A publisher of occult works and other esoterica.

GroundMark Press

Q - Why Print-on-Demand?

     A - Print-on-Demand means that no large initial run of books needs to be printed, so the investment for the publisher is minimal… it’s basically non-existent in the case of printing through Lulu. Each book is slightly more expensive to produce via print-on-demand; however, this is what makes it possible to publish books that may appeal only to a smaller segment of the general population—to Pagans or Neo-Pagans, for example.

 

Q - Why Lulu?

     A - Lulu has provided us with the highest quality printing. There are other POD services out there, and some print for slightly cheaper per book. This is attractive, but their process leaves something to be desired. We have noticed, for example, they may try hard to sell things that are available for free. More importantly, some of the proofs that were sent for our approval were trimmed so that the cover appeared to be on the diagonal, crooked. Others have had an overall grayish cast. We want to be assured of a high quality product, after all the hard work that went into it.  Lulu’s printing has always been consistent, only changing when we submit changes to the printer.

 

 

Q - Does GroundMark charge money for publishing books?

     A - Sort of, but we don't make any money for the basic publication of your book, if that is all you need. We print our books through Lulu, so we use their fee structure, exactly as it is published on their Website, and take no extra fee.  We don’t make royalties on the sale of your book for basic publication services (but see below regarding professional services you might choose to purchase)—however, Lulu does make royalties. For more information about the way Lulu works, visit the Lulu Website. However, the upfront costs to publish through Lulu are inexpensive when compared to other similar businesses. For example, in order to purchase an ISBN number and a distribution package for your book (which allows places like Amazon and Barnes and Noble to list your book ), the cost is less than $100 for you. Lulu even frequently runs specials in which the purchase of the distribution only costs around $50. (Last we checked, this special was being run, but we do not know how often this changes.) 

Books are printed one at a time, as they are ordered. The drawback to this method is that you have to purchase all the copies of your book that you want for yourself—you don't get any complementary copies. On the other hand, other self-publishers can charge you a thousand dollars and even more to get your book published because they start by printing a run of books. Eek—you can buy a lot of copies of your book for a thousand dollars! Another POD service we’re aware of charges $250—mercy—while another service maintains ownership of your ISBN. At Lulu, you own your ISBN. At GroundMark, we love Lulu.

To thoroughly understand the details of Lulu's process, again, we recommend you peruse their Website. Incidentally, before going with any publishing house, check them out on Preditors and Editors. (To our knowledge, we're not listed there, yet.)

We do charge additional fees when you need help from us in editing, formatting, designing a cover, marketing and so forth. These are charges for professional services, which you can choose to utilize or not. Do you know why you would use a hammer to drive in nails, but why you would instead utilize the heel of a shoe to drive them in? We do. I'm afraid we don't like to advertise set, flat rates for editing at this time, since our experience in publishing tells us that the needs of each manuscript will vary widely. However, when we have your manuscript and your request for services, you will be provided with a cost based on the amount of work that we estimate needs to be done. You can make your decision based upon that cost. Alternatively, you can choose to decline our services altogether. It’s up to you.

 

 

Q - Are you associated with Lulu professionally?

     A - Only in as much as we use their publications services—and we think they rock. However, we are just a customer of theirs.

 

 

Q - Why shouldn't I just go directly to Lulu instead of going through you?

     A - You can go directly to Lulu. They're great, and it’s a valid choice. There is no enormous benefit you'll see to submitting your work through us… that is, unless your manuscript needs professional attention, or unless you would benefit with help in designing your cover, marketing your book and so forth. Some authors are willing to do all the editing, design, PR and marketing themselves. If that’s you, the benefits you see may be smaller.

Presuming your manuscript is perfect as-is, your cover is amazing and you’re an adept at public relations, even then you may choose to go through GroundMark. What benefits will you see then?

The first is that your book will be associated with the GroundMark Press imprint. If you like our books—okay… currently, our BOOK—the imprint may give your own book additional marketability that you can capitalize on in your own marketing efforts. The second is that you'll have someone to ask for simple advice to help you through the process. In all fairness, Lulu's process is straightforward and their Website is easy to understand. However, we have been through the process before, and sometimes a word of advice is comforting if you've never done something like this previously.

Lastly, if you do get a little lost in the process and realize that you’re in over your head with the cover design, the marketing or anything else, you'll have the opportunity to consult a team of professionals in depth after all. We have two graphic designers with more than a quarter of a century of experience between them, a marketing/PR professional with seven years of experience and a great copy and content editor with eight years of experience.

 

Q - Is GroundMark a vanity press?

