Print on Demand
Does anyone out there have experience with print-on-demand services, such as Lulu or others? If so, I'd like to hear about them. Molly and I are considering doing a project next year and we're considering POD as an option. I'm interested to learn more about production quality, getting an ISBN, etc. Thanks in advance.
posted by RL @ 10:11 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
never used it myself, but iUniverse makes great looking books, provided you know how to give them high-res art. they also have options that include distribution (always a bugbear for self-publishers!) and even some with publicity (though, i'd skip that and do it myself if i were you).
i bought Li Bloom's book Radish, which she did with iUniverse and it's lovely, really! i believe they will send you samples too.
cafe press does POD, but they censor--dan's Dick or Ball logo t-shirt for instance, was yanked down within a day. boo, hiss, censorship!
Speaking as a Barnes & Noble bookseller:
While print-on-demand may achieve your initial simple goal of getting a book published, you're paying up the wazoo for said title and, depending on who you get as a distributor, you won't be able to have readings/get your books into B&N's because they're non-returnable for the stores.
It might be worth the effort to find a small, small press who has distribution through, say, Ingram or the like to help publish it.
Shanna, Michael, thank you.
I should probably clarify by saying that Molly and I would be the publishers of this project, which would be small on scale, we would like the ability of having it available to purchase via Amazon & B&N online. I would not expect any major bookseller to stock this book.
Looking at Lulu, it seems like for an affordable fee we could get an ISBN number. As far as paying for distribution and doing a print-run, that's more of an investment we'd be willing/able to make.
The reason POD seems appealing is that there's minimal up-front costs (we won't get stuck with 1000 copies if they don't sell) and the book would stay in print indefinitely. We would do most of the promotion/publicity ourselves.
But I've just started researching this possibility.
Make sure that whatever you are publishing is more than 50 pages (check with Lulu) so that when you buy the ISBN (not the basic ISBN but the more expensive one) which will allow you then to have your book become available also through amazon.com and other bookstores---email me and I will try to copy and paste the info for your from lulu.
d.
The person to contact is Kevin Walzer, founder of WordTech Editions, which is a PoD press. I think his blog is at www.kevin-walzer.com.
Someone, yes, I'm familiar with and admire Word Press. I'm not looking to start my own press and take on all of those responsibilities, just looking for options for one project.
Didi, so far Lulu is looking pretty good. I received my MiPo companion last week.
I keep hearing good things about www.bookmobile.com. They're on moi list to check out as I also wish to explore POD....so do please post on your research results as regards POD.
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