Self/Bridge Publishing & Distribution
What is Bridge Publishing?
Is Zaccmedia a Self Publisher?
The answer to this question is yes and no. Zaccmedia is a bridge between commercial publishing and self-publishing. Hence our term “bridge publishing”. Our goal is to try and give all our authors a commercial experience with their books, working hard to get them recognised and seen both by the commercial book trade and the end user/buyer. For many authors, it is impossible to secure a commercial contract with a mainstream publisher, but they are also wary or intimidated by the complexity of self-publishing and worry if their book will be of sufficient quality and be available to shops. Many times, authors will create outstanding work, but their working niche means it has little commercial appeal. Yet, the author feels compelled for the world to see it – whether it’s a life call, a passionate dream or a compulsion to communicate a message the world needs to hear. Zaccmedia aims to fulfil that purpose.
Zaccmedia bridges that gap between commercial rejection
and self-publishing fear or hassle.
It may just be a very niche work of information that a small group of enthusiasts would love to have access too, and a publisher is needed to make the book a reality and available. Zaccmedia bridges that gap between commercial rejection and self-publishing fear or hassle. Just because a commercial publisher has rejected a work, it doesn’t mean it should not be published. Far from it.
There is a self-publishing element to what we do, in so much as we try to give the author as much flexibility as possible as to how their book is created. Zaccmedia offers the author choices throughout the process of publishing, but will equally make those choices as best as possible for the author, based on our experience, if the author wants a trouble free process. The financial investment is also made by the author, as seen in our excellent package prices. Our package prices are reasonable, based on our high quality services. As a publisher of the book, we take a small percentage of each sale, with the author taking the greater percentage of the sale. This means both parties have vested interests in the wide and successful sale of the product, motivating the book’s promotion and sale. In that sense, Zaccmedia and the author have a commercial working partnership. Zaccmedia can be regarded as a bridge publisher, rather than merely a self-publisher. You get the best of both worlds.
Does Zaccmedia publish anything?
Like a commercial publisher, Zaccmedia does have a process of selection over what books it chooses to publish. Based on Christian values, Zaccmedia will only publish materials that do not compromise our morality, convictions and creed. We also want to ensure that the book is publishable and for its niche market, has sufficient depth and potential to generate sales. Zaccmedia reserves the right to turn down proposed books. To this end, we have commercial and moral standards that should encourage all our authors who come on board with us.
About Zaccmedia publishing
Book publishing services have improved dramatically over recent years with technology enabling high quality digital printing comparable to traditional offset print quality. With these print technologies combined with traditional publishing services, such as editing, typesetting and cover design, the modern author has a solid platform for producing his/her own book at economic prices. Economic, because digital print-on-demand enables the author to buy as many or as few books as required, without having to commit finance to long print runs of a 1000 or more books.
Zaccmedia also provides a distribution package, meaning your book can be ordered from over 30,000 retail outlets around the world, via Ingram, one of the world’s largest book distributors. Ingram also own the print presses we use, meaning there is superb integration when printing to meet the demand of the distribution channel. Your book never, technically, ever goes out of stock. If it has been ordered at a retail outlet, it will be printed and sent out straight away.
Distribution channels do not equate to sales. It is essential that you understand that distribution channels are tools in your hand. It is up to the author to market and publicise the book to generate interest. The distribution channels are there to ensure the book is available, whenever it is ordered. Sales won’t happen by magic. But having a distribution channel is a major part of successful publishing and will get you on to Amazon. We do provide some marketing tools to help get news of your book out, and can be found in our Advanced Package.
eBook Publishing
We include in some of our print distribution packages an eBook distribution package, which offers eBook distribution to all the major eBook platforms. Click here for more details. Ebooks are no longer the lesser partner in modern publishing, and in many instances, they outsell their printed editions.
eBook publishing is absolutely essential,
if maximising the reach of
your readership and sales.
We therefore think eBook publishing as absolutely essential, if maximising the reach of your readership and sales. There are some rights issues associated with eBooks due to technical agreements that the likes of Amazon and Apple enforce. For instance, if you want Zaccmedia to post your eBook with Amazon Kindle, it is important you do not also have a second account that also sells the same eBook to Amazon. In this sense, we need exclusive access per platform we distribute to, yet you can ask us to remove an eBook from our distribution platform at any time.
Why publish your book without a mainstream commercial publisher?
There are two main reasons authors self/bridge publish.
Both are common and valid reasons why an author would want to self-publish. With many thousands of brand new book titles being published every month it has become exceptionally difficult for authors to secure a commercial contract and self-publishing opens an alternative door of opportunity. Zaccmedia actually fits between commercial publishing and self-publishing, as explained at the start of this page.
Commercial Publishing vrs Self/bridge Publishing: An Unbias Perspective
Commercial Publishing
With the exception of the elite few, commercial publishing is out of most people’s reach. The main reason why an author would want to first try and seek a commercial publishing contract is because such publishers take on the entire financial risk of the project and pay for all the production costs of the book, with a view to recouping income and making profits through the volume sale of the book through bookshops and online retailing. Authors do not pay a penny for the process. The publisher takes on the entire cost of editing, typesetting, cover design, printing, marketing and distribution. For every sale the author receives a modest royalty, often 15% of the net receipts, which can generate several thousand pounds of income if the book sells reasonably, and more if it sells particularly well. Obviously the author might receive very little if the book is a commercial flop – and many do flop.