     A - A vanity press will publish anything submitted to them in exchange for payment. We are not a vanity press. We won't print books we don't believe have potential and add value to the community. Not only that, we don't make any money from your book unless we provide a service to you. In that sense, we’re more like a professional consulting group, or a collection of freelancers marketing our own brand of Pagan publishing services.

 

Q - What is Creative Commons licensing?

     A - Creative Commons provides an alternative to licensing with a traditional copyright, wherein the creator of a work—the author, in this case—reserves some, but not all, of the standard rights to his or her work. For instance, an author may choose to give permission for his or her work to be republished on the Web, provided proper credit is given, without anyone having to seek out special permission to do so.

You might think this would reduce sales of your book, but some evidence indicates that this is not the case… in fact, it can sometimes boost your sales. Getting your work “out there” to be viewed by the public is a form of viral marketing that is often extremely effective.

To learn more about Creative Commons Licensing, visit their Website.

 

Q - Do I have to use an alternative license if I publish with GroundMark Press?

     A - No.  The license you use is up to you. Because it can be difficult to sell large publishing houses on alternative licensing—we think they’re short-sighted—we just want to make clear that it’s an alternative you have available when publishing through GroundMark.

 

 

Q - If I don't need any of your editing or design services, but I still want to be published through GroundMark, can I do so?

     A - Yes... but again, only if we like your work. The imprint would become meaningless if we simply granted it to everyone who submitted to us. We'll want to look at your book to make sure it is up to our standards. If it is--and mind you, we have high standards--then we would love to have another wonderful author and book associated with us.

 

 

Q - I didn't want your editing services, so why did GroundMark tell me I'd have to use its editing in order to be published through you?

     A - The truth is that some books will be submitted to us beautiful and print-ready. Others, like yours, will need significant work. Most do, because most writers—even most good writers—can benefit from editing and/or don’t have editing or publishing experience.

We like your raw writing, or we would not have offered the GroundMark Press imprint. However, we want to maintain our professional standards, and our feeling is that while your raw work is great, there are a number of typos, grammatical errors, syntactical mistakes, formatting issues or other problems that will give your book an amateurish look if published as-is. Sorry.

If you want to publish your book without making any changes, we recommend you go directly through Lulu. Again, they're wonderful. The cost for basic publishing (without our professional services) is exactly the same, and you will have complete control over your project that way. When you choose to go through GroundMark, however, not only are you associating yourself with us, but we're associating ourselves with you. We want your book to be a good product, one we can all be proud of. We like to think you're improving your book by going through GroundMark Press, but we understand you might not look at it that way. If that's the case, it's probably best you publish directly through Lulu, and no hard feelings.

 

Q - How often do you recommend editing for a manuscript you want to publish?

     A - As GroundMark Press, we have published only one book so far, so clearly any hard percentages would be meaningless at this point, but we intend to provide data as soon as we get meaningful statistics. If your book otherwise meets distribution requirements, then good writing paired with thoughtful editing and an attractive cover design is what we require. Some of Lulu’s pre-designed covers are adequate (although they are not unique and we feel they won’t draw anyone the way a really good design will). While we have marketing professionals at hand if you desire, you are free to market your book on your own.

From our past experience in publishing, though, we admit that we anticipate that the vast majority of submissions will need editing, even if marketing and design can be left to you. We will be quite honest and demonstrate the value of what we provide, however. For example, if we want to publish you, but think you will need to be edited before you meet our standards, we’ll take a problematic passage and do a sample revision so you can see the sorts of editing issues we’re talking about. You’re always free to decline to have your manuscript edited by us, and simply publish directly through Lulu.

 

Q - I was rejected, but I still want to consult the professionals at GroundMark about my work. Will you help with my book, even if it’s not published under the GroundMark imprint?

     A - We will not help market or promote a book we don’t feel strongly about, sorry. We want to be able to say that the books we direct to the attention of media members with whom we have a relationship are each up to our standards. That will mean that those media members can count on us for something exciting and wonderful when we contact them. We won’t send them anything ho-hum for that reason. We want them to be happy to get our advance reading copies every time. We will not waste their time with work we feel is of poor quality.

It is unlikely, but still possible, that one of our designers would agree to design a cover, or that our content editor would agree to help clean up your manuscript. If they have time to do the work, however, their fees are likely to be higher than they are for books that are not published under our own imprint: they would likely use their regular “freelance” rates. They provide their time at a reduced rate for GroundMark because it’s something they believe in.

 

Q - Where can I learn more about which subjects are of interest to your target audience?

     A - There are lots of places online, but one of the best, in our opinion, would be Witchvox.

 

 

FAQs