- Choosing a Print-On-Demand (POD) Publisher
If you’ve been tossing around with the idea of self-publishing, make sure you’ve done your research before starting. Don’t expect all the answers to be laid out, plain and simple with a push button labeled “Publish.” When an author gets their book published by a traditional publisher, all the major decisions and equations are done automatically by the publisher. However, when self-publishing, there are a lot of decisions you will have to make and a lot of hats to wear. When you self-publish, you’re not only the author of the book, but you suddenly have to take on the role of the editor, the printer, the sales rep, the PR person and a lot more other positions. Although it is wise to get a team together or engage other professionals to assist in these areas, you are the ultimate publisher responsible for producing a quality book others will want to purchase. As daunting as this may sound, the good news is that in this digital age we live in, you can be sure to find a lot of answers and opinions online.
There are a lot of print-on-demand (POD) publishers out there, and because we are people of different views, needs, preferences, likes, demands and you name it, you will have to carefully check out and research each POD publisher to determine which one best fits your needs.
– At the moment, my two top choices are Lulu and CreateSpace (CS), with me leaning more toward CreateSpace.
Barnes & Noble’s Pub-It would have been my number one choice if I was looking mainly to sell an eBook. As with CS and some other PODs, publishing an eBook via B&N costs absolutely nothing from start to finish. The reason why I did not choose B&N for my chapter book is because B&N does not sell their POD books through B&N stores or BN.com. B&N expects authors to sell their POD books on their own. Although this is true in a sense for all PODs, majority POD publishers offer packages through which they will sell your book on their websites and distribute it through their specific venues. Again, you as the author will have to be on top of marketing your book. I may, however, consider publishing my romance novels via B&N’s Nook Press.
That said, I do recommend that anyone deciding on going through the self-publishing route read The Nook Press Print Platform Formatting Guide. It was the most comprehensive guide I found that explains in a clear way how to achieve the results needed to make a manuscript a print-ready PDF file. In addition, the guide also defines all those publishing “need-to-know” terms that baffle first-time authors.
My reason for going with CreateSpace (CS) is that like B&N, it provides free and easy tools to get your manuscript print-ready. Again, you will have to know what your needs are. When trying to decide what trim size or font size is best used for chapter books, I called CS and could not get an answer from the customer rep. My deciding factor for choosing CS is that books published via CS get wide distribution options. They are available through Amazon.com, Amazon Europe, your own eStore, Kindle and expanded distribution.
For more about CS services and royalties, check here: https://www.createspace.com/
For more about B&N eBook Publishing and Print Books, click here: https://www.nookpress.com/
https://print.nookpress.com/print-on-demand Click on the “Formatting Guide” link to access The Nook Press Print Platform Formatting Guide.
For an idea of POD publishers out there, see this list: http://www.booksandtales.com/pod/
Remember: A dream that you don’t fight for can haunt you for the rest of your life. (Robots Movie. 2005, Stanley Tucci)
Stay Blessed,
~Arama Christiana
