Publishing Company Rebounds with Authors' Help

Just My Best has evolved into more of a partnership venture working shoulder to shoulder with authors to produce exciting, fast paced, well edited, and attractive books.

(PRWEB) August 29, 2005 -- Just My Best Book Publishing Company (http://www.jmbpub.com) has rebounded with the help of its authors.

It has evolved into more of a partnership venture working shoulder to shoulder with authors to produce exciting, fast paced, well edited, and attractive books.

Just My Best Book Publishing Company, a small firm located in Wilmington, Ohio, started business in January 2001 and lost $80,000 between then and August 2004. Back then, they considered themselves traditional publishers. They were determined to turn out quality books and build a name for themselves. But they experienced their share of hard knocks over the next few years as they struggled to survive in a world of mega publishers. In the process the lines became blurred between what they once were and what they had become.

They made some bad choices when accepting material from authors and it cost them dearly. Their romantic dreams of success were unrealistic. At the time they were hiring professional artists to design their book covers and editors with an MBA to edit their books. They were also paying for copyright, ISBNs, and everything else that has to do with getting a book to market.

Due to the fact that they couldn't afford advances or a marketing budget, they relied on authors to promote their own books by setting up book events, sending press releases out to their local media, and sharing their books with relatives and friends. They believed these activities would bring sales back into the firm. Their aim was to work with ambitious new authors who planned to turn out book after book, believed in their own creativity, and wanted to establish a name for themselves in the literary world as much as JMBPUB did.

To their way of thinking, this marketing effort on the author's part, to promote their own books, would help them recover the money they spent in producing that book. At the time they signed the contract the authors agreed to the terms.

Unfortunately, some authors did nothing to promote themselves, and didn't even buy one copy of their own book. Therefore, Just My Best, lost money from the beginning and they continued to lose money. When you continue to lose money you finally go broke.

In August 2004 they went broke. At that time they had books on the market and writers who had series running with them. It would have been easy to give up and close the company down. But they weren't looking for easy. They were looking for a solution. They tried approaching investors, and applying for loans through various banks, but everything failed. Ultimately, they let the staff go, stopped accepting manuscripts, and moved their operation into a home office. The company was in limbo until January 2005.

Finally a decision was made. They saw a slim window of opportunity and created a terms document." They brought all imprints together under one roof. Aarbooks, JMBPUB (Just My Best Book Publishing), and ROV (Realm of Vandora), their main goal was to retain the quality they had always prided themselves on providing through JMBPUB.

They sent email to their authors informing them of the changes in their policy and contracts. They explained that they could no longer afford to pay for professional editors and illustrators, but would design book covers in-house and do their own edits. Authors, who wished to remain under the JMBPUB imprint, would be required to complete two thorough edits on their manuscript before they submitted it.

Authors would also have to pay to register their own copyright, purchase 25 of their own books at author discounts of 45% off retail price. The newly implemented fee would average about $500.00 per publishing contract.

Whether their authors would stay or go remained to be seen.

The response was amazing. The JMBPUB authors volunteered to edit, review, and critique one another's work. They submitted (donated), short stories to be compiled into a book (Just Our Best Short Stories 2005) in an attempt to raise money for the firm. The authors who were artistically inclined, or had relatives or friends who were, volunteered to help with book cover design. Most importantly, some of the authors offered to market all the books that JMBPUB had published in the hopes that sales would pick up. And sales did pick up because of their efforts.

Just My Best, has not changed their goals. They still strive to publish books that are clean, crisp, and contain quality material. The joint effort to build their company and make it strong financially helps all the JMBPUB authors succeed together.

Just My Best, Inc., has acquired several talented new authors this year despite their new terms", and retained the authors they already had. JMBPUB guarantees authors will not find a closer group of writers anywhere to work with. The Authors at Just My Best, Inc., are ambitious, close knit, and serious about marketing.

They have weathered the storm together and are determined to succeed.

To read the complete story, visit http://www.jmbpub.com/about.htm.

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