Lucky Mojo Publishing Questions and Answers

[Theredqueen911]

I hae a question about the Lucky Mojo Publishing aspect of this diverse company.

am a writer...and I'm curious if you will publish people outside of AIRR and those who have graduated from your course? Or only those people will get published?

If you do take submissions from outsiders like my self....what is that process and what does it look like?

[catherineyronwode]

Hi, The redquenn911 --

This is going to start off a little sideways, so bear with me, okay?

My family has been in the writing, editing, typesetting, book publishing, printing, and book dealing business for many, many generations, so this is something i enjoy, come by naturally (probably genetically), and have been doing all my life. I have written, edited, ghostwritten, typeset, proofread, and published works ranging from magazine articles and newspaper columns to full volumes. I am also a graphic designer and have contributed my layout, lettering, colouring, and paste-up skills to thousands of graphic projects. and i have done this solo, in collaboration with others, and as an employer of others, for free, for pay, for a percentage, and as an entrepreneur-publisher, depending on the type of project, the decade of my life, and the venue of publication.

Beginning in the 1990s, i converted these fundamental skills to web site design, and i write, edit, code, and do graphic design work on dozens of web domains.

In all of my ventures since the late 1990s, my partner has been my husband siva, who is also a writer, proofreader, graphic designer, web page coder, printers' liaison, accountant, and publisher.

I mention these things not to make myself seem important, but to place the Lucky Mojo, Missionary Independent Spiritual Church, and Yronwode Institution books in context.

Book publishing is notoriously a break-even proposition, and it takes an unusual person to want to do it as a form of teaching or entertaining for a modest income. Publishing a line of books is quite a lot like curating a museum exhibition or a film festival. To undertake the work you have to like the items and want others to like them -- and you have to be prepared to present them in the best and most pleasing way possible, publicize them, distribute them, and follow through with royalty accounting for the creators as long as the project remains in print.

A small book publishing company like ours pays royalties at the same rate-structure that a large one does, although, of course, with less distribution and therefore fewer copies sold, we continually lose creators to the lure of contracts with larger companies once they have fulfilled their contracts with us.

In order to persist in such a venture, several conditions need to be fulfilled -- and if you study the history of publishers, you will find these conditions have not changed in more than 500 years:

1) Capital. The publisher must either be born wealthy (i am not), have another source of income and treat publishing as a hobby (i do not), or become one of the writers, thus earning royalties on books sold (i do this). The publisher's cut on a book is small, after paying royalties, printing, shipping, labour, and book storage costs -- and having some of the books written by the publisher, on which the publisher is paid as an author, is a way to keep the publisher from abandoning the project and going to work for a wealthier publisher. I built my capital by boot-strapping -- the first few books were written by me and i deferred my royalties until profits from sales came in, and then i used those profits to fund more books.

2) Commitment. The publisher must have a commitment to and a belief in the importance of the topics covered, to the aesthetic of the works published, and to the creation of books themselves as a source of beauty (i do). This is particularly important if the topic is obscure or of little interest to the general public. Publishing such items, well typeset, in charming bindings, as beautiful small objects, then becomes part of the publisher's mission, an activity which brings personal satisfaction, above and beyond earning an income.

3) Concern. The publisher must want to help support the creators -- the writers, artists, letterers, graphic designers, and typesetters -- and the contractors -- printers, warehouse workers, packers, accountants, and truckers. This concern for the welfare of others engages the publisher's parenting instincts, as the publisher takes on a lot of responsibilities for providing for the financial welfare of others, at a very low return.

Okay, now, having explained that, we come to why i publish:

A) Books long out of print, by dead authors. I undertake to publish books in the Lucky Mojo Library of Occult Classics for a number of reasons, primarily to keep the transmission of knowledge alive, to celebrate the work of talented writers and artists, and to honour a tradition of inexpensive popular occult publishing.

