Boffo Socko Publishing Services

Publishing in the New Millennium

Technology has come a long way since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the thirteenth century. It has come exponentially further in the last decade.

The traditional publishing industry, much like the music industry with the invention of Napster, is fighting a major battle to hold onto the means of production and distribution. E-Book platforms like Amazon, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Apple’s iBooks, Google Books, Kobo, et al. along with technologies like print-on-demand have drastically changed the balance in the publishing industry. This gives authors a great deal more power and control, but it also means they’re left navigating a complex and difficult system with little but their wits, common sense, scant experience, and sporadic anecdotal evidence from the internet that doesn’t give hard data.

Part of the reason large publishers are able to hold such a monopoly is that they really represent a variety of highly trained and experienced artisans and professionals in a multitude of fields including editing/proofreading, law, technology, accounting, finance, publicity, marketing, printing, and distribution. Authors only took on a small fraction of the work required to physically produce a text while others, working for a larger collective, worked together to manage the rest.

Now, authors can rely on major advances in technology to find economies of scale to more easily and quickly produce their works and get them to the marketplace. Though not everyone needs the traditional publishing industry, they often still need many of those same artisans and professionals to help them navigate the process to fill in the gaps missing from their own backgrounds and educations.  While publishing platforms like Amazon, which is responsible for selling almost 60% of all books, make distribution a little easier, and social media allows somewhat savvy users to promote their own books, there is still a huge list of moving parts that go into writing, producing, publishing, and promoting a successful book.

The New Financial Model

The traditional publishing business works much like the old Hollywood studio system, but changing technology is creating a new economic model that authors can use to their own advantage. Authors no longer need the turnkey system provided by the major publishing houses.  Why take a paltry 7% royalty on your work, when you can take the lion’s share?–especially when a major publisher will recommend you do the majority of the heavy lifting when it comes to promoting and publicizing your own work? If you’re going to hire your own publicist, why not hire your own editor, book designer, proofreader, attorneys, typesetter, and press as well?

Gone are the days of major book advances, leaving authors to take on even more risk up front when producing a book—assuming they could get an agent to represent them within the system in the first place.  Now platforms like IndieGoGo, Patreon, and Kickstarter, among others, allow them to more easily help finance their own projects while also creating advance publicity at the same time.

Enter Boffo Socko Publishing

Authors can still rely on extant technology and its economies of scale, but do so with a partner that helps them fill in the holes where they lack the experience and knowledge of what to do next. With twenty years of experience in a broad variety of areas in the entertainment industry (publishing, producing, financing, packaging, publicity, marketing, and distribution) as well as technical expertise including programming, technology, and even engineering, we can put our experience to work for you to create a professional looking and successful book.

We service:

  • Novels and Fiction
    • Literary Fiction
    • Genre Fiction (Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Romance, Satire, Young Adult)
    • Children’s Books
  • Non-Fiction
    • Popular Press Titles
    • Academic Texts
    • Textbooks
    • Ph.D Theses
  • Back Catalog Services (republishing out of print titles)

Range of Services

We can provide any and all of the following services in the publishing chain:

  • Editing
  • Proofreading
  • Legal advice
  • Technology Advice
  • Book Design
    • Cover Design
    • Typography
    • Interior book design and layout
  • Accounting
  • Finance advice
  • Publicity
  • Marketing
  • Printing
  • Distribution
  • Ancillary Rights
  • Representation
  • Website development (Author platforms)

Whether you need an ISBN number, a Library of Congress Control Number, Catalog-in-Publication Data, advice on how to improve your margins in printing and distribution, or how to mount a successful marketing campaign and appearances, we can help at every part of the process.

Range of Prices

We’re here to help you fill in only the areas in which you need additional expertise, so whether you need full turnkey service from start to finish or would prefer a la carte services like web development to create an author platform, printing, or just publicity, we can assist you.

Please call or email us for a list of services and prices. We’re happy to help you get your next book into readers’ hands!

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