This article takes a close look at rapidly growing alternative to traditional publishing, Print on Demand (POD). I frequently see people equate POD as an industrial form of Kinko’s or some other document printing service and give it no further thought. They assume POD means a self-published book that a traditional publisher wouldn't sign, and that must mean the book is no good. Fortunately, for the author, self-publishing is becoming a real and viable means for publishing their work and actually make money from it. As little as two years ago, there was a black and white view toward self-publishing. That is no longer the case, and people in the industry with the ability to look past the traditional way of thinking are taking POD very seriously. So should you.
Print on demand is no longer just a way for an author to have their book professionally printed. It has become a new business model that favors the author. For once, the author can be in complete control and maintain all of the same chances of success that are possible when signing a contract with a publisher using the traditional business model. To understand these business models better and gain a deeper insight into the publishing industry, read my article, The Future of Publishing. This article focuses on the new business model and how to take advantage of it.
It's important to realize that POD no longer means simply having your book professionally printed. The POD industry is just as complex as signing with a traditional publisher and careful thought and consideration needs to go into using a POD provider. Most POD companies can now be classified as publishers and not just a printing service, and as such are becoming serious competition for traditional publishers. This is great for the author. Competition breeds opportunity, and the opportunity for the author is a much larger piece of the pie.
The misconception that POD is strictly used by an individual author for self-publishing is a common mistake. Many independent, traditional publishers also use POD, many exclusively. For the immediate future, POD will gain in popularity and use exponentially. Unfortunately, this new business model will also change as the popularity of eBooks and eReaders rise (see The Future of Publishing), however for the immediate future, POD and self-publishing will gain in popularity and actually be the precursor to the digital business model that is sure to happen.
The topics covered in this article are:
· Why should you self-publish?
· What is POD?
· Why is POD becoming a mainstream industry?
· What do POD publishers really offer?
· Is your publisher an unnecessary third party?
· What should you look for in a POD publisher?
There are three things I'd like to emphasize before getting to the individual topics.
1. A publishing contract is not a golden ticket.
I, like many, assumed that if you received a book contract there was a good chance that wealth and fame were sure to follow. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, unless you’re a celebrity or an established author with a large fan base, more than likely you’ll spend more money than you earn. On average, 3,000 new titles are published each day. This includes all types of books, not just fiction. The real and raw truth is that very few books make money.
Out of the 1.2 million titles tracked by Bookscan.com in 2006:
· Almost 80% sold fewer than 100 copies
· 16% sold fewer than 1,000 copies
· Only 2% sold over 5,000 copies
These statistics are sobering and sometimes defeating, but before you give up, understand that the industry is changing, and the changes are all in favor of the author and consumer. With proper planning and execution, your writing can make you money.
These numbers, statistics, and the reasons behind them are a study all on their own, and I don’t address them here. If you’d like to know more statistics and the current state of publishing, I highly recommend visiting this site, http://thefutureofpublishing.com (not to be confused with my aforementioned study). This site is a great resource to see the numbers and statistics that show the stark reality of making money off your book. The site also has in-depth coverage on the future of publishing across all markets.
2. You are an artist and all you need to do is produce your art.
This has never been true, and I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people moan that all they want to do is write—let someone else take care of all that other stuff. If you aren’t willing to get heavily involved in the marketing of your work, you’re wasting your time. The amount of effort required by the author in participating in the marketing of their work is proportional to their popularity and access to money. A beginning author will be required to expend more effort on marketing than the famous, wealthy author does. With money, you can hire people to do much of the work for you. If you’re a popular and recognized author, then quite often just your name on the cover sells the book. I suppose an author such as J.K. Rowling can spend the vast majority of her time writing, but even someone of her status and wealth has to take time out to interact with her fans, publicists, and marketing staff. You must treat your writing like a business and you are the CEO. You will need to learn about every aspect of your business and invest time and effort in activities other than writing. Embrace this fact and your chances of success are much higher.
