Question on POD companies...please.

Hi, all.

One of my coauthors and I are planning on releasing our novel as an e-book, probably around the first part of March.

We are also throwing around the idea of the POD option for hard copies. I know all of the arguments both ways...so I don't want to get a heated discussion ignited about the value of POD's. We will market locally with this book--sales to friends, etc.

Which of the POD publishers have any of you had experience with? Any comments?
I'd surely appreciate the feedback on this one...

Rhett,

You've got a PM.

Rhett,

I had reasonable experiences with both Lulu and iUniverse. iUniverse costs a fair amount, but at least they layout and format the book properly. One has to do that himself on Lulu.

Lulu is inexpensive since--as far as I know--they only charge for the ISBN. With them, you have the option of having your book come out under the Lulu imprint or making up an imprint of your own. They're slightly harder to work with than they used to be now that they've taken away their live chat.

Malcolm

The serious way to do it is Lightning Source.   The easiest way to do it is Lulu.com.  There isn't a whole lot inbetween.  Those companies that charge to publish you are almost universally scamsters.  Lin's Law for SelfPublishers: Talk to printers first. Find out the most cost-effective format, layout, etc.  One thing you will find out, if you're running less than 1000 to 1500 copies, you're better doing it digitally than offset printing.  Which is what POD is, actually.  Photocopy technology.  There are good short run printers around online and in most US cities who have the capability for both.  

Thanks to all of you for your reponses. We're doing a side-by-side analysis so we can make a decision. I like the idea of not having to warehouse a bunch of printed books. For our purposes, the POD route makes sense.

A while back, Amazon's strong-arm tactics to force publishers to use its in-house Book Surge got a lot of play in the press and on writers forums.

What's getting less play is the fact that Baker & Taylor is currently doing this to books printed via Lightning Source. They want publishers to use their in-house printer. Like Amazon's tactics, this is absurd on the face of it since books come from all over the world and nobody's going to do special printruns to please one distributor.

Without Baker & Taylor, it's difficult to get into libraries, and their current tactics not only impact those who go to them directly, but small mainstream presses and self-publishing outfits as well. It's a shame.

Malcolm

How about Createspace? Or Outskirts Press? There's another one out there whose name I can't remember that sounds like an improved version of PublishAmerica. Lifewrite or something like that....

There are also start-up small presses... that might be looking for material.

Createspace is different, not comparable to any of the others.  It hooks you right onto amazon.  But takes a huge bite of the retail price.Outskirts I consider on the bubble.  They aren't totally evil.  (Even though Writers Digest has been sending out spam pimping them) but any service you buy from them other than producing books is exorbitant.I talked to a guy at the conference this weekend who explained to my why author house is pretty much universally considered a ripoff, but you see some serious people like him who used it:  they changed some years ago, got bought by hypesters who fired everybody who knew publishing and set up a call center in the Phillipines to push their services and are not really workable anymore.

Hard to know what to do...
I know we plan on releasing as an e-book, but we would like the hardcopy capablility, too.

I guess I am just tired of all the waiting...
I am represented by an agent, she just didn't want to take on a vampire parody. I have emailed several agents, and only one has replied with a very polite refusal. With two books traditionaly published--for what that's worth--it would seem as if I might be able to merit some kind of response. Not trying to sound less than humble, at all...

So. E-book. Then onward from there.

It's an approach that makes a lot of sense.   And if you do the eBook yourself...which is far from rocket science...you have complete control of the rights and can reassign them at any time. Take a long look at Smashwords, and at making a pdf and putting it on your own site. If the book is extremely short, look at Virtual Tales.

Thanks, Lin.
I am going with smashwords. I spent last weekend reformatting and fighting Word for control. I used some of my photography to design the cover. It turned out pretty nice, I think...for an amateur.

I'll let you all know when we launch it on smashwords. I may hold of on the POD and try for an indy for the print version. Hopefully, releasing it as an ebook won't dash hopes of seeing it in hard copy. Wouldn't think so...

Rhett

Hi Madhatter,

This seem to be really an old post but I still like to contribute. Most authors I have work with are publishing in CreateSpace because of Amazon and their EDC or Expanded Distribution Channel.