As an independent publishing consultant from 2008-2014, our founder, Brad Pauquette, worked with authors of all types and experience levels, helping them to improve their work and to find the right kind of publishing opportunity for their work.
Brad found that many aspiring authors were interested in self-publishing—they were open to investing in their own books and liked the idea of receiving the majority of the profits when the book sells, and they liked the idea of retaining all of the rights and final say on creative control. But they were concerned about self-publishing because so many self-published books are…bad. And self-publishing sometimes has a poor reputation, which in some ways it has earned.
So Brad had an idea. Let’s create a company which allows authors to invest in their own books, get a huge royalty rate, and retain final creative control, but which only produces good books. If it’s not good enough for a traditional publisher, then we won’t publish it under this imprint. What if these books were like self-published books, but had a company backing them up with a reputation for quality?
And if we’re only producing good books, what if we can split the cost of production with the author, and split the royalties in a way that’s fair too? A fair split of the risk, and a fair split of the reward. With a quality production infrastructure backing it all up.
And Boyle & Dalton was born. Our first title launched in September 2014. We knew The Abundant Bohemian by Joe Downing was a great book. Joe invested in the production of his book, we worked together to produce an exceptional title. Joe’s book is as good or better than a book produced through a traditional publishing company, but Joe receives a royalty rate that’s more than 10x what he would have received had he traditionally published.
We started slowly as we tested the model and worked out the bugs. It was hard at first to turn down titles that didn’t meet our quality standard. There was a huge temptation to build out the catalog with whatever books we could sign. But we stuck with our principles, and only accepted the best. Our catalog today represents the quality that we knew we could achieve.
We only publish books that we feel represent the quality of our name. And we insist that every author undergo a rigorous 5-step production process. Learn more about that here.
Nowadays, a lot of companies are throwing around the word “Hybrid.” But really these are just self-publishing companies that want you to feel like you’re not self-publishing. Unfortunately many of these companies are not truly vetting books for quality (even when they claim to do so), and they’re not insisting their authors undergo a complete production process.
Since our inception we’ve had the pleasure of producing exceptional books. And we’re proud to stand behind every one of them. We only accept the best. And when you’re published by Boyle & Dalton, you’re in good company. The imprint name on your book means something. Browse our full catalog here.
Interested in publishing with Boyle & Dalton? We are always looking for excellent titles to add to our catalog. Learn more about submitting your work for consideration here.
