F.A.Q.

ANSWERS

When sending your initial query/proposal, you should not send us your entire manuscript. Please send us a synopsis (one page or less); an outline (two pages or less); and four to six sample chapters. Send them in a common font (Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, or Verdana), and double-spaced in a Microsoft Word document (a .doc file). Then email your proposal to: jped56@comcast.net. We do not accept proposals by mail, only by email.

JPED does not pay authors royalties on the books we help you sell. You make all the profit based on the distribution channel the book is sold in to. The traditional publishing model has you being paid an advance dollar amount and then earning that advance amount back through sales based on a royalty formula. JPED acts as your consulting, sales, marketing and distribution team to help you obtain book sales. We do contract with you to take a small percentage of the books profits. This profit sharing structure only kicks in when you have fully re-cooped your initial investments for consulting, developing, printing, marketing and selling your first 5,000 books.

There is considerable risk in publishing. That risk increases with new authors. JPED is dedicated to helping new authors get published, but our business plan dictates that we will not do it alone.  You are the publisher in our model. You pay for all the costs associated with getting a great book crafted and printed. You pay for the printing. You pay for the marketing and distribution costs. JPED is your publishing consultant who helps you succeed in your desired efforts. The money you pay goes to pay for the editing, cover design, typesetting, printing, advertising, etc. All these costs are direct costs. You will pay a small consulting fee to JPED. That is why we tell our authors up-front that this is a "partnership" between us as your Publishing Group and you the author. Our goal is to build your awareness as an author, get you published and help you profit from the sale of your book(s).

The costs for the author’s copies depends on the quantity ordered, the page count, the binding, paper weight, gloss or matte cover, cover treatments, etc. The minimum order is 50 copies. (For example, if a book costs $5.00 each to print 50 copies, you can print 1,000 copies for about $2.50 each) These small quantities would be produced digitally. After about 1000+ copies ordered you can print them on an off-set press and the cost per book will be reduced even more. Payment for your books is coordinated directly with the printer. If you choose not to stock books in your own facility and do the fulfillment, shipping and invoicing on your own, JPED can coordinate your book being warehoused and the fulfillment, billing and collections can all be done on your behalf for a minimal cost.

We always advise you to print what the market is telling us it needs along with whatever copies you as the author would like for give away purposes. We are not a POD or "Print on Demand" publisher. All of our books are done on state-of-the-art offset presses or digitally in small quantities. You can choose however, to be a part of Amazon.com’s Advantage Program and they can print one off copies if you should desire. They can also keep a regular small inventory in stock at Amazon and they will let you know when additional quantities are needed for inventory.

Send the Light (STL) in Tennessee performs most of JPED's distribution. They are recognized as one of the best and they do it for many major publishers. They do the warehousing, picking, packing, shipping, invoicing, credit returns, etc. and keep track of inventory if requested.

JPED is not a vanity publisher. "Vanity publishers" or "self-publishers" are not selective about who they publish. They take all comers who can write the check. JPED is very selective about what manuscripts we choose to publish. And most vanity publishing does not carry with it the full services we provide (extensive editing, custom cover design, sales and marketing on-line and in the retail trade, etc). If you want to get your book "printed," it's easy. There are thousands of printers who can print your book cheap. JPED, on the other hand, is a full-service publishing group. Unlike most other full-service publishers, we did not seek outside investor-partners when we started this company. Rather, we decided to have our author’s partner with us, book by book. So far, this plan has worked very well for both us and our author partners.

JPED does not accept any and all manuscripts. We only take quality works that we feel have a chance to succeed in the Christian retail trade. We turn down far more manuscripts than we accept. We have an editorial review team that reviews selected proposals and they are the ones who make the final decision on what we publish.

A normal size trade paperback book is about 224 pages when finished, which is about 60,000-75,000 words. Obviously, some books are smaller than that, but if substantially smaller, unless a specialty book with other graphics or photographs, they are very thin books, even using larger type. We like to see manuscripts that are at least 30,000 words in length, and we prefer manuscripts of at least 60,000 words. Fiction can be double this size, up to 120,000 words or 400 pages.

JPED does not target a single category as much as we target good writing from new authors. Because of this, we publish all kinds of books, which include, Christian Living, Bible Study, Fiction, Family & Marriage, Devotionals, Inspirational, Church Growth, Business, General Market, etc. We can also publish Poetry books or children's books that require lots of interior color.

JPED is not for everyone. If you do not have a way to sell your copies to your constituency, we do not want you to end up with a garage full of books. If, however, you have a way to sell your own copies (church, seminars, speaking, students, radio, mailing list, website, etc.) and you let us handle all the bookstore retail trade, then JPED may be a fit. The only exclusive rights you grant to JPED are the retail trade. You are still free to sell your own copies anywhere except to bookstores and other general market distribution channels. We discourage trade distribution unless you have marketing dollars to invest in a pull-through strategy…on average…$1 for every book sold into the retail trade.

