Frequently Asked Questions
1. Are you a real press?
We aren't any sort of press at all, really. We are a cooperative of Pagan authors who self-publishing our own books through an online print-on-demand book printing service. We've chosen to work with Lulu.com, because of their flexibility in publishing options and low up front cost. Lulu is a printing service, not a publisher. The author needs to do all the formatting work themselves, create a print-ready .PDF document, and then must do all the marketing required. That is why we are banding together to help get our books out there. We believe that having our books together on this site, and spreading the word about Asphodel Press, keeps us from having to reinvent the wheel individually.
2. Why won't the "real" Pagan publishers take these books?
Not because they aren't quality, that's for sure. We actually have a higher standard of quality for the content of our books than most of the ordinary Pagan/Newage/Occult presses do because we're not aiming for the broadest possible market. Right now, the publishing industry is going through a lot of changes due to such influences as Amazon.com and the rise of the super-chains. Small presses are going out of business left and right, and the remaining ones (including all the Pagan/Newage/Occult-oriented presses, which are by definition small presses competing over a small demographic) are trying desperately to make enough money to stay in business. This means that they generally won't take a manuscript, no matter how well-written it is, unless it has a wide enough popularity potential that they can guarantee it will sell 5000 copies in 6 months. That's the ideal statistic.
This means that a manuscript on a rather arcane or specialty subject isn't likely to get picked up, period. Many of us authors, rather than have our most obscure books (which are often labors of love on our favorite subjects) languish unread in the hard drive, are self-publishing with the new print-on-demand presses.
3) What's different about Asphodel Press books?
We specialize in Pagan books that are on unusual and/or controversial subjects, or specialty subjects that will only appeal to 500 people in the whole world...but those 500 will want it really, really bad! We have a special sympathy for folks who've been pushed by the spirits to write a book that no publisher will even look at. We've also starting a line of devotionals for various Pagan deities, many of which have all their profits donated to various charitable organizations. Our books tend to be on the side of serious religious practice rather than fun-time pseudo-witchiness. You'll see books here on subjects that you'll never see anywhere else.
4) Will bookstores take these books?
Maybe, maybe not. The deal that bookstores have with regular publishers is that they get to keep books for three months and then send them back if they don't sell. Any that get damaged come out of the publisher's expense and the author's royalties. Also, the bookstores usually demand a large wholesale discount. Print-on-demand publishers expect them to buy the book up front, just like any other customer, and thus many stores don't like to carry them, because they're stuck with them. If you want your local bookstore to carry an Asphodel Press book, the best thing that you can do would be to order the book through your local bookstore, encourage others to do the same, and tell the store how great it is. Then they might carry it just for the heck of it. But if you order it directly from this page, you'll likely get it cheaper than you will anywhere else.
5) Why are certain books available at a discount through Asphodel Press?
To be made available to major retailers like Amazon, books must have a large retail distribution markup applied to them. This usually works out to twice the printing cost. For a large or full-color book, this is a substantial increase. For a small book, not so much. Since Asphodel Press makes no profit on book sales, we only stock the books that have what we feel is an unreasonable retail markup. This retail distribution pricing also means that if you purchase any Asphodel Press books through retailers like Amazon, rather than through Lulu.com or from us directly, a very small percentage of that money goes to the author or the charity in question.
6) Does Asphodel Press pay their authors?
Authors set their own prices and collect their own royalties from each of their books that are sold, directly from Lulu. The books are branded under the Asphodel Press logo, but they are self-published. Unlike working with a traditional publisher, our authors retain all the rights to their books and Asphodel Press does not take any portion of the profits. Asphodel Press simply assures quality Pagan writing and maintains a central site for people to find these books. There is no contract obligating the author to Asphodel Press, and the author may distribute or reprint their work as they wish.
7) Does Asphodel Press charge their authors money?
Through Lulu, there is no up-front fee for basic publishing services, and there is no minimum order of books. Lulu takes a percentage of whatever royalty the author sets. If the author chooses, Lulu will register an ISBN for the book and get it listed on Amazon.com and the like, for $50-$150, but this is not required.
Some of the folks at Asphodel Press (mostly Joshua) can help authors format their manuscript for publishing -- make a table of contents, set headers and page numbers, generate the .PDF file, make an ISBN barcode for the cover -- but if the author is willing and able to do all (or most) of the work themselves, there is no charge. If the author would rather pay one of us to do a few hours worth of tricky formatting, we can work something out. Josh will format text-only devotionals under 100 pages at no charge, as an offering to the God(s) honored in them. Honestly, we do this as a labor of love. We know that many of these books are never going to make tons of money, but the point isn't to sell thousands and thousands of books. The point is to make the books available for the small number of folks who need and want the information.
8) I have a manuscript that I'm planning on self-publishing. Can I send it to you?
First, send a query to cauldronfarm@hotmail.com with ASPHODEL PRESS in the subject, and tell us what it's about. If it sounds good, you can email us the manuscript or post it somewhere we can get to it. (No need to waste paper for this.) If we think that your manuscript is appropriate for Asphodel Press, we'll let you know. If we think that it could be really good with some editing or formatting help, we'll let you know, and you can do it yourself or pay one of us a small negotiable sum to do it; either way is fine. Take a look at the books on the website to see what we do. We're especially looking for people to do deity devotionals, so if you love your God(s) and want to put together a small chapbook, do contact us. (It is part of our clever plan to encourage Pagans to pray!)
If you want to make a lot of money off of a book, you should do the routine of sending it around to regular presses first. Who knows, you might get lucky! A traditional publisher will be able to get your book to a much wider audience than we can. That is what they do. If you don't care so much about the money, you just want to see it out there - or you know that it's such an obscure subject that it will never get taken by a traditional publisher - then we might be a good choice.
9) Will you be reprinting In Natural Light, by Michael Anania?
No. This book was published by Asphodel Press of Wakefield, Rhode Island. As far as we can tell, they are no longer in business. We are in no way affiliated with them, nor were we aware of their existance when we began publishing. We occasionally get inquiries from individuals trying to locate the following titles from Asphodel Press of Wakefield, Rhode Island:
- Harbors & Spirits, by Jeffrey Renard Allen.
- In Natural Light, by Michael Anania.
- In the Garden of the Three Islands: Poems, by Maria Luisa B. Aguilar Caridno.
- The Cleveland Manifesto of Poetry, by Russell Atkins et al.
- Autumn Sonata: Selected Poems of Georg Trakl. Tr. Daniel Simko.
- Dancers and choreographers, a selected bibliography.
We do not publish these. We cannot find copies, grant reprint rights, or anything else. If you have information about where we might direct inquiries for Asphodel Press of Wakefield, Rhode Island, please give us a call or email (cauldronfarm@hotmail.com, 978-928-4198) and we will list your information here.
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