FAQs
If you’re here because you’ve received one of our invitations, it’s likely you’ll have some questions. We’ve tried to answer the most common ones here, but for any others just drop us a line.
Who are you again?
Head here to read our origin story.
What royalties do you pay?
Royalties are a totally messy and opaque affair. If you look around you’ll see that most often authors can get about 7.5% of list price, or 10% of net receipts (that is, the profit that they get after distribution costs, not the list price). However, even that is messy: most of the time no-one really knows who’s getting what from book sales. Often even the authors themselves don’t know. On several occasions we’ve worked with authors who don’t even know how many books they sold!
We are transparent about everything, so that’s why we promise a flat percentage. For paperbacks we offer 15% of the net receipts, which most of the time works out at about 10% of the list price; for ebooks, it’s 25% of net receipts—about 17% of list price. No dynamic pricing here, no ‘earning out advances’, no sliding scales depending on volumes, and no "ah, yes, but" hidden costs: we work on clear, flat rates so you know what to expect.
Will I get an advance?
No.
We don't do advances. We can waffle on about the complex mechanics of the publishing industry, but the simplest version is that big publishers give out big advances to big-name authors, and small (or no) advances to riskier/first-time authors. After that, they pay small royalty cheques (often about 7.5%, but we’ve seen them as low as 5% and even 2%. Some presses even ask for money up front – but we suggest you steer clear of those).
The reality behind big advances is that many authors never actually earn out those advances (which means they don’t get royalties in any case). It just feels (to us, at least) like the whole advance hustle is a mysterious kind of betting game where everyone walks away feeling like they’ve lost.
We prefer a simple, clear model which doesn't require a degree in Publishing to understand. You create great content, we take the financial risk, and you get a fair payment (see “What Royalties Do You Pay?”). In our experience, content creators instinctively understand that model. They know that good content gets good engagement, which means monetisation and getting paid.
Will my book be an actual proper book, in an actual proper bookshop?
Yes. As much as eBooks are great (and we will of course produce them), we really like physical books and physical bookstores so we’ve included a dedicated stream to sell through most major chains as well as the usual online retailers. Brick-and-mortar bookstore sales tend to generate lower royalties, but we think they're important so we take the hit from our percentage.
Given the complexity of high-street indies right now, your book might not automatically make it to your neighbourhood independent shop, but if you have one in mind, tell us about it in your contract and we’ll do our best to get it stocked there. That way you can 'accidentally' walk past with your loved ones and feign surprise when you 'discover' it in the window.
I don't have time to write a book
Technically, that’s not a question. But we know what you mean. Who sits around wishing they had more on their to-do list?
Look, if we’ve approached you then it means we know you have something to say that we believe would make a good book, and we know that you’ve built an audience which thinks so too. So if the only thing standing between you and your book is the time to write it, we can help. It's not ghostwriting: they’re still your ideas, your words and even your phrasing. We’ll just help you get those ideas down on paper if you need it.
There are lots of reasons why people might struggle to write: they don’t have time, they don’t have the headspace, or they lack the confidence. Lots of people don’t love the process: they’re not natural writers, the blank page terrifies them, they prefer to talk or show or invent, they’re more visually inclined, etc. For others it brings back haunting memories of school, etc. If that's you, then talk to us at the contract stage. We love writing (probably more than is healthy) and we're happy to support you to get your words on the page.
How do I know you're not just another predatory press?
Fair question. There are a lot of them about. You can usually spot a predatory press (and some big names too, but let's not go there) because at some point they'll ask you to pay money upfront.
As far as we're concerned, money should flow only in one direction: from the press to the author. So the simplest answer is this: we won’t ask for any money from you. Ever. At all. Ever.
The only cost for you would be if you really, really insist on lots of colour images, or including specific copyrighted content which needs expensive paid licensing. On our side we’ll try really, really hard to talk you out of it, but if you don't give in then we’d ask you to cover the extra cost. But see? Even in that case we’re not asking you for the money—you'd just pay the copyright owners or printers directly.
Why should I trust a new press?
