Unfortunately, we do not accept books that have already been published. It really makes no sense to repeat the editing, typesetting, cover design etc., when in our experience, authors seeking this are really just looking for help boosting sales. In this case, authors are best represented by a marketing firm or publicist rather than a publisher.

CrossLink Publishing is a traditional publisher. One of the hallmarks of this type of company is that if your manuscript is accepted for publication, there is no cost to the author.

If accepted for publication, you will need to provide a final, complete manuscript in electronic .doc (MS Word) format within a few weeks. In addition, you should be willing to market your book to generate sales and profits for yourself. Absent that effort, books by new authors typically sell about 100 copies and once family and friends have a copy, the book reaches it production life of about 6 months.

Although we have printed books in several sizes, our default is a 6 x 9 paperback. Also we do not automatically produce hardcover books … they typically cost an extra $4 per copy to produce which takes them out of the preferred price range for most customers. All books are released simultaneously in major eBook formats.

CrossLink will convert your manuscript to high-fidelity eBooks distributed to iBooks, 24symbols, Barnes & Noble, kobo, Playster, Page Foundry, Scribd, Tolino, Overdrive, and Amazon.

Many authors think that one of the main reasons they need to find a publisher is to get their book marketed. Unfortunately, that has seldom been the case, regardless of the publisher. CrossLink will ensure your book is available to tens of thousands of book retailer websites, and market it for sale in stores through the Baker & Taylor Publishing Services sales staff and Noble Marketing. But the author is, and always has been, the best vehicle for marketing and promoting their books. CrossLink will assist with marketing plans through our free 24-week marketing course, a monthly author newsletter, and other channels such as the BookCrash Book Review Program.

After we know the publishing costs, we will compute the wholesale price for your book. From there it is a simple gross-up to make sure the retail price is at least 55% higher than wholesale. For more information, see Book Pricing under the Author Information Menu.

There are 4 non-negotiables that bookstores look for when allowing books in their stores.

1) Does the book have a barcode and ISBN number? Yes.

2) Is the book sold at trade (55%) discount to allow maximum profit for the retailer? Yes.

3) Is the book returnable? Yes, we incur the cost of accepting returns and restocking to meet this requirement.

4) Is the book produced by Print on Demand (POD). This is a non-starter for bookstores, who consider POD books of inferior content and quality.  CrossLink books are produced via standard print runs and distributed through stock maintained at 3 warehouses.

Books published by CrossLink meet all of the basic requirements for stocking books in brick-and-mortar stores. However, most books are placed in bookstores by a national buyer who focuses on well-known authors with an established reader base. Although we will place your books in the Baker & Taylor Publishing catalogs marketed specifically to brick and mortar stores, books by a relatively unknown author typically have a difficult time competing for scarce shelf space in a store.

The timeframe depends heavily on the quality of the manuscript you submit. The edit, typeset, and cover design process typically takes about 8 weeks. This timeframe could extend as additional editing requests are made by the author. Then, due to other pre-release marketing tasks, including catalog production schedules, and sales meetings with book buyers, the official publish date will be set to 6 months after you give final approval to your manuscript and cover. Average time from submission to publish date – 8 months.