The New Book Deal
A better way to publish books
Altamira Studio is changing the publishing industry with a new deal in 2024.
Why? Because standard publishing deals are all deals with the devil.
Until now, authors have had 3 options for publishing a book:
the Legacy deal 😈
the Vanity deal 👹
the DIY deal 😡
This page explains why these are deals with the devil, and introduces The New Book Deal. 😇
😈
The Legacy Deal
"You bring fame, we bring the press.”
This deal is what most people think when they hear “book deal.” The publisher pays you cash as an advance against future sales of your book. That might sound good at first. But in exchange for producing your book, the publisher takes ownership of what you’ve written.
They keep 90% of the profits, forever. You’re unlikely to earn any money from your book after it’s published.
Worse: you give up any legal right to print or post what you’ve written without the publisher’s permission. You can’t use any other publisher or platform—not even if you’re unhappy with the job your publisher has done.
The Legacy deal is also hard for most people to get. It requires you to get an agent—a middleman who charges a portion of your advance in exchange for wooing a publisher. Most agents don’t take risks on under-the-radar authors. They use fame as a proxy for marketability and reject authors who don’t already have a large social media presence.
A friend in the legacy publishing world puts it this way: “Publishers used to make people famous; now we make Internet Famous people slightly more famous.” (We wrote a bit more about this in Disrupting Publishing in 700 Words).
The Legacy deal is also slow. Once you sign the contract, it’ll be about 4 years before your book is in print. Even if your manuscript is 95% perfect, it usually takes them at least 12 months to print the book.
Finally, the Legacy deal forces you to give up creative control of your book. Legacy publishers typically require a minimum word count of 60,000 words, roughly 300 pages, because they find it easier to sell books of that length. If you’re an elegant writer and can say everything you want in fewer words, you’ll have to add filler and fluff to meet their word quota. We think that’s silly. Many great works of literature are far shorter. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is only 22,000 words. Sun Tsu’s Art of War is only 10,000 words!
👹
The Vanity Deal
“You bring money, we bring the press.”
Once upon a time, there were no publishing companies—just presses. You could walk in and pay them to print copies of something you’d written. (Thomas Paine did this several times before ever selling any books).
Today this publishing model is called a “vanity press.”
The Vanity deal has you pay the publisher an upfront fee to produce your book—anything from $15,000 to $150,000.
Vanity presses don’t have a material incentive to make your book succeed. They may offer authors a marketing service for an extra fee, but they have little accountability for their success.
Print quality is often low because these companies outsource their printing to print-on-demand services, such as Amazon KDP and Ingram Spark, which use the cheapest materials, processes, and labor. Their aim is to produce vending-machine books, not lasting artifacts.
😡
The DIY Deal
“You’re on your own.”
Amazon’s self-publishing platform (KDP) has made it possible for anyone to publish their own book. You just have to know how to use all the relevant tools, or hire people who do. That means the DIY deal is really just a deal with Amazon, and that (to our minds) is a deal with the devil.
First, it can be expensive. If you don’t know how to edit, design, and do the layout for your book, you’re likely to pay $5,000+ for the basics.
You’ll also need your own seller account on Amazon. The system is convoluted, so there are people who charge $5,000+ to set up authors’ accounts for them.
Once published, Amazon says they’ll pay you 70% of the profits, but they’ve become notorious for seizing authors’ royalties. Lawyers tell us that’s common, especially when an author achieves some success. (See authors discussing this on Reddit and Writers Weekly).
One of the biggest downsides of the DIY deal is print quality: it’s bad. Worse yet: it’s inconsistent. A box of copies will show up at your door, and the covers will be a range of different colors.
Finally, Amazon doesn’t help with networking or marketing. You can pay to run advertisements for your book on Amazon, but it’s your job to get all the grassroots support you need.
Authors deserve a better deal.
😇
The New Book Deal
“It takes a village to publish a great book.”
The New Book Deal incentivizes both the author and the publisher to make the book profitable.
We partner with you to crowdfund your first print run. It doesn’t take a huge crowd, just a small village.
We produce, edit, design, print, and ship your book. Once your book reaches 1,000 sales, we pay you 70% of the profits on each additional sale.
We print quickly—books can usually ship within 3 months of a finished manuscript (versus 12+ months with Legacy deals).
You keep ownership of what you’ve written. You can distribute what you’ve written anywhere. You can re-post chapters on your blog or social media. You can even partner with another publisher if you’d like.
Finally, we ensure your book is high-quality. We work with a family-owned, Texas-based print shop with decades of experience. They are amazing craftsmen who share our enthusiasm for forward-thinking books that feature bold designs and excellent quality.
Anyone who’s interested in The New Book Deal can email:
ellen@altamira.studio
