Dear Alice:

I have looked at your ms. I have determined that you are a pro writer, you have a story to tell, you have heart, you have carefully edited your text, and that the book is on a subject of our interest. I also feel that as an onshore author that you will have the opportunity to assist in promoting your title to the public.

So, I am giving the OK to publish your book in the Cune Press Bridge Between the Cultures Series.
Prior to typesetting, we need to come up with a title that has the ability to sync with some outstanding graphics that support the tenor of your book and its target market of YA. You can begin work on this now. Include in this work packaging screenshots of outstanding YA titles as well as graphic elements that give some hint of the ME connection that applies in the case of your book. Please pull your ideas together and send them to me in the next two weeks and we can get going on the Title / Cover dialogue.

While we are working on the Title / Cover, I need you to apply the Cune Press Style Sheet to your ms. It is a loose compendium from the Chicago Manual of Style that shows our way of doing things. It is a bit rough and probably has a few contradictions, but it should be comprehensible. And you are probably doing most of these things already.

Include:
a. US spelling and formatting
b. Quote marks in dialogue will "hang" . . . ie. hang over periods.
c. Do not cap text for emphasis. OK for an occasional italicized word for emphasis.
d. Spell out ages "twenty-five years old or "a twenty-five-year-old"
e. Spell out numbers under 100, except: if the Lemonade costs 5 cents then use the digit and the "cents" sign.
f. Serial comma = Yes.
g. We do not use periods or dots within acronyms or courtesy titles: UCLA, UN, US, Ms, Dr are all used without periods. Scott C. Davis = period is ok within a name.

Please be aware that we are now distributed by the largest indie press distributor in the world. Very impressive. Publishers Group West / Ingram Publisher Services. This means your work will  be promoted very widely in bookstores, Amazon, eBook sellers and will be available in the ME and in Australia (where many ME strivers have moved).

However, it also means that we (ie. Cune Press and our authors) will receive very few pesos in income, since the distribution chain consumes 67% or more of the cover price. If a book strikes a chord, breaks out, and sells in volume . . . then, in theory, a book can earn a significant amount in royalties.

This type of publication is a good way to develop your career, to enhance your standing as an academic or an expert in your field, to fulfill a lifetime ambition, to inject your ideas into the national dialogue. It is not a good way to support a family.

Authors are encouraged to give private readings / aka tupperware parties . . . where they can sell direct to the audience and actually earn money . . . or earn something to support the press.

Otherwise, as I mentioned above, we need to think of the distributed side of our business as a way to get ideas "out there," to provide a pretext for media work on behalf of our causes,  to help us as authors develop our visibility, and to garner reviews that will help us in the future.

When you and I and the graphic designer come up with a title that is fresh, that hints at your message, and that lends itself to a graphic treatment, we will create the cover. Then, you may want to revise your text slightly to help the cover sync with the text.

When the book has been typeset, we will use the InDesign GREP functions to search carefully for errors, and we will read through word by word  to give the text a very careful look in the context of the cover and the final interior formatting. If something in this package is dissonant we may tweak the cover, the interior formatting, or the text. In other words, it could be that more editing will be advisable. In this case, you will need to find a trusted lay person with skills or a pro to help.

I am including a contract. And, as I said before, we are sending kudos for your good work over the years. Thanks for trusting us with your current book project.

With Kindest Regards,

Scott

Scott C. Davis,
Founder
Cune Press