What is Stencil Press?
Stencil Press is an independent publisher that seeks to generate a small portfolio of pleasing books. We're not going to sit here and say that this is the kind of publisher that's going to make you millions of dollars and allow you to quit your day job. Nope! All we hope to do here is expose your work to a small sampling of dedicated readers and give you the necessary start to have a productive writing career. If you're willing to do a ton of work for not much money, Stencil Press is the place to submit.
Why would you say that?
Actually, that above paragraph applies to all publishers, we're just not so arrogant that we deny it.
How do you promote your books?
Facebook groups such as this one, web pages such as this one. Plus an extensive email list of contacts who are willing to write reviews. Again, this is more than most "big" publishers will do for you.
What do you offer as a publisher?
All you need from any publisher is an editing job and decent cover art. If the publisher can get you 10 reviews then that's good too (I hope to be able to do more than 10). Beyond that, the author is pretty much on his/her own.
What does it take to submit?
Submission is easy. Send an email to editor@stencilpress.com with the .doc file of your work along with Submission in the subject line. However, in order for your submission to be read, you must have posted a review to Amazon of at least one Stencil Press book and included the review link in the submission. If you would like to discuss receiving a free review copy, please send an email.
What are you looking for?
My goal is to keep costs as low as possible. What I really want to see is a plan for selling 500 digital copies of your work for $.99 each. That may not sound like much, but I've heard the industry average (even among the major publishers) is only 87 copies per new release. Again, I'm not going to give you a bunch of attitude when you send me your manuscript. If you can convince me the book will sell 500 copies, we'll do it.
Can I submit my own cover image?
Yes.
So basically you're telling me you're just a regular guy doing this for fun?
Yup, but keep in mind I've signed book deals with three different publishers. I've also placed numerous articles in various print and online publications. If you're curiosity has been piqued by this web page, send me an email and we'll see if we can work together. At the very least, we can probably do a review exchange. Best, and keep writing!
