Frequently asked questions
About Allegheny Boys LLC.
Q: What is Allegheny Boys LLC?
Allegheny Boys LLC is a West Virginia–based publishing company dedicated to producing high-quality, practical field guides about the ecology of the Appalachian Mountains. We focus on making books that are as useful in the field as they are beautiful on the shelf.
Our Authors & Publishing Agreements
Q: How does your publishing agreement work?
Our publishing agreements are designed to be simple, fair, and empowering for local authors. Here’s how it works:
Free Publishing Services – We handle formatting, editing, photo curation, cover design, and preparing your book for printing — at no cost to you.
Co-Selling Rights – Both you and Allegheny Boys LLC can sell the finished book. You can sell copies wherever you like, but all copies must be purchased directly from us at our printing charge rate (the cost of printing plus a small margin).
Price Consistency – We set both the wholesale and retail prices so that your book is sold consistently across all markets.
Author Ownership – You keep full ownership of your original writing, photos, or illustrations. We own the final assembled version of the book (the “Final Product”). If you leave the project, you can take your original work with you, but not the completed, ready-to-sell version we produced.
Lifetime Access – Even if you leave, you can still buy your book from us at our printing charge rate for as long as you want.
Q: Why is this approach unique?
Most traditional publishers keep all sales rights and pay authors royalties, while many self-publishing services require you to pay large upfront costs. Our model is different:
No upfront publishing fees – You start at zero cost.
Shared selling rights – You’re free to sell your book anywhere, without being locked into our sales channels.
Focus on real-world usefulness – We choose authors for their field experience, not just academic credentials, which means our guides are practical and relatable.
Protection for both parties – The contract lets authors retain ownership of their contributions while allowing us to continue selling the book we created together.
Q: Who are your authors?
Our authors are often local naturalists, outdoor educators, and enthusiasts who live and work in the Appalachian region. We value hands-on knowledge and the ability to teach identification skills in the real world, not just on paper.
Founders as Authors
Q: Are the founders of Allegheny Boys LLC also authors?
Yes! The founders of Allegheny Boys LLC are also writers of their own field guides, published through the same process we offer to other authors. Our first in-house title will be a field guide to the amphibians of the central Appalachians, covering West Virginia, Virginia, southwest Pennsylvania, and Maryland. This hands-on experience means we understand the challenges of field guide creation — from gathering field data to choosing the perfect photographs — and we’ve built our publishing process with authors’ needs in mind.
Q: How can I become an author with Allegheny Boys LLC?
If you have deep field knowledge of a plant or animal group in the Appalachian Mountains and are interested in turning it into a practical field guide, reach out to us via our “Write With Us” page. We’d love to hear your idea and discuss the possibility of working together.