Traditional
Unlike self-publishing and hybrid-publishing, we handle all of the production, financial cost, and creative work involved in the publication process. No upfront costs or author fees. No stress. We provide a time-honored traditional publishing experience so authors don't have to sacrifice quality, time, resources, or sleep to bring their story to life.
Independent
We're not owned by huge companies or conglomerates or outsiders looking to make a pretty penny. We're ordinary people and fellow writers who care about the cultural value of literature and the importance of good quality fiction, not sales potential. We operate on our own terms and mission rather than being directed by big-wigs and executives.
Small
While size often does matter in publishing, we're proud of being a small press. We don't have lofty goals, short deadlines, or a bottom line to meet. We get to offer a personal and collaborative creative process, wider accessibility for authors, and higher royalties. Even though we currently can't offer advances or expensive publicity, we're grateful that we can offer relationship, a love of story, and the ability to publish books that might never get a chance with a Big-5 publisher.
Christian
The North Star of all we are and all we do is our faith and Christian values. We believe in honesty, integrity, fairness, grace, and people over profit. We prioritize prayer and discernment, building each other up, and fostering spiritual formation. Not only do we seek to publish Christian books and authors, we also strive to be Christlike in our dealings and treatment of all those whom we work with.
collaboration
A tremendous part of what we do is work one-on-one with the author in achieving their creative vision. Their dreams for their story, from the design to the reader who picks it up, guides every aspect of our publication process. We don't want to undermine the author's heart for their story or deliver to them a product they don't even recognize as their own. We want to preserve the essence and spirit that makes their story so unique and exceptional.
editing
We provide both in-house and outsourced editing to give our authors a variety of quality, professional, and actionable feedback. We take your story through developmental edits, line edits, beta-reading, and copy edits/proofreading. Our primary goal isn't to change the story but refine it, and we always seek to ensure that our authors are pleased with the direction their story takes. The last thing we want to do is the be the big, bad publisher that demands the very thing that makes a story what it is be removed.
marketing
Most of our marketing in done in-house, but we love getting our authors and readers and their audiences involved in the process by creating launch teams, collaborative campaigns, and more. We love tactics and strategies that are a little weird or unconventional, and we especially love achieving the ideas and goals that our authors have for their story and platform. Our primary goal in marketing isn't reaching certain KPIs or numbers, but reaching the readers who will really love our books.
design
We take cover design and interior design seriously—and by that, I mean we do judge books by their covers here. We work with professional illustrators, designers, typesetters, and typographers to create a striking visual story to accompany the words our authors have poured their heart and soul into. Not only should it grab a potential reader's eye, it should accurately reflect the story and communicate the same excellence we put into all we do here at Sky's the Limit Press. Most of all, we want our authors to love it!
preorders
One of the most fun aspects of our publishing process is the preorder campaign. To help offset our upfront costs (remember, we're still small!) and to give our books the epic launch they deserve, we run Kickstarter campaigns as preorders for our books. This enables us to create merch and reach goals we never would otherwise, and it drums up a great deal of interest and hype for the book. We work side-by-side with the author to create the rewards they want to see and reach the goals they have for their story.
Authors receive 50% royalties (net revenue), which means if a book makes $10 in profit, the author earns $5 as opposed to $0.15. Because we don't offer advances against royalties, authors begin earning their money immediately after they start selling copies. Payouts occur at the first of every month directly into authors' checking accounts. Authors are considered self-employed and thus are required to handle their own taxes.
What about anthology authors?
Writers whose work is included in one of our collaborative anthologies will receive a one-time payment as described in their contract. Depending on the length and type of work, this can vary from $10 to $50.