A WELCOME NOTE FROM DREW GIERMAN, PUBLISHER

Welcome to the author section of the J. Ross Publishing web site. As a publisher for business, technology, and engineering professionals, we strive to create a personalized—and positive—experience for each of our valued authors. At J. Ross, the author is not just another "cog" in the publishing wheel. Instead, you are a key participant in the customer collaboration chain created to ensure that top-quality information is available to book buyers when they need it. Other participants include the book's editor, production personnel, suppliers, and marketing and sales support.

At J. Ross, when we say we value our authors, we mean it. In fact, we named our company in honor of one. Joel E. Ross, Ph.D., is a distinguished author of business books and part of our editorial advisory committee.

If you currently have a project in mind or a manuscript prepared and would like to submit a proposal for our review, please go to the Guidelines for Submitting a Book Proposal section of our web site. To help expedite the process, we have provided an online submission form for your convenience.

We share the same goal as our authors, that is, to sell as many books as possible by creating a product that meets or exceeds the needs of the market. From all of us at J. Ross Publishing, we look forward to working with you to make your unique book a success.

Drew Gierman
Publisher

ABOUT OUR AUTHORS

Some of our authors have published books with other publishers, while others may be writing for the first time. Our authors work for Fortune 500 companies and for leading independent firms. Some are distinguished academics with significant applied experience. They speak at industry events and write for key trade journals. All are experts in their field and want to share their knowledge with a key market.
Our authors tell us they have selected J. Ross as their publisher for the following reasons:
    A desire to bring their books to market as quickly as possible
    A desire to have a personalized, supportive, and collaborative publishing experience
    A desire to work with a publisher capable of adding a missing technology component to the book buyer's learning experience
Our authors are an integral part of our customer collaboration chain, and we value their contribution.

THE J. ROSS PUBLISHING DIFFERENCE

At J. Ross Publishing, we strive to create a positive, personalized, and supportive publishing experience for all of our authors. This extends throughout the entire publishing process—from book conception to editing and design and through marketing and sales.

We know that selecting a publisher is a difficult decision. It can be a challenge to differentiate one publisher from another. Most publishing companies have complicated organizational structures and slow-moving project approval processes as well as lengthy production cycles, which can adversely impact timing and sales. In contrast, at J. Ross, we have created structures and processes that accelerate critical publishing components and maximize sales. More specifically, we are different from traditional publishers in that we offer:
    Integrated sales, marketing, and editorial functions.
    It is important to us to integrate the sales, marketing, and editorial functions rather than structure them as separate departments. As a result, the people who know the most about your book and the market lead the sales effort. This gives each book a competitive advantage.
    Streamlined approval and production processes.
    We understand that speed to market is a critical component in the success of a book. To get your book to market more quickly, we have dramatically shortened the timelines for the approval and production processes. This means that your book will hit the market at the moment of greatest demand.
    Significant marketing support.
    We will not sign a book unless we think it will sell. As a result, we put substantial marketing effort behind each book.
    Collaborative win/win relationships.
    We are committed to collaborating with each of our authors in order to create the best product possible. This means that we are actively involved in formulating new ideas, helping to develop concepts, and assisting in manuscript construction and development. This collaborative process ensures that each book maximizes its potential.
    Use of technology to enhance the learning experience. We make our publications more interactive by utilizing technology. This improves reading comprehension and gives our customers a more complete learning experience—and creates an opportunity for our authors to interact with their readers.

BENEFITS OF WRITING A BOOK

Although authors write books for a variety of reasons, the benefits of authoring a publication are similar, regardless of the author's motivation. These benefits include using the book as:
    A tool to introduce readers to the author's business. A book provides a forum for authors to showcase their high-quality, solutions-based approach to meeting client needs.
    A third-party endorsement which demonstrates to the industry that a well-respected publisher believes that you and your company have important contributions to make to the field.
    A public relations vehicle which a communications department can use to generate press releases, story placement ideas, press interviews, and speaking engagements.
    A competitive weapon when bidding for business against companies without published experts on staff.
    A means to enhance existing research.
Undoubtedly, you can think of many other ways that authorship can promote your professional goals. Let us hear from you so that we can help support you in this endeavor.

AUTHOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Your role in the publishing process is to research, construct, and write a manuscript to meet the predefined needs of a key market. The manuscript should contain applied information and be problem solving in nature.

