Why Torchflame Books
If you have a book (or book idea) and have started to explore your publishing options, then you’ve no doubt run into several different models. On one extreme there are the traditional publishers who do all the work to publish, distribute, and help sell your book. In return, they pay you a standard royalty and own most of the rights. On the other side of the pendulum lies self publishing where you do all the work of author and publisher but then keep all the profits. Somewhere in the middle lies Hybrid publishing, which provides the same quality book and services as traditional publishing with one substantial difference in the revenue model. As an author, you invest with the publisher in your book, and in return you receive a much higher royalty with all the benefits of having a publisher.
Hybrid Publishing is an innovative option for independent authors who are looking for an alternative to the traditional publishing model but who don’t want to go it alone.
At Torchflame Books, we pride ourselves on excellence of work, but we find our joy in the relationships we build with our authors.
Unlike large publishing houses, we have a small team that can be flexible to the needs of our authors, providing a boutique publishing experience without the exorbitant pricetag offered by many similar publishers.
Our founders’ company was established because as authors with niche titles, they had to learn how to publish professionally. When they started in the late 1990s, there were virtually no options for authors like then. So they made it happen on their own. And they realized something: it’s really hard. So then they started to help others. And before they knew it, they’d grown to a company with two imprints and over 200 titles.
Our current CEO and publisher, Teri Rider, had a similar passion, coming into publishing as a book designer with a goal of helping authors create beautiful, well designed books to professional standards and ultimately founded Top Reads Publishing, which remains the parent company of Torchflame Books. Top Reads’ first title published, Outrageous, The Victoria Woodhull Saga, won multiple awards and won the prestigious IBPA Benjamin Franklin Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book by a Publisher. Teri also served on the IBPA Advocacy Committee where she helped create the IBPA Standards for the Professionally Published Book and the IBPA Hybrid Publisher Criteria, which both of our publishing imprints follow.
So when we tell you that “we’ve got your back,” we mean it. We’ve watched the publishing world evolve over the past 20 years, and we know how to help you navigate the difficult world of publishing.
Is it impossible to self publish successfully? Absolutely not. There are a good number of authors who are successful with self publishing. They write the book, create the layout, design the cover, learn all the rules for print, learn all the rules for e-publishing, do all their own marketing, and, yes, keep all their profits. They do everything—alone. The successful ones are the exception, not the rule.
But, you might ask, if you can keep all the profits aren’t you much better off plodding ahead alone? Won’t your blood, sweat, and tears pay off in the end? Maybe. Probably not.
Successful publications are the result of many different skills and talents coming together in just the right mix. Rarely does one person possess all the skills necessary to be author, editor, designer, publisher, and distributor.
When we work with an author, we seek to combine our skills with their talent to help create a successful publication. Our authors don’t go it alone because they don’t have to. We lend advice, provide feedback on the writing, assist with marketing and promotion, and handle all the technicalities of publishing a book. And with the rules for publishing changing on almost a daily basis, believe us when we say this is no easy feat.
Throughout the process, we become partners with our authors, offering support, encouragement, and quality.
The final result is a better book than what would have been produced solo. A better book with better marketing behind it. A better book with better marketing that leads to better sales. In the end, our authors will likely make more money than they would on their own.
How do we know this? Because we’ve helped authors hit bestseller lists (including USA TODAY), win prestigious awards, and sell thousands of copies.
The vast majority of authors benefit from a partner in their creative endeavor, and we’d love to be yours.