How does profit share publishing work?
When it comes to publishing, authors typically have two options.
1. Traditional publishing via querying with literary agents in the hopes that they find your story marketable enough to submit to publishers who pay an advance, and then once you earn out that dollar amount, you get 10-15% royalties on your books in perpetuity. The trade-off for the lower royalty rate is that they handle everything for you. Editing, formatting, marketing, and distribution are all in the hands of the publisher.
Or
2. Self-publishing, where you take on every step of the process, from writing to distributing your book. Some authors love the amount of control they get from self-publishing. Some authors only default to it because the Big 5 didn't think their story was marketable. The biggest issue here is to be successful, you have to be able to invest in professional editing, cover designs, and content marketing to get your book in front of readers. This adds up fast. Many incredible books never get the traction they deserve because of the high cost of entry.
At Emrae, we think there are better options.
We approach publishing as a team sport. Every project we take on gets an editorial team assigned to bring it to life, from developmental editing, to creative, to marketing and distribution. We don't pay advances, but we also don't charge you for editing, cover design, formatting, or publishing. Instead, we work together to hone your vision, and we split the profits.
As the author, you keep 60% of the profits from every sale. Emrae keeps 20% to cover our website and marketing costs, and your editorial team keeps the remaining 20%.
This means we only make money when you do.
Our entire team is invested in your success.
And we may never partner with Amazon.
Until Amazon removes its exclusivity clauses from its Kindle Unlimited and Audible programs, Emrae will not offer our books on its site. This is the road less travelled, and comes with certain concessions, but we believe there is more to publishing than profitting.
We prefer to partner with Indie Bookshops and platforms that allow authors to sell their books on their terms, and we only take on authors who see the vision and know they may never be on the world's largest book distribution website.
If reading this isn't a deterrent, but thrilling, we think you're going to like working with us.
What we're looking for
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Fresh voices
Diversity, equity, and inclusion aren’t performative here. Our dream is to amplify Black, brown, disabled, and queer voices with a megaphone. We want to use our cis-white-lady privilege to help you tell stories about your life, your joy, and your journey.
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Twisted tales
We're sick of reading the same stories over and over. Shock us. Thrill us. Give us something to light up the group chat about. There's a timidness in this industry about putting new and untested work on shelves, but we're not bound to any of that. Let’s get fucking weird.
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Bold takes
While we primarily work in fiction, we're also interested in nonfiction views on the wild times we’re living in. We're particularly drawn to explorations of folklore, witchcraft, and even hot takes on American history that you wouldn’t find in a textbook—think A People’s History of the United States and other banned books. We love that shit.