Publishing





Have you written an original English light novel, superhero book, or LitRPG and want to be published? We offer three ways for you to be published.

  1. Traditional Publishing: You submit your book to the Publishing Contest, and members vote for the next story to publish. (The contest is on an indefinite hiatus.)
    • Summary: We invest in your story and pay all costs to publish it. You give us an exclusive license to publish your book as an ebook/print book, and we pay you at least 50% net profits* from sales.
  2. Self-publishing Services: We can help you self-publish your book from start to finish but charge for the services.
    • Summary: You pay us for whatever you need (editing, art, design, formatting, etc.), and you publish the story yourself and keep 100% profits.
  3. Online Retailer Distribution: If your book is complete with edits, book cover, etc., (whether you paid us for services or not) and you need help distributing the story, we can distribute the story to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, etc., as an ebook and/or print book. We also distribute your ebook on VicsLab.com.
    • Summary: You give us an exclusive license us to distribute your book to VicsLab.com and online retailers, and we pay you a percentage of royalties (70% net profit from online retailers and 100% royalties from VicsLab.com used for marketing your book until $100 in sales; 90% royalties thereafter). If only giving us rights to distribute on VicsLab.com, you give us a nonexclusive license and agree to include a page ad we provide in your book.

In all cases, you retain the copyright to your story but must license your work if we are publishing/distributing it for at least five years or when our investment is reimbursed through sales, whichever comes first. You must be at least 18 years old. If you have already self-published your book, we may be interested in sponsoring it by providing free promotion in exchange for a page advertisement in your ebook. Additional details follow.

Option 1: Traditional Publishing (Contest on hold)

Example of book published after winning contest

You submit your book to the Publishing Contest, and members vote on the next story to publish. We invest in your story and pay all costs to publish it, including editing, art, design, formatting, and marketing. You give us an exclusive license to publish your book as an ebook/print book, and we pay you at least 50% net profits* from sales.

How to submit your story:

  1. Join the VicsLab.com community for free if you haven't already.
  2. Click the "Members" tab, then select "Publishing Contest" (https://www.vicslab.com/groups/publishing-contest/)
  3. Join the Publishing Contest group, select "Stories" and click "Create New Doc" to upload your completed book and synopsis.
  4. Save the story to submit it.

An announcement is made to members via email when the deadlines for submitting and voting are made.

Option 2: Self-publishing Services

Here is what our publishing services cost:

  • Copy editing: 1.5 cents per word ($750 for 50,000-word manuscript)
  • Line editing: 2 cents per word
  • Content editing: 2.5 cents per word
  • Formatting: $100 for ebooks and $200 for print books
  • Book cover: $400 ($250 for original art with one character and background and $150 for front and back cover design).
  • Interior art: $150 per character/page.
  • Marketing: $25 per month for ad on VicsLab.com if available and/or $25 upfront per online ad plus budget of your choice for ads on Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Free post on VicsLab.com, Tweet, and Facebook post with purchase. The $25 ad creation fee is waived for Premium Members.

We discount 20% if at least an editing type and book cover is done through us. Editing and art samples are provided upon request. Premium Members receive 20 percent off all publishing services.

Option 3: Distribution

Example of book distributed

We provide free distribution on VicsLab.com and no upfront costs for distributing the book to online retailers. Here is how it works:

  1. For "Online Retailer Distribution," we charge no upfront costs but receive the first $50 of net sales per format distributed. Once we have recouped our distribution fee from net sales, we provide you with 70% net profit*. This involves an exclusive license, which allows us to distribute to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, etc., including VicsLab.com Website Distribution mentioned below. It is strongly recommended that you use our formatting service before submitting your book for distribution. Those services are discounted by $50 if we distribute your book. Online retailers have different formatting guidelines, so if the book is not formatted correctly and the cover/spine dimensions are incorrect, then we will not be able to distribute the book. If we are distributing the book, the discounted cost for ebook formatting is $50, and the discounted cost for print formatting is $150 (we use 5x8 format unless requested otherwise and will notify you of cover/spine dimensions if you have someone else handling art/cover design). New submissions are only open to Premium Members.
  2. For VicsLab.com "Website Distribution," we sell it to the site as EPUB, MOBI, and/or PDF files. As a condition of free distribution, you allow us to provide coupon codes and let members redeem points toward its purchase. You also allow us to use 100% of your sales from VicsLab.com up until $100 to market your book via online ads. Afterward, you receive 90% royalties. This involves a non-exclusive license, meaning you can distribute your book elsewhere. This is intended for self-published authors who are already selling their book on sites such as Amazon.
    • Why is it free? By using money from sales generated on Vicslab.com, your story and our website both receive exposure, making it a win-win situation. After $100 in sales, you can choose whether to continue applying royalties to marketing or receive 90% royalties.
    • In both cases, you agree to include, near the beginning of the book, a page advertisement that we will provide for VicsLab.com. Premium Members do not have to include our ad in their book. We will include your book on our Products page with a download link, notify members, and mention your book on social media.

How to submit your story:

  1. Become a Premium Member via PayPal at Membership Signup.
  2. Click the "Books" tab, then select "Submissions" (vicslab.com/groups/submissions).
  3. Request membership to the Submissions group.
  4. After joining the Submissions group, select "Stories" and click "Create New Doc" to upload your completed book, synopsis, and book cover.
  5. Fill in the required information, make a folder for your story (recommended), and set your privacy settings (select admin only if you don't want members to read your story).
  6. Save the story to submit it.

Sponsorship

Example of book sponsored

If you have self-published your book in ebook format and want free promotion, we may be interested in sponsoring your story by promoting it. If sponsored, we will include your book on our Products page with a link to its Amazon page, notify members, and mention your book on social media. You agree to include, near the beginning of the book, a page advertisement that we will provide for VicsLab.com.

If your book is sponsored, you may opt for VicsLab.com Website Distribution, in which we will sell EPUB, MOBI and/or PDF files of your book instead of linking to its Amazon page. See Option 3, number 2 above for information on VicsLab.com Website Distribution.

Contact Us

If interested or for additional information, contact us via our contact form here.

Notes

We are a small publisher, so we don't guarantee sales for books we publish and/or distribute. However, we hire professionals in the field and provide quality work. We do not publish books not in English. We publish in America but distribute to other countries. Authors may be from different countries.

*Net profit is net sales received after we recouped our investment. Net sales is the amount left over after online retailers take their cut. For instance, if we spent $2,000 to traditionally publish your book, you will start receiving royalties from future sales after the book has received $2,000 in net sales. Likewise, if we are distributing your story as an ebook and in print, we will recoup the $100 distribution fee from net sales and you will receive royalties on future sales.