Our Approach:
PearTree Press is an independent (indy) publishing company located in Westport, Massachusetts. We are a different breed of publisher, offering an amalgam of both traditional and innovative strategies in order to meet the needs of today’s authors and artists.
We are NOT a vanity press.
We live to help YOU publish your own works, and have a successful track record working with artists and authors worldwide. We also publish our own creations including The Literary Hatchet, The Hatchet, and primary historical sources that assist researchers.
I have been in your shoes. I am an author myself. Several of my non-fiction works were picked up by publishers (Scarecrow Press; a division of Rowman & Littlefield, Arcadia Press, and History Press). To my utter dismay, however, I found that the royalty rates were extremely low—no more than 10%, with an industry standard of 8%. Unless you are famous, you actually earn very little for all the time and effort and talent you have expended. Riches simply do not come.
Frustrated with this state of affairs, in 2003 I searched around for self-publishing options. For years I worked with LuLu.com, until their per page printing rates skyrocketed. I still use them for hardback printing as they are one of the only print-on-demand publishers in this format. Then I discovered CreateSpace.com and found a home. CreateSpace was acquired by Amazon and most recently discontinued as a self-publishing portal. Amazon now offers KDP as their print-on-demand interface (which includes Kindle and paperback publishing). Their per-page rate for print-on-demand (1-999 copies) is still the lowest in the business and placement on Amazon for sale is quick and free. They offer free ISBNs, marketing choices, and make your work available worldwide.
PearTree Press works with you to get your words to press, using this self-publishing gateway.
We work with four categories of authors:
1> Those who would like to self-publish and require complete design help and formatting expertise—as well as assistance in setting up a self-publishing account with Amazon.com through their new KDP portal.
2> Those who would like to self-publish with Amazon.com but need specific assistance to make that happen in the form of indexing, research services, copyediting, formatting, or cover design, etc.
3> Those who ONLY need assistance with setting up the account side of self publishing with Amazon.com (including an author’s page) through their KDP portal.
4> Those who already have a contract with another publisher but require manuscript preparation assistance for indexing, research services, copyediting, formatting, etc.
Whichever category you belong to, PearTree Press is here to help you get the job done with minimal cost, one-on-one attention, and expert support.
Please note. There are no up-front publishing fees. We charge by the work requested.
CATEGORY ONE: Some authors need a great deal of assistance with the self-publication of their work, and for those creative artists we offer complete formatting and design expertise as well as assistance in setting up a self-publishing account with Amazon.com. We are not the publisher—you are.
We do not sell or earn royalties from the publication of your works. All monies earned from the sales of your books belongs to you. As we stated above, we are not a vanity press. We charge a fee for our work based solely on your needs to get the job done.
CATEGORY TWO: Some authors are in dire need of specific assistance in the areas of formatting, design, layout, illustration, editing, vetting, and fact-checking. We offer these services in very cost effective packages.
There is a fee for the upfront work we do with you on your manuscript, with the amount determined by the complexity of the project. The average fee for a 200 page book of poetry is $450.
Again, we do not sell or earn royalties from the publication of your works. All monies earned from the sales of your books belongs to you. We are not a vanity press. We charge a fee for our work based solely on your needs to get the job done.
CATEGORY THREE: In this scenario, you simply hire a PearTree Press specialist assist you in setting up your Amazon.com KDP self-publishing account, including an Amazon Author Page. Here is a link to the Kindle Direct Publishing Portal. You may be able to do all of this yourself, but if you are unsure, we can do the work for you at a very nominal fee.
CATEGORY FOUR: Congratulations on your publishing contract! You have almost completed your manuscript but your publisher wants you to do the illustrations and the index! Yikes! We know how that feels. When one of our authors first started, she had a nice publishing contract with a well-established house but was told that her work required an index. Without the necessary level of attention to detail assembling an index can demand, she chose us, as have other clients. By the way, we do a human generated index, not a simple concordance.
The world of publishing is changing. And PearTree Press is on the forefront of that change. With our wide-ranging expert services, you can be assured that we will work with you individually to produce the quality publication you are proud of (and have a say in!).