I have been asked -- it has even been DEMANDED -- that i make these books available in free PDF format because they are, after all, no longer copyright protected. However, going back to reason (2), the creation of beautiful OBJECTS is part of my mission. Books are THINGS, not simply raw data. Making pretty things is part of my mission.

B) Books on world-wide folk magic. The Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology (YIPPIE) is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation that exists to publish exactly what its title promotes -- books that preserve and popularize regional and ethnic-cultural folk magic. This is a limited mission, and the Institution also maintains a web site for bibliographers and researchers in these fields.

C) Books by graduates of my Hoodoo Rootwork Correspondence Course. The general hoodoo line of Lucky Mojo Books, the spiritual books from Missionary Independent Spiritual Church, and the world-wide folk magic books from the Yronwode Institution are projects i undertake primarily to assist the careers of my students. I earn a small fee for typesetting and editing the work, i pay the artists and graphic designers to make their books look good, and the publishing company makes a small profit (which always goes to fund the creation of new books, which are always more expensive to produce than the reprints of extant books in the line.)

My commitment to my students is real, ongoing, and life-long. I start by offering them free publicity if they will act as moderators on this forum, and for this work they receive Lucky Mojo product gift certificates. I encourage them to join AIRR and if they do, as a member of the all-volunteer AIRR Tech Team, i help provide continual assistance and publicity for their careers. If they are good impromptu speakers, siva and i offer them guest slots on our weekly radio show to promote themselves and their careers. If they make friends among the other members of AIRR and do well on our radio show, the AIRR committee of the Hoodoo Heritage Festival may offer them slots as presenters at our annual festival.

If they are offered presentation slots at our annual festival, i will take responsibility for the editing, typesetting, and production of a 2-page flyer for their workshop. These flyers are gathered together into books, for which every participant earns a royalty based on page-count, on first book publication and all subsequent reprints.

If their writing for the workshop flyer is good, and if they are pleasant people and treat us nicely, and if the flyer texts came in on deadline (this is the Julie Schwartz Rule: Good, Nice, and Timely), then, a year before the next festival, i will offer them a book contract to accord with their upcoming Hoodoo Heritage Festival presentation.

There are limitations on these books.

(i) To fulfill my personal line-mission, their upcoming topic must not duplicate an extant book in my line (in that case, i simply support their creation of a flyer for the festival), it must not include plagiarism or AI-generated text, and it must accord with the page-count and page-design found in our extant line of books.

(ii) They must provide a sample chapter and a full table of contents for the book so i can judge how much editorial help they will need and determine if i am willing to undertake the job.

(iii) They must promise to turn in their raw text six months before the festival to allow us time for editing, typesetting, illustration, proofreading, printing, and shipping.

(iv) They must sign a letter of intent regarding the fact that the work is original material, that there is a time-limit on the completion of the work, and that they understand the payment of royalties and the terms under which we hold publication rights.

All that having been said, there is money to be made by having a work published by Lucky Mojo. It is not a full income, of course, but it is a nice supplemental income, because if a book sells well, it will go through many printings over the years, and the royalty percentage of the cover-price is the same at every printing.

My part in this is to help my students launch their careers. Of the more than 2,200 students who have taken my course, less than 25% have graduated. Of those who have graduated, less than 5% have worked as moderators on this forum, or joined AIRR, or guested on our radio show, or worked as volunteers on the AIRR Tech Team, or made a presentation at the Hoodoo Heritage Festival, or submitted a book proposal. Of those who have submitted book proposals, several have been unable to complete their sample chapters or tables of contents and thus they did not fulfill their part of the letter of intent and we were both released from the agreement.

If a book is partially completed, but cannot be finished on time, i will offer to step in as a ghostwriter -- for which i am not paid in any way, nor has any author, ever, offered to pay me! -- but if the gap is substantial, and i must write 25% to 50% of the book, i will put my name on the title page and collect my share of the royalties, based on relative page-counts of contribution.

