Lucas Park Books will help you publish--
- Your first bestseller
- Your corporate or group history
- A self-help book
- Children's books
- How-To instructional books
For a complete booklet of all our services and pricing, download the All-in-One Publishing Services Booklet
FAQs
How long will it take?
What are the basic steps?
Where will my book be sold?
What is "net sales?"
What is the production process?
How is an index produced?
How do I pay for typeset proof changes?
What if my book was previously published?
How do I estimate my manuscript's page length?
What about information needed for Copyright permission?
What is DRM?
Marketing Your Book
We have prepared some free marketing tools to help you sell your book. Download our How to Market and Promote your Book information now.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How long will it take to publish my book?
Once we have all your materials, your signed agreement, and payment, LPB normally takes between three to five months to transform your book into printed, bound book form.
The length of time a book takes depends on the services you order and how long and complicated the book is. Copyediting and proofreading services will add approximately another month to the publishing process. Again this will vary depending on the length and complexity of your manuscript and how long you take to review and approve proofs.
What are the basic steps in getting a book published at LPB?
- Copyediting/proofreading (if requested)
- Author approves the copyediting/proofreading changes.
- Typesetting of interior pages and layout of cover
- Author approving the page proofs or requesting corrections
- Typesetting the author changes
- Author approving page proofs
- Getting the book manufactured
- Author receiving the book (and sales flyer PDF or sales kit, if ordered)
- Databases across the nation being uploaded with the author’s book information so selling can begin
- Creating the LPB book product page and launching it on the Web site
Where will my book be sold?
You can sell your book from your own inventory, or readers can buy it from retail outlets. Your book will be listed on databases available to retailers of all kinds such as Baker and Taylor and Amazon. Customers may order your book through a store or through a retailer’s Web site. Your local bookstores can order and stock your book.
What does “net sales” mean?
Net sales is the selling price of your book minus any discounts (that wholesalers and retailers get to buy and resell your book) minus customer returns. Occasionally customers return books, and those books are then subtracted from your sales total. You will not earn royalties on any books that are returned. Royalties are calculated separately for E-book net sales and hardcopy book net sales.
What production processes are involved at LPB in getting my book published?
Once we get your signed Order Form and complete manuscript (with graphics, according to the Submission Requirements), we carefully review your job to make sure your unique content fits with the services you ordered. This is an important evaluation and gives us the opportunity to bring any concerns to you right away and resolve them before your book enters the book production process. Your book is given careful attention throughout all stages of the process. The text pages (or interior pages) of your book are worked on while the cover is being designed. Text and cover will join up in the first proof stage so you can see your entire book at one time.
Basic Publishing Process (without Additional Services)
- Your manuscript is poured into your chosen Text Design Template and typeset. During this process careful attention is paid to placing your graphics, creating tables, placing running headers and footers, lining text up along the top and bottom margins of the page, and so on.
- Your title, back cover copy and the LPB logo are assembled according to the Cover Design Template you choose.
- A complete proof (in PDF format) is e-mailed to you for your review. (You may have a paper proof for an additional charge.)
- You carefully review the proof. This is your last time to make any changes/ alterations to the text before it goes to print manufacturing. It is expected that changes would be minimal at this time, because cost and page length are affected.
- If you have purchased a publishing package that provides you a marketing sales flyer for your book or a sales kit, a proof is sent to you with your book proof. You either sign off your approval on the flyer or kit and book or mark needed changes/alterations and send the materials back to us. If you have requested changes/alterations, another proof will be sent to you for your final sign-off. You will incur additional charges for all changes/alterations and additional paper proofs (if applicable).
- Once final approval is given, your book goes to the printer. Your free author copies are sent to you directly (if applicable).
- When we receive your order to purchase additional books to be manufactured, we will order the books and have them delivered directly to your destination of choice.
- Your title is uploaded to the distribution channel databases.
- On March 31 of the following year, you will receive a royalty check from LPB for the net sales of your title that have occurred through the distribution channels. Remember, if you purchase books to sell on your own, you are making money immediately off of those sales based on the author printing discount that you received on your printed book order. E-book royalties are on a different schedule. See Add-on Services. Author printed copies ordered through LPB do not earn royalties.
Publishing Process Including Copyediting and Proofreading
- We will copyedit your entire manuscript before your manuscript is poured into the Text Design templates.
- We perform copyediting and proofreading using Microsoft Word software using the Track Changes feature. We e-mail you an electronic file that shows the changes we suggest. You retain control by choosing to accept or reject each change.