3. POD is not just for self-published authors.
POD is gaining in popularity quickly, and for good reasons. POD makes very good business sense and I’ll talk more about that. More than likely, if you sign a publishing contract with a small publisher, they are going to use a POD provider rather than offset printing. Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers are jumping on the POD bandwagon. POD is no longer just associated with the self-published author who could not get an agent or a contract for whatever reasons. Be aware of this or you may find yourself handing over the majority of your royalties to someone who adds little or no value to your success.
The reason most people choose to self-publish is simple, no one else seems to be interested in publishing it for you. It could be because you're work is so bad that it really shouldn't be committed to paper and offered to any one for reading. I'm going to assume, however that you're book is worthy, has merit, and deserves a chance to be discovered and read. Why then, won't anyone give you a shot? Why does it seem as though no one is even reading those hundred query letters you sent out?
The traditional publishing model is undergoing a massive change; even industry insiders are confused and unclear what the new model will look like. At a recent writer’s convention it became abundantly apparent from listening to the industry speakers that they were not doing business as usual, and in fact they were not sure what the future held. Fortunately, the recording industry provides us with an idea of what is to come. You can read about this in my study, The Future of Publishing and I recommend reading it first. As an author in today’s world, you need to be aware of how the landscape is shifting or you will waste valuable time in your attempts to become a successful author.
Traditional publishers are losing money. Their business model no longer works and they are offering fewer and fewer contracts each day. Even if you do receive a contract, the vast majority of marketing will be up to you. Why should you give away 70%-90% of your royalties to someone who will do nothing to help your book sell? Don’t let the fear of the unknown cost you a significant portion of your success. Most authors don’t even know where to start when it comes to marketing, or even getting their book printed, registered, and available for sale. That’s understandable, it’s just not your thing, but the knowledge is out there, free and readily available. If you’re not willing to do a little research then I would have to question your capability as a good writer to begin with. I know that sounds harsh, but somebody has to say it.
You’ve developed your first, second, or third book. It may be a paranormal romance between a rotting zombie and a lonely widow, a how to book on raising alligators as pets, your life story—truthfully told, a children’s story about two dogs and an unopened can of Spam, or one hundred beautiful shots of butterfly’s. Whatever it is, it’s your labor of love, and you think there’s an audience for it. You’re goal may be the bestsellers list, a guest spot on Oprah, or just connect with people who love alligators. It doesn’t matter, there’s no one to tell you it’s silly, approve the artwork, or change the ending and add a car chase. It doesn’t matter because if you choose to self-publish, you are in complete control.
This can be good or bad. The ability to have anything published has spawned a mass of unreadable travesties and has given self-publishing a bad rap, and unfairly so. The laws of nature assure that abysmal self-published books don’t succeed. People are intelligent enough to recognize work that is garbage and meaningless, ensuring self-published trash never truly sees the light of day. Good books, however will sell, provided you do your marketing.
There are an increasing number of success stories about self-published work, the stigma is beginning to wear off, and the automatic response that if your work is self-published then it can’t be any good is diminishing. The fact that it is becoming more and more difficult to be published has turned quite a few very talented people into the arms of self-publishing, and with hard work, they are selling books and making a name for themselves. In order to accommodate these talented folks, self-publishing companies have grown in demand and the services they now offer rival most traditional, mainstream publishers. The fact that traditional publishing is floundering and now faces serious competition is in my opinion, their fault. Too many good books and writers have been ignored or turned away while agents and publishers chased after celebrities or the next big thing. They ignored the fact that ten good books with modest sales were just as good as one big hit. Okay, I’ll step off my soapbox now.