Now, finally, to answer your question:

Yes, i would consider publishing a book by a non-student and non-AIRR-member, but only in one of our three lines -- the Yronwode Institution line on world-wide folk magic. Siva and have been asking for -- and have been promised works by writers who, for one reason or another, did not come through -- books on Mexican folk magic, Ukrainian folk magic, Cuban folk magic, Japanese folk magic, and the like. So far we have published a book on Scandinavian folk magic and a book on North Asian folk magic. We eagerly await submissions on folk magic from any regional or ethnic culture, and the author need not have taken my course in hoodoo because the topic is not hoodoo.

As for how to submit a book proposal -- that is the topic of another post, one which is available to all of my students in the private students-only area of the forum, as part of a series of threads on how to become a professional shop-keeper, author, teacher, or online merchant in the fields of metaphysics and magic.

So there you have it!

This took a long time to write, but i did so because the question is asked often enough that i can now refer folks to this reply.

[Theredqueen911]

Dear Miss. Cat,

I read your entire post. Very informative. I guess I have to divulge the subject matter of the book that I am writing. Also, I didn't know that it might be an option for you to co- write with me... Kind of excited if that could be a possibility if you are even interested in the book that I am trying to write.

Let me give you a little background first. Sorry to make you read.

I've been studying since 2007 approximately. I've been through several teachers. Most of them have ripped me off. One of them did not rip me off.

I've been through a couple of magical wars some I won... Some I didn't. So it got me to thinking...there are no books currently on the market on the subject of how not to get ripped off.

So I decided to write a sort of memoir/ guide book of how not to get ripped off by spiritual practitioners.

It touches on hoodoo, Lucumi, and Palo mayombe. It does not give out recipes or teach you how to do any of these practices. The book simply points out how not to get ripped off by spiritual practitioners in these three traditions and a little bit with Santa muerte.

I'm about halfway done writing the book. The part I would like you to co-author on if you are even interested would be more the suggestions on how not to get ripped off. The first half of the book is sort of a memoir of my experiences of getting ripped off, which I then springboard into a couple of chapters on each of those subjects above on how not to get ripped off.

There are no guarantees in life but there are also no books out there on this subject. People are getting ripped off left and right, as have I.

I would be honored if you are even interested to co-write this book with me. Let me know what you think.

Hopeful,

The Red Queen 911

[catherineyronwode]

Theredqueen911 --

Thank you for thinking of me as a collaborator. I would like to give you two editorial suggestions.

1) You wrote, "The book simply points out how not to get ripped off by spiritual practitioners in these three traditions [hoodoo, Lucumi, and Palo Mayombe] and a little bit with Santa Muerte." -- but Santa Muerte is an entirely different topic. That can be its own book, although there are already quite a few on the subject.

2) The topic of avoiding spiritual rip-offs -- particularly in the initiatory traditions in the African Diasporic field -- is important. A personal memoir is a good approach, but it may have the unwanted result of making you seem gullible on the one hand, or making African Diasporic religions seem unethical on the other hand. To avoid these potential extremes, you might consider presenting a positive side to these religions as well, because otherwise the atheists, racists, and skeptics will use your book as ammunition in their campaign against religions and cultures.

This is not a book i would be equipped to contribute to or even to edit, as i have avoided religious initiations. I prefer open congregations, in which there may be a spiritual facilitator or a gifted pastor or singer. I have written about how to avoid getting ripped of by psychic readers, and i think you might also fill out your book with that sort of advice.

This would not be a book i would publish, because i don't publish memoirs, but i wish you luck and prosperity in the venture!

[catherineyronwode]

A repost from my student forum group, from 2018:

Hello, This is cat ...

I have been asked how one goes about getting a book published by Lucky Mojo and what the pay rate is for writing such books. Here are the bare-bones basics, in a nutshell. Please pardon my terseness -- this is simply a quick download of the information:

1) GENERAL PUBLISHING INFORMATION

We publish and are looking for books on specific areas of folk magic:

A) Hoodoo folk magic by condition or life situation
(e.g. Hoodoo Return and Reconciliation spells, Cash Box Conjure, Cursing and Crossing, Deliverance!)

