The Mission of Kingmaker Press
Kingmaker Press is unlike any other book publishing company out there. Okay, you may say, what makes you any different? Well, let’s break it down for you. There are essentially three types of publishing houses out there and each of them offer the same services, but in different packages. There are traditional publishing houses, vanity presses and hybrids.
Traditional publishers provide all of the services you may need like editing, formatting, cover design, publishing, marketing, and more…at no upfront cost. They make their money through the large royalties they take on the back end. Vanity presses charge you upfront for those same services, but they hardly take royalties from your books. Vanity presses are often looked down upon (and for good reason) because they do the work, but then they let your book die once its on the market. Hybrid publishers (such as Kingmaker Press) do a mix of royalty agreements and upfront cost, except unlike vanity presses, we DO NOT let your book die once its on the market.
The reason for this?
We understand that every book is different. We often compare books to babies. Every baby has their own personality, needs, wants, etc. Every brand is different. Some blow up with little effort. Others need time to grow. There is often a lot of tweaking involved with SEO (search engine optimization), for example. Essentially, even if a book does not do amazing at launch, we keep working on it until it flourishes. We don’t give up on it like other publishers do, and I think a big part of that is because we are authors too!
Years ago, we acted as a traditional publisher, but it was difficult for us to grow. There were also authors unwilling to do their part in helping their brands grow, deciding that tweaks their genre or market demanded, did not align with their personal vision. By asking authors for some upfront cost, they are now invested in the process while still allowing them an awesome royalty share to make a living off of (we only take 10% of the royalties). With an upfront cost, it also allows us to be a lot less picky in our decision in who we publish, which means giving some authors a chance to grow. Traditional publishers take almost no one. Vanity presses take everyone (as long as you pay). We are somewhere in the middle. In fact, we have even offered purely royalty deals and even given some authors cash advances!
Kingmaker Press is a little strange compared to other book publishers, but again, that’s what makes us shine, and we like being transparent. Ask us anything, and we will be happy to answer!