Here are 5 reasons to trust us with your book project:
1) we're small enough to listen and care. Publishing is a famously hard industry to break into for new authors. Big publishers don't accept unsolicited manuscripts (whereas if you’re here, we're probably the ones who invited you), and even if you land an agent you'll often get ignored for months, or else quietly dropped. Because we work on invitation-only, we're there when you need us from start to finish.
2) because it's new, our idea is a pretty innovative way to reduce risk. If we were the kind of people who wore tight Superdry t-shirts and rode microscooters around the office, we’d probably say it was ‘disruptive’. But our humbler description is that we flip the publishing model so that we only deal with good people who already have a good track record of delivering good content.
3) we’ve got a lot of experience. Really, decades. Though the press is new, our team are all experienced writers, proofers, editors, etc. Our founders, Mike and Andrew, both have PhDs and extensive backgrounds as writers and editors (between them they’ve edited 10 books, written 6 of their own, and published over 50 essays and articles. At the drop of a hat they'll tell you all about them in great depth, too). They’ve also worked as editors, series editors, outside readers, and reviewers for Routledge, Bloomsbury, and many other big non-fiction presses. In fact, the idea for BGB came from their experience with big publishing (and seeing how little support and marketing new writers got).
4) we offer a risk-free, get-out clause. From the outset we work with you to bring your book to life based on what you want, and we keep that dialogue open throughout. That's why we don't go to contract until you're sure about us. If you get to the pre-publication stage (just before we hire designers, typesetters, etc) and we have missed deadlines/been generally flakey/given you reason to feel we're going to mess it all up/used too many exclamation marks or semi-colons for your liking, then you can still walk away with full rights to your book. We would be gutted, but that's how confident we are that you'll like love working with us and that we will blow you away.
5) we are ridiculously passionate about quality. The reason we’re so confident in our projects is that we consciously avoid the pile-'em-high, sell-'em-cheap model. We carefully choose smart and creative people and we only work by invitation, since it allows us to hand-pick those experts who produce great content. Once we're under contract we work with you closely to make sure everything stays on track.
Why don't I just self-publish?
Good question. Why don’t you? In fact, let us be cheeky: why haven’t you?
Seriously, though, if that is the route you want to take, there are literally hundreds of great blogs, YouTube channels and podcasts which can help you out. We think a great place to start is Alyssa Matesic. She’s great and really knows her stuff.
Another cheeky question (stolen from the clever marketing folks at Oatly):
Sure, but why don’t you let us self-publish for you?*
The DIY route might give you all the profits, but you’ll need to take care of content editing, development editing, line-editing, proofing, formatting and typesetting (both print and eBook), indexing, ISBNs & barcodes, cover design, printing, marketing, sales, accounting and you’ll have to figure out distribution channels, fulfilment, dropshipping, and inventory, as well as what kinds of discount to offer bookstores to get your book on the shelves. You'll probably have to arrange book-signings, volume discounts, sale-or-returns and social media yourself. You might even need to set up and register a company to handle sales and then figure out tax and deductions, allowable expenses, etc. It's not impossible at all, but it's not easy either and you might end up with a higher percentage, but of a much smaller pie.
If you go down the big press route, you won’t have to worry about all that, but you’ll be lucky to get more than about 7% sales on net receipts (and their marketing folks aren’t always interested in new authors. When was the last time you saw an advert for an author who wasn’t already a bestseller?).
At Blue Goat Books we are the sweet spot between the two. We take care of all the publishing and you’ll still walk away with 15% of net (double the usual rate), your latest book in your hands, and the sloppy grin that comes from seeing yourself put something valuable into the world.
Still have questions?
Just drop us a line. We’re very friendly, we'll never push you into a sale, and we can offer a completely free 15-minute call or chat to see if we’re a good fit. If we’re not, we’ll do our best to help you get where you need to go.
*A funny (and true) anecdote illustrates this point. One of our team was once on a famous and picturesque bridge in central Europe where a young couple approached him to ask, “can you take a selfie of us?” "Erm," he wanted to reply, "logically, no." But he's quite shy so he just shut up and took the photo.
The point? Hidden in the contradiction of that question is the recognition that sometimes you just know you’ll get better results when you don’t try to do it all yourself.