“Publish On Demand” is a phrase with a lot of baggage. Upon hearing it, one might think of amateur writers self-publishing at Lulu.com or being scammed by PublishAmerica. Which isn’t fair, really. POD is simply a production model, no better or worse. A shame its image bears a stain from some of the uses it’s been put to.

Enter Flying Pen Press.

Brand new, based out of Denver, aiming high and shooting to kill that bad reputation. They plan to act just like a “real” publisher, only with much lower overhead. And they plan to keep that overhead low in non-evil ways.

If you’re interested in submitting, you should check out their list of upcoming imprints. Right now they’re actively working on two of them: Flying Pen Press Fiction (novels in many genres) and Game Day (game books and books about games, from chess to poker to RPGs). But they’ve got an impressive list of other subjects coming down the pike: business, aviation, travel and regional, and more.

Also it should be emphasized that they are a POD press. Rightly or wrongly, they’ll have an uphill battle getting bookstores to stock their books in today’s environment. Flying Pen Press aims to change that environment by showing the world that POD can be done well, and that’s an admirable ambition. It needs doing! But the job of bucking conventional wisdom is not easy, and any author coming along for the ride needs to walk in with their eyes open.

You should also be aware that though their royalty rate is higher than the industry standard, Flying Pen Press does not offer advances. Oddly enough, this doesn’t cause me to run screaming for the hills. As I said in one of my posts responding to Nick Wolven, there are legitimate reasons to omit the advance. Flying Pen Press specify that this is to keep the up-front operating costs low; I’m guessing that during this start-up phase that’s as much necessity as philosophy. But notice that Flying Pen Press isn’t drawing a line between first-time authors and established authors here. Or even between authors and editors….

Flying Pen Press does not pay advances to authors, nor does it pay flat fees to the various editors, illustrators and other freelancers. Instead, Flying Pen Press offers royalty to all the book’s contributors, based on a share of gross profits. This is probably the most controversial of risk-reduction methods that Flying Pen Press has created.

What this means is everyone is working on consignment, not just the author (and certainly not just “new” authors). In theory, this should give everyone an incentive to make the book a success. Whether they’re reading the slush, working with the author to shape the story, copyediting, designing the layout and cover, or marketing the book, no one gets paid until the book sells. No one is at liberty to let the author or the book down, because they’re all in the same book. I suppose it’s probably more accurate to say everyone is working on commission.

This is not an exhaustive list of what’s odd, different, or innovative about Flying Pen Press’s innovations, but I’ve gone on long enough for one post. (Come back tomorrow Sunday morning and I’ll probably have more to say.) I’ll close for now by pointing out that their first titles will be released this summer, at which point we’ll start seeing exactly how much fruit these developments will bear. Until then, I’m keeping an eye on that web site, rooting wholeheartedly for their good intentions to see fruition, and mentally adding them to my list of writing markets I just might, sooner or later, submit fiction to.