Frequently Asked Questions

Do you accept manuscript submissions?

As a custom self-publisher, Printstar is paid by its clients to produce professional quality books. While we always review the submissions of potential clients, we do not review work for authors who simply want to know if their work has promise and the lingering hope that we will pay them royalties. Printstar exists to support the thousands of authors who have already decided, whether because of control issues, low royalties, delays, or simply the disinterest of royalty publishers, that they are willing to back their own project and retain creative and financial control.

What is the difference between royalty and self-publishers?

Most novice authors assume that all publishers are royalty publishers. This is not the case. Because royalty publishers bear the substantial cost of producing their own books, they retain the majority of the profits, paying the author a royalty, usually somewhere in the 3 to 10 percent range. As you can imagine, only a few of the submissions to a royalty publisher are accepted and it then takes a good deal of success for an author to command a 10 percent royalty. Further, as the venture capitalist, a royalty publisher insists on retaining stringent control over the project, including content, timing, and even the right to stop production entirely.

Self publishing is a way for authors who prefer to retain both financial and creative control over their publication, or for authors who cannot find a royalty publisher willing to take on their project, to publish themselves. There is a long tradition of self-publishing, and many famous authors have done so. Self-publishing is also a way for a novice author to prove the value of their work and open the door to large publishing houses who might otherwise be disinterested.

What kind of publisher is Printstar?

Printstar is a custom self-publisher that offers a full range of publishing services. Like royalty publishers, all of our books are edited, proofed, designed and illustrated by professionals. Unlike subsidy and royalty publishers, the author or organization owns all the rights to the book. There aren't any royalties to consider; the author will retain all the profits from their sales.

Publishing a book is a large investment. Printstar is upfront with all the costs associated with publishing a book. We will do a budget analysis for each project to let the author know the cost of printing each book, the number of books that need to be sold to recoup the cost and the potential profits from the sale of the books.