Although I do enter into joint publishing ventures with my authors, that is the only similarity. The differences are these:

1.  We are selective. We offer to publish less than 20% of our submissions---only the best.
2. Lower costs: usually a third to a half of vanity press costs, with many times the promotion.
3. Quality books printed, promoted, reviewed, distributed and sold internationally, and authors interviewed on talk radio across the nation.
4. Our authors enjoy a close professional relationship with their editor. I spend time with each of our authors to tailor our services to their needs.
5. We offer professional indexing and proofreading (if requested) thus insuring that your book is judged for its ideas, not for its errors.
   

We are often in daily contact over the course of the year of publication. Unusual in today's publishing world, but that's the way we do business.  Bigger is seldom better.

That's the beauty of it. Elderberry authors don't have to be. Reviews, talk radio interviews, 10,000 color brochures in Book Clearing House orders, print ads in The Washington Times, Human Events, National Review or your local newspapers and 1000 color postcard mailings put your book out in the marketplace. Of course, there is no substitute for author promotion, and I give our authors hints, council and contacts along these lines when needed.

 Do radio interviews sell books? 

Yes, but never as many as we or our authors would like—not surprising I guess.

We have had several authors invited onto national radio shows for as long as four hours to speak about their books. Sales have been respectable. Some authors have spoken on dozens of shows, some in major markets in large cities. We have yet to have one author who has not garnered at least a few interviews on radio.
 But one thing every author has told me is that they enjoy the experience of speaking on their topic to thousands and perhaps millions of book-buying Americans.

I'm sorry, but I often must pass on publishing books when the writers tell me that paying our fees will put them in financial jeopardy. I am in business to make a living, but I've been a writer myself and if publishing a book will give a writer sleepless nights of worry over bills, I refer them to a free publisher like publishamerica.com or lulu.com.

At their favorite bookstore (for 72 hour delivery), Barnes and Noble, Borders, B.Dalton's, Waldens, on the web at amazon.com., B&N.com, borders.com., or 24 hours a day from our toll free order line: (800) 431-1579, where they may pay with any card. They will receive their book in 72 hours.  your explanation concise: Visitors to this page will want to find the answers they need quickly! You might consider including images if they help illustrate the information you're providing.

Yes. We pay tens of thousands of dollars in royalties every year to our authors, and those are checks I enjoy signing. Our authors deserve them and it's fun paying them.

 How much are our royalties?

Many best-selling authors I've known have earned as little as a dime per book sold—a dime!  I know it's hard to believe. I didn't want to believe it either. We do better.

We pay royalties of from 10-30% of retail price and our authors determine how much we pay.

To assure of your safety and satisfaction, publishing fees are payable in three installments: One third with signed contract. One third when final proof of text and cover are approved. One third when sample book is approved. We often arrange for 12 monthly payments at zero percent interest.

As for tax questions, your CPA can best answer them for you. What I can say is that many of our authors have structured their book publishing enterprises as a small business and are thus able to deduct 100% of their expenses involved in publishing, and so reducing their out of pocket expenses by as much as a third. Consult your CPA for details.