Publish Central! Forum Online and Print on Demand (PO..

what are you telling us here?

Uh not really telling but, this thread was opened to talk about issues with onlin and POD/vanity printing. If you are curious just ask about it and hopefully someone will post.

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Print on Demand lot of companies do this Lulu and Amazon being to main ones if you have just one book you would like to publish and can’t find a publisher this might be your best option.  The costs differ, Amazon POD company is cheaper and they do a fee structure.  Technically with Amazon you do not have to pay an upfront fee, but for under £50.00 there are advantages if you do.  The problem with print on demand for authors is the cost to produce each book.  I did a costing for an author on a pretty standard short paperback the cost to produce each book is about £6.00 so you then need to price your book accordingly and this might price you out of the market.  Both companies give you a platform to sell your book, but again you need to look at the actual costs this entails.  You will need to think about things like artwork and doing your own editing and proofreading.  There are companies that will do this for you but again the cost can be quite high.  Basic editing and proofread can cost you more that £400.00 on a very short novel and if you want substantive editing this is more expensive. 

Vanity Publishing being careful what I say because anyone who knows me, knows I'm not keen on this form of publishing.  A lot of companies hide the fact that they are vanity publisher by advertising for authors or saying that they will edit and publish your book for a fee Or one company starts there ad with Find a book publisher now don't be tempted.  Whatever they are calling it and one company describes it as Indy publishing you could spend a lot of money.  Once they've produced your book, some expect you to buy a certain amount of copies, you are left with how to sell them yourself.  With the best will in the world most authors or not marketing or sales experts.  Think carefully and remember that editing standards vary so you could find that you have spent thousands and still have an unpolished product with nowhere to sell it.

Vampire Publishers these are the worse of the lot; they prey on the innocent and suck the life out of their credit card.  If any publishing company asks for you credit card number, in case there are any extra costs, say NO.  These companies are out there and on the surface they look like regular publishing companies.  Basically anyone asking you for money upfront should be viewed with caution.

I hope you find this helpful if you want help costing POD let me know.

Thanks for that info, vamplit. I knew about the vanity publishers, but this is helpful all the same.

Hey everybody, this is just throwing a topic out but has anyone had any experience working with Lulu.com I noticed a couple of writers talk about this service but I was just curious if anyone had any thoughts or advice.

When I wanted to have my poetry bound into a book without having to print a ton of books I didn't need I used lulu's free service. I didn't get the distribution package as I didn't need it. However, the experience was a complete nightmare. I never could get the book to format correctly, even with their template. That may be due to the fact that I am not exactly computer savvy, but it still left me with a bad tasted in my mouth.

Now they've got some new publishing packages that include formatting, but I've not heard how they are yet.