For Agents

“In a time when publishers are struggling to adapt to rapidly changing social and economic climates, BenBella stands out as one of the smartest, most creative publishers out there. They create dynamic win-win deals and work both passionately and diligently to package and promote their books. Beyond that, BenBella is a company with heart – they take great care of our authors and are truly a pleasure to work with.”

–Michael Ebeling and Kristina Holmes, Ebeling & Associates

Dear Agent,

Thank you for taking this time to learn a bit more about BenBella Books acquisitions. I’d be delighted to answer any questions.

BenBella Books is a publishing boutique that publishes about twenty books a year, is very selective in what it acquires and works with great diligence to publish each book to its maximum potential. We are actively acquiring strong nonfiction manuscripts and enjoy working with a wide variety of literary agents nationally.

There are three things in particular that you should know about BenBella:

  1. We are a traditional house paying advances against royalties. We pay traditional big publishing house royalties for trade sales and full royalties on special sales and author sales, unless deeply discounted, and even then our royalties are better than standard on these sales. We also offer double royalties on some direct sales, which can be very lucrative if the author is well-positioned to drive traffic to our sales site. Finally, we offer a much higher than normal royalties deal for selected authors with very strong platforms (this is not self-publishing; the author does not pay us anything). The details are below in Deals We Do.
  2. We have top-notch distribution through Perseus Distribution. Perseus is the largest independent distributor and is a top 20 publisher nationally. They have a strong and significant sales force in every area of distribution, including national accounts, field, mass merchandisers and clubs, special sales and gift sales. They provide strong distribution worldwide.
  3. We operate in a true partnership model, providing your authors with a level of collaboration, flexibility and partnership that is rare in the publishing industry.

What We Are Looking For

BenBella is most actively acquiring in the area of business and finance, which is a very successful and fast growing category for us. We particularly like books by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurially-minded authors.

BenBella is actively acquiring in the area of health and nutrition, where we have an excellent track record of strong sales and fantastic authors.

Beyond these two categories, we are open to all areas of non-fiction.

Within each category, the strengths we look for in our books and authors are as follows:

  • Platform. We look for authors with strong marketing platforms who have the time and resources to actively support the marketing of their books, and the willingness to do so. A number of our authors have superb platforms, including Butler Bag creator Jen Groover and style and fashion expert Jené Luciani.
  • Organizational Support. We particularly like authors backed by strong organizations willing to help support their titles. For example, the business/self-help book Why Loyalty Matters got a big marketing boost from the global survey firm Ipsos and The Total Cancer Wellness Guide received great support from that wonderful non-profit, The Wellness Community.
  • Author Credentials. Authors with genuine expertise in their area are always preferred. For example, The Vision Revolution author Mark Changizi is not only a well-respected neurobiologist, his brilliant book is based on his original research. Similarly, Dr. Michael Ozner, author of The Great American Heart Hoax, is a renowned cardiologist and a national leader in preventive cardiology.
  • Uniqueness. We prefer publishing books that are uniquely appealing to a smaller audience, rather than one of many books aimed at a larger one. For example, we are delighted to be publishing the upcoming Queers in History, the only book describing famous gays and lesbians throughout history. Also unique is The Community College Guide, the only guidebook for the one-half of all college students who attend community college.
  • A Great Read. Of course, the book must be a great read. Examples include the wonderfully written memoir See You in 100 Years and the highly scientific but intensely compelling The China Study.

Deals We Do

Most of our deals are traditional, with standard big publisher royalties and advances in the $3K to $10K range. We have gone higher for particularly attractive projects, as high as $100K for one project in particular. We pay full royalties on author sales and we pay full royalties on special sales (at discounts up to 50%, and 15% of net for deep discount sales). We also pay double royalties on direct sales, once the quantity exceeds 500 copies.

Increasingly, we are doing entrepreneurial deals in which we are offering extremely high upside, substantially exceeding traditional royalty rates. These deals are generally made with no advance, and where the author has a significant platform and is investing significant resources in promotion of the book. We offer these rarely, but for the right author this opportunity can be very attractive. You can get more details from our Entrepreneurial Deal.

BenBella Marketing

First and foremost, BenBella is a publisher that places a strong value on marketing. We are strong marketers and each of our books gets a customized marketing plan and approach. Publicity is key for most of our titles, and we – and our authors – work hard at it. We have a strong team here, and we (or our authors) often bring in strong outside publicists as well. You can see a list of our recent PR hits in our Press Room; you’ll see our books get a lot of publicity.

Our marketing extends well beyond publicity, and we work with each author to design marketing initiatives to support each title, whether it’s extensive mailings to a list of important influencers or creative social media campaigns.

We expect our authors to actively support the marketing of their books, both at the time they are published and in the months (and years) thereafter. Towards this end, we work closely with our authors to educate them in book marketing approaches, including bringing in outside experts and trainers to work with our authors.

BenBella Advantages

Beyond BenBella’s marketing strengths, there are some other clear advantages to publishing with BenBella:

  1. Terms. BenBella’s contracts offer terms that are as good and in some areas better than the major houses.
  2. Editing. We are careful and strategic editors, and, considering how tricky the author-editor relationship can be, it’s remarkable how often authors tell me our editing substantially improved their book (I can be immodest here, as I am rarely the editor on our titles).
  3. Flexibility. Whether it’s working with corporate politics or taking advantage of a sensitive marketing opportunity, we are known for our flexibility and business sense.
  4. Intimacy. Authors at BenBella have a personal relationship with the publisher and CEO. Decisions are made quickly and sensibly. No books are ever orphaned; no irrational decisions are made for political or organizational reasons.
  5. Collaboration. BenBella works in a highly collaborative way with our authors, in editorial, in cover design and in marketing.
  6. Distribution. BenBella gets strong distribution through Perseus, and works to exploit every format to our mutual advantage, from ebooks to audio to foreign rights.

Finally, you should know that we consider our relationship with literary agents to be the lifeblood of our business, and we highly value these relationships. We always play fair, communicate well, pay on time and respect the agent’s relationship with his or her authors.

I’m always happy to look at any projects you think might fit us. When in doubt, please send me a query or a proposal in whatever format is easiest for you (I’m happy to get these in an email to ). I will respond promptly and let you know if we are interested.

If you want more information about us, including many of our recent deals, you can find it on Publishers Marketplace.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Glenn Yeffeth

Glenn Yeffeth’s signature

Publisher

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