RAINBIRD

Facing rejection letter after rejection letter from commercial publishers?

You know you have a market for your work but you can’t convince a publisher to take your project on?

So, why don’t you publish your own book?

If you want to publish your own book Rainbird can help you find your way through maze of options en route to creating a professionally produced book.

Rainbird Publishing Services is a division of Bookstorm, an independent book publishing company based in South Africa but with international experience to bring to the creation of your book.

We can help you take your raw manuscript through the editing and production process and deliver finished printed books or ebook files to you. In some cases we can help with distribution too.

What services do we offer?

Manuscript assessment and advice, structural editing, copy editing, page design, page layout, cover design, proofreading, indexing, permissions, photographic research, isbn allocation, legal deposit libraries, supply of print ready PDF files, printing, ebook production, ebook distribution, print-on-demand, copy writing, legal opinion, ensuring copyright compliance … and if there are other services you need, let us know and we’ll let you know if we can source the right supplier for you.

How does the process work?

• You send us your manuscript and proposal and commit to a Manuscript Assessment.
• We send you a Manuscript Assessment Report and quotation based on your requirements.
• We start on the Editing & Design process.
• You check our progress along the way – checking proofs, approving cover designs and generally making sure the book is turning out right.
• We present you with the final proofs of your book for sign-off.
• We print your book and deliver, send you the ebook files or post your ebook on retail sites for sale.

Are there books Rainbird won’t work on?

This is your book. We’ll tell you if we don’t think you should be publishing your book when we complete the Manuscript Assessment. But we will help with most books as long as they do not contain hate speech, illegal material or risk a defamation suit.

How long does the process take?

Different books have different production times depending on the complexity of the project. We’ll compile a schedule in the Manuscript Assessment stage and as long as you keep to your deadlines that will give you a good indication of the timelines.

Can Rainbird help with the sales, marketing and distribution of your book?

We will let you know if we think we can help with this part of the process in the Manuscript Assessment Report – we can do more to help with books that fit with our parent company, Bookstorm’s publishing list. We can offer Limited Sales & Distribution options to other books.

Who owns the books and the copyright in the books?

The short answer? You do. The author always owns the copyright in what they have written unless they have written the book as part of their job or unless they have assigned the copyright to someone else (in writing). You have paid us to create the books and they are now your property too.

How do I decide on how many books to print?

Think about your potential market for the book but bear in mind that printing is a process that depends on economies of scale – in relative terms it is much more expensive to print 100 books than 1000 books (i.e. each book will cost a lot more), but in absolute terms it is probably cheaper to print 100 books (i.e. your total print bill will be less than when you print 1000).

Is printing in colour more expensive than printing in black and white?

Yes! In addition to the higher printing cost of colour books there are also increased costs in the design phase to get a colour book ready for printing. So colour books are more expensive.

Do I need to print my book in a standard size?

You don’t have to use a standard size for your book, but standard sizes are usually cheaper than ad hoc formats because they maximise the sizes that paper is made in. If you look in bookshops you will see that certain genres of book tend to use similar formats and those tend to have standard pricing bands.

How much will the whole process cost me?

We need to find out the details of your project to be able to answer this question (which we do at the Manuscript Assessment stage) – but whether you plan to print one book or 10,000 books you will need to pay a fixed amount to get your book ready for printing, then we will quote you to print the number of books you think you need. Whether you are planning an ebook or a print book you will still pay to develop the book to the print-ready stage.