Contrary to most people's thinking, advertising does not necessarily sell books. Advertising can support the sales of a good book, but many books that have had hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on various kinds of advertising did not sell well. Books sell if they can find their audience. (We suggest you read "The Tipping Point." It will give you a better idea of how bestsellers 'happen'.) Having said that, there are four key things that we think make a book a bestseller: First, you have to have a good manuscript that is fresh, crisp, and lively...with a great title and cover.... that gets talked about and recommended by the reader after it is read. Our expertise at JPED can and will help you make your book as good as it can be in format, content, and design. Second, as an author, you have to have a good handle on your audience and initially be able to get the book into the hands of its audience. Notice all the authors who are pitching a new book on the talk shows? That is not an accident. Authors are the key to helping jump-start their book. We also suggest you purchase the book, "1001 Ways To Market Your Book," available at most bookstores. Third, you have to have an excellent distribution system set up to handle the demand if and when the book takes off. (And JPED has the best!) Fourth, you must have a strategic marketing plan that will help pull books through the various distribution channels. This includes on-line viral marketing strategies as well as trade sales pull-through strategies. If all of what we discussed previously is in place and you have a goal of a certain number of books and can invest marketing dollars to the tune of $1 per book you want sold, JPED has the marketing strategies and industry experience to reach your sales goal 90% or more of the time.

The author has EVERYTHING to do with creating sales for their book! Good authors know where their readers are...and they certainly know how to get to them better than most publishers do. Authors find them via radio, TV, seminars, speaking invitations, the Internet, etc. A publisher is really the second wave for bigger sales volumes with a good sales team and, most of all, a good distribution system to get books out there fast and efficiently to meet the demand. (And JPED has an excellent system for this... as good as any publisher, big or small.) Remember, this is your book, your story, your life, your idea, and your audience. JPED, or whomever you choose, is only a partnering facilitator. In the end, it is your book, your talent, your passion, and your audience that will get the ball rolling. The truth is, authors should consider their publisher as a support, a coach, and a partner; not as a "magician" that can make your book a bestseller. Many authors are disillusioned because they have expectations from a publisher that are not realistic. A PUBLISHER CANNOT MAKE A BOOK A BEST SELLER! Only a good book that finds its audience can make itself a best seller. JPED can help set all this in motion and target the audience through various marketing strategies. JPED enjoys working with authors who understand their vital role in marketing their book. Some writers think that their job ends when the manuscript is finished. But books that sell well do so because the author takes an active role in marketing their work. Authors that frequently speak to groups of people (pastors, teachers, seminar leaders, workshop leaders, convention speakers, CEO's, men's and women's retreats/groups, evangelists, radio and television talk show hosts or guests, celebrities, business owners, etc.) have built-in opportunities to market their books. When a potential reader can hear you in person, they are much more likely to purchase your book than if they just see it on a shelf somewhere. That is why we like to work with authors who have some ministry or constituency already in place. Nothing kicks off good sales for a book better than "word-of-mouth" advertising. The books you buy personally in the initial print run will not only earn you a good profit, they will also help jump-start the sales process, giving your book a better chance to succeed.

We can only tell you that should we become your publishing partner, we will do everything we can to make your book a success within your budget. We will tell you the truth about your manuscript and push you to rewrite or edit where we think it is needed to make it better. We will tell you the truth about titles and cover design, and insist that we not finish until we all agree it is the best it can be. We will make sure your book has the best distribution system anywhere. Our partnership with STL distributors is the very best. We will stack our sales team up against anyone's. JPED may or may not be right for you. But know this: we will not lie to you, and we will not just "print" your book to make a quick buck. If we do your book, JPED will take the time to work with you to make your book better...hopefully the best. But we cannot guarantee that your book will sell well, and any publisher that tells you otherwise is not being truthful. Our growing family of authors is the best way to judge our work

First, ask yourself hard questions: a."Do I believe in this book?" b."What is this experience of trying to find a publisher telling me about my book, about me?" c."Am I on a quest to get published because I have a passion for my message and my writing, or do I want to get published for other reasons?" Then, if you still feel a passion for your manuscript and its message, submit it to more than one author-agent who works with multiple publishers and see what happens. Don't be discouraged by rejection letters. Keep trying.

Colorado Springs, CO. Colorado Springs is the home of many writers, graphic designers and other publishing professionals.

JPED is a completely separate Limited Liability Corporation, but the inspiration comes from Jeff Pederson, President and CEO. While titles can be published under the JPED logo, we encourage authors to set up their own company and develop their own publishing logo. JPED helps with this process.

No. We only distribute the books we publish. However, JPED does help develop comprehensive strategic marketing plans for books we do not help publish. Our fees for this are based on many options so contact JPED directly for more information.