Compare Publishing Packages

READ MORE UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS from BookLocker's Authors!

DETAILS ABOUT OUR SERVICES:

1. ORIGINAL COVER DESIGN: See samples from BookLocker's cover designer here. (Click on each cover at that link to see the entire cover - front, back and spine). We do NOT use cover templates. Every cover is unique!
2. PROOFREADING: The first 25,000 words are included in The Works Package! Additional words are $0.025/each.We will connect you with Clayton Jones, an English Professor at the University of Tennessee. He is EXCELLENT! Proofreading includes correcting the spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors in your manuscript. If you are happy with Clayton’s edit of your first 25,000 words, he will send you a quote to edit the rest of your manuscript. If you need a more comprehensive edit, Clayton will be happy to provide you with a free quote after he reviews your manuscript.
3. CATEGORY AND KEYWORD ANALYSIS (Powered by BoostABook): Categories and keywords are what retailers like Amazon use to help buyers find books. Using the wrong categories and keywords when listing/promoting your book can stop a great book from selling many, or even any, copies. Using live shopping data from Amazon.com, as well as other sources, BoostABook will: research all the options; identify the best categories and keywords to fit your book; deliver a report for your approval, and then work directly with BookLocker to get those set up for you in the online listings.
4. HARDCOVER COMBO: This is included in The Works Package! This means that, in addition to the paperback, we will also publish a hardcover edition of your book. For our other packages, if you choose the hardcover combo when signing up to publish your paperback, you'll pay only $499-$699, depending on the package you chose. If you wait until later, the cost will be $867. Processing both the paperback and the hardcover simultaneously saves us and our authors a ton of time. That’s why we can offer this discount.
5. BASIC EPUB (EBOOK) FORMATTING AND DISTRIBUTION: Most epub conversions are basic, have two or fewer graphics, and already include an automated table of contents, which we will handle on our end. Books with more complex formatting like extra graphics, tables, etc. may require an extra fee. You can request a quote at any time. As an example, extra photos are $3.00 each and tables are $10.00 each. Ebook publication is, of course, optional.
6. INTERIOR AND COVER VERIFICATION: For Do It Yourself (D.I.Y.) authors, who are submitting print-ready pdf files for their interior and cover, we will check your first set of files for free, and will send you a list of any formatting/design errors we notice. If you then submit another file with errors, a $45 spec-check fee will need to be paid for us to process each additional file.
7. ANNUAL FILE HOSTING FEE: The first year annual fee ($18) is included in all of our print publishing programs. This fee keeps your book in BookLocker's, the printer's, and Ingram's system. Ingram is the largest book distributor. Other firms charge upwards of $75 per year or more for this exact same service. There are no hosting fees for ebooks.
8. ELECTRONIC GALLEY + PRINT GALLEY: You will receive your final interior file (PDF) for approval. You will also receive the first printed and bound copy of your book (the print galley) to approve.
9. COPIES OF YOUR PRODUCTION FILES: Production files are the print-ready PDF files the printer uses to print your cover and your interior. Most of our competitors either charge authors hundreds of dollars extra for those, or refuse to give them to authors at all. Worse, those publishers claim to own all rights to those production files. This prevents those authors from moving to another publisher or printer in the future. Pretty nasty, huh? All BookLocker authors are the owners of their production files and you can request those at any time after they are finalized and uploaded to the printer. DISCLAIMER: If you contact us more than 10 days after terminating your contract to request copies, we will need to charge a $35 fee to pull those files from our archives.

Package Details

THE WORKS! – Includes the exact same services provided by our Professional Author Package (details are below), PLUS the hardcover edition add-on, AND proofreading the first 25,000 words. If you are happy with the edits to your first 25,000 words, you can request a quote for the rest of the manuscript to be edited. Total savings vs. the À La Carte options is $1,243!