There are disadvantages to commercial publishing. You may not have full control of the editing process, potentially undermining your wishes. This is uncommon. Many publishing houses enhance a book. You may not like the cover design. But the biggest factor in committing to a commercial publishing house is that you sign away your publication rights, and if you don’t read the contract, this could be for an indefinite period of time. Long contracts can hide away unsavoury terms that leave you out of pocket, as there are some unscrupulous commercial publishers out there. Worst still, you are locked into a contract and you cannot get your rights back unless you buy them out. This is a worst case scenario, and in many cases, you will be happy with a commercial publisher, so long as they make your book available. Zaccmedia contracts run just a year (but you can stay with us longer!), and are non-exclusive, ensuring your rights are with you at all times.
Book publishing has never been so fiercely competitive, and securing a commercial publishing contract is like discovering gold – it’s rare. Unlike prospecting for gold, sometimes perseverance won’t get you anywhere. If your book isn’t commercially viable, no publisher will take it on for the simple reason that it would cost them thousands of pounds to publish, and they would stand to lose it all if it didn’t sell. They won’t risk it. This should be sobering to you, the author. Why? Because if you are looking to self-publish, you have to ask yourself the question: If an experienced commercial publisher won’t risk spending money on it, why do I think I can recover my costs publishing it myself? It’s an important question you need to answer before proceeding with your project.
Our advice to new authors paying for publishing services is simply: publish responsibly.
Purchasing publishing services can become very expensive and it’s worth doing the math on what fits your budget. Happily, Zaccmedia is a safe and sensibly priced place to have your book published, because we have your best interests at heart. Hence our advice. We obviously want to make a profit for our effort in providing services too, but you can be assured that in working with Zaccmedia, you will always be steered towards value, not ever greater, hidden expense.
Now that we have covered the pros and cons of commercial publishing let’s look at the reason you are on this website, looking at our publishing & distribution services.
Zaccmedia Publishing Methods
In times past self-publishing had a reputation for taking advantage of peoples ignorance and charging exhorbitant fees for producing an author’s book, taking advantage of their passion to get published. Eventually, these so called publishers were nicknamed “vanity publishers”. Some self-publishing companies still carry such reputations, and its true that you have to be exceptionally careful in reviewing the pricing structures of what each company offers.
Zaccmedia wants to be totally transparent with you in our pricing, which we think represents excellent value. You will therefore find a full list of prices and detailed descriptions of our services for the Print & Distribution Packages we provide. We also do our best to provide basic cost levels for our modular services – modular services are for those authors who don’t want our all-in-one packages but just want access to an editing service only, or just want a cover design or typesetting, or a mixture. The limitation of using our modular services is that we don’t offer any distribution, ISBN and other details served exclusively in our packages. Since books have so many permutations for our modular services, we will need to quote you a price based on what is required. Again, it’s a transparent process.
Self-publishing isn’t a last resort for many who want to be published. Increasingly, it is becoming the preferred option. Self-publishing puts the process of publication under your control. With Zaccmedia, you are not just self-publishing. As a bridge publisher, we walk the entire process with the author. If you purchase our editing services (which are not included in our Print & Distribution Packages for reasons explained here) you will have the opportunity to work with your editor in direct communication. If you are unhappy with a change, you can amend it. You can also provide a design brief for the front cover and have opportunity to change the text on the front as you want it. Throughout the process you will be given a personal service, ensuring our advice is available with every choice you need to make to create a professionally produced book.
About Rights & Copyright
Unlike working with a full commercial publisher, taking ownership of your own publishing process essentially means you hold the publication rights to your book and are the financially invested producer of it. This is different to holding copyright. Copyright is the work that is originally yours, is protected as such, and cannot be copied elsewhere. When you give rights, it means you are giving permission to use your work in whatever capacity of terms you agree. With most commercial publishers they will want EXCLUSIVE worldwide rights in ALL languages, and they will also want what is termed subsidiary rights, which includes audio and eBook rights, as well as rights for using the material for movie screenplays or cartoons, etc. The author always holds the copyright, but if you give away your rights contractually, then you need to understand what terms you are giving those rights on. If the book is outside of your legal rights to produce and distribute it, and that power is in someone else’s hands on an exclusive basis then that third party becomes the Publisher once they produce the book.
With Zaccmedia, we have non-exclusive contracts. You hold your rights at all times and can publish your book anywhere else at any time. See our service package details page, that provides more information about this. Whilst Zaccmedia produces and distributes the book for you, it is you that pays for the service and we distribute the book for you via Ingram. Zaccmedia needs to create an income out of the distribution service, and we do that by taking a commission from each sale. You also receive a sales commission, known as a royalty. The rest goes into manufacture cost and the retailers cut.
How Can I Make Money?
There are two main ways you can make money in Publishing with Zaccmedia.
- By selling both printed and eBook editions of your book through our distribution channels which are part of our Package Deals. For every book sold, you receive a royalty. See our royalty section on our Package Details Page.
- By making purchases of your own book for your inventory, and then selling them on for a profit to delegates at a conference you may be speaking at, local bookshops, friends, organisations and whoever else is connected to your network. See our “Author Purchase Discounts” section on the Package Details page for more information on how this is costed.
