Michael Grass House is a micropublisher based in Kingston, Ontario, focused on publishing independent Canadian writers.
I publish nonfiction and fiction in a lean operation that focuses on Amazon and Kindle sales and your direct sales, using inexpensive print-on-demand services.
No gimmicks, no extras, nothing you don't need.
Additional Services
- special layout
- copyediting
- indexing
- manuscript assessment
- ghostwriting
- book website development
- promotional video development
Finally — an alternative to vanity publishing!
Vanity publishing doesn't work because it's all about vanity.
You don't want to spend $2000 just to publish a book.
How about spending $600? Or even $200?
If you keep your costs down, you can focus on promoting your book ... and writing something new.
Micropublishing is lean, simple, and inexpensive!
Micropublishing avoids the costs of the old-fashioned publishing industry and the pricey imitation available through vanity publishers.
• You don't need dead trees, stacked boxes, shipping trucks, bookstore shelf-space, and complicated distribution networks. You need your words to reach your reader as directly and simply as possible.
• You don't need a tunnel-visioned editor deciding whether you get to tell your story to the world. You need a network of writers and colleagues to help each other publish, refine, review, and market.
• You don't need a lavish cover. You need a clear, sharp image that stands out as a thumbnail on the internet.
• You don't need bookmarks, sell-sheets, marketing plans, media events, professional reviews, and other gimmicks associated with old-fashioned publishing. You need the internet and social media.
• You don't need royalties. You need profits — all of them.
• You don't need to pay the 30% U.S. withholding tax on your Kindle royalties.
• Get lean, inexpensive, targeted book and/or ebook publishing.
• Avoid wasting days learning how to self-publish.
• Avoid filling the garage with boxes of books you can't sell.
• Keep your profits.
• Get a simple, internet-friendly book cover — no templates.
• Set your own price and profit margin.
• Avoid losing your profits to low-margin, return-heavy bookstores and U.S. withholding taxes.
• Keep your book flexible, updatable, and available.
• Join a growing community of writers who work with each other.
• Help build a new world of authors, readers, and books as the old-fashioned publishing industry dies.
Romance novel uploaded to Kindle in January 2011. By January 2012, it had sold 18,000 copies.
This illustrated book for special needs youth uploaded to Amazon has become a classic with occupational therapists.
This YA novel was out of print because the publisher had closed down. It was available for purchase again within days.
You might be interested in Michael Grass House if...
• You're a published author with an out-of-print book.
• You're a new graduate or young professional who wants your book to be a career edge, not a new debt-load.
• You're a novelist weary of rejection letters.
• You're a seasoned professional who wants to share a lifetime of work experience.
• You're the author of a how-to or self-help book that old-fashioned publishers aren't interested in because the niche market is too small.
• You're a writers group sitting on a stack of unpublished manuscripts.
• You're a Canadian writer.
About Michael Grass House
Michael Grass House is a one-person operation based in Kingston, Ontario. If you call, I answer the phone. If you email, you chat with me. There's no big corporate overhead, no marketing department, no call centre staff.
I'm Nancy Mucklow, a former editor with several Canadian publishing houses and the author of four nonfiction books and three novels. If you give me your project, I set up the book myself. If you want special book services such as editing, I do it. If you've already done your own editing, then we just cut to the chase.
For ebooks, I create a cover based on the samples you send me, not on templates. What an ebook needs is a sharp, simple design that stands out on a website, not an intricate professional design or a dull template. For paper books, I pass the cover design onto a local freelance designer named Belinda, who does a fantastic job at making an internet-friendly full cover at a lean price.
Why micropublish? Because the old system of publishing houses, brick-and-mortar bookstores, and distribution networks is dying. That model is costly and unsustainable in the internet age. If you and I want our books to be available, then we have to move in to fill in the gap. Instead of wringing our hands or groveling before new masters — the corporate vanity publishers — we can publish ourselves, using our writers groups and colleagues for support, taking full advantage of internet technology, and choosing locally based freelancers.
Together, we can create a new world of stories and information, one where readers and writers decide which ideas are important.
Are you interested? Please email me at info@michaelgrasshouse.com to talk about your project.
Copyright © 2012.| All Rights Reserved. | Dunne & Associates Inc. | Contact: info @ michaelgrasshouse.com