Our Fees

Pricelist — Services for Authors

To assist writers in the grueling task of getting their books published well, we offer a range of services from a free initial telephone consultation to manuscript evaluation to editing to sending out queries to publishers and agents on behalf of the author. If you are beginning to think about publication for your writing project, you can write or e-mail us to receive an information packet, or give us a call. In that call, for which there is no charge, we will help you decide if you are ready for professional assistance.

What We Charge

Are you ready for professional assistance to publish your book? When you call Where Books Begin, we will give you a free 20-minute consultation to determine if our services are right for your project. Our services include:

• Manuscript evaluation for a new project
• Evaluation of a work in progress
• Book proposal preparation
• Line Editing
• Working with an illustrator
• Analysis of Competing Books
• Marketing Plan
• Website
• Internet Presence
• Queries to publishers and agents
• Contract Review and Negotiation

STEP 1 : EVALUATING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

An expert editorial and marketing perspective

• Office Consultation ($250)  —  This hour-and-a-half discussion of your book or your overall work in our Allentown, PA, office follows an agenda we both agree upon in advance and often includes manuscript evaluation as well as publishing strategies like marketing, personal promotion and proposal preparation. If you prefer, we can arrange to meet at your office instead for an additional $50 plus travel expenses.
• Reader’s Report ($350)  —  This one-page report provides a professional evaluation of your book’s potential from both its literary and marketing angles. I guarantee a one-week turnaround, and the charge includes a follow-up phone discussion to answer all your questions.
• Revised Manuscript Review ($350)  —  You’ve revised it and you think it’s about right, but you want to be sure. That’s when you need this service. We discuss the goals you intend to achieve with the manuscript, criticisms you are addressing and trouble spots you are focusing on. Then we read your manuscript with a cold critical eye to determine what you have achieved in your rewrite and what you still need to do. Adherents of the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school, we encourage authors to move ahead. This report shows you what you are doing right so that the next leg of writing is easier.

STEP 2 : MARKETING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

Selling your work to agents and publishers

• Query Letter ($100)  —  Rare is the author who can write an effective query letter that catches an editor’s attention. We help by sending the letter back and forth several times so that you have the experience of opening it and reading it yourself. We also encourage brevity (editors tell us they appreciate that!) and focus on sales points (agents love this part!). This service is a give-and-take where we work together to create a letter that sells you and your project.
• Agent List ($240)  —  Only ten percent of books are sold through agents, but it’s the top ten percent. Through my extensive publishing career, I have developed contacts with all kinds of agents working in every genre. I will tailor a list of 12 agents who will be right for you and your work. I can personally guarantee the agents on my list are not senile, opportunistic, thieving or hopelessly green.
• Manuscript Submission to Agents and Publishers ($50 per submission)  —  If you prefer to have us handle submissions to agents and editors, we will send the requested materials with a cover letter. Each submission is preceded by a phone call to the agency or publisher so that you circumvent the Slush Pile. We track the submission for you with polite and persistent follow-up.
• Competitive Analysis ($300)  —  This listing of books on the same topic or in the same genre as yours will show your agent or editor that you are a pro. The list differentiates your project from the many other books like it in the marketplace today. We can give you a list of your major competitors to help you convince a publisher that now is the time for your book!

STEP 3: BOOK PROPOSAL PREPARATION

Selling your manuscript as a book

• Marketing Plan for Proposal ($250)  —  We’ll help you develop your own marketing proposal, dictated by the special needs of your book. We’ll steer you away from the cliches, generalizations and easy assumptions that can turn off publishers. Our marketing plans are precise, concise, and based on years of experience. They reflect the real and current needs of those who are actually peddling your title.
• Outline Preparation for Fiction and Non-fiction ($300)  —  Every editor is overworked and underpaid. They don’t have time to read your entire novel before deciding on a contract. We will convey your fiction book’s magic, richly complex plot and characters and well-drawn setting or capture your non-fiction book’s ideas, range of research and prose flow concisely in three perfect pages that will delight the beleaguered editor and give you a better chance at getting a contract.
• About the Book ($250)  —  The synopsis is an important part of any book proposal. If done well, it can capture the interest of busy publishing professionals who must read hundreds of book proposals every week. We provide a quick tag line and a full paragraph succinctly describing your book to hook them on your project immediately.
• Illustration Advisory ($250)  —  Today, pictures can be the ticket to publication. This service includes advice on how to develop a preliminary design for your book project by finding cost-effective pictures, reproducing those pictures and supervising illustrators and photographers to create the look you want. If you need more technical help, we have many resources to fit your needs. We can also help you devise a contract for working with illustrators and photographers on your book.

STEP 4: EDITING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

Line by line, page by page

• Conceptual Edit ($20 per page) addresses length, structure, compatibility in a genre, plot, character development and setting.
• Continuity Edit ($20 per page) addresses pacing, dialogue, introduction of new characters and consistency of characterization and setting.
• Copy Edit ($20 per page) crossing the T’s and dotting I’s, this edit includes grammar, punctuation, spelling, paragraphs, clauses and uniformity of tone.
• Charm Edit ($20 per page) for non-fiction and humorous writing, this final edit makes your story sparkle, adding delightful tidbits to make the book more browsable.
• Turn Your Blog Into A Book Outline ($500) Many writers have been running blogs for months or years and feel that there is a book in there. We encourage this approach to book preparation. This service adapts your blog entries into book form by suggesting additions and deletions as well as sequence.

Step 5: MARKETING YOU

Introducing you to your reading public

• Author Biography ($200)  —  All authors need help in preparing their biographies. Publishers want to know who you are in relation to your literary work, not your whole life story. We can tailor your facts to please the publisher and the reader and maximize interest in your book.
• Agent Contract Review ($200)  —  Good fences make good neighbors, so we always recommend at least a letter of agreement with your agent. We will draft one up for you or review the one the agent offers. As with the book contract, negotiation takes time, and we guarantee handholding through the entire process.
• Publisher Contract Review ($250)  —  We can save you from signing your book away and guide you through the long (average four weeks) negotiation process, avoiding tricks, rip-offs, and antiquated industry legal jargon. You’ll find our expertise in this area invaluable.
• Website ($200 per page)  —  We help the author develop a website that suits the audience for each book. Each different title has a unique web presence which we will create with you in design, content and programming for as little as $200. First we send you copy for your site that you can tweak and then approve. Next, we choose signature images, appropriate typefaces and design for the look you want. Finally, we upload your site on to the web with your own address so that you can see what it looks like. We charge $20 for each design change or update; $5 for each content correction or addition; and $200 per page for the basic page. If you want bells and whistles, we can do that as well: Flash, shopping carts, PayPal and links are available at extra charges.
• Personal Appearance Brochure ($250) “Meet the Author” - the sweetest words this side of “I love you”! We’ll develop a mailing piece for both snail mail and email to introduce you and your book to the public. Our price includes two pictures and advice on where to find the mailing lists you need to maximize promotion of your work. We can also do the mailings for you for a flat $100 fee for each email list and $1 per brochure (that includes postage and handling) for snail mail. We update addresses and forward responses to you.