B) Hoodoo folk magic by form of use or method
(e.g. The Art of Hoodoo Candle Magic, Spiritual Baths, The Art of Making Mojos, Hoodoo Honey and Sugar Spells)

C) World-wide folk magic by region or culture
(e.g. North Asian Magic, Trolldom) <-- NOTE: these books are published by YIPPIE, not LMCCo, but the same terms apply.

D) Folkloric forms of divination, or divination combined with spellcraft
(e.g. Throwing the Bones, Crystal Magic, A Deck of Spells, Lithomancy)

We publish books about folk magic, metaphysics, the occult, and fortune telling, but within that broad heading, we do not publish books about personal spiritual journeys, religious hierarchies, or about drug use or violence as adjuncts to spirituality.

For a complete list of all books we have published to date, please see this Lucky Mojo Publishing and Distribution web page:
http://luckymojo.com/publishing

2) EDITORIAL CONTENT

A) Initial consultation
Because our book production is scheduled up to one year in advance, and we do not wish to duplicate subject matter or waste our time or an author's time, we suggest that the initial proposal for a book be accomplished via telephone call at a convenient time for both parties. Generally, authors will be known to, and be able to speak with the editor of the line, catherine yronwode. If we believe that we are not the right publisher for an author's book, we will suggest other publishers.

B) Formal submission
After initial consultation and agreement to proceed to the submission stage, we request a Table of Contents and one sample chapter as a formal submission. The sample chapter may not be the Introduction, the glossary, or the historical background to the subject; it should consist of a full interior chapter. Depending on the structure and topic of the book, a full interior chapter may be as follows:

* For books on a Condition, a sample chapter of spells by Form of Work:
(e.g. in a book on Blessing: blessing candles, blessing mojos, or blessing baths),
* For books on a Form of Work, a sample chapter of spells by Condition:
(e.g. in a book on Powders: love powders, money powders, or cursing powders)
* For books on a single Culture, a sample chapter of spells by Condition:
(e.g. Mexican love spells, Mexican protection spells, or Mexican money spells).

C) House style
Because we have an in-house style, we require that prospective authors become familiar with that style before submitting manuscripts. For example, all of our books, unless agreed to beforehand, are 96 pages in length. Their format is very closely controlled by in-house editorial guidelines and typesetting standards. If you wish to see a copy of our in-house editorial guidelines, we can oblige.

D) Non-authorial matter
As publishers, we supply illustrations, cover art, and cover copy through our production department, and these matters are not the responsibility of the author unless a special arrangement for such material is entered into at the time of signing our general agreement to publish.

3) PAYMENT

A) Royalty rate
We pay 10% royalty based on the retail cover price. This payment is given regardless of whether the copies are sold at retail price, wholesale price, or given away by us during a promotional event. This rate applies to reprints as well as initial print runs.

B) Print run
We print 2,000 copies of the initial edition of each 96 page book. All subsequent printings will be at least 2,000 copies, and may be larger, at our discretion, and royalties will be paid at the same rate per copy, perpetually, with each reprinting.

C) Advance royalties
Authors are paid all projected royalties for each print run as an advance against sales. In other words, shortly after the first print run of a title goes on sale, the author will receive a lump sum royalty payment for the initial print run, and each time the book is reprinted, the author will again be paid advance royalties for that subsequent print run. We will report all royalty payments to the IRS as part of our bookkeeping.

D) Book signing incentives
For the first full print run of each title, authors are sent a full case of printed books as a signing bonus. The number of copies in the case is 96 copies for a 96 page book. The retail value of this bonus case represents a signing bonus in goods. Authors are responsible for shipping costs of their bonus case, but, if requested, we will subtract books from the bonus case at our case-price per book and use the "funds" thus generated to pay for the shipping. On all subsequent editions, the author will receive only a royalty check plus two copies of that edition.

