The Publishing Industry - Part One

Not many industries are more complex, more changing and challenging than the publishing industry. To help you, as an emerging author, navigate these sometimes complicated waters, the staff of CSN Books and Legacy Line publishing has complied this book for your information and edification. Before You publish shares answers to questions that our authors and prospective clients have asked us through over three decades of service through CSN Books (our Christian book division), and now, through Legacy Line publishing (our secular book division).
The publishing industry has changed drastically over the last 25 years, yet so many potential authors continue to operate under the old concepts of what constitutes a publishing company. Hopefully, this book will clarify the evolution of the industry.

The “Old, Traditional” Publisher
Many authors still believe that the only way to publish their book is to submit their manuscript to a publisher, wait two to six months for an answer, and hope they accept the manuscript for publication. For the vast majority of authors (estimates range up to 99%), the old process results in a rejection slip.
Assuming that a traditional publisher found your book to be in the top 1% and accepted your book, that meant the publisher would publish your book at no cost to you. If your book started to sell, they would then pay you a meager royalty, frequently as little as 5% (for a first-time author) on the net sales (after they deducted their costs for publishing and promoting the book). In this system, although the author did not pay for the book costs up front, they still eventually paid back the publisher as the books sold.
Unfortunately, under this system, many new authors have sold hundreds of thousands of books, only to receive meager royalty checks after publisher expenses were deducted. Even the legendary “book advances” the public hears about are normally paid back to the publisher if the book fails to sell in the marketplace.

Dr. Mike Wourms

CSN books offers all publishing services including proofing , editing , and cover design.
Our printing is high quality, and we offer marketing and distribution.