GETTING YOUR BOOK PUBLISHED
WITH GREAT CIRCLE BOOKS
Great Circle Books are about great photography that takes the viewer on a personal journey of discovery. Documentary or fine art, vast landscapes or intimate portraits, wildlife captured at long-range or escapes into the abstract – as long as your work is passionate and takes us somewhere… that’s where Great Circle Books wants to go.
Our unique approach to publishing photography books is not for everyone. Great Circle Books may be the right choice for getting your book published if you are:
- an artist seeking to break into the photographic world
- an established professional seeking a marketing tool to boost your career, or make a change in artistic direction
Our limited editions (500 – 1000) are custom-designed in close collaboration with the artist and created primarily to present and promote the artist's work. The price of publishing services and production is underwritten by sponsorship or by the artist. For under $10,000, you can have a professionally published book with:
- 40 pages plus cover
- 25 – 35 images
- Introduction or artist’s statement
- Artist biography
- A targeted marketing and distribution strategy
An alternative to mainstream publishers, Great Circle Books
- does not pay advances and place books on bookstore shelves in hopes they might possibly sell to the casual buyer
- does offer a user-friendly approach that involves and empowers artists, using new technology and traditional methods to deliver books to audiences that value the artist’s work. In many cases, the book will also benefit a non-profit organization of the artist’s choice.
Our goal is simply to create beautiful books that take the artist’s career to the next level... and maybe do a little good along the way.
FINANCING THE BOOK
GCB offers low-cost, highest-quality printing and design. There are two ways these costs are met:
- An artist may pay for the publishing entirely on his own
- the artist may work with GCB to bring in a sponsor who underwrites the publishing costs, either entirely or in part.
The advantages of sponsorship in terms of raising the artist's profile and reaching new audiences can significantly outweigh the cash value of the sponsor’s contribution. We call this “sponsored publishing.”
SPONSORED PUBLISHING
For the sponsor, the book is a public relations tool, an opportunity to create, or reinforce, a socially aware, socially conscious image. We may work with the sponsor to find humanitarian issues that they believe in, and use the book to create on-going value for the non-profit (as opposed to a one-time donation). Or we may work with a non-profit of the artist’s choosing to find a sponsor interested in aiding the non-profit by financing the publishing of a book.
LEVERAGING THE NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION (AND DOING A GOOD THING)
Our recently published book Mission To India was self-financed by the artist and is being used as a fund-raising tool by Rotaplast International, the organization profiled in the book. Mission To India has already helped to attract more than $100,000 in donations from foundations and wealthy donors, simply by providing a dramatic talking point for Rotaplast’s fund-raisers seeking financial support. We have also given a quantity of books to the non-profit to offer as premiums to donors who give Rotaplast a minimum donation.
Mission To India has attracted media attention, including a two-page spread in American PHOTO magazine. The photographer and author have gone on a book tour organized by Rotaplast, speaking to scores of Rotary clubs at their invitation and autographing books for appreciative buyers.
If appropriate, GCB may arrange a gallery show and an opening night reception as a benefit for the non-profit to celebrate the publishing of the book, highlighting the artist’s work, selling prints and signed book copies, all to the benefit of the non-profit.
Gallery shows and opening night receptions for our Eye to I series of four books sponsored by Hewlett-Packard in 2007 raised thousands of dollars for organizations such as Amnesty International, The Committee for Humane Immigrations Rights in LA and Homeboy Industries.
The receptions draw upon the non-profit’s high-level donor list, as well as media interested in that particular group, or cause. This brings attention to the artist and a new audience that might not have been previously aware of the artist’s work.
BOOK DISTRIBUTION AND SALES
The true value of any book is only realized when it is in the hands of somebody who is truly interested in that book. Our job is to get your book into those hands.
It is important to understand that even with a costly advertising and marketing campaign, all books fight for bookstore orders and bookshelf space. Few trade-published books return a profit to their publisher, much less to their authors. Without significant marketing expenditures, any expectations for book sales through national distribution should be minimized.
GCB’s limited editions are distributed in the following ways:
1) A book solely financed by the artist, and a non-profit is not involved:
The artist will receive the majority of the print run, and a small number of books (200 – 300) will be delivered to our national distributor (Biblio, a division of National Book Network). These distributed books will be available by special order in any bookstore, and online at Amazon.
2) A book associated with a non-profit organization and/or a sponsor:
The sponsor will receive an agreed upon number of copies to use for its purposes; The non-profit will receive a certain number of copies to sell or use a fund-raising tool; the author will receive a certain number of copies for his/her use as a marketing piece; a small number of books will receive national distribution through Biblio.
Through these distribution methods, a greater number of books will find their way into the hands of people who care most about the subject matter, the artist, or the cause with which the book is aligned.
WHAT IS THE DEAL FOR GREAT CIRCLE BOOKS?
For simply arranging the editing, design, printing and registered publishing (with ISBN number) of a self-financed book, we add a markup for our services. For additional marketing, such as arranging a tie-in with a non-profit, bringing in a sponsor, organizing a gallery show and book release party, an additional fee is applied.
WHAT IS THE DEAL FOR ME?
The major portion of the artist’s share is a handsomely-printed, professionally published book of your work that you may use to take your career to a new level. Galleries often want to see a published book before even talking about an exhibition.
Materially, of the books that go out through our national distributor, the distributor returns roughly 40% of the gross sales. Of that amount, GCB takes 5%, and 35% goes to the artist. This is paid annually, with one accounting report per calendar year. Revenues from a limited edition are limited, naturally, and should not be considered a measure of success, or a source of "profit."
In the event that a book is picked up for reprinting by a trade publisher, GCB will take a 10% commission on any publisher’s advance.
We are interested in your book project. Please feel free to contact us with your questions: contact@greatcirclebooks.net
