Frequently Asked Questions

Milford Books™ will never contact you out of the blue to tout our services or invite you to submit. Solicitation is one of the main ways scammers acquire clients. If anyone contacts you representing they are doing so on behalf of Milford Books™, please contact us and let us know.

Ethical small publishers are more flexible than our larger competitors. 

• We operate free of the shareholder expectations that drive the major houses in pursuit of profit. 
• We are willing to work with authors without a literary agent, and willing to take chances on authors and books that bigger publishers overlook. 
• We are interested in sourcing and launching the careers of new authors. 
• We provide more personalized attention and allow greater author input into the process of bringing a book to market.
• We provide support ranging from free advice to bespoke publishing. You choose the level of engagement based on your needs, desires, and budget.

Absolutely! We believe in  the importance of our mission and one of the easiest ways we can encourge the success of new authors is by freely sharing our knowledge. Whether that's knowledge of the publishing industry; questions about a particular vendor; realistic sales expectations; design, marketing, or distribution questions; or how to avoid the many publishing-related scams out there--if it takes us 5 or 10 minutes to steer you in the right direction, then why not? 

Milford Books™ offers a wide range of services to help independent authors successfully publish and reach their audience. We offer free advice, consulting, and tailored services to authors who wish to self-publish, and hybrid publishing packages to those who want more support.

• We offer short editorial assessments of submitted writing samples at no-cost. These are done with no-obligation and no sales pressure. 
• The consulting services we offer are focused on publishing, book launch, and marketing strategy. These services are tailored to the needs of each client. Our consulting services are offered at below-market rates because we are selective in the clients we work with. 
• To help you produce quality books, we provide: developmental and copy editing, bespoke cover design, internal layout and design, and indexing services.
• To help you reach your audience, we can help you obtain traditional editorial reviews, create effective marketing campaigns, and optimize how your book is listed on sales platforms (like Amazon and Barnes & Noble) and in bookseller catalogs (like Edelweiss).
• To help you reach your audience we also can help you successfully execute broad book awareness and distribution strategies (to libraries, bookstores, universities, and international audiences).

If an author desires to engage Milford Books™ in a hybrid publishing capacity, we will assess the quality of the manuscript and its alignment with our publishing goals. If Milford Books™ agrees to take a more active role in publishing an author's manuscript, we always act with transparency, integrity, and in alignment with the Hybrid Publishing Criteria defined by the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Milford Books™ takes the satisfaction of our author clients very seriously.  We commit to the following:

• You will always maintain 100% ownership of YOUR intellectual property
• We will never charge you for services you don't need or want
• We will always tailor our recommended support to YOUR needs and publishing desires
• We will never engage in any aggressive sales techniques or pressure tactics
• We will always offer our candid opinion on the strengths and weaknesses of your manuscript and publishing strategy
• YOU can always count on us to go the extra mile and do everything possible to ensure your publishing experience is a positive one

Hybrid publishing companies behave just like traditional publishing companies in all respects, except that they publish books using an author-subsidized business model, as opposed to financing all costs themselves. In exchange, the hybrid publisher offers authors a higher-than-industry-standard share of sales proceeds. A hybrid publisher makes income from a combination of selling publishing-related consulting/services and book sales. 

A good hybrid like Milford Books™ provides stellar support pre-publication AND post-publication!

Like other reputable small presses, Milford Books™ can’t afford to pay advances. Though, we also won't ask for cash upfront, withhold royalties to recoup production costs, or require you to buy something as a condition of publication. As a hybrid publisher, Milford Books™ negotiates a scope of services tailored to the needs of individual authors. 

As a small organization, we price our services competitively to earn your business. Our consulting, editorial, and design services range from free to $2,700. Our hybrid publishing packages typically fall between $4,500 - $12,500 depending on the author's publishing needs and desires, and our negotiated royalty split.

Let's start with some context: The publishing business is very dynamic. Traditional publishers are highly selective and only take a small percentage of the book ideas pitched to them. Therefore, authors typically need an agent. While an agent will help you get your foot in the door, you will need to pay your agent and they will usually take a portion of your royalties.

Publishing contracts, and especially those used by larger houses, set different royalty rates for different formats and channels of distribution. Authors don't earn royalties until the initial sales of a book are equal to the size of any advance provided to the author.  Rates do vary among traditional publishers, though standard rates are generally from 5% at the low end to 15% at the high end. Some traditional publishers offer the same royalty rate for both printed books and e-books, though most now offer higher rates on the sales of e-books. Most independent publishers adopt a flat royalty of 10% of net receipts across all formats.

Traditional publishing contracts may also offer an escalated royalty based on the number of copies sold. For example,  8% of net receipts on the first 5,000 books, 10% on the next 5,000, and 12% on all books in excess of 10,000. The actual royalty percentages and break points vary from publisher to publisher and are negotiated with the author.

Milford Books™ pays authors 50-65% of net receipts depending on the author/publisher share of pre-publication, distribution, marketing and promotion costs.

The Independent Book Publishers Association has a nice high-level check-list to help authors assess the maturity of their manuscript. You can access a PDF of it here.

As a quality small press, we must be highly selective in the books we choose to publish and the authors we choose to partner with. This means considering the market potential of your work and its ability to succeed. If we decide your project is not a fit after reviewing your manuscript sample and publishing plans, we will clearly relay our reasoning and provide guidance that may help you meet our engagement standards in the future.

Vanity publishers focus on earning a profit from authors before the book is even published. They don't have an incentive to cut into that profit by producing a quality product, or investing in marketing and distribution. There are many ways vanity publishers take advantage of naive authors. For example, they may require the author to pay for publisher-sponsored conferences, workshops, or other publicity opportunities. Others require authors to purchase a specified quantity of finished books, or meet a pre-sale requirement, or some other sales guarantee. 

Milford Books™ does not engage in any of these predatory practices. We assess the market potential of a project, identify the publishing tasks necessary for success, propose a transparent cost-sharing plan, and offer authors alternative approaches to meeting their publishing goals.

Milford Books™ does not charge an additional fee for author copies. Authors can order copies of their book at the direct wholesale/printing price. For example, a 250 page paperback costs $4-$5 to print (depending on specifications) and that printing cost would be the charge per author copy (plus shipping).

This really depends on the maturity of your manuscript. If your manuscript does not require developmental editing and only copy edits, design, and layout then a good timeline estimate is 9-12 months. While other hybrid publishers may propose faster timelines, they are doing you a disservice. An effective book launch requires pre-publication positioning to obtain editorial reviews, advance reader reviews, and catalog and Library of Congress listings. This pre-pub period also allows for Amazon and Barnes & Noble listing optimization, bookstore awareness marketing, and other branding activities. Milford Books™ engages in pre-publication and post-publication positioning and marketing for every book we release.