ShieldCrest can help in several ways depending on the reason for the book. Is it a novel for mass distribution or a private book?

If you are writing a specific book for your business, town, club, church or association, you probably will not need our full range of services so save money by taking our Option 1 only.

If you want to get your work appreciated by a wider audience, read on.

Many, if not all of the mainstream publishing houses now only publish works from established authors and celebrities. Although they might claim to create demand for talented new writers, few, if any do. Why?…

Quite simply, it’s easier for them, as they have less marketing to do by capitalising on the individual’s following. Not unreasonable but it stifles new talent.

A further problem for the new author is that the large publishers only deal through literary agents and they make their living from the books they succeed in publishing, so they too are driven down the same road. Basically, if they don’t meet the demands of the publishers they don’t eat.

The mainstream publisher should also protect the author by guaranteeing a minimum up-front royalty, which should be non-refundable but often they don’t.

Sadly, one of the problems with self-publishing is that some will take thousands of pounds from authors desperate to see their books in print and provide little in return. We have heard of costs as high as $10,000 (£7,000) where the author had to purchase a minimum of 500 copies of his own book. One British author came to us after losing over $3,000 with a US publisher and got nothing in return.

This has got the self-publishing market a bad name – so beware!

Retailers deal on a sale or return basis as they don’t want to be left with unsold books and all returns come out of the author’s royalties. This is the reason traditional publishers pay royalties every 6 months so they can reduce the amount payable by the number of returns.

Everyone in the business recognises there are thousands of excellent manuscripts sitting in desk drawers or agents’ waste baskets. The problem seems insurmountable.

So, how do you avoid frustration and overcome this spiral?

Fear not, there is much we can do for the determined writer. More….