Even as we all strive to serve the Lord and his people, Christian publishers often do things differently from one another.
Whether you’re experienced in publishing or new to it, you might find that some aspects of our process at The Good Book Company (TGBC) aren’t what you might guess.
Please let us know if you have any further questions about the FAQs below. We aim to be adaptable and collaborative, and love to hear from you.
Your editor will discuss the editorial process with you at the start of your project. Our guiding principle is to work with authors in a way that suits them but our editors also have a wealth of expertise and experience, which may mean they suggest an alternative editorial approach to the one you had in mind.
If you’re working on a kid’s book, you won’t need to worry about finding or managing illustrations—our experienced team will source the perfect illustrator to pair with your project, and will handle all the art direction through the process. We will work closely with the illustrator throughout the creation of the book, keeping you updated with roughs, finals, and any edits. You will have a chance to see the illustrator choice before work begins, and to review and input into the progress and any character and style development at key points during the book’s development.
Whenever Biblical theology is going to be incorporated into artwork, such as in a picture book retelling a Bible story, we work with professing Christians. For other types of artwork, we do sometimes select non-Christians. We pray for them as they work, that they will encounter Christ!
You’re welcome to collect your ideas on your author whiteboard, which your editor will send you. We’ll check the notes you’ve left there when our team starts working on your title and cover.
Your editor will take your input and their own ideas, alongside the vision initially expressed by the Publishing Board when the book was commissioned, and create a design brief which our Design Team will work from. We always want our authors to love their covers but also trust the expertise of our award-winning Design Team. At the end of the process you’ll have a chance to see the final cover.
Please note, if your book is part of a series with a unified format, such as a Good Book Guide, we’ll follow the usual template.
Your editor will collect your ideas for your cover and title. They’ll share them with the rest of the team, including your marketer, and then coordinate with relevant team members and experts to land on a final title and cover.
Your editor will also collect your ideas for endorsements, as well as those of our team. If anyone else on the TGBC team is requesting an endorsement of their own contact on your behalf, your editor will coordinate that too.
Our team will write the descriptions that go online and on the back of your book. There are multiple factors that we consider, including the back cover layout as well as making sure the description gets good visibility and searchability on websites like Amazon.
We’ll do our best to share these descriptions on your whiteboard and flag them for you in case you’d like to provide feedback before they are published.
Please note, if your book is part of a series with a unified format, such as a Good Book Guide, we’ll just follow the usual template for descriptions in that series.
To ensure we’re on the cutting edge and are leveraging the best opportunities, we often work with partners who excel in their area of speciality. For example, we work with an agency that specializes in Amazon Advertising, and we partner with an audiobook publisher for most of our audio production and distribution.
Your book’s release date will be decided near the start of the project. Our Sales, Marketing and Production Teams will coordinate with the Editorial Team to make sure the book is launched at the optimal moment so that it has the best start.
Our team and readership are uniquely international for the Christian publishing industry. We also work extensively with publishers of Christian books in other languages. As a result, most of our books aim to be relevant across a variety of cultural contexts. In the editing process, you may receive feedback about changing certain terms or illustrations to be more widely applicable or recognizable for that reason.
We work with over 200 publishers around the world who translate and sell our books in other languages. We will promote your book to them through our International Rights marketing communications and through individual contacts with specific publishers who we think could be interested in translating it. If they decide to purchase the translation rights (which can happen very quickly, or even years after its release) we will let you know! Wherever possible, when the translation is published, we will send you your own author copy too. There may even be some simple promo opportunities you can participate in to help the publisher advertise their translated edition as widely as possible.
If you already have contacts with Christian publishers for other languages, or connections with specific ministry organizations in other countries who could have a special interest in translating your book, please let your marketer know. They will coordinate the connection with our International Rights Team.
Our authors sometimes receive emails or meet people at conferences asking them for permission to translate their book. If that happens, please explain to them that we handle translation rights on your behalf and tell them to contact us to find out more about our translations process as soon as possible... and before they begin to translate!
They can connect with us using this link. Their enquiry will go straight through to our International Rights Team, who will follow up with them personally. Alternatively you can simply forward any email enquiries you receive direct to the team at: rights@thegoodbook.co.uk
Audiobooks can be a great way for readers to engage with Christian books and it’s an area that is growing. We therefore produce high-quality audio so that listeners can enjoy content just as much as those who want to read a book on a page!
However, not every title lends itself well to audio narration. When considering an audiobook edition, we look at factors such as the nature of the content, the likely audience, production costs, and the overall listening experience. Narrative and devotional books often work particularly well in audio, while highly visual, interactive, or reference-based resources may not.
Where we believe an audiobook will help more people benefit from a book, we'll normally include it in our publishing plans. Depending on what works best for each individual title, we either work with an author themselves or with experienced professional narrators, along with production partners, to create recordings that are engaging, professional, and faithful to the tone and intent of the original work.
Your editor will be happy to discuss the formats we anticipate publishing as your project develops.
Many readers appreciate ebooks because they offer instant access, portability, and affordability. For readers around the world, they can often be the quickest and easiest way to access a book.
That said, ebook publication is not always the right fit. In deciding whether to create an ebook edition, we consider the nature of the content, the intended reading experience, technical and production requirements, anticipated demand, and the needs of our international publishing partners.
In most cases, if an ebook will meaningfully increase the reach and accessibility of a book, we'll plan for it from the outset. However, some highly illustrated books, workbooks, and interactive resources may not be suitable for ebook publication.
Your editor will be happy to talk through the formats we expect to publish as your book progresses.
