FMP's Publishing Rights and Royalty Breakdown
How do rights and royalty payments work for First Matter Press titles?
Currently, each writer who is invited to publish with our imprint retains full copyrights to their work and receives 100% of sales royalties. Individual printing/distribution accounts flow profits from distribution book sales direct to authors with no middle man. We pay profits out to authors from direct press sales quarterly.
Who pays to design and produce my book?
Because writers maintain self-ownership of all published work, each are expected to pay their own material costs for publication. This includes the cover art licensing fee, ISBN and other publishing fees, typesetting the book interior, ordering proofs, and ordering books for release events. We have streamlined a professional design and production process which makes publication significantly more accessible with lower expenses. We strive to be as transparent as possible about expenses and authors directly pay the involved vendors (artists, designers, printers, etc.). Authors can expect approximately $400-900 in production expenses (variable based on book length).
It’s cool that I’d own my work, but even a modest cash outlay is a barrier for me. Now what?
If you are an underrepresented voice, demonstrate exemplary craft, and wish to seek crowd-sourced funding for your book, we may be able to support your effort—let’s dialogue about what’s possible! As our collective grows it is our goal to develop organizational fundraising for writers facing financial barriers to the production costs of publishing.
How does First Matter Press support its authors?
We provide access and knowledge for professional design and production, connect authors with original cover artists, organize release events, build book tours, suggest awards/review opportunities, and sponsor featured readings for our authors.
(last updated May 2020)