Helping Publishers Sell More Books in More Ways
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Hi Jennifer,
The answer depends on how many books you need and whether or not your book will be sold on Amazon or is for private use. There are hundreds of printers. Some specialize in short runs with no Amazon connection. Others, such as LightningSource.com and CreateSpace.com can print small quantities and put your book on Amazon as well. Please provide more details and I can answer with more targeted advice.
Thanks,
Michele
1106 Design.com
Book design and self-publishing advice. With hand-holding.
Thanks for the great advice. I have already checked out the sites and I am weighing my options.
Jennifer
Michele is correct--there are a number of variables to consider. The answer also depends very much on your definition of "small." If the book is in a small or unusual size/format (i.e., 6x6, hardcover, 32 pages), your choices become more limited. I ran into this issue when printing a small devotional book in hardcover, with a small number of pages, and with 6" by 6" pages.
The choices in the U.S. were very limited for a variety of reasons. Most printers simply would not produce a book with those parameters. A couple of others were willing to do so, but in order to get the price to an affordable level I would have had to print 6,000 or more in the initial printing, and that was out of the question. Also, since the page count was very low, it was hard to find someone who could put that in a casebound format, but because it was poetry interspersed with pen-and-ink illustrations, the layout was crucial and I could not just increase the font size to make for a thicker book.
In the end, I had to use a printer in India, using very thick paper, to get the book to an affordable cost point (even taking overseas cargo shipping into account). The printing production quality was spotty, with about 15% of the books of such poor quality (failed bindings, smears, etc.) that I had to discard them, but again, even with that taken into account, the final per-book cost was lower than it would have been by having it printed in the U.S. Had I printed them in the U.S., I would have had to price the books at over $25 each retail, in order to make any profit at all and pay royalties to the author. 32-page gift books of inspirational poetry by an unknown author seldom sell at that price.
Thanks Tony,
I have several small books (40 to 100 pages) that I have worked on for years. I think they are ready to be published, but I was looking for the best price. Thanks for giving me some additional options to think about.
Good morning Joe,
Thanks for the offer. I will call once I decide which books I am going to print first and I need to make sure my manuscrit is complete.
Thanks to all of you for the great advice. I am so happy that I found this forum. I have nearly 30 books that I have started, but have gotten discouraged in the past because I did not know where to go. I have found so much good advice on SPAN that I feel I can actually do this.
Thanks again!
@Tambra: You're very welcome! Hand-holding is the best part of my job!
@Jennifer: You might also look into LightningSource.com, which allows you to set your retail discount lower than CreateSpace. They're owned by Ingram, so their extended distribution is less expensive than that offered by CreateSpace. Some of the "self-publishing companies" charge a high cost for each copy of the book because they print at Lightning Source. I once talked to a new publisher who paid $8.90 for a 200-pg softcover book from some POD outfit I'd never heard of. The price at Lightning was $3.90. The bottom line is you don't need a "self-publishing company" to self-publish. Once you have worked with editorial and design experts to craft your book to industry standards, POD printing (without the snake oil) is available to everyone.
Michele DeFilippo
1106Design.com
Book design and self-publishing advice. With hand-holding.
We can help. Snowfall Press is a digital print on demand company. Our prices are very competitive at $1.25 for the cover and $.01 per page. A 200 page book is $3.25 for one copy (6x9 or smaller). We print any trim between 4x6 and 8.5x11.
We believe we can offer some additional benefits:
If you would like to learn more about what we do, please visit our website at http://snowfallpress.com