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“Currently unavailable.” When you read this on Amazon’s website you can be sure it is a POD Book. Amazon assigns many of those out-of-stock books an availability status of 2-3 weeks. And no one wants to wait that long when ordering on the internet…
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POD (Print on Demand) services call it “self-publishing” – but there are important differences between a POD service and true self-publishing. They are in fact VERY EXPENSIVE PRINTERS – NOT PUBLISHERS! POD printers are producing the book only when ordered. What are the differences?
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Rights
TRUE self-publishing: all rights remain with the writer, who has full ownership of her work, including the ISBN number.
POD services: mostly owns the ISBN and the author has a very limited claim on digital and/or electronic publishing rights.
Control
TRUE self-publishing: the writer controls all aspects of the publishing process, cover art, print style, pricing etc.
POD services: choices are typically limited to their service package
Book Sales
TRUE self-publishing: the author keeps all proceeds from sales.
POD services: they keep most of the sales proceeds to cover printing costs, and pays the author a small percentage of royalty, usually from the books NET price.
The POD Cons:
- Books from POD services are expensive and may be of poor physical quality.
- There are lots of extra fees, such as renewal fees, distribution fees, extra charges for non-template cover designs, charges for proof corrections etc.
- Royalty income may be less as it is mostly based on the books NET PRICE, the retail price less discounts and/or all the publisher’s overhead.
- Your book will receive only wholesale distribution, and mainly sold online, Booksellers don’t like dealing with POD services.
- You do not get an advance – YOU have to pay an advance to the POD company, it just doesn’t make sense economically
- Marketing consists often only on listing on the company’s website and with various online booksellers, sometimes in a wholesaler’s catalogue. Many POD services offer “marketing packages or media kits” for an extra (high) fee – a total waste of money!
POD Pros:
It is only recommendable if you:
- need galleys, or for short-run publishing and specialty markets
- want to print small non-fiction projects such as lectures or workshops
- want to create a recipe book, a family memoir, genealogy etc.
- bring back out-of-print books into circulation
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Who is the publisher?
It is the one who owns the ISBN for a book. If the author applied for and paid for the ISBN in his or her own name, then no matter who produces and sells the book, the author has become the publisher of record, an authentic self-publisher!
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Listen to the truth behind POD “publishing” or read more articles about this topic:
http://www.writersandeditors.com/self_publishing_and_print_on_demand__pod__57417.htm
http://beforeyoupublishyourbook.com/2011/07/22/the-truth-about-print-on-demand-publishing/
http://www.writergazette.com/content/pros-and-cons-self-publishing-print-demand
http://fonerbooks.blogspot.ca/2005/08/printing-offset-vs-print-on-demand.html
Do you have any experiences with POD publishing and how much was each soft cover book you ordered from them?
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Author Beware: Unauthorized Resellers of ISBNs
An Important Message Bowker which is the exclusive U.S. ISBN Agency source of publisher prefixes and ISBN numbers for eligible publishers:
“Please be aware that there are unauthorized re-sellers of ISBNs, and that this activity is a violation of the ISBN standard and of industry practice. Only companies you designate as your publisher should assign ISBN’s to your publications from their block of ISBN’s.”
“Bowker provides information and advice on the uses of the ISBN System to publishers and the book trade, and promotes the use of the Bookland EAN bar code format. In addition to their ISBN prefixes, publishers also register their titles with Bowker for inclusion in the “Books In Print” databases (worldwide). See also:
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/important-expose-your-book-to-the-world/
You may encounter offers from other sources to purchase single ISBNs at special offer prices. Companies that provide limited services such as distributing, retailing, bar code services, printing, and/or marketing should NOT assign ISBN’s from their company to your publications – unless you allow them to also hold publishing rights. If you use one of these reassigned ISBN’s, you will not be correctly identified as the publisher of record in “Books in Print” or many of the book industry databases. The result may be extensive costs to apply for a new ISBN and the application of stickers to books already printed and in circulation.”
For the correct address to obtain your ISBN number in the USA and Great Britain & Ireland, Australia or Canada (where ISBN numbers are free!) go to:
http://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/isbn-numbers-and-how-to-get-one/
“If you are a new publisher, you should apply for your own ISBN publisher prefix from the US ISBN Agency. Assigning ISBNs from your own ISBN publisher prefix will identify you as the publisher of your titles, and link your contact information to the specific publisher identifier. This will ultimately aid in circulating your books properly in the industry supply chain.
If you have any questions about re-sellers of ISBNs, do not hesitate to contact the US ISBN Agency for further advice. If you are a self-publisher who has already purchased an ISBN from a re-seller, and you are experiencing problems or need advice, please contact the US ISBN Agency at isbn-san@bowker.com.”
My comment:
There are “aggregators” or “POD publishers”, how they call themselves, that are purchasing ISBN numbers in bulk for $1 a piece! and sell them to authors for a “special” of $25! for one ISBN – a mark-op of 2,000 percent! I wrote about this unethical practice already month’s ago, just search under “Writer Beware” on this blog.
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Hyper Smash
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Posted by ebooksinternational on June 8, 2012 in comment on posts, googling social, join the conversation, posting, Publishing, Writer Beware
Tags: block of ISBN's, book industry database, Books in Print, Bowker, how to get an ISBN, ISBN number, publishing rights, who owns the ISBN