Self-Publishing, Print on Demand, and You
On Wednesday, December 3, 2008, I gave a presentation about self-publishing and POD to Clive Matson’s “Getting Published” writers’ group. I’ve reproduced my handout here. Click the “play” button below for the recording. If you pay close attention, you can hear me make a mortifying grammar gaffe: I said “have chose” instead of “have chosen.”
The recorder shut down before we had finished the discussion, which went on for quite some time, but after we had moved from the topic of POD to other aspects of marketing a book.
The example of POD success leading to a contract with a major publisher is Terry Fallis’ book The Best-Laid Plans.
The Handout
Traditional Self-Publishing
- Higher up-front costs, but lower per-book cost (offset printing)
- You’ [podcast]http://authorizer.fileslinger.com/audio/Matson-12-03-2008.mp3[/podcast]re responsible for storage and distribution (shipment)
Print on Demand
- Lower up front costs, but higher per-book cost (digital printing)
- POD company prints and ships books as needed
Costs Author Pays Either Way
- Copyediting
- Book design and typesetting
- Cover design
- Proofreading
- ISBN/Bar code
Podcasting Your Book
- Inexpensive, but time-consuming
- Builds audience/platform (might lead to publishing contract)
- Best for fiction, poetry
Some POD Companies
- Booksurge/Amazon (www.booksurge.com)
- iUniverse (www.iuniverse.com)
- Lightning Source/Ingram (www.lightningsource.com)
- Lulu (www.lulu.com)
- MagCloud POD magazines (www.magcloud.com)
Read
- The Self-Publishing Manual, by Dan Poynter
- The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, by Mark Levine
Listen
- The Writing Show (www.writingshow.com)
- Publishing Basics Radio (www.wbjbradio.com)
- The Publishing Insiders (www.blogtalkradio.com/ThePublishingInsiders)
Visit
- http://delicious.com/authorizer/
(tags: bookmarketing, writing, ghostwriting, publishing, POD) - http://www.selfpublishing.com/
- http://www.podiobooks.com/
- http://misssnark.blogspot.com/
