Westport, Massachusetts · Publishing since 2003

We help you make the book you meant to make.

PearTree Press is an independent publishing services company. Interior design, cover design, copyediting, proofreading, human-generated indexing, eBook production, and research — for authors publishing their own work, and for authors already under contract.

We are not a vanity press. We take no royalties and claim no rights. Every dollar your book earns is yours. We charge for the work you ask for, and nothing else.

Start a project See rates

Our approach

I have been in your shoes. I am an author myself, and several of my non-fiction titles were picked up by traditional publishers — Scarecrow Press, Arcadia, The History Press. The royalty rates were low enough to be discouraging. Unless you are already famous, you earn very little for a great deal of talent and time.

So in 2003 I went looking for another way. After years with LuLu and then CreateSpace, the work now runs through Amazon KDP, whose per-page print-on-demand rate remains the lowest in the business, with free ISBNs and worldwide distribution. PearTree Press works alongside you to get your words to press through that gateway.

We also publish our own titles, including The Literary Hatchet, The Hatchet, and primary historical sources for researchers.

Four kinds of authors

Complete production
You want the whole thing handled: design, formatting, and setting up your KDP account. We are not the publisher — you are.
Specific help
You are self-publishing but need one or two pieces done well: indexing, research, copyediting, formatting, cover design.
Account setup only
You just need the KDP side configured, including an Amazon Author Page. You could do it yourself; if you would rather not, it is a nominal fee.
Already under contract
Congratulations. Your publisher wants an index or illustrations and you would like a professional to do it. We do human-generated indexes, not concordances.

There are no up-front publishing fees. We charge by the work requested.

What we do

  • Proofreading
  • Line-by-line copyediting
  • Editing
  • Indexing
  • Book interior design
  • Cover design
  • Illustrations
  • eBook creation and design
  • Research and fact-checking
  • Author website design
  • Essay critiques
  • Long-form critiques

How pages are counted

Industry standard for a manuscript page is no more than 250 words. Divide your total word count by 250 for your page count.

Turnaround

Two weeks on most services. Rush jobs under five business days carry an additional $100. Indexing timelines vary by genre, length, and scope.

On indexing

Indexing is a specialized professional skill. Every index we produce is made by a human working through the manuscript. We accept only completed, formatted galleys or proofed manuscripts — indexing is the last stage before printing.

File formats

Submissions must be Microsoft Word. We cannot accept .wps, Pages, PDF, or image files.

Rates

Quoted for authors who self-publish and for authors contracted with a publisher.

Book production

Complete service: cover design, interior formatting, proofreading, illustrations, and Amazon / KDP setup.

Fiction$1,550
Poetry$850
Non-fiction$1,950

Manuscript preparation

Proofreading, editing, and indexing, charged per manuscript page.

Proofreading$2.50per page
Copyediting$3.50per page
Editing$8per page
Index creation, non-fiction$4per page

Specialized services

A la carte, for projects that need one piece rather than the whole.

Interior design & layout: poetry$550
Interior design & layout: fiction$950
Interior design & layout: non-fiction$1,050
Cover design$350
Illustrations$75
eBook creation: poetry$350
eBook creation: fiction$600
eBook creation: non-fiction$850
Amazon / KDP account setup We set it up, you run the show$50
Research$300per day, 8 hours
Fact-checking$5per page
Essay critique$75
Long-form critique$200

Selected work

Stefani Koorey, PhD, MS, MFA, MA. Fluent in MS Office, WordPress, and Adobe Creative Cloud — Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Audition. Library degree from Drexel University in Digital Libraries; research training and expertise in theatre, film, English, and history.

Poetry

  • Jigsaw Puzzle in a Vortex: A Collection of Memoirs, Aurora Lewis (BetteJay Publishing, 2023)
  • Jazz Poems, Aurora Lewis (BetteJay Publishing, 2021)
  • This Once-Only World, Ada Jill Schneider (PearTree Press, 2015)
  • By the Naked Pear Tree, Michael Brimbau (PearTree Press, 2015)
  • The Sadness I Take to Sea, Michael Brimbau (PearTree Press, 2014)
  • Do Come in and Other Lizzie Borden Poems, Larry Allen (PearTree Press, 2008)

Fiction

  • Perchance Freedom: An Emily White Mystery, Michael Thomas Brimbau (PearTree Press, 2021)
  • The Audible Amnesiac: and other Lizzie Borden Girl Detective Stories, Richard Behrens (Nine Muses Books, 2018)
  • Point Road, Michael Brimbau (PearTree Press, 2017)
  • Lizzie Borden, The Girl with the Pansy Pin, Michael Brimbau (PearTree Press, 2013)
  • Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective, Richard Behrens (PearTree Press, 2010)

