YBK Publishers

My experience with YBK Publishers has been nothing but positive. From the editors to staff members, all have been helpful, supportive and kind. In 2007 when I completed an assessment handbook for prospective educators, I went to YBK first. They reviewed my manuscript quickly, gave appropriate feedback and offered to publish my materials. The entire process transpired in a matter of days. Since that time over 2,000 copies of my book have sold.

I cannot praise enough the service YBK Publishers provides: thorough, efficient, and immediate responses from highly able personnel.I would not hesitate recommending YBK to authors seeking a responsive, professional, and effective publisher.

In this changing world a serious publisher with print-on-demand capability is a godsend. A work of merit that lacks mass appeal can now hope to reach its specialized audience thanks to the ability to print and ship one book at a time.

I have written many published works that were placed with established commercial houses but I have in recent years embarked on projects that I knew were intended for more narrowly defined groups. YBK has been my salvation.

Their catalogue of titles is impeccable. I feel that I am in excellent company. Their service has been exemplary. Their assistance has been invaluable. The efficiency of their operation is extraordinary. It has been a profound pleasure to develop projects with the kind of personalized assistance that YBK continuously provides.

Thank you YBK for opening up this new world of possibility, and so masterfully.

After looking for a publisher for some time, to produce a book I had translated from French, working very closely and for a long time with a European author with a strong following, whose work deserves to be read in English, I came to YBK and I realized I had found exactly the right place. University publishers here wanted to be assured that both the author and the translator were well known. YBK needed only to know that the French edition was scholastically firm and my translation ability equally so.

I found everyone at YBK to be helpful, supportive, and creative beyond any expectation. Difficult questions about format and style of presentation, as well as the cover (an inspired creation of the publisher), were addressed easily and with a degree of professionalism and excellence that always left me pleased and grateful. For my next book I will go first to YBK, and I will spread the good news about it in any way I can. Thank you YBK!

We have now very satisfactorily published three books with YBK Publishers — The Early Jesus Movement and Its Parties: A New Way to Look at the New Testament (2009); The Early Jesus Movement and Its Congregations: Its Cities, Its Conflicts, and Its Triumphs (2011); and The Early Jesus Movement and Its Gospels: Four Major Parties, Four Major Gospels (2013).

We attest to the professionalism of the YBK staff at all its levels! The publisher treated us with dignity and was highly professional! Even though we expected a small response to our books in terms of numbers sold (our ages have prevented us from being involved in professional meetings lately — a major way to make books available), this did not deter our publisher from working with us as any other publisher would with qualified authors. We are very grateful for all they did for us and with us! All comments on the books and their formats (the latter, including the covers, were YBK Publishers' ideas) have been received quite favorably for which we are also grateful.

We should also note that we reviewed a book for YBK that they received asking that it be published. They were dubious about that book. In our review we noted a relatively large number of instances of lack of care on the part of that author. Its writing seemed to us to need heavy editing — its assertions were poorly documented and the writing seemed almost at a first-draft level. We recommended that the book not be published in the form we found it, and, to our knowledge it has not been published. We commend publishers who take this kind of care about their publications!

In sum, we would recommend YBK for other authors, especially those who foresee a small audience. Despite the lack of potential profit on our books, YBK treated us very professionally and we could see their professionalism in supporting our books. Thank you, YBK staff!

My means to expression has always been through picture-making. It was only by reason of curiosity concerning this obsession that a study grew into a manuscript that I wanted to share with others who might benefit by putting an additive quality to their appreciation of art.

The paint on my palette had turned to words; it was a challenge to bring those words to the color combinations that I was more familiar with. As a first-time author, I feel very fortunate that my book proposal was accepted by the professional team at YBK. It was embraced with interest and enthusiasm. Word for word, they orchestrated my new color choices into the full spectrum of a proper book, requiring only clarification and approval each step of the way. The personal touch and creative ideas have continued well past the date of publication.

I am not an author by profession. My day job and career for twenty years is that of a chef. Writing has always been a passion and somewhere along the line these became a collection of thoughts and recipes I thought might be worthy of being published.

I did the usual running around--cold calling publishers, going to offices with manuscript in hand and trying my hand at agents. I was refused, rejected, and dejected. The only calls I kept getting were from vanity publishers who wanted me to pay them to publish my book. Most publishers wanted to know if I had a TV cooking show or had appeared with Oprah or Ellen and/ or could guarantee them a sale of 20,000 copies. When I said no....they simply ended the conversation.

