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Print-on-Demand publishing companies.
Hello Everyone,
This is The Fronde speaking. How are you all tonight? I just wanted to ask you all to share any knowledge and/or experiences you have regarding online publishing houses. My Jonetta and I both have works we would like to see in print, and I think self-publishing would be the way to go. Please post any information you may have.
What do you know about comparing/contrasting different companies?
What do you know about the process in general?
richhills, this especially goes out to you.
Sorry, I don’t really have any info. I know that candp are interested in this subject as well so I hope you invited them to this post too. Good luck and God bless
none999 invited 1 user to read this post 2 years, 5 months ago.
It looks like you can download Blurb’s Booksmart and make a test book (7″ by 7″) for only $12.95 plus shipping. I think I’m going to try it myself the next time I update my design portfolio.
Here is a summary of the big four (source: http://news.helpero.com/article/Print…):
Blurb.com
Customers who use Blurb have to download a special software, which lets them organize the text and photos. After that they send the specifications to the company, which prints the books in hardcover or soft.
Prices start at $18.95 for one small softcover and discounts start at 10 copies.
“If you order 10 copies, you get a 10 percent discount, 100 copies you get a 15 percent discount.” company founder Eileen Gittins said.
Many people use Blurb for personal projects. The company specializes in photo layouts with glossy paper and the look of a “coffee-table” book.
Lulu.com
Writers who are looking to print more literary works are using Lulu.
Lulu was founded by Bob Young, co-founder of software company Red Hat Inc. and allows customers to publish books ,school artwork ,yearbooks, calendars and other things.
Here we have an example as how good are printing online businesses for ordinary people:
Mark Wilkerson wrote a book and publishers that he choosed rejected him or asked him why he was qualified to write the book, the 618-page “Amazing Journey: The Life of Pete Townshend.”
“Lulu has been fabulous for me, because what else would I have done?” he said. “I was completely ignorant of the many facets of the publishing industry.”
Xlibris.com
It is a self-publishing company that works in a partnership with Random House’s investment unit.
You send your manuscript to the company, they work with you to format it and design the cover, and then the completed file is stored digitally. The book is then added to online bookstores like Amazon.com, Borders.com and others. When someone wants to buy a copy of your book, Xlibris ships it to the buyer.
iUniverse.com
iUniverse was founded in October 1999 and since then it has been helping authors in the United States and Canada to publish their work professionally, affordably and quickly.
“By offering a variety of affordable publishing, editorial, and marketing services, iUniverse helps authors get their manuscripts off their desks and into the marketplace.”
Both Xilibris and iUniverse offer more services, with packages from about $300 up to as much as $13,000.
So, in summary, you need to decide how much you are willing to spend on this project.
Do you want your book to be available on Amazon.com and Borders.com? Do you believe you can sell enough books to justify the cost of having Xlibris or iUniverse handle the shipping and professional publishing. You will want to look closely at the pricing structures to determine how many books you will need to sell to make a profit with a given company.
Or do you just want to print 20 copies and sell them out of your home to friends and family?
There are also places like www.cafepress.com that sorta publish books, but not really.
Well, first of all I congratulate that you have the gift of creative writing. The publishers usually want to check if your book is really worth selling. They do not want to invest money for it if there is any risk. One of the most ideal way for which you may go, which I would recommend as the best possible for all writers is the New York Literay Agency, Children Literary Agency. It says:
The New York Literary Agency: At the New York Literary Agency, we take pride in finding and developing fresh, new literary talent. We believe that just because you are a new writer …
www.newyorkliteraryagency.com
You may kindly send your script to them, they are the best one for you if you have lots of patience. It may take six months that your books get published. For details please log on their website. Thanks and good luck!
Thanks Limon and harmandersingh. Thats is really helpful.
Sorry i can’t help. I really wish i could.
Take care
-Jessica-
I have a client who’s self-published a book, and have asked her about her experiences. She says that most companies want all your royalties, and that she’s looking for a company now. I’ll update you as I hear from her.
Have you considered printing through Kinko’s?
You’re welcome, Jonetta. If you decide to do this, will you do me a favor and let me know what you learn? I’d be very interested to hear about it. Thanks.
Well, the Kinko seems a good option, however, it does not say about the selling the books. I would like to share that one may write many books and get it published. The writers are not usually good in marketting. If one refuses to buy their book, it may be the odd day for them. Thanks for your valuable guidance. All of you are doing a lot. Should not a group of writer publish a book about it with one article from each one. Sounds good, but we have to sell it to one another. Well, good luck and may God bless. Thanks!
I think I’d first try going to publishers.
Thank you Limon, for providing all that information and the links. This will no doubt help not only us but many others who come across this post. I will certainly share with you anything I learn about the process. I’m sure you have looked at all these websites as I have, and therefore we know all about the different companies and there plans and prices. We’ve learned all we can without actually doing it; the rest will have to be acquired hands-on.
One of my other main concerns at this point is learning how to prepare .pdf files for the high-speed digital printers used in the print-on-demand process. If I could become accomplished at this, then I could compile my own text, set my own fonts and margins, insert my own graphics, etc., and my projects would truly be “my books” in every sense of the word. I’d like to learn all about this part of the process, including how to make sure the .pdf file is not reformatted when it gets transfered to the publishers computer system. I’ve read that Microsoft Word is not well suited to this process. What programs ought one to use in order to prepare high-quality .pdf files, I wonder?
