ZZealPublishers
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What does that publishing quote actually say?

Someone has sent you a contract and a price. Paste it below and we'll read it against the eight questions that decide whether a publishing deal is fair to the author — rights, royalties, ISBN, exit, and what's charged on top.

We only read what you paste. We don't make claims about any company — we tell you what your document says and what it leaves out. If you'd rather remove the company name before pasting, that's completely fine; it changes nothing about the analysis.

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If anything in it looks off, we'll call and talk you through it — before you sign, not after.
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Fifteen minutes, free, no pitch. We'll tell you honestly whether the deal is fair — even if the answer is that you should take it.

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The eight questions we check
  1. Which direction does the money flow?
    A publisher pays the author. If the author pays the publisher to be published, that is a paid-publishing (vanity) arrangement whatever it is called. Neither is automatically wrong — but you should know which one you are signing.
  2. Who holds the rights, and for how long?
    You should keep copyright. Watch for exclusive rights with no end date, no reversion clause, or rights to future books in the same series.
  3. Whose ISBN and imprint is on the book?
    If the ISBN is registered to them, they are the publisher of record and you cannot take that edition elsewhere.
  4. What is the royalty, and on what base?
    A percentage is meaningless without the base. Royalty on NET after their costs is very different from royalty on list price.
  5. Can you leave, and what does it cost?
    Look for a termination clause, notice period, and what happens to files, ISBN and stock when you go.
  6. Do you get the print-ready files?
    Without the interior and cover source files you cannot reprint elsewhere without paying to have the work redone.
  7. What is charged on top?
    Marketing packages, author copies, corrections and distribution fees are where the real cost often sits.
  8. What exactly is promised, in writing?
    Sales figures, reviews, bestseller status and media coverage cannot be guaranteed by anyone. Promises of them are the clearest warning sign there is.