Contrarian Publishing is a self-publisher. This means that you are hiring us to do quality work for you and to help you bring your book to life. Because you're entrusting us, we want your book to be exactly what you want it to be and more.

Absolutely not! Traditional publishing does not require payment. If someone is claiming to work in traditional publishing, either as a publisher or as an agent, and they ask you for money, they are lying. All money flows toward the author in traditional publishing. 

​

But there are some trade offs to this. Because the publisher takes on all the risk, publishers are highly selective. 98% of books that are submitted to publishers are rejected. We imagine a similar number of books submitted to agents are rejected, if not more. And agents and publishers will not always give you the feedback you need in order to improve your book. If every agent responded to every query with feedback, they would never have time for their own clients. Many authors spend years querying their books and just can't break in. But whether it be because the concept isn't right for the market or because your writing isn't quite up to par, most agents and publishers won't say. 

​

Additionally, because the publisher assumes all the risk, on the oft chance that your book becomes huge, you get a fairly small percent of the profit overall. You usually get around 10-15% on the net profit, and then your agent gets around 15% of that. This, of course, rarely matters since most books do not get to the point of earning out the advance the author received, but it is something to consider.

​

Regardless of why you've turned toward the idea of self-publishing, Contrarian is here to help you enhance your book and bring it into the world.

We want more than anything to help authors. We want to see authors succeed. We don't want to waste your time or money any more than we want to waste our own. And, sometimes, all of that that means saying no. 

​

We can absolutely work with you and help you create a book you will be proud of, but there are many different factors that go into a good book. If you're willing to work with us, then we are absolutely willing to work with you. But that might mean compromising. It might mean hearing some harsh truths. It might mean reworking your project from the ground up. It might mean the project you're pursuing isn't quite right. It might mean finding the balance between your voice and market expectations. It might mean that we are not the right fit for you. 

​

Contrarian wants to publish books we are proud of. And we want you to walk away with a book that you know is as good as it could possibly be.

​

Contrarian is also a safe space for creatives. This means any author or content promoting hate, intolerance, uncivil behavior, etc. will be turned away. We reserve the right to keep our company a safe space for all. 

The short answer: No! 

​

The long answer: Contrarian focuses on person-forward creativity. We believe that art—whether that be based in literature or based in visual or audio—is created by people, for people. Contrarian works with trusted publishing professionals who strive not to utilize AI for any work, and especially not for client or consumer-facing work. This means your work isn't being fed into any AI grammar checkers, our copy isn't AI generated, and art purchased through us does not utilize AI. 

​

If you ever have reason to suspect that one of our works is the product of AI, please contact us and let us know! We promise we will investigate thoroughly and let you know the results. 

Contrarian makes money in two ways:

​

The first is when you hire us for our various services. Our editors make money by providing quality edits and insights that help improve your book. Our illustrators make money by designing covers. Our book designer makes money by ensuring your book is well-formatted and pleasing to read. When you sign with Contrarian, you are hiring us for specific services which are laid out in the contract that we send you. 

​

The second is when we start earning royalties from your book. Contrarian utilizes kind of the inverse of the profit model that traditional publishing uses. In traditional publishing, the publisher pays the author an advance and the author must "earn out" the advance in order to begin making royalties. That means if a publisher paid you $10,000 for your book, your book would need to earn $10,000 in order for you to begin making royalties.

​

When you sign on the publish with Contrarian, you, the author, pay us for our services. Then, we must "earn out" our payment from you in order to begin making royalties. So Contrarian as a company doesn't actually begin making profit from the act of selling your book until we've made back what you paid us. And even when we start earning royalties, you keep the lion's share! 

Of course! You retain the rights to your book when publishing traditionally as well. What you will sign over to Contrarian Publishing is the right to publish your book exclusively for as long as the contract is still in place. Either party can exit the publication contract at any point* for any reason, so that means you control where you are publishing and when. 

​

Also included in signing with us is the right for Contrarian to produce and sell merchandise, but this is non-exclusive, and you will receive a portion of the profits. 

​

Contrarian Publishing does reserve the right to continue to advertise that we were your original publisher in the case that you do choose to move to a different publisher in the future. 

​

*There is a small caveat to this in that once your book enters a period where Contrarian would earn royalties, you must stay with us for a year or buy out your contract if you wish to terminate. But these details are in your contract and everything is agreed upon mutually and open to case-by-case negotiation.

No. Author subsidized publishing can be a legitimate path forward. We follow the IBPA Hybrid Publisher Criteria to ensure that we are being fair.

Vanity publishers are a problem because not only do they not deliver on their promises most of the time, but they don't give you control. With us, you have the control. We work for you. You retain your rights. You can exit our publication agreement at any time. You do not have to take our feedback or implement our suggestions if they do not feel right to you. Will there be cases where we push back in some fashion? Of course. But it's all in the spirit of ensuring your book is as good as it can possibly be. And even still, this is your book. What you say goes. 

​

Additionally, what you pay for is the exact same (if not a bit less) as what you would pay for all our services á la carte. Any added costs are mutually agreed upon and for specific purposes. The difference in signing on to publish with us versus buying all the services á la carte is in the royalties we may receive down the line, and the fact that you may benefit from our marketing and branding. 

Truly, nothing. 

​

We are not pretending to be a big publisher with all the connections. We're just as grassroots as you are.

​

If you were to buy our services á la carte, you would receive the same editorial insight, the same quality formatting, and the same cover design as we offer those who publish with us. If you were to sign on for our self-publishing consulting, you would receive a similar level of structure and guidance as our authors do.

​

You can absolutely learn to format your book alone, to figure out your own publication timeline, to buy your own ISBNs, to write your own cover copy, to design your own website, to edit every piece of marketing material, and make sure everything is on track. But do you want to? Do you want to be a publisher, or do you want to be an author? 

We'll certainly try if that's something you want! We don't make any guarantees.

​

Despite common misconception, the majority of sales from publishing do not come from sales in physical stores. They come from sales online. And this is even more so the case with self-published books. Bookstores are very selective in what they stock, and they usually require books to be returnable. This means that if we can get your book into stores, you may actually suffer a loss if your books don't sell well or are damaged. This happens with traditionally published books as well. 

​

Regardless, our books are absolutely available for bookstores to stock should they wish to order them, and we will endeavor to get them into some physical stores, especially indie stores that are local to you. Indies need to stick together! Our books are also available for libraries to purchase. 

​

In terms of a book tour, they can be a gamble. Venues typically do not charge for events, and rather make money from the books they sell at the event. So where does the gamble come in? The travel costs and the time investment. Just because we host a book tour doesn't necessarily mean people will attend. This is another thing that happens quite often to traditionally published authors. That would mean that you will have invested the time and money necessary to travel to the location of your event, and you may not see a single sale from it. 

​

With both of these, it is important to weigh whether you are more interested in having the experience or in increasing sales. Both are valid goals. Just be sure you know which one you're wanting.