Thanks Oster. I’ve thought of doing the Jerry McGuire thing and taking the manuscript to Kinkos and just have them format, set, print, and bind the whole thing. The only problem with that is that I don’t believe Kinkos has the capacity to provide your book with an ISBN number. The print-on-demand publishers will do that, however. It’s usually included in the price of the basic package. ISBN numbers are used throughout the book selloing world to uniquely identify each book, auther, and edition. It’s the number used by retailers to order from wholesalers, and it’s also the way by which your book and its copyright are registered with the Library of Congress. Without an ISBN you only have a private printing, not a book that can be ordered form a bookstore or online. I know it’s possible to purchase a block of ISBN numbers for yourself to use, but this involves additional costs and I’m not sure how complicated the process can get.
I will definitely let everyone know how it goes, and any useful information I come across. Thank you all.
-Matt.
Adobe InDesign is pretty popular for books, but if you end up working with a publisher, they’ll likely want your manuscript in Word. InDesign does have an export to (or “save as”) PDF, with “For Press” presets. Your printer can provide specific PDF settings, as well as page size, margin/bleed settings, etc.
As Oster mentioned, Adobe InDesign seems a good choice for laying out a book if you are going the do-it-yourself route.
You may want to invest in a few professionally designed fonts. In my opinion, nothing sets apart a professional design from an amateur design more than typography. Also, if your book reflects a certain time period, you may want to choose a font from that period. Your poems deserve better than Arial or Comic Sans MS.
Here is an excerpt from The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst that I think you will appreciate:
“Typography exists to honor content. Like oratory, music, dance, calligraphy — like anything that lends its grace to language — typography is an art that can be deliberately misused. It is a craft by which the meanings of a text (or its absence of meaning) can be clarified, honored and shared, or knowingly disguised.”
Professional fonts are available here: http://www.linotype.com/
When fear of losing is absent and desire to possess is not there it may be love!
Dear writers and the well wishers for all, well, it seems that all of the reply reflect a great concern for one another. The ebooks can give one some popularity, however, it does not appear that one can earn as much as by publishing a book. As far as the formats and the other font with font size matters. It can be a great help from the people, who computerization of the books. They do it in the PageMaker (The Adobe category). The higher versions of the PageMaker has the facility even to lock the pages, which none can open. If one learns how to set a page size, the master page, the pasting from the word can go well. Though before doing it, each master page needs to be set for number of pages, which one wants to publish, say 64, 80,112 or 128.
In the PageMaker, the titles, layouts, page numbers, the title of the book/chapter of each left page, etc. goes quite well. If someone, who knows about PageMaker can help you do it. It is easy; you just need to ask someone. Just do it, and never worry. I have three books published with PageMaker. I hope it will be of great help if anyone can give the steps for it to you. I cannot help, as I do not know about the higher version of it. Wish you good luck.
Very much appreciated, harmandersingh. I will look into that and come back with an update on my progress.
Well, you see one more point that can help the writer is to become a self-publisher and distributor. This condition is useful if you have enough time and some people to send the orders. The usual way is that you publish at least 500 copies from your home country. The ISBN is a free if you just click on the International ISBN agency with name of your country. Just send them an application that you want to register your publication house. It is easy if you are sole proprietor (M/S). Otherwise, the process may be long. Then they will register it without any fee and send you a list of ISBN numbers, which you can use for publishing your book.
You have to send your ISBN number before publishing, once you receive it, you can publish your book. Then there are free websites helping writers to promote their works, so that the readers may contact them. The ISBN is a self-promoting way for each book. You may place books on the book stalls, contact libraries, ask the librarian about where to contact for the bulk orders, the salesman can sell your book with some commission, while placing the books in the libraries.
I must share that if the book is for good reading the salesperson can do all the work for you, and then you can be free for other works. I have done it for my books in my country and some sale abroad. I hope this information will be helpful if the ISBN in your country is similar to one in India. I wish you and other writers well for this somewhat easy going work as I have noticed that most of the writers are working laboriously, but without results. If you keep on sending your written material for acceptance one day, you may regret. There are only 5% of the submissions, which are published and sold.
However, in your home country, you may go for better results. You will reach to the readers not to the publishers. This is one of the cheap and risk free way for self-publishing. I hope so, and wish you all the best for your future. Please accept that the writers are literary assets of world, if they keep on begging for getting their books published, it may kill the child within, the original writer. Thanks!
Well, you see I am having a some trouble with publishing articles. It is to maintain the records, at Xomba.com, it says that I am earning author, but I have trouble with registering to AdSense, it does not accept phone nunmber, state, city and the pincode. I wonder if there is an easier online publisher as the Xomaba.com is, though they are excellent in their work, my problem still exists. May I seek your help please.
Cameron Moll recently wrote a great article on self-publishing. He published his book first as a PDF document and later a hard-copy version on Lulu.
Here is the article: http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2007/…
Jonetta
harmandersingh
apache tear
Oster: Gettin' It.
candp