How long does it take
for my book to be published?
In general, once Roval has your manuscript, all the illustrations,
your short biography and blurb which go on the back cover of the
book, as well as your portrait for the author biography area,
it can take about 6 month, occasionally less, for you to receive
your printed book proof to review. This is the last step before
release to print.
How much time does it take
to have my book available for sale to the public?
Once your book is released for distribution, it appears on your
own pages at the Roval Bookstore within a few days of release.
It takes about 90 days to be picked up for sale from the Books-In-Print
data base by the general on-line venues such as amazon.com. It
may take up to 6 months for the book to be aquired by a brick
and mortar store if the store believes it is worthy of the extremely
valuable shelf space. That is completely their choice to make.
What do I need to submit to
Roval?
Manuscript: We need your manuscript
sent by e-mail in Word DOC format. The manuscript must be either
edited by your editor or you will be notified that we will edit
the manuscript. See the question dealing with editing for a more
detailed response.
Illustrations: We need any illustrations you want to use.
All illustrations must either be copyrighted by you or be without
restrictions for use by you. There are no exceptions. If your
book will be in color, the illustrations must also be in color.
Never embed any illustrations into your manuscript. Such images
cannot be used by us. We generally accept the following image
file types: EPS, TIF, JPG, BMP. Do not submit a PDF unless we
approve of the file first.
We should be told where in the manuscript your illustrations
are to be placed. You can do this easily by inserting a bracket
pair with the file name at the appropriate place such as shown
in the following example:
We walked to the lake and sat by the edge.
[lakeside photo.jpg]
The weather was beautiful. The wind blew gently.
If you only have original photos and have no means to scan them,
send them to us, carefully packed. We will scan them and return
the originals safely to you.
Biography: In 150 words or less, tell your readers a bit
about yourself. Mention any awards, education, something of your
background. But keep it short. It appears on the back cover.
Photo: We will need a photo in JPG form of just your head
and shoulders. Many stores such as Wal-Mart have a reasonably
priced photo studio on premises to produce a digital photo.
Blurb or Synopis: This short description of your book also
appears on the back cover. It should entice the casual shopper
to buy your book.
How much can I expect to make
on my book?
The answer is "it depends." The word "royalty"
is the profit you earn on the sale of each book. Your profit is
the difference between the retail sale price and the cost to print
the book. However, there are numerous costs besides printing that
impact your profit. For instance, you are responsible for shipping
costs from the printer to Roval and to you. When you sell the
book the purchaser is responsible for freight. When you sell a
book from the Roval Bookstore, you have no middlemen to reduce
your profit. But when amazon.com sells your book, they make a
profit as does their distributor. The result is you make less.
Another profit factor are the binding costs of your book. You
make more using a soft cover compared to binding your book as
a CaseWrap book. See Binding Options following this question.
What are the Binding Options
offered?
There are basically three popular binding options. The one you
choose will be determined by the size of your book and the number
of typeset pages within its cover.
The bindings are Saddle Stitch where the pages are stapled in
the center after being stacked together. This binding is suitable
for books with less than 36 pages. Perfect Bound groups your book's
pages and glues them into the wraparound cover. It required a
minimum of 36 pages to be chosen. A CaseWrap binding is a hardcover
with no dust jacket. The minimum for this is 24 pages. However
the production cost is very high and so the cost per page is high.
Finally, a traditional Hardcover with Dust Jacket is reserved
today only for 6x9 books that contain a minimum of 36 pages.
How does the Roval Bookstore operate?
The Roval Bookstore lets visitors to the Roval website shop for
your book, preview a few pages, learn something about the book
and the author, then purchase the book. When they make that purchase,
you make the maximum royalty possible.
Once at the end of each quarter you are sent a statement of sales
and your profit. Then, once before January 30th of the next year,
you are mailed a 1099 IRS form to be submitted with your US Income
Tax for the year just completed.