Let’s remember the numbers and statistics again. Becoming a best seller and selling thousands of copies of your book is statistically challenging. If it happens, then good for you, but most likely it won’t. Rare is the author that makes a fortune off one book. There are, however a number of authors who after publishing a number of books begin to make a decent living. It’s called multiple streams of income, and its how many people become wealthy. If you sit on your one good book, hoping and praying for that publishing contract, it’s not making you a dime. If you go ahead and self-publish, the book may start to earn royalties and you can get on with your life and write the next one, and so on. Eventually, with marketing and patience, you may find yourself with ten published titles (or more), each earning a modest income yearly. Add that up and you might be able to quit your day job.
Okay, why should you self-publish?
· The traditional business model of publishing is broken.
· You remain in complete control of your work.
· You maintain all of the rights to your labor of love.
· If your book sells, the amount of money you’ll make is significantly higher. At that point, the publishers may approach you and you might realize you don’t need them.
· You’re going to be responsible for much, if not all of the marketing anyway, so why give a percentage of your success to someone who does very little for you.
· It’s never been easier to have your book published professionally without giving away the farm.
· Instead of waiting for rejection letters, you can be working on your next book.
Print on Demand differs from traditional offset printing in many ways. The primary difference is the technology used. With the ability to produce and format a document using software and the technological advances in printers, there is less of a need for offset printing.
Offset printing requires the creation of a physical template for each page of a book, and then with machinery, thousands of copies are printed in minutes, if not seconds. Most magazines, newspapers, hardcover, or mass-market books are still created using offset printing. Whenever there is a need to produce large quantities of a publication, offset printing is used. If your book becomes a hit, you can always turn to offset printing to fill those orders.
What if, however only ten or one hundred copies of a publication are needed? The cost to setup a physical template for each page becomes cost prohibitive. This is where POD began to gain popularity. Technology allows the reproduction of these smaller quantities without any set-up or tear down costs. Twenty copies of one publication can be produced, and then sixty copies of a completely different publication can be produced without changing out equipment or templates.
Offset printing is still less expensive and faster than POD technology, but only when dealing with large quantities of a publication where the cost of creating templates can be absorbed.
Technology has advanced to the point where a perfect-bound copy of a book can be produced without using offset printing, and since there are no setup or teardown activities required, a few clicks of a mouse produces the desired publication on demand.
We live in the digital age, and POD makes perfect business sense. As stated previously, of the several hundred thousand new titles published every year only a very small percentage sell more than 5,000 copies. In order to make offset printing cost effective, large runs of 5,000 or more are required. This can cost the publisher $10,000 to $20,000 if not more. A publisher may have a book with high expectations and generate an order for 10,000, 20,000, or even 100,000 copies, and I’m only addressing paperback copies in regards to costs. Hardback copies obviously cost much more.
Booksellers have a longstanding agreement with publishers; if a book doesn’t sell, they can send it back to the publisher for a complete refund. In the case of mass-market paperbacks, the bookseller is only required to send the back cover of the book. Think about it, the publisher laid out possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce large quantities of a book and if it doesn’t sell, the book is mangled and useless. For every book published that does not sell, the publisher takes a loss.
Copies of a book also have another requirement, storage space. A business pays by the square foot for space, whether it’s for an office, machinery, or warehousing. A publisher with several hundred, or a thousand, titles with print runs of 5,000 or more can spend a lot of money just storing them.
With the statistics stated, it’s obvious that publishers take a loss on most of their titles, hoping to make a profit on the few titles that will sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
I don’t have the figures, however I would imagine that online sales of books come close to matching physical sales, and may even outpace them. With an online order of a book, it’s no longer necessary to maintain a large stock of a particular title; in fact, in many cases it makes perfect sense not to even produce the book until a consumer has placed an order. This makes POD very enticing to booksellers and publishers alike.
· The publisher doesn’t need to print books that no one has ordered, store them, and possibly incur the loss when they don’t sell. The publisher also doesn’t need to layout thousands of dollars to have a run of copies created in order to enjoy the cost savings of offset printing. Their initial investment can be small.
· The bookseller no longer needs to order and store large quantities Although they don’t lose money when the book doesn’t sell; POD still helps them reduce overhead.
