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Publishing with us

BenBella’s growth in recent years, and the perennial presence of their books on bestseller lists is a direct result of smart, creative publishing. BenBella treats its authors and their agents as genuine partners, consulting with us on major decisions, and taking our opinions seriously. For the right type of author, BenBella provides a fabulous mix of creativity, editorial input, and distribution, then goes one step further with its willingness to think outside the box on marketing and promotion.Scott Hoffman, Founding Partner, Folio Literary Management, LLC

Dear Agent,

BenBella Books is a publishing boutique that publishes around forty books a year. Our approach is very straightforward:

  • We are a marketing-focused house that prides itself on creative and diligent marketing for our titles. We have a crack team of marketers for our books, and we work with a range of top-notch outside publicists, as well.
  • We do two types of deals:
    • Traditional deals with advances of $10K to $20K against standard royalties
    • For high potential projects, profit-sharing arrangements that can yield as much as double traditional royalties
  • We operate in a true partnership model providing your authors with a level of collaboration and flexibility that is rare in the publishing industry.
  • We have superior distribution through Penguin Random House.

We strive to be the publishing partner of choice for the author looking for a personalized, careful, and marketing-focused approach.

I had many publishing houses to choose from, but I am so glad I made the right choice with BenBella! They truly understand the new world of publishing and what it takes to make their authors succeed. They are supportive, innovative, and committed to serving the authors they work with. I consider myself lucky to call them my publishing house!Shama hyder, Author of the bestselling The Zen of Social Media MarketinG & Momentum

What We Are Looking For

BenBella is open to looking at any nonfiction proposal, but we’re particularly excited about the following types of books:

Serious, Commercial Nonfiction – BenBella is particularly interested in nonfiction by expert authors with a unique perspective and strong point of view. Books that represent an expert’s life’s work are always of interest. Some examples of serious, commercial nonfiction include:

We are particularly interested in acquiring strong popular science, social science, and technology titles.

BenBella published my first trade book, Biocentrism, in 2009. They gave the book in-depth attention and care at every stage of development, and the book became a surprising success, with close to 100,000 copies sold in English and more around the world. BenBella is a boutique publishing house that only publishes around 40 books each year, so they can provide each book with a level of support and care that is hard to find elsewhere. I chose to return to BenBella for my follow-up book, Beyond Biocentrism, because I wanted this level of attention and hands-on service. BenBella also offers their top authors an extraordinary degree of financial upside, which I find very attractive.Robert Lanza, MD, one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2014

Big Platform/Big Media Titles – BenBella is always interested in commercial nonfiction that attracts strong publicity. BenBella’s team of publicists has had great success with these titles, often in the memoir or true crime category. Some examples include:

Plant-Based Living – BenBella is particularly strong in the vegan/plant-based living category, especially after the launch of our imprint BenBella Vegan. We have strong contacts and experience in marketing these titles. Some examples include:

My experience with BenBella has been the best of my career. The team is connected and collaborative, from editing through to marketing. I feel fortunate to be part of the BenBella “family”!Dreena Burton, author of Plant-Powered Families

Smart Pop Line – BenBella’s Smart Pop line feature in-depth dives into fan-favorite television shows, movies and books. Examples include:

Corporate Buys – BenBella is always looking for commercial titles with guaranteed third-party or author buys, offering excellent royalties, purchase terms, and strong marketing and author support.

When in doubt, pitch us! You can’t send us too many pitches.

In a time when publishers are struggling to adapt to rapidly changing social and economic climates, BenBella stands out as one of the smartest, most creative publishers out there. They create dynamic win-win deals and work both passionately and diligently to package and promote their books. Beyond that, BenBella is a company with heart – they take great care of our authors and are truly a pleasure to work with.Michael Ebeling and Kristina Holmes, Ebeling & Associates

BenBella Marketing

First and foremost, BenBella is a publisher that places a strong value on marketing. We are experienced marketers and each of our books has a customized marketing plan and approach. Publicity is key for most of our titles, and we―and our authors―work hard at it. We have a strong team here, and we (or our authors) often bring in strong outside publicists as well. You can see a list of our recent press hits in our Press Room; you’ll see our books get a lot of publicity.

Our marketing extends well beyond publicity, and we work with each author to design marketing initiatives to support each title, whether it’s extensive mailings to a list of important influencers or creative social media campaigns.

We expect our authors to actively support the marketing of their books, both at the time they are published and in the months (and years) thereafter. Towards this end, we work closely with our authors to educate them in book marketing approaches, including bringing in outside experts and trainers to work with our authors.

Working with BenBella Books has been a wonderful process. From start to finish, the entire BenBella team has done an exemplary job of everything from editing my book, Custom Nation, all the way through to promoting it and distributing it. Any author with the opportunity to work with BenBella should jump on it!Anthony Flynn, CEO of YouBars

Pitching BenBella

At BenBella we consider our relationship with literary agents to be the lifeblood of our business, and we highly value them. We always play fair, communicate well, and pay on time. We respect the important role agents play in the publishing process and include them (to the extent they desire) in the key decisions about each title.

We are very selective in our acquisitions, so we say no a lot, but we try to be responsive, quick, and easy to work with. We look forward to our next project together!


Thank you for taking this time to learn a bit more about BenBella Books. I’d be delighted to answer any questions. You can email me at glenn [at] benbellabooks [dot] com.

Sincerely,

Glenn Yeffeth

Publisher