Authors Come First
At Providence Publishing, our authors come first. We know that a book always begins with the author’s vision, and we collaborate with our authors to ensure that we can capture their vision in print. We will listen carefully to an author’s ideas about how his or her book should look, feel, and read. Authors are consulted at each stage of the process, and PPC’s dedicated staff is always available to answer questions and listen to author needs. In a time where publishing has become template-driven with impersonal or even nonexistent exchanges, PPC interacts constantly with authors throughout the publishing process. Our authors have the opportunity of working closely with committed professionals who act as advocates and advisors throughout the publishing process.

Private Publishing–A viable alternative
PPC has two publishing models, the traditional royalty model, and the priviate publishing model. If you have researched traditional royalty publishers, you may have already discovered the difficult reality of today’s book industry: royalty contracts are typically reserved for well-known authors with the capacity to generate the sales of substantial quantities of books. PPC does produce books using this model and has been successful releasing numerous titles under this formula. However, the substantial projected sales required to justify a traditional royalty contract, at PPC or in most other legitimate publishing organizations, excludes many worthy works from ever being published.

PPC has distingused itself as a provider of the highest quality titles produced cooperatively with authors or sponsoring organizational or institutional clients who have a specialized work. Typically these are excellent publication projects, which fully merit publishing, but due to the narrowness of the project audience, are not vaiable candidates for royalty publishing. An examination of the over 700 titles that PPC has published since 1990 shows the rich diversity of specialized works produced on a contatct basis with authors or institutional clients.

A strategic decision was made early in PPC’s development that we would create a straightforward publishing model in which there would be no confusing contatcts or unrealistic commitments made to our author-clients. If a specialized title is to be published under contract with PPC, the agreements are simple and clear. The subsequent distribution capabilities are available to help the author or client make the books available to the larger book and internet marketplace.

PPC does not use the popular digital or “demand” printing processes to publish its books. We typically use demand printing only to extend the life of a book that is otherwise facing an out-of-stock situation. The extraordinary attention given to the editorial and design phases of publication make it impossible to recover costs through the limited projected printing quantities typical in the demand solutions.

Books published by PPC are in a category of complexity and quality that is beyond the capabilities of demand technology. Increasingly, PPC’s projects include full-color illustrations, extensive use of photos and captions, complicated editorial content, academic indexes, and other features that exceed the template-driven, “cookie-cutter” methods of the demand publishers. PPC has intentionally positioned itself as a producer of exceptional titles for authors and organizations with higher expectations and requirements.

Economic Considerations for Private Publishing
Our private publishing model is designed to enable motivated authors to recover their publishing investment and beyond. Clients who publish with us pay the capital cost of publication. (The cost of publishing varies depending on binding, page count, and other specifications.) When the book is completed, the author owns all the inventory—no costly buybacks or complicated royalty processes. He or she may then recoup the investment through book sales both through their own sales opportunities and also through the publisher's distribution channels.

The book distribution trade practices is characterized by excessive discounts aimed at increasing the profits of retailers. Whenever possible we encourage authors to sell books directly to their readers so theycan maximize their investment recovery potential. We have found that special sales are a much more effective method of achieving this goal. Many of our authors have been successful in the sales of their project and have returned to produce subsequent books with us.

Our publishing model benefits authors by:

• Ensuring the story is captured in an appropriate voice by allowing a greater role in determining the final outcome of their book,
• Protecting the intellectual property through ownership of the work,
• Increasing the potential to receive a greater return on investment through private control, and
• Offering a single source for all publishing services.