· The author can bypass the traditional publisher and maintain complete control of their book and a significant portion of the profits.
The term, ‘Print on demand’ is a broad and vague description of a set of technological tools that has become the catchphrase for a brand new branch of the publishing industry. POD started as a simple service allowing authors to bypass the costs of offset printing and were only a little more advanced than services provided by Kinko’s or the neighborhood printer. In a few short years, POD has emerged as a serious and viable alternate to signing a contract with an established publisher. In fact, they provide the author with something they’ve never had before, complete and total control of their work.
Simply put, today’s POD providers are publishers. There are three major differences between POD publishers and traditional publishers, big or small.
- It is a service oriented business model and the author must pay a POD publisher for their services unlike a traditional publisher who should foot the initial costs and in some cases offer an advance. It’s important to remember that an advance is exactly that. It’s an advance on expected sales. An advance is deducted from your royalties first.
- Only the large New York publishers and a handful of smaller publishers automatically have their books placed on the shelves of booksellers such as Barnes and Noble or Borders.
- The author is in complete control of the publication of their book and the royalties per sale are much higher than what is offered by a traditional publisher’s contract. In short, you make more money off the sale of your book with a POD publisher.
POD Publishers have differing service models and you need to choose the one that suits your needs and budget, but all of the respectable ones do everything that a traditional publisher does up to the point of having your book in print and available for sale. The traditional services include at least the following:
- Secure a valid ISBN number
- Registration with the Library of Congress
- Registration with domestic and international distributors such as Books in Print, Ingram, etc.
- Copyright Notices
- Valid bar codes on the cover
- Accept and fulfill orders from individuals, bookstores, distributers, etc.
- Develop covers and artwork
- Full editing services
A good publisher will also provide some level of marketing. Surprisingly, or maybe not, the large publishing houses do very little to market the majority of their titles. Marketing budgets and campaigns are reserved for only a few cherry picked authors. The rest get only minimal marketing and POD publishers can provide this same level of service, and sometimes even more.
- Press releases
- Marketing campaign
- Marketing materials (i.e. Posters, cards, etc.)
- Author copies of their book
- Internet marketing
Unlike traditional publishers, POD publishers won’t drop you for poor sales. Let’s face it, a first time author may take quite some time, and maybe several books before they build a fan base. Although POD publishers cannot automatically get an author’s book on bookseller’s shelves, they do offer sales and distribution services. It’s interesting to note that Barnes & Noble recently set up a channel for an individual author to petition the company to have their book placed on their shelves. POD Publishers also offer:
- Internet presence and shopping cart functionality
- Listing with all of the major online booksellers such as Amazon.com, etc.
- Formatting and distribution of eBook versions
In just a few short years, POD has become a new business model that has traditional publishers scrambling to catch up and grab a piece of the pie before it’s too late. Combine POD publishers with eBook technology and the role of the traditional publisher will disappear. For more on this phenomenon refer to my article The Future of Publishing.
For the near future, the printed book will still dominate the industry and POD publishers will play an increasingly important role. In upcoming articles, I will dedicate an entire series on what I term Virtual Publishing and POD publishers are poised to take full advantage of this new business model, but for this article, I’ll stick to the role POD publishers play today.
I recently had a contract with a small, independent publisher for my debut novel, and to prepare to market my novel and gain maximum exposure, I had to study the marketing and distribution aspects of publishing. What I learned in those few months prior to my release date caused me to cancel my contract, pause, and decide how best to proceed.
Initially, I fought and argued with my new publisher about book format; specifically mass market vs. trade. Mass-market paperbacks are the 4” x 6.5” paperbacks you see in wire racks in every airport in the world. Trade formats are larger and can range anywhere from 5” x 8” and up. A small, independent publisher will not do mass-market because it requires a significant investment up-front. Remember offset printing usually requires the printing of 5,000 copies and up to be cost effective. Also, remember the statistic on how many new books sell over 5,000 copies. Most independent publishers cannot afford to lay out at a minimum $20,000 to have a room full of boxes of your book. Unless they are one of the larger houses, the publisher’s titles won’t make it to the shelves at your local bookseller. A smaller publisher must rely on online book retailers and their own web site shopping cart as the point of sale.
