It's been pointed out to me that I'm still doing nearly all my writing for mainstream publishers {with a quizzical lift of the eyebrows}. True. Self-publishing doesn't usually give you an advance to live off. (Live off an advance? For a security book? You'll be lucky.) Here, in brief, is how it usually works for non-fiction.

• Mainstream publishers pay you an advance in instalments, to give you an incentive to finish the book. (That's if you're the main author or editor-in-chief, generally.) The size of the advance should reflect the confidence of the publisher in the eventual sales.
• If you contribute chapters, especially in instances where you're filling in gaps because the main authors can't meet the deadline, you usually get paid on a "work for hire" basis: you have no significant rights to the finished article, and they pay you an agreed payment.
• If you contribute chapters to an academic book or a community project such as the AVIEN Guide, you generally get one or two copies of the book and/or a small honorarium. Plus, in my case, complaints from your wife about the fact that you're spending time on work for which you'll get nothing back but one or two copies of a book you'll never read, which will occupy shelf-space you haven't got.

So why self-publish if you know you have a paying market? Having written for several major publishers in the past few years, I have become painfully aware that the business model they use (long lead times, massive print runs, sale or return distribution) can frustrate experienced authors and work to the disadvantage of less experienced or niche authors.

While we can do limited high-quality, low-volume printing in-house, we are not a full-scale publishing and printing operation. Rather, our aim is to offer a variety of publishing services (editing, technical editing, proofing, literary agency, distribution) and preparation of high quality materials which we pass on to an appropriate print-on-demand service for realization. We also offer an in-house e-book publishing service. However, much of our work at the moment is with mainstream publishers and periodicals.

We are not a vanity press: we aim to offer high quality books under our own imprint, and that means we have to exercise control over content and format. However, if you prefer to exercise total control over your product by self-publishing, we are available for help and consultancy in any of the areas already listed - assuming, of course, that your project is within normal bounds of legality and morality!

As far as our own imprint goes, we are focusing at the moment on ICT security and education, and would particularly encourage you to contact us if you have a project idea in those areas. We're also very interested in poetry publication projects and specialist community-interest projects such as local history publications. However, if you have any ideas that you think would be suitable for a low-volume, low-cost publishing project, please do get in touch.