E) Author purchases
Authors may purchase copies of their books by the case at our wholesale case price at any time, F.O.B. Forestville, California. Payment may be made by credit card, with shipping costs calculated and charged at the time of shipping and added as an extra charge.

4) CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS

We require that all parties who publish with us abide by a series of contractual obligations that are not payment-oriented. These contractual matters, included in our official Letter of Intent, specify considerations of originality, copyright, reprint rights, perpetuality, lapses, reversions, and the naming of heirs and assigns to the contract, which are conditions familiar, well-known, and common to most book publishing contracts. We can supply further details upon request.

5) BOOK PROMOTION

As a relatively small and understaffed book publishing company, we believe that authors who self-promote make the best partners for us, because they help spread the word about not only their own books, but also us, their publisher, and we appreciate the lift they give to us. Here are some of the ways we will promote your book:

A) On-site web promotions
We promote authors' books online at our Lucky Mojo web site. Each book is listed on our books page and at our publishing company page, and each book has its own web page. On that page we display the cover, a description of the book, a brief author biography (taken from the back cover of the book), and the full table of contents for the book, as well as a "Buy It Now" button for purchase of the book. All books are also promoted on-site in bundled retail discount packages, such as our popular "Baker's Dozen" (13 books for the price of 12) -- and royalties on those discount packages are, of course, already pre-paid at full retail value to the author, so we support the cost of discounting the books.

B) Radio show / podcast promotions
We invite authors to promote their books by appearing as guests on our radio shows on the LMC Radio Network. These shows are archived as podcasts and reach a large audience unlimited by date of publication.

C) Lucky Mojo Forum promotions
We create a named thread at the Lucky Mojo Forum for each book. The thread contains comments, questions, and reviews generated by the public, by our Forum Moderators, and by the author, if the author is so inclined. In addition, each book is also shown and listed numerous times at our Lucky Mojo Forum under relevant topic headings, and also at this forum master-page:
http://forum.luckymojo.com/lucky-mojo-b ... 30223.html and every time a topic comes up in a general area of the forum which relates to the book, we will insert an image of the book's cover and a "Buy It Now" button to generate sales. (For instance, a book about money spells may be advertised at least one time in as many as 20 forum threads about various kinds of money spells.) These forum posts are searchable by Google and are very widely read. Author participation is encouraged in these threads.

D) Social media promotions and book giveaways
We promote authors' books via social media at Facebook and on Instagram. These promotions are ongoing and extend far past the initial introductory phase of the book's publication. Specifically, we offer books as prizes every other week in our weekly Facebook Fridays! giveaway program. We encourage authors to share these posts. If an author wishes to create a Facebook page for a book, we encourage this, although we do not create such pages ourselves.

E) Amazon promotions
We promote authors' books at Amazon and they will be listed for sale there. Additionally, we encourage authors to create an "Author" page at Amazon and to tend to and oversee their own Amazon review listings. Becoming known as an author, asking colleagues to review books, and reporting abusive reviews are important factors in career management when working through the Amazon sales interface.

F) Promotional partnerships
We encourage promotional partnerships with our authors. For example, in the past we have worked with organizations like the AISC to invite each author to attend a book debut party at the AISC Hoodoo Heritage Festival or other event to launch their books. We cannot guarantee to always have such venues available, but we will do our best. We recommend that authors make use of their own first edition bonus case of books and arrange their own local book debut parties as well. Authors are not obligated to engage in any promotional partnerships with us, but those who refuse to self-promote, refuse to cross-promote our publishing ventures, or refuse to appear at our sponsored venues or on our sponsored radio shows may find us reluctant to team up with them for subsequent book proposals.

[Theredqueen911]

Miss Catherine Yronwode,

Well although I am let down by your decline, I do appreciate your advice! Especially the second point. In my book I def don't trash anyone and I do speak highly of the religions.

I'm also careful with details...it's not a trashy tell all. Plus I prefer not to get sued. Lol But thanks again for getting back to me in a timely manner and the wisdom.

Sincerely,

The Red Queen 911