The issue of printing my novel in trade format was a huge for me, but I eventually got over it once I understood more about the economics of publishing, distribution, and points of sale. Unless you sign a contract with a publisher that automatically has all of their new titles available physically on shelves and can rely on brick and mortar booksellers as a point of sale, mass-market format is unrealistic. As a side note, more and more of the baby-boomer group are at the age of requiring glasses to read small print, and the larger print available in trade format is becoming and allure.
Once I understood the reasons behind having to agree to trade format, I asked my publisher how many copies of my book they were going to have produced. The figure shocked me. This particular publisher only intended to order one to two hundred copies and they used a POD company for this. At that time, the only thing I knew about POD was that they used advanced printer technology instead of offset printing, and could easily produce such a small amount without any setup and teardown costs. Yes, the cost per book was more expensive, but the initial outlay on my publisher’s part would probably be less than $1,000.
A few lights went off in my head. Wait a minute. I didn’t receive an advance. I could deal directly with a POD company. What exactly was I getting for my money? By money, I meant my share of the royalties. The more I looked into it and learned however, the less attractive that deal was.
Let’s step back a bit. I signed a contract that—in basic terms—said I would get 30% of the royalties and my publisher had worldwide rights to my novel in English for three years. They also had eBook and audio book rights in English for that same period. I must confess, I’m still unsure if royalties were calculated of net sales or some other complex algorithm. I did know that royalties for a first time author with a large publishing house were in the neighborhood of 10% to 14%, so initially, 30% sounded great to me. Receiving $.40 versus possibly $2.00 or more per sale of my book seemed too good to be true, and we all know what they say when something sounds too good to be true.
Okay, back to the point where I realized my publisher was using the services of a POD company. When I signed with this particular publisher, I knew up front that much, if not all, of the marketing effort would fall on my shoulders. I was okay with that since I had a strong business background. When I learned that very little money would be invested in the actual ‘publishing’ of my book, the businessperson in my head had to ask the question one more time. What were the publishers 70% of royalties buying me? I heard the following.
We stick by you for the life of your contract where a large publishing house will write you off and delist you within six weeks to six months if your sales are poor. How can a new author without a pedigree or a fan base develop a following in such a short time period? We will stick by you for the entire three years of your contract.
- We offer a line of editors that will go over your book several times, inspecting content, continuity, grammar, and a final proof.
- We will develop your cover art.
- We will handle the registration of your book with all of the proper agencies, The Library of Congress, Books in Print, etc.
- We will make you book available to all of the online booksellers and through our own web site as your points of sale.
- When your book is published, we will guide you through the murky waters of marketing your novel to realize its full potential.
Now, all of this sounded great, fantastic even. I wanted to be a writer, not a publisher, and I certainly couldn’t do any of those items by myself, or so I thought. Interestingly, POD publishers also offer all of those items, with the exception of the final one, and even portions of the final item, marketing, are available when signing with a POD company.
So why did I need my publisher? Other than the fact that they would be the ones paying for a host of services that turned out to be relatively inexpensive, what was I giving them 70% of my royalties for? They weren’t giving me an advance, and they certainly had no marketing budget allocated for my novel. I justified it from the value of the editing services and the value of the most important item of all, marketing knowledge. I could write the next great American novel several times, but without proper editing, and most certainly without proper marketing, my efforts would be wasted. I have two mantra’s—actually I have more, but let’s stick to these two—revisions are the key to good writing, and marketing is the most essential part of any business venture whether it be selling widgets, sex, buffalo wings, or books. Marketing is king.
