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History
Founded by company president Linda Radke, Five Star Publications has its own interesting history. "My mother grew up in a family of nine brothers and sisters," Ms. Radke explains. "Five of the family, including my mother served in World War II. During the war, parents who had sons or daughters in the service displayed stars in their window - one for each child. It was a patriotic gesture and also expressed the deep hope that each would return home safely. One of my mother's brothers was captured and held as a prisoner of war. Fortunately, all five eventually returned home," she adds. "My Uncle Art used the name 'Five Star' when he opened his first grocery store in Indiana. Five stars became the symbol of my mom's family and is carried on in my company."
About Linda F. Radke
Small publisher lines up big book
(this article was written by Salvatore Caputo and published in a local paper.)
One of publisher Linda Radke's friends calls her "The Little Engine That Could." Her, "I think I can" determination has pulled Radke's Chandler based Five Star Publications, Inc. through several phases. In fact, September 14 (2005) will mark the company's 20th anniversary.
The first phase was what drew her into publishing in the first place.
"I had a household employment agency back in the early '80s, when I created a couple of books on hiring household help," she says. The experience of publishing the books was more exciting than her agency. So she sold the agency, began Five Star Publications and has never looked back.
In the second phase, she added services as a publishing consultant on other self-publisher's works. Aspiring authors could choose from a range of services editing, graphic designing, proofreading, indexing, publishing, and marketing, including web site design for their books.
Five Star is not a vanity press, which for a fee will publish anything, because Radke reviews projects to decide whether the books are sufficient quality that the resulting work will reflect well on her company. For projects of which Five Star serves as a publishing consultant, however, the author takes all the financial risks.
In the next phase, Radke started entering into partnerships with authors. Essentially, Five Star would offer the same range of services, but would also take some of the financial risk by paying some upfront money for the publishing.
"Because the authors take some of the risk in a partnership arrangement, they get a bigger share of royalties than they would in traditional publishing where the publisher assumes all the financial risk," Radke says. "In traditional publishing, an author can expect royalties of 8 to 12%, while in a partnership the royalties can be significantly higher."
About a year ago, Five Star entered the latest phase of its development, adding traditional publishing to its services.
"It was a big risk for me to take as a small press, but I was ready for a change," Radke says. "As a publisher, now I have a better opportunity to invest and to participate in greater profits, but I'm taking 100 percent of all the risk."
Because she's a small publisher, she had to develop a strict criteria for her investment. "We'll only publish someone well known or someone who has previously published a best-selling title," she says. She would also consider traditional publishing for public speakers who hold seminars or workshops at which they'll sell many copies of their books. However, she admits, those authors are more likely to want to work in a partnership.
Five Star's traditional publishing program has already produced some interesting books. "Mr. Monday and Other Tales oĢ Jewish Amsterdam," by Meyer Sluyser, is a set of stories previously published in the Netherlands.
"A Feather in the Rain" is a novel written by Alex Cord, an actor who has appeared in "Stagecoach" (the 1966 version with Bing Crosby) and TV series such as "Gunsmoke" and "Walker, Texas Ranger." Radke was drawn to the way that Cord dealt in fiction with a personal tragedy he had suffered in reality.
And being released this month is one of the biggest projects that Five Star has ever undertaken: "Gunsmoke; An American Institution Celebrating 50 Years of Television's Best Western" - by Ben Costello. It's a 622 page coffee table book full of photos both color and black and white from the Western that became television's longest running primetime dramatic series. (For the record, September 10 (2005) is the 50th anniversary of the show's first, airing.)
Asked how her faith affects how she does business, she responds, "My grandmother told me my name should always be like a star and shine. The bottom line for me is doing right by people, whether it's for profit or not."
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P: 480-940-8182