Ronald P. Frye & Company offers publishing services for authors who want to bring out a book themselves. We take on only a small number of titles a year on our own list, and a decline from our editors usually has more to do with what is already in the schedule than with the quality of the manuscript. When an author would rather not wait — or would rather keep full control of the project — we can be hired to do the work instead.
We are a publisher with its own presses, not a print broker. The same people who produce our own catalogue produce your book. That is the main reason we can keep short and medium runs affordable without giving up quality control, and it is why we can print fifty copies of a family history or a society’s centenary volume without treating it as a nuisance job. These publishing services for authors are the same team and the same presses behind our own catalogue, so nothing is outsourced.
- What our publishing services include
- Packages and pricing
- What to expect from us
- Printing beyond books
- Request a quote
- Still hoping we will publish it?
What our publishing services for authors include
- Editing and copy editing — from structural notes on how the book is put together through to a final proofread before it goes to press.
- Cover design — an original cover designed for your book, not your title dropped into a template.
- Interior layout and typesetting — the part most self-published books get wrong, and the first thing a reader notices without knowing why.
- ISBN registration — registered to you or to your own imprint. The copyright stays yours throughout.
- Printing — paperback editions produced on our own presses, in runs as small as fifty copies.
- eBook editions prepared alongside the printed book.
- An author website, if you want somewhere to send readers.
Packages and pricing
Our standard self-publishing packages, what each one includes, and current prices are set out in full on our book printing and self-publishing page. Those packages are built around a book of roughly two hundred pages with a black and white interior and a colour cover, perfect bound, which covers most of what comes to us.
If your book falls outside that — an unusual trim size, a colour interior, a much longer run, a reprint of something you have published before, or a history that needs maps and photographs placed carefully rather than dumped in a plate section — tell us what you have in mind and we will price it properly instead of squeezing it into a package that does not fit.
What to expect from us
We will tell you what a book needs and what it does not. If a manuscript is not ready for a proofreader yet, we will say so rather than take the money and print it. If a shorter run makes better sense than a longer one, we will say that too — we would rather you sold out a first printing and came back for a second than sat on four hundred copies in a garage. Everything is quoted before any work starts, and the copyright in your book is yours from beginning to end.
Printing beyond books
Commercial and short-run printing that is not a book — programmes, catalogues, brochures, cards, conference and event materials — is handled by RPF Printing, our printing division, serving the Hamilton and Niagara region and shipping further afield.
Request a quote
Tell us what the book is, roughly how long it runs, and how many copies you have in mind, and we will come back to you with a price. Email [email protected] or call 416-516-2894. There is no charge for a quote and nothing is owed if you decide against it.
Still hoping we will publish it?
That door stays open. If you have not yet sent the manuscript to our editors, do that first: read what we publish and our submission guidelines, and send it in. These publishing services exist for authors we cannot take on ourselves, not instead of reading your work.