Because timing to market is critical to the success of the book, it is important that you complete the manuscript as quickly as possible and submit it on, or before, the due date. When submitted, the manuscript should be a finished work (not a draft), supported by the appropriate graphics. It is important to note that the manuscript must be clear and readable. Your editor will work closely with you to provide helpful direction about proper manuscript construction and will review chapters as they are written.

For your convenience, we have provided guidelines for manuscript preparation in the Preparing Your Manuscript section of our web site. This will help to ensure the project stays on track and any problems are identified up front.

We ask our authors to add value to their books by using technology to enhance the learning experience. For example, you may be asked to create a series of web-based exercises that readers can access online.

THE PROJECT APPROVAL PROCESS

At J. Ross Publishing, we have simplified—and shortened—the project approval process. This process, which takes approximately two weeks, enables J. Ross to make quick and informed publishing decisions. While we will review all quality proposals, we generally only publish those that meet our publishing criteria, which include:
    Solve real-world problems
    Written by industry experts
    Contain supportive examples and cases
    Provide decision-support tools such as key metrics, etc.
    Meet sales projections

The project approval process is outlined below.

    1.   You provide us with the information requested in the Guidelines for Submitting a Book Proposal section of our web site. We have designed a simple online submission form to expedite the proposal process so that we can respond quickly.
    2.   Our editorial staff will contact you within one week of receiving your online submission form. Generally, the focus of this conversation is to discuss the project in more detail in order to gain a better understanding.
    3.   If we are mutually interested in proceeding, we will ask you to provide a more in-depth analysis of the project, as described in the Seven Steps to Submitting a Detailed Book Proposal section of our web site. This gives us a thorough understanding of your proposed project.
    4.   If the project meets our publishing criteria, our editorial staff will conduct additional market research and do a financial assessment. Generally, this takes a few days.
    5.   If the results of the market research and financial assessment are positive, the project will be presented to the company's CEO for final approval.
    6.   If the project receives final approval, a publishing contract will be sent to you within a few days.
    7.   Once the contract is signed, manuscript preparation begins. Before starting to write, however, it is critical that you read the guidelines for manuscript preparation in the Preparing Your Manuscript section of our web site. Our production department is available to assist you in a variety of ways, including answering questions and reviewing sample text and graphics files.

MARKETING AND SALES ACTIVITIES

One of the benefits of publishing with J. Ross is our integrated editorial, marketing, and sales approach. We believe that these functions should work together seamlessly in an effort to maximize sales. Traditionally, publishers have structured the editorial, marketing, and sales functions separately. At J. Ross, we believe it is essential to merge these functions and therefore empower your editor—the individual who knows the most about your book—to direct the sales and marketing effort.

Another benefit of publishing with us is the extensive marketing support we provide for each book. Carefully planned marketing strategies that include web and direct-mail campaigns are developed in order to maximize sales. These specific marketing and sales efforts include:
    Networking with the trade press to garner book reviews and publicity for you and your book
    Featuring your book in our announcement catalog, which we use to present titles to the library and retail markets
    Exhibiting at appropriate conferences to feature your book
    Featuring your book in direct mail promotions and on our web site
    Presenting your book to all appropriate brick-and-mortar and web retail outlets, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, etc.
    Presenting your book to all retail and library wholesalers
    Presenting your book to all associations that resell books to their members, including APICS, ASTD, SHRM, SME, etc.
    Presenting your book to colleges and universities for possible course adoption
    Presenting your book to corporations that may be interested in buying it in bulk as a training or management support tool
    Presenting your book to international markets

Because the success of a book is based on a collaborative marketing and selling effort, your involvement as the author is crucial. For example, you can:

    Continue to get your name in front of the target market by speaking at conferences and writing for trade journals.
    Make sure to reference the book whenever appropriate.
    When speaking at a conference, ask the conference organizers to make copies of your book available for sale.
    If you have contacts with trade journals, ask them to interview you about the topic of your book and mention your book in the interview.
    If you have been an active member of an association over an extended period of time, ask the association to feature or sell your book to its members.
    Provide us with any appropriate contact information so that we can create a personalized campaign for large corporate buyers or other market segments with large volume sales potential.

Together, we can maximize our collective synergies—and contacts—to make your book a success.

If you would like to submit a book proposal for our review, please go to the Guidelines for Submitting a Book Proposal section of our web site.

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