About YAV Publications
We provide two very different types of publishing: 1) A standard 15% royalty on all profits after your advance has earned out. This is the traditional model in which you do not receive any royalties until sales of your book have earned back both the advance we paid you and also any costs incurred in your book's preparation and subsequent pre-agreed marketing expenses. 2) A co-sponsored profit-sharing model attuned to the digital age. Co-sponsored means that YAV assumes a portion of the preparation expenses and fees, and the remaining expenses are paid by a sponsor or group of sponsors. And yes, for some of our books the authors themselves have assumed the role of co-sponsor, but we do not disclose which books those are, nor those which have a third-party sponsor or sponsor-group, unless the author wishes to thank, credit, or otherwise recognize the sponsor(s) in his or her book, itself.
Not All Books are Suitable for YAV
Although we use several Print-on-Demand (POD) printers in addition to several offset printers, we are NOT a "self-publishing" service. All of our books undergo a rigorous screening before they are accepted for publication, regardless of whether the book is destined for standard or co-sponsored publication. Books that do not meet our criteria for the standard model may be accepted into our co-sponsored program. Because the "rules" of standard publishing are well established, information that applies exclusively to co-sponsored publication appears under blue subheads.
Pricing Matters
If you have been comparing online digital publishing and POD services, you probably want to know what YAV’s share is as the publisher. YAV Publications has vowed to keep our portion of each book below a dollar for most books we publish, specifically, those with a retail price of less than $12.50; in other words, 99 cents (NOTE: Add 50 cents for books priced between $12.50 and $19.99 inclusive; add 99 cents for books between $20.00 and $29.99 inclusive; add $1.50 for books with a retail price of $30 or greater, as well as all books that have interior color). This is much lower than what similar companies require. Because of this, authors are able to set much lower retail prices while still making a profit from distribution markets, such as Amazon (online) and our print distributors, which require a wholesale discount of 55% off cover price.
Services
We offer identical services as those offered by the larger online digital publishing sites. Most PODs print through Lightning Source International (LSI). Because of this, there are few, if any, differences between what they can offer. The main differences are price, turnaround time, and service. Concerning price, YAV is less expensive. We beat all prices in all areas hands down, even our competitors whose names begin with "W" and "X." Be sure to check out the "Challenge" section at the right of this page or press the "Compare Prices" button above. Turnaround time at YAV is often less than 28 days from manuscript receipt to the finished books being available to distributors, although there are occasions during which we are backlogged, during which a queue is established to specify the order that books will be prepared. With respect to service, normally, when we commence your project, we focus on your project exclusively until it is published. After publication, we can provide the identical or equivalent marketing packages to those of our competitors, although we tailor such services to your project rather than take a "one size fits all" approach.
Setting Us Apart
You have the option of your own "Buy Now" buttons on the main page and your book page at YAVpublications.com & InterestingWriting.com. These pay immediately and directly into your bank account, just like your eBook royalties if you opt for an eBook. Otherwise, if your book is not placed with our primary distributor (profits calculated after 55% discount off retail price), we become the distributor for certain types of sales (profits calculated after 50% discount off retail price), and, in some cases, we will sell your book as a retailer through YAVpublications' online book store's shopping cart (profits calculated after 40% discount off retail price, just like any physical book store).
Copyright
All authors published by YAV Publications retain all their copyrights and all other rights to their work! Our standard agreement is very flexible and reflects the fact that our Editorial Director worked as an authors’ advocate for many years.
Distribution
YAV lists at all major online sellers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-Million, and a host of others. We have identical relationships with Books-in-Print, and the Library of Congress and other digital cataloging services. We deal with Ingram Distributors, Baker and Taylor, and their affiliates, but we do not inflate Ingram fees as do many of our competitors. We try to find the best fit for an author, so other distribution possibilities exist, for example, Send the Light. As mentioned under "Setting Us Apart" above, we also handle distribution for certain sales.
One-time Fees
Prepress fees: There are one-time fees associated with digital printing and POD. These include the ISBN number ($17), setup fees ($75 which represents $37.50 for the text, $37.50 for the cover), and required initial overnight proof ($30 for softcover, $35 for hardcover). The fee for managing all the setup and details at the printer is $144. Besides these one-time fees, LSI charges an annual digital cataloging fee of $12.
Preparation expenses: Many books require light, medium, or substantive editing at 1.9, 3.6, or 5.4 cents per word. Formatting for printing usually adds $1 per page. Layout and design starts at $144 for the first 48 pages with the remaining pages billed at between $1.00 and $1.80 per page depending upon the page count (see our Sample Publishing Agreement). If the book includes interior graphics, the preparation of these files ranges from $5 to $50, depending upon the amount of image-editing required. A minimum of two cover concepts are provided for $200. The back cover and spine add $144. Some circumstances may cause these figures to be a bit higher. Image licensing ranges from $15 to $125 (you specify limits). If you have the main front cover image already then the costs for the front cover are greatly reduced, but adding the back and spine will still cost $144.
eBooks
YAV offers eBook preparation and publishing to our authors. We currently offer Kindle and Nook formats, as well as some others. YAV Publications authors can release an eBook version of their print book simultaneously for an additional $99 (books of 106 pages or less), $149 (books of 108-160 pages), or $199 (books of 162-276 pages), $299 (books with 277-360 pages), or $399 (books with 362-450 pages), and 75 cents per page beyond 452 pages. Interior graphics or special formatting may incur additional charges. These prices are per platform with more platforms coming. We usually recommend delaying the eBook release fro 2 to 6 months after the print book release. We can offer digital delivery of EPUB through YAVpublications.com, so you have the option of bypassing Amazon and Nook, altogether.
Royalties
Print book royalties are paid quarterly, whenever more than $100 has accumulated in your account, regardless of whether you book is in the standard publication model or co-sponsorship model. Of course, if you have elected to have your own "Buy Now" button on your page at YAVpublications.com, those profits are transferred directly to you, immediately. Additionally, with eBooks, you retain 100% of all eBook royalties. For example, for Kindle books, that's 70% of all revenue from eBooks priced between $2.99 and $9.99 (Amazon keeps the other 30%).