accepting electronic copies of ARCs (eARCs) or books for review. Regardless of where your book is printed as a POD, once you place your initial print order, you can re-print as few as 10, 20, or 50 books, as your personal book supply demands. While we do not believe there is a need to do a standard offset print run, we’ll help you with it if you really want it.

Pricing is an important consideration and we will determine in partnership with you what pricing structure works best for your book. Our trade paperback books are usually priced from $15.95 to $19.99, depending on length, genre, format size, and interior graphics. Digital eBooks can be priced anywhere from $3.99 to $9.99.

Your book will immediately be available through IngramSpark, our worldwide print distribution partner. Bookstores receive what is known as the Industry Standard Discount (40% off retail price) from IngramSpark. Your book title is automatically made available to tens of thousands of retailers, libraries, schools, internet commerce companies, and other retail partners, including Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo (Canada), and other well-known book retailers and wholesalers across North America. In the United Kingdom and Europe, your print book will be available through: Adlibris, Agapea, Aphrohead.com.uk, Bertram Books, Blackwell UK, Book Depository, Books Express, Coutts Information Services, Designarta Books, Eden Interactive Ltd., W & G Foyle Ltd., Gardners Books Ltd., Trust Media Distribution (formerly STL), Mallory International, Paperback Shop Ltd., SuperBookDeals, The Book Community Ltd., and Waterstones. In Australia & New Zealand, your book will be available through: Booktopia, Fishpond Ltd., The Nile, James Bennett, Peter Pal Library Supplier, and University Co-operative Bookshop. Your book will also be available from Amazon worldwide (including the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Japan, India, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and Australia.

It is important to note that books sold to bookstores from IngramSpark are returnable. Read more about returns in a separate FAQ, below.

Various online e-book retailers handle e-book sales in different ways. For instance, Amazon's Kindle uses a different calculation than Apple's iBook or Barnes & Noble's Nook. Yet, no matter which channel an e-book is sold through, you will earn 70% of net earnings through Rootstock, while most major traditional publishers pay much less. We now upload all our electronic books directly through Kindle Direct Publishing and use Draft2Digital for expanded distribution (Barnes & Noble, OverDrive, etc.). This has resulted in increased sales for Rootstock. All of our eBooks are also available for download through Rootstock’s own website .

The Authors’ Guild has waged a campaign to convince publishers to pay at least 50% on download sales. Clearly, with our 70% payment, we are way ahead of the curve. Through Rootstock, your book will be available online from: Amazon in every country where Amazon is available (see the list above); 24symbols; 7switch; AdLibris; Apple Books; Blio; Barnes & Noble;  Bibliotech Education; Bol.com; Bookmate; BookShout (Rethink Books); Booktopi; eBooks.com; FeedBooks; Gardners Books; Glose; Google Books; Hoopla; iFlipd; ITSI; Kobo.com; Libreka; Libri GmbH; Lix.com; Overdrive; Saxo; Scribd; SpoonRead; Redshelf; Rockstand (RockASAP); Tolino; Vida Global; Vivlio; Wook.pt; and Zola Books.

We are very picky about the books we publish. We are what is known as a "curated press." It simply means “carefully chosen.”

We create professional book covers by designers with significant, proven experience. We insist that all of our books are edited and proofread by experienced professionals. These are standards many self-publishing and vanity presses do not maintain. Online publishers like Amazon have only the bare minimum standards with regard to what they publish. Editing and proofreading are not among them. Neither is the quality of the writing.

We also have distribution relationships with independent bookstores, and we make sure our books are sold at wholesale terms that are favorable for bookstores, so your book has a higher likelihood of being carried in brick and mortar store than if you self-publish.

When you self-publish, you do it all. You may invest a lot of time and money with hopes of producing a high-quality book, and you have to be your own wholesale distributor (invoicing, shipping, marketing). By partnering with Rootstock, you will be utilizing our expertise to produce the high-quality book you want, with our marketing expertise and distribution channels to get your book into bookstores. We care about the books and authors we publish. Your success is our success, and we work with that goal in mind.

The world of publishing is changing dramatically, and high-end hybrid publishers, like Rootstock, are creating a level of excellence and respect, bringing our authors serious recognition.

Ingram and/or Baker & Taylor ships orders to bookstores and libraries. Rootstock can fulfill orders to individuals who purchase through our website, or to bookstores or libraries who order through us, and you can also sell and ship books via your own author website.

As far as book release events, bookstore events, library events, and any other author events, these are the author’s responsibility to arrange according to your own schedule. We send ARCs and promote your book to bookstores nationally and offer other ways to promote in advance of the publication date. Because we cannot act as a booking agent, Rootstock does not schedule your events, but we do help to publicize your events, and we will supply you with a list of bookstores to contact.

Keep in mind, these book events don't happen automatically or quickly. We suggest strongly that you visit bookstore websites and look at their event calendars. Virtual events have become popular because of Covid. Libraries are also good locations for an author event. Contact libraries you’d like to target and ask to speak to the events coordinator for specific details.

The only way a bookstore is willing to stock (carry an inventory of) books from publishers, distributors, or directly from authors, is on a 100% returns basis. Your local independent bookstores in particular are usually willing to give new authors a chance to sell in-store and display their book, but the only way they will take this risk is if the book is on consignment and returnable. This means, if you are able to get ten books into one of your local bookstores, you have to be ready to accept returns if the books don't sell. This is why it is so important to work hard on promotion, publicity, and marketing. Bookstores also have the ability to fulfill special orders, if they have sold out of copies and a customer orders the book. We highly recommend you read this article from Publishers Weekly for more understanding of the business of returns:   https://tinyurl.com/y7mj5gxa

Wholesale sales and distributor sales can be confusing for the newcomer to this business. When your Rootstock Publishing book makes a sale through Ingram or Baker & Taylor, it is at a distributor price, usually a 55% discount off the suggested list price (for example, $8.53 on a $18.95 list price). Thus, the distributor is buying the book for $8.53 from Rootstock, at the distributor price. The distributor then sells the book to a bookstore at 30% to 40% off the retail price, and the bookstore buys the book at $13.26—the wholesale price. If the bookstore decides at any point to discount your book, they end up making less profit per sale. Rootstock pays its authors royalties based on the $8.53 net. Our Author Handbook explains how we pay in detail.