PROFESSIONAL AUTHOR PACKAGE - The exact same services provided by our At-Your-Service Package (details are below) PLUS our most popular add-on items (copyright registration, Library of Congress Control Number, a Book Trailer, and BoostABook’s category and keyword analysis). Total savings vs. the À La Carte options is $919!

AT-YOUR-SERVICE – This is our classic program and it's a simple and quick process. Just send us your manuscript as a word processing file (MSWord preferred) and we'll get right to work. We will send the formatted file to you for any final changes or edits. This program includes original cover design (you will work directly with our designer to ensure your cover is exactly what YOU requested) but you can submit your own cover if you want. It also includes Basic epub (ebook) services, and full distribution.  Total savings vs. the À La Carte options is $92!

D.I.Y. / À LA CARTE – These options are available to authors who do not need the more extensive packages above. The author will provide us with professional, ready-to-print interior and cover PDF files. They must be formatted to our specs, which are provided in Step 4 of the publishing process, though you can request that link before you sign up. All authors must receive and approve a print galley (the first printed, bound copy of their book) before that title can be put on the market. Unlike the "other guys," a real human being at BookLocker reviews all D.I.Y. files to ensure they meet the printer's requirements. The "other guys" make you wait for you to receive your print galley to discover you made mistakes. They then charge you more money later to "fix" the problems (that they already knew about!), wasting your time, and costing you more money. You would then need to buy ANOTHER print galley to review for any additional errors, etc., etc. If a D.I.Y. author submits files to us with errors, we will send that author a list of those errors at no additional charge. If a D.I.Y. author's second set of files also contain errors, the author agrees to pay an additional $45 for BookLocker to check/process new files, and to send a new list of formatting/design errors. D.I.Y. authors can upgrade to our full-service program at any time.

NEED COLOR-INTERIOR PUBLISHING? There are extra formatting fees if $7.50 per page and $8.50 per image. Other than that, the prices are the same as listed in the chart above for each program. We will send you a quote for the extra formatting fees once you upload your file for formatting. You should also be aware that color-interior books cost more to print than black and white interior books. Thus, the minimum list prices are significantly higher. Whenever possible, we recommend authors publish a black and white interior book instead of color. All covers are in color, of course.

The Fine Print

All authors are provided with a free copy of 90+ DAYS OF PROMOTING YOUR BOOK ONLINE: Your Book's Daily Marketing Plan plus a free copy of 50 Do's and Don'ts of Book Seller. We are also happy to provide free advice, and to answer any marketing questions you may have. The marketing products and services offered by "the other guys" usually cost far more than any resulting book sales. We don't do business that way. We know how to promote books and we teach authors how to do so through the books above, and through one-on-one correspondence with each author who seeks promotional/marketing advice. We LOVE batting around creative ideas, targeted to each individual book, with authors who want to increase their sales!

If you really want someone else to do the promotion for you, our recommend book publicists are here:

https://marketplace.writersweekly.com/publicists

ATTN: D.I.Y. - DO-IT-YOURSELF AUTHORS: If you sign up for the D.I.Y. package, but can't provide the files to our specs, you will need to either hire someone to do the work for you, or you will need to pay our designers for assistance. That means upgrading to one of our full-service publishing packages. If you are not adept at MSWord and design programs, please do not sign up for the D.I.Y. program.

Cancellations prior to work being performed on your book: We understand that authors occasionally need to cancel their BookLocker.com contract for a variety of reasons. If you request a refund after payment is made, but before any file transmissions or formatting work is completed on your book, that is fine. However, BookLocker.com will retain a 25% cancellation fee to cover labor and transaction costs associated with processing the new sign-up and, later, the cancellation. When you pay your fee to us, you are agreeing that you understand a 25% cancellation fee will apply to all fees that were paid. However, if any file transmissions have occurred, or work has begun on your book or cover art, no refunds are permitted. This policy applies to all payments made during sign-up. Refunds are not permitted on D.I.Y. projects.

Read our full contract here.

Have Questions About Self-publishing?

Angela is President & CEO of BookLocker.com. Ask her anything.

ASK ANGELA!