Author FAQ
What is a cooperative publishing house?
Illuminous may be the first truly cooperative publishing house in existence. Our model is unique in that we work together with the author to produce and market their work. The author assumes the costs of book design, typesetting and printing, and Illuminous provides a quality publishing label and the all-important back-end that often trips up authors: a turnkey marketing plan, contacts for book designers, typesetters and printers; publishing and marketing know-how; distribution channels; and nitpicky but important items such as ISBN numbers and bar codes. And because Illuminous keeps its out-of-pocket costs low, we have both an easier entry and offer significantly higher royalties than traditional publishing houses. You get to keep more of the proceeds from the sale of your book. In addition, Illuminous offers our authors several key ingredients not available to self-publishers:
- Credibility
- Visibility
- Profitability
Add to that the synergy of being part of a growing family of like-minded authors, and you have a powerful combination. More authors in a similar category brings more visitors to the Illuminous Publishing site, where your book is featured. A buyer may visit our site to purchase one book, and make additional purchases once here. Connecting with other Illuminous authors offers joint venture opportunities, affiliate marketing opportunities and expands your reach and resources.
Here is a comparison of the three publishing models.
Publishing Model Comparison
Publishing
Publishers
Publishing
of poor quality
Where will my work be available for sale?
- The Illuminous Publishing Web Site
- Barnes & Noble
- Amazon.com
- Specialty bookstores relating to your particular topic
- You may also choose to sell your books at seminars, workshops and other events
What types of work does Illuminous publish?
Works of enlightenment and inspiration, or personal transformation. We do not publish fiction, poetry, fundamental religious topics or memoir. We also only work with completed works, not in-process works, and work of high quality that has been thoroughly edited. We will pass it through an additional editing cycle at Illuminous, but it needs to be at near-completion before we see it.
How do I query Illuminous?
Write or email us. See our contact page. Please do not send completed manuscripts unless they have been requested. We do not have time to read them, and they will be recycled. This frees our time to work with our committed authors.
How can I get a copy of an author's contract to look over?
When we have agreed to consider your title, we will provide you with an author's contract.
What are my upfront costs to get my book to market?
Figure on $2,500 to $3,500 for professional typesetting and cover design. Illuminous charges a one-time fee of $600 and 5% of sales proceeds. You will also need to factor in distribution costs of approximately 55%. Yes, it's a lot! But without the distributors, your books will not receive wide distribution and it will significantly reduce your sales. See the publishing models table below.
What will my royalties look like?
Three items factor into what you will receive: 1) the price of your book; 2) number sold; 3) % of sales you keep after expenses.
Let's say your book retails for $14.95. A distributor (such as Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble) takes 55% ($8.23). Illuminous takes 5% or $0.75. If the book cost $3.50 to print, your per-book costs are $12.48, leaving you $2.53 per book. This equals 10.6% royalties of the original $14.95. With a typical publisher, your royalty (after paying out any advance) would be only 4% or 60 cents per boook. If you self-publish and sell out of your trunk, you can receive up to 96% royalties (if you can get your book printed for $3.50 each), but of course your distribution is extremely limited. You might sell less than 2% of what you could sell through proper distribution channels. And 50 times the volume adds up to a lot of money as the model below shows.
Author Royalty Examples for 3 Publishing Models
Illuminous Publishing
Regular distribution channels
Traditional Publisher
Regular distribution channels
Self-Publishing
* 2% penetration of regular distribution channels
55-60%
= $253
$28.70 (less marketing costs)
1000 copies
(less costs)The above figures are for illustration purposes only; your figures may vary but will be fully explained to you at the time of signing a contract with Illuminous.
Other Ways Authors Make Money With IlluminousAuthor Copies
As an Illuminous author you may order fas many copies of your book per year for gifts, back-of-room sales, or individual sales, and keep 100% of the proceeds after printing costs. In this example, $14.95 minus $3.50 printing costs = $11.45 proceeds per book sale.
Illuminous Web Site Sales
Any sales from the Illuminous web site will be subject only to a 30% processing fee (you do not pay the 55% distributor fee or 5% publisher fee), so your per-book-payout, in the above example, would be $14.95 less $3.50 printing = $11.45, less 30% processing ($4.49) = $6.96. In this example, your royalties from Illuminous site sales are 47%.