Pen Press

I am now considering an alternative to the printer I was looking at (who seem to call themselves cpi rather than Antony Rowe). I was looking at printing Lithographically (translation: proper printing rather than digital) with them and printing 2000 books for about £1800, which seemed a rather good deal.

However I am now looking at Pen Press, who are a local Brighton publisher. They are the kind of publisher where you have to pay up from (£1950-ish) for the book to be set up, but after that they act as a proper publisher. The point of this is that the author takes the risk that the book will fail, not the publisher, however the royalty payments you receive are higher than mainstream publishers, so if the book is a success then you should soon re-coup this money, and potentially it will be a better deal in the long run.

Well after meeting the manager and the technical people I was very impressed. They seem skilled and enthusiastic, and prepared to adjust their position to fit the author/book, rather than a 'one size fits all' approach. They were also very professional in their approach and attitude. As a local Brighton publisher they offer advantages to a local author, especially (like in my case) when you are publishing a book with a local focus.

Anyway, my decision is not yet made, but I am definately leaning toward the Pen Press route.....