Membership Policies
Membership in NCPA is for individuals.
The membership year runs on a calendar-year basis, from January 1 through December 31. However, new members joining on or after October 1 but before December 31 receive membership for the remainder of that year plus all of the following calendar year. For example, a new member joining on October 12, 2010, would be a member from that date through December 31, 2011.
Standard membership is for individuals who are publishers, authors, or otherwise engaged in activities directly related to writing and publishing, such as book editing or book design. The “associate member” category encompasses individuals who are in a line of business that provides services to authors or publishers but that is not directly related to writing or publishing. Associate members, too, are individuals. Companies and other organizations may not become members of NCPA, although an individual may join and have his or her business connection included in membership information.
We have two special categories. One is for first-time, unpublished (no book published) individuals, at a discounted price for the first year. The other is for students (high school or college), at a discounted price, with proof of enrollment status.
Current (2010) membership fees are:
- Standard membership, $40 for one year
- Special three-year standard membership, $99
- First-year, unpublished membership, $25
- Student membership, $15 for one year
- Associate membership, $60 for one year
Membership entitles you to join the NCPA Yahoo group, with access to email discussions, files, message archives, helpful and valuable links, and other information stored at the Yahoo group site. It also entitles you to discounts on NCPA’s annual conference and to bring or sponsor a guest (spouse, partner, friend, or colleague) at the member discount. Your membership may entitle you to discounts from community partners or commercial enterprises that have offered discounts to NCPA members.
As a member you can submit books for NCPA's annual book awards competition.
A member can make nominations or run for elected office in NCPA and hold appointed Board positions. And members are entitled to such other benefits as may from time to time be authorized by the Board of Directors of NCPA.
Join NCPA today and grow with us! Download our membership form. (You’ll need Adobe Reader to view this form.)
Benefits
- Discounted introductory membership for unpublished members — only $25 for the first year!
- Our informative bimonthly newsletter
- Monthly meetings where you can meet and commiserate with other publishers and authors
- Access to the ad-free, members-only e-mail discussion list for member networking
- Private online area for building our institutional memory and connecting with other members
- Access to publishing professionals — editors, designers, indexers, book shepherds — people who can help you over the rough spots
- Discounted admission to our annual awards program and publishing conference
- Private directory, formatted for print, with members’ contact information
- Your books and website promoted on the NCPA site
- Backlinks from our public, online directory to your website help raise your ranking in search engines
- Annual scholarship, in association with IBPA, for one member to attend the Publishing University held each year just before BookExpo America
- Links to a wealth of publishing resources (suggest links)
- Discounted membership in national publisher associations
- 10% discount on writing courses with UC Davis Extension
- The use of the NCPA logo for your website
Affiliates
As a NCPA member you also receive special perks and discounted membership from our affilates, IBPA and SPAN.
IBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association is the largest nonprofit trade association representing independent publishers of books, audio tapes, videotapes, and CDs.
The Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) is a nonprofit professional trade association that will show you how to make — and save — money.
