How much will you earn - your royalties?
We will normally offer your book to the trade (Amazon or high-street bookshops) at the published price minus a discount of somewhere between 30-55%, though 40% is usual (this is how the distributors make their profit). From the remaining 60% we deduct the printing costs. We then pay you 95% of what's left - these are your royalties. What happens to the other 5% you ask? Well, once we've covered the cost of the transaction, that's how we make our profit! The cost of each book to print is about 1p a page and 70p for the cover.
An example
Assuming a 300 page book has a cover price of £15.00. Deduct the wholesaler's normal discount of 40% = £6.00 and you are left with £9.00. Take off the printing cost of 300 x 0.01p = £3.00 and the cost of the cover at 0.70p and you are left with £5.30. Deduct our 5% = 0.22p and you are left with £5.07, not bad for all that hard work, eh?
Distribute your book privately?
Of course! You pay the printing costs as above, plus postage and £1.25 per transaction. Finally we add a 5% surcharge to cover our costs and profit.
Once the proof has been approved, the book could be ready for distribution within a week, though it may be several weeks
Selling your book commercially, means a good cover - it's what sells the book in the first instance and lends it credibility.
Unfortunately, you are not the best person to check your manuscript for these errors.