Thread: Print on Demand companies?

I've had a few books available through a company called AuthorHouse for a number of years, but for various reasons I want to leave them. I'm able to do all of the interior and exterior formating myself and produce print-ready files, so I'm trying to find a company that can handle just the printing and distribution, while still producing a high-quality finished product.

The AuthorHouse books are beautiful, high-quality, but they apparently have a huge markup on the printing, I want to be able to sell my books for less. I'd also rather not have to pay a $600 setup fee when I do literally all the work myself.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Rick,

I recommend Amazon's Create Space. https://www.createspace.com

If you know how to upload your cover and contents, it's easy. If not, they give detailed instructions. Only drawback is that you must be able to convert to .pdf, and might have to purchase a program to do that.

There is absolutely no cost until you order the proof copy(ies). Very good printing quality-if you don't like what you get, you can stop right there and be out less than 10 bucks. Once you've approved it, you click to publish and your book will appear on Amazon.com. You can buy copies for personal sales or promotion at a reasonable price and, if you pay a 39.00 "Pro Plan" fee, the cost drops dramatically and you will probably recoup the money on your first order. Order several copies at a time and postage drops low on a per copy basis. You can also "drop-ship" a copy to reviewers, etc.

Then go to Amazon's Kindle Platform https://kdp.amazon.com and publish in Kindle Format, which will also post on Amazon.com

After that, I suggest you publish an e-book through Smashwords Smashwords - Ebooks from independent authors and publishers and it'll show up on sales outlets all over the web. I've sold more copies on Smashwords than on Amazon or thru the small publishers who have handled my books in the past, but of course E-book royalties are lower.

Then you start on your second book - How I kicked myself in the butt for ever publishing with Author House.

I suggest all SERIOUS authors considering a vanity publishing house to consider your options. They'll take a huge cut of your profit, charge you some sort of 'fee,' not bother to edit your book, and do very little to promote you. Of course, if you've got money to waste and just want to impress your family and friends, and don't want to do any work on your own, vanity houses will serve just fine.

For both types of authors, unless you want to embarass yourself with a book full of typos and spelling errors. I'd strongly advise getting a good editor to read and revise your manuscript. That last advice is self-serving, in a way, since I'm a free-lance editor. But it's still TRUE.

Take care,

John Bushore

I'll second CreateSpace. I published my book through them last winter and have been very happy with the results.

I think Smashword is a good place to publish your book in an ebook format. The thing about Smashword is, they don't publish your book in print format.

What kind of cost/volume do createspace charge? Im already on Kondle with my first book so already formatted but I would quite like a few hard copies for local distribution etc

I am currently dealing with a print on demand company. They produce a good end product but I wonder sometimes just to go totally indie and upload my stories myself via amazon and the like. Just end up outsourcing to an editor for the editing and then upload my work to the Ereaders myself.

Lulu is all I've tried -- no fee at all to make the books or offer them for sale -- the only fee is for printing, which works out to somewhere near 7 dollars a book(depending on dimensions/length) plus 5 shipping on the whole order. And there is no minimum order. You can mark the price up all you want higher than that.

I've never tried createspace -- just wanted to share another option.

Originally Posted by Powderhound

What kind of cost/volume do createspace charge? Im already on Kondle with my first book so already formatted but I would quite like a few hard copies for local distribution etc

Createspace is extremely affordable. All you pay for are your proof copies (about $9.00 each for my 114,000 word [345 page] novel) and then after you approve the proof books are sold on a per book basis with no minimum quantities to buy. There are price breaks for larger quantities, but the per book price, even in small lots, is only a few dollars -- less than $6 in my case. You can pay $39 up front and get a further price break per book.

Terry D, Thanks for the info, as I'm in the far east I should bite the bullet and find out how much they charge here, my only concern is the language barrier, you don't always end up with what you ask for!

I have had positive experiences with CreateSpace so far. I used them to print my first children's picture book that was full color and full bleed and the results were pretty good. Nice fast turnaround as well.

My experience is that the quality of POD books (glue/binding) from Lighting Source is a little better than CreateSpace.

I don't like the Createspace terms and conditions, where they claim first digital rights for Amazon. Apart from that they're good for people living in the USA but not so good for people living outside as there can be taxation problems and either they withhold 30% or there's a longwinded process involved in bypassing that.

Lulu is a far better global option, with none of the problems over terms and conditions or over taxation. The drawback with Lulu is that it can take up to three months to see books appear in the Amazon listings. Once Amazon do show them then they always appear as "in stock". This is because there is a franchise deal and Lulu publications ordered through Amazon are actually printed by Createspace.