.
.
“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…
.
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?
.
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
.
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!
.
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?
.
<><><><><>
.
If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/seminar
Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 740 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:
@111publishing
http://on.fb.me/TvqDaK
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+
.
Savvy Writers & e-Books online 