With YBK, things were drastically different. My emails were replied to and at first I thought this was a prank or another kind of vanity publisher. When my manuscript was reviewed by them, I received a contract....by itself impressive, and then they spent more than a year editing and exchanging my manuscript with me. There were gaps that were filled and recipes tested. I do not know any publishing house that would test recipes to save the reader from facing ambiguities. There were no costs and the book was published simultaneously in both the US and the UK and is available in many countries, including my own, India.

They even set me up with a blog site to interact with my readers!

I receive a royalty statement and a cheque every quarter.

They are people of their word. To me that is a big thing. It takes guts for a publishing house to give people like us a voice even when they know they may not make much money out of us and that I am definitely not the next literary sensation.

Though I live miles and continents away, I feel that I know the entire team at YBK....and the bond that I developed with them has made them the destination of choice for my next book, which is presently being edited by them.

I have authored books with several publishers, but my most recent was turned down by all but several smaller independents, out of which I chose YBK. It was all in all a very good choice.

Why YBK over two other small publishers who offered contracts? It was clear what the book would look like (I was able to design my own cover) and print-on-demand made sense to me. As it happened, I had to make one small change after publication; and though there was a small charge involved it would have been extremely costly if hundreds of copies had had to be destroyed.

I think it's important for authors to enter into print-on-demand publishing with thorough advance knowledge, especially if they hope to reach a wide audience. YBK was up-front about not offering assistance with marketing or promotion, but I did not stop to consider how much previous publishers I had worked with had done (submissions to potential reviewers etc). It's also important to know that many reviewers will not consider print-on-demand books and bookstores will not carry them because of the no-return policy. Some bookstores will not order from no-return publishers (even through Ingram), or will require potential purchasers to pay in advance.

In today's publishing world, which is 360 degrees away from yesterday's, books by unknown or little-known authors generally sink or swim according to online efforts. For authors who are skilled at digital marketing, or who have niche market books, print-on-demand makes very good sense. The excellent niche-market titles maintained by YBK speaks to its commitment to serious authors and worthwhile books.

I count the day that I signed a contract with YBK as one of the most important in my professional career. I confess that, like many other writers, I had a rather snooty opinion of the publishing business – even though, in reality, I knew practically nothing. I was looking for Scribners or Putnam's or something bigger. I thought only a firm like theirs could handle a book like mine. But after meeting with the people at YBK and after having gone through the full year it took to get my book (Yma Sumac: The Art Behind the Legend) published I am not only grateful to them but I am also humbled.

First of all they treated me and my book with respect. They diligently and patiently worked closely with me during that year, fine tuning my manuscript. Not once did they charge me for the work they were putting in and never once did they complain about the complexity of its subject matter. They never made arbitrary decisions about the book's content but always consulted me. This includes everything from placement of pictures to the type of font used. And although, like all writers, I tended to be overprotective of my “baby,” the product that they produced for me was not only elegant and first rate, but was also a tribute to me and their belief in my work.

Because of this I am never surprised when people write to congratulate me on the book's beautiful presentation. That is the specialty of YBK – fine, intelligent and sensitive treatment of each book they produce. From what I have seen and have experienced first hand, each book is treated as a unique entity and its presentation is a reflection of the seriousness with which they approach their work. I understand that there is a lot of bad press out there about small publishing houses — how some of them prey on a first-time author's unfamiliarity with the business of publishing – taking advantage of the admittedly delicate situation. But I have never had that experience with YBK.

I am in the process of finishing a second book which will be in two parts. There was no question in my mind who I wanted to work with, and when I had the concept and the outline together, I contacted YBK.

I have only praise for YBK Publishers. They are good at effective communication and easy cooperation. YBK is a publisher interested in a book's message, substance and gravity--in short, a good and informative book that has something important to say to its contemporaries. In all modesty I think that my book meets those criteria.

Among many publishers, YBK realized my book's potential, which reviews on Amazon.com seem also to confirm. Four times, five stars!

The Books on Demand principle is of great benefit to the author, as it enables publication to be free of charge to the author. Furthermore, my book, Judgment Day Must Wait, is an example of beautiful and excellent graphic design.

Thanks to YBK Publishers that I as a writer got my chance.

River to River: New York Scenes From a Bicycle was my first published book. From the moment YBK agreed to publish it they began to educate me on how the book would be created, where it would be sold and gave me excellent suggestions on how best to market the book. During the period we put the book together, YBK provided professional editing and stellar formatting assistance that exceeded my expectations.

YBK asked no fee for any service related to my book. "River to River" did not cost me a penny, all publication expenses were absorbed by YBK. I receive prompt quarterly statements and payments and maintain a warm friendship with YBK Publishers.