- If you cannot work in Word 95 or a more recent version of Word, you will have to pay for a hard copy to be sent to you for your review and approval. There are additional fees for this service, but we will be glad to provide you hard copy.
- The approved copyedited or proofread version of your manuscript will then be poured into the Text Design Template. The rest of the production process follows as stated in the basic production process.
- We always keep in mind that it is imperative to keep the voice, tone, and flavor of your written word in tact, so please know that all queries and changes are done with that as the utmost criteria.
What is the process for an index?
Indexing will be done after all changes/alterations have been approved by you and a final page count/arrangement has been established. We will typeset an index provided us by the author or arrange for one of our indexers to do the work.
Author-Provided Index
You provide your index to LPB in a word processing program file. This index will contain all the key words and the final page numbers where the key words can be found in the finished typeset book. LPB takes the file of the index and typesets it. You will have a chance to approve the index pages. You are responsible for the accuracy of the page numbers associated with each key word in the index.
Most word processing programs have built-in index makers. Please consult your word processing program for details if you decide to provide the index. You cannot complete the page location of the index entries until LPB sends you the final typeset proof that is ready to go to the printer, which includes all changes/alterations requested. This is because you will not know the final page location of the typeset manuscript until then.
However, identifying which words/phrases you want to index can be started at any time. Please see your word processing program for specifics on how to create an index. LPB will provide you with a final proof (all alterations in place and typeset to the finished page size) of your book for you to generate the index with page numbers. You are responsible for the accuracy of the page numbers associated with each index entry. Any changes/alterations of the typeset index pages will incur additional fees.
LPB-Generated Index
We will be glad to index your book. See Add-on Services chart for the cost.
We will have a professional indexer identify the key words that need to be indexed, and the indexer will generate the accurate page numbers and typeset the index. You will be supplied with page proofs for approval.
Our standard index is a topical index (including proper names), but we also can provide a scripture index if your book calls for one.
How do I pay for alterations/changes I have requested on my typeset proof?
If you have marked changes on the typeset proof, simply count up how many sentences you have asked to be changed and count how many sentences you deleted and added. Each sentence is $2.00 plus the flat rate of $25.00 You simply fill out pages 4 and 5 of a Publishing Services Order Form and send in your payment.
If I have had my book published previously, can I give LPB the already designed cover to use?
Yes, for an additional $150.00, and if it is supplied in a software format that we can use. Please talk to a LPB Associate for details.
How can I estimate my manuscript’s final typeset page length?
Your manuscript right now is in a word processing format. The length of this manuscript version will change after we typeset the book using our Text Design templates. Once LPB has completed typesetting your book and you get your page proof of the layout, you will have a very close idea of finished page length (indexes and changes can still affect final page length).
We have put together a fun math tool to give you an idea or ballpark estimate, of the page length of your current manuscript. We hope you find this helpful and fun to use. This will only give you an estimate because images/graphics, tables and such affect finished page length tremendously. LPB will establish a final page count when the pages are typeset and all changes have occurred.
Using the Page Length Tool
To use our math tool you will need to find and record the character count from your manuscript file. Do the following:
- In your word processing program, open the file that contains your complete manuscript.
- Make sure no text is selected.
- In Word, go to Tools (on the menu bar) and select Word Count.
- If you have notes in your file, please check the box in Word Count to include footnotes and endnotes.
- Let the word processor calculate.
- Record the “characters with spaces” count from your manuscript and divide by the characters per page listed in the chart below. This is the estimated number of pages your manuscript text will fill.
- Now take the number of tables, charts, graphics, photos, etc. that you have and divide it by 3. That is the approximate number of pages your images/ graphics will fill
- Now add 6 pages if you are adding an index
- Now add 4 more pages.
- Total up all the column of numbers to get your total estimated pages.
Please note: We cannot produce a book with fewer than 60,000 characters and spaces.
If I am applying for copyright permission, how do I establish the page count of my printed book and the date it will be published?
- Refer to the question and answer above on estimating final page length to calculate it. It is fine to give the copyright holder that estimated page length.
- Use a publication date that is 4 to 5 months after the date you plan to send in your manuscript, order form, and payment to LPB.
What is DRM—Digital Rights Management?
It is an electronic security layer that is wrapped around your electronic book to help protect it from being copied and printed without your consent or for free. Like all electronic safety measures it is not 100% secure. We recommend you use Google Alert to keep tabs on any illegal uses of your e-book. This tool can help you quickly request that illegal copies be removed from the Internet.