We love that our books are available through many distributors! Amazon is a particularly valuable retailer, and we’re happy for you to point to their site as well.
The reason we ask you to point to our site when possible is that selling through our site gives us the opportunity to engage directly with readers. We are able to give them more info, share about free extras, tell readers about discounts, and more.
For example, did you know we offer 15% off most of our books? And 25% off most preorders? We love supporting churches and organizations, too, so most of our resources include automatic bulk discounts. We’ll also offer higher discounts to organizations that let us know they will give copies away for outreach or ministry purposes.
We want to connect your book with the readers most likely to read it, benefit from it, and share it. So, we create a marketing plan based on the strategies that we think best align with your topic, platform, capacity, format, and more. Your assigned marketer will connect with you for input, create your plan, and coordinate its execution. They’ll send you occasional emails about what’s happening and what’s needed from you, or might call you periodically. They might even send you a checklist where you can see what we’re up to and what we’re asking of you. Custom is the name of the game for our team, because we recognize that every book and author is unique.
We are happy to support you in speaking at events relevant to your book’s topic by:
On occasion, we may cover costs such as lodging or transportation. This typically only happens when we invite you to speak at an event or for an in-person publicity opportunity during your book’s release window.
You are always welcome to reach out to our publicist to find out more if you’ve been invited to speak at an event.
We love to hear that authors are hosting events and selling their own books!
To support you, we are happy to offer your books on a sale-and-return basis. This means you can place an order for as many copies as you’d like to stock, and then return any you don’t sell. We will only invoice you for the books you sold.
Just tick the “sale and return” box when you order your copies. You can always order your copies through the author order form.
While TGBC is happy to support your event efforts, we are not set up to organize or host events.
On rare occasions, a partner such as The Gospel Coalition may invite us to coordinate with an author as a speaker at one of their events. We will reach out to you if an invitation is extended.
Generally, if you let us know you have been invited to speak at an event, we provide support by:
Let your marketer know if you are invited to speak at an event, and they will be happy to help.
You are welcome to share that you have signed a contract and a little about your topic at any time, if you’d like to. We’d love to be tagged on your post.
We encourage you not to share the cover, title, release date, or other specifics about your book until your product page goes live. At this point, roughly 7 months before release, your readers are able to preorder a copy. Let your marketer know if you plan to do this, as they may want to sync up preorder announcements.
Yes! Please coordinate with your publicist when posting excerpts on your blog or other sites, as they are likely to share excerpts too, and will keep track of which ones are exclusive to specific sites or publications.
We also ask that no more than 20% of your book be used for excerpts, preventing readers from having so much access to book content for free that they become less interested in getting a copy for themselves.
We love supporting your efforts! Your marketer will be happy to coordinate graphics that you can use for your social media, website, and more. They might be able to help you brainstorm a social media content schedule, select quotes, and/or provide you with templates for things like creating YouVersion plans, free extras, or running a launch team. Just let your marketer know what kind of support would be helpful to you.
Yes! If someone is offering to read and write a review of your book (for free), we're happy for you to pass along the PDF if you think there is a good reason (i.e. they also speak on this topic, serve with the target audience, etc.)
If an organization or influencer that regularly reviews books reaches out requesting a copy of your book or inquiring about a paid promotional opportunity, we'd love to get in touch with them directly.
If you’d like to host a launch team, please reach out to your marketer. They’ll be happy to share tips and resources with you.
To ensure you receive the most accurate data, we typically only share sales figures through royalty reports. If you need your sales figures outside of the typical royalty report windows, please contact your editor or marketer.
Your contract specifies how often you receive your royalties. Royalty reports are generally sent via email on the 15th of the month after the period ends. Your payment will arrive approximately one month later.
Feel free to reach out to Royalties@thegoodbook.com with specific questions.
Please reach out to Royalties@thegoodbook.com with updates to your mailing address, email address, bank information, or other information pertaining to your royalties. They’ll get your info updated across departments.
Complimentary author copies are typically available one month before your release date. They are sent to you automatically. The number of free copies you’ll receive is included in your contract. If there is a reason why you might need a copy sooner, such as for a promotional video, please speak with your marketer about feasibility and timings. If you’d like to purchase additional copies using your author discount, please fill out the author order form.
Various people may also receive a free copy of your book, such as:
If you’d like to order more copies of your book, click here.
This gives us all the information we need not only to ship your order correctly but also to price it accurately.
At a minimum, you’ll receive the author discount stated in your contract. We’ll send you a quote before confirming your order.
Your author discount is listed in your contract. We automatically apply it to orders you place using our author order form.
That depends on the question, but your editor and marketer will always be happy to help, even if simply directing you to the best person for the task.
As a rule of thumb, if your question pertains to promotional opportunities or sales, please reach out to your marketer. If it pertains to future book ideas or corrections to errors, please reach out to your editor. If it relates to articles or interviews, please contact your publicist, if you have been assigned one.
If you’d like to order more copies, you can do so here.
If you’d like to update your bio or photo, you can do so here.
Unfortunately, scammers often target authors, posing as readers or organizations who want to leave a review or give you an award, or publish in another language. We encourage caution in replying to unsolicited emails, and particularly in paying for unsolicited opportunities.
If something seems suspicious or too good to be true, but you’re unsure, you’re welcome to reach out to your editor or marketer to ask if the contact or info seems legitimate to them.
We recognize the value of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing our publishing processes. However, we also believe that AI can never replace the creativity, depth, and spiritual insight that come from the authorship of a human made in God’s image, especially when it comes to writing biblically sound, pastorally wise, and theologically rich content.
Read our full AI policy here.