Non-fiction

  • The Jennings Journals 1892: The Unpublished Notes and Documents From the Files of Lizzie Borden's Defense Attorney, Andrew Jackson Jennings, Michael Martins, Dennis A. Binette, and Stefani Koorey (Fall River Historical Society Press, 2021)
  • The Knowlton-Pearson Correspondence, 1923–1930: Unpublished Letters Between Frank Warren Knowlton and Edmund Lester Pearson, Michael Martins, Dennis A. Binette, and Stefani Koorey (Fall River Historical Society Press, 2021)
  • Lizzie Borden Uncut: A Casebook of Theories, William D. Spencer (North Forest Press, 2022)
  • The Case Against Lizzie Borden, William D. Spencer (North Forest Press, 2020)
  • American Textile Colossus: The Story of Fall River, Massachusetts, its Cotton Manufacturing Industry, and its People, Jay J. Lambert (Fall River Historical Society Press, 2020)
  • The Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Lizzie A. Borden: The Knowlton Papers, 1892–1893, Michael Martins and Dennis A. Binette (Fall River Historical Society Press, 2020)
  • Just Angry: A Memoir, John "Red" B. Cummings Jr. (Hillside Media, 2020)
  • Main Street in the Eighteen Seventies and Eighties & A Businessman's Reminiscences of Fifty Years, Thomas Richmond Burrell (Fall River Historical Society Press, 2019)
  • Murder, Manslaughter, and Mayhem on the South Coast, Volume 3, 2000 to 2016, John B. "Red" Cummings Jr. and Stefani Koorey, PhD (Hillside Media, 2018)
  • Of Moons and Monoliths: Collected Essays, Richard Behrens (Nine Muses Books, 2018)
  • Garden Bay Stories: The Shadow Head and Other Tales of the Garden Bay, Richard Behrens (Nine Muses Books, 2018)
  • Murder, Manslaughter, and Mayhem on the South Coast, Volume 2, 1970 to 1999, John B. "Red" Cummings Jr. and Stefani Koorey, PhD (Hillside Media, 2018)
  • Anti-Slavery Days in Fall River and the Operation of the Underground Railroad, Edward Stowe Adams (Fall River Historical Society Press, 2017)
  • Granite, Grit, and Grace: An Exploration of the Fascinating Side Streets of Fall River's History, William A. Moniz (Fall River Historical Society Press, 2017)
  • Women at Work: An Oral History of Working Class Women in Fall River, Massachusetts, 1920 to 1970, Dennis A. Binette, Michael Martins, and Joyce B. Rodrigues (Fall River Historical Society Press, 2017)
  • Murder, Manslaughter, and Mayhem on the South Coast, Volume 1, 1800 to 1969, John B. "Red" Cummings Jr. and Stefani Koorey, PhD (Hillside Media, 2017)
  • Back in the Day, Pete Hosey (PearTree Press, 2016)
  • America's Voices: An Oral History of Fall River, Massachusetts, from 1900 to 1950, Alfred J. Lima (PearTree Press, 2014)
  • Lizzie Borden: Resurrections: A history of the people surrounding the Borden case before, during, and after the trial, Sherry Chapman (PearTree Press, 2014)
  • A River and its City: The Influence of the Quequechan River on the Development of Fall River, Massachusetts, Alfred J. Lima (PearTree Press, 2013)
  • The Trial of Lizzie Andrew Borden: Books One, Two, and Three, Harry Widdows, Kat Koorey, and Stefani Koorey (PearTree Press, 2012)
  • The Preliminary Hearing in the Lizzie Borden Case, New Edition, Harry Widdows, Kat Koorey, and Stefani Koorey (PearTree Press, 2009)

Journals and literary magazines

  • The Literary Hatchet, online edition, by authors and artists worldwide (PearTree Press, 2008 to present)
  • The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian Studies, by authors and scholars worldwide (PearTree Press, 2004–2013)

Indexing

  • Historic Fires of Fall River, Stefani Koorey (The History Press, 2016)
  • Fall River Revisited (Images of America), Stefani Koorey (Arcadia Press, 2012)
  • Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River, Dennis A. Binette and Michael Martins (Fall River Historical Society Press, 2011)
  • Arthur Miller's Life and Literature: An Annotated and Comprehensive Guide, Stefani Koorey (Scarecrow Press, 2000)
  • Story Programs: A Source Book of Materials, 2nd Edition, Caroline Sue Peterson, Anne D. Fenton, and Stefani Koorey (Scarecrow Press, 2000)
  • Plus every book in the non-fiction section above.

Research clients

  • BBC, London — Who Do You Think You Are? (Sharon Osbourne): genealogy, history, archive research
  • Animo TV, Dublin, for BBC — Who Do You Think You Are? (Damien Dempsey): genealogy, history, archive research
  • Fall River Historical Society, ongoing
  • Fall River Preservation Society

Clients to date

Fall River Historical Society · William Spencer · William Pavao · BBC · Aurora Lewis · Fall River Preservation Society · John B. "Red" Cummings Jr. · Hillside Media · Nine Muses Books · Alfred J. Lima · Ada Jill Schneider · Richard Behrens · Sherry Chapman · Pete Hosey · Michael Brimbau · Larry Allen · Harry Widdows · Kat Koorey

Start a project

Tell us what you have and what you need. Word count, genre, and where you are in the process is enough to begin.

Stefani Koorey, PhD, MS, MFA, MA — Westport, Massachusetts