As it turned out, my publisher couldn’t offer good editing or good marketing knowledge, so they were useless to me and I canceled my contract. That cannot be said for all publishers or they wouldn’t remain in business. How to pick a good traditional publisher would make a great article, if not a book, and maybe I’ll write that someday, but let’s stick to the topic.
I realized that a POD publisher would do all of the things a traditional publisher would do for me with the exception of marketing my novel. I had already accepted that burden, so unless a New York publisher comes knocking on my door with an offer that includes a marketing budget, I believe that self-publishing is the way for me to proceed. Everyone needs to make that decision themselves, but here are a few interesting facts.
· After careful research, I found a POD publisher that handles all aspects of the publishing of my novel, and automatically has me listed on all of the online booksellers. They offer some other very nice services. With this particular POD publisher, the cost of these services is around $2,000.
· For $425, I have a graphic artist producing a royalty free cover, spine, and back that is awesome. There are hundreds, if not thousands of graphic artists who do independent work at a decent price.
· Using the internet, a search engine, and a little time, I found someone who is quite good to do my final proof edit at the cost of only $600.
· I get to keep 100% of my royalties and all of my rights.
· I am in complete control of how my novel will look and read.
Therefore, for around $3,000, my novel is professionally published, available at all of the domestic online booksellers, I receive 100% of my royalties, and I maintain all rights, English, foreign, audio, eBook, movie, and anything else. The next step in making my novel a financial success is completely in my hands.
The marketing is a separate task that I can manage in a variety of ways, and I have no misconceptions that it will be a challenge, but at least I’m comforted in knowing that it will be done, and by the one person who has my best interests at heart. Even at this point, I can choose to hire a marketing firm, a PR firm, manage the entire campaign from my home computer, or a mixture of all three.
Obviously, this is not the right choice for everyone. They may lack the funding, the knowledge, the confidence, or simply the desire to be responsible for this aspect of their career. Remember however, as bad as you wish you could simply write and not be bothered by the other stuff, even billionaire J.K. Rowling must be involved in the marketing of Lord Voldemort’s nemesis, Harry Potter. You can’t escape being involved in the marketing of your book.
Should you choose to go the traditional route with a traditional publisher, big or small, it’s very important to understand as much about publishing and distribution as possible. It’s also paramount that you understand what a publisher is supposed to do for you, and how. Ask questions, and get as much in writing as you can. Not everyone appears to be who or what they say they are. A good thing to do is talk to other author’s under contract with the publisher. They can shed light on things you wouldn’t have even thought about asking.
Combining the information in my article The Future of Publishing and this one, you may come to the realization that finding an agent and signing a contract with a traditional publisher may not necessarily be the things hindering you from becoming a successful, published author.
Okay, you’ve decide that you want to self-publish. Let’s say you’ve decided to become the master of your own fate and wish to choose an alternative to traditional, mainstream publishing. You’ve decide that signing a contract with a publisher who can print your book on demand the way you want it printed is the route for you, and a little marketing doesn’t scare you, in fact, you find it a exciting and challenging.
Just as in the traditional publishing industry, there are good and bad POD publishers. Some are downright predatory and should be avoided at all costs.
I do not intend to write an encompassing section on what to look for or avoid when choosing a POD publisher. The material would make for a book, and in fact one has already been written, and I highly recommend anyone considering using a POD publisher purchase the book (it comes in downloadable, digital form also) and use it as a reference when choosing your publisher. To try to summarize the information in this book would be an injustice to you and the author. Mark Levine has put together everything you need to identify the top three POD publishers you need to target and investigate.
The Fine Print of Self-Publishing, Third Edition by Mark Levine.
The book is an in-depth, comprehensive look at the major players in the POD publishing industry. It examines forty-five companies in detail. I could not have chosen a POD publisher without this book, and in fact, before I found it, the publishers at the top of my list from my own research turned out to be duds. You will waste a lot of time doing any research on POD publishers without first using this book as a guide and a reference.
After many hours of research, I personally chose to go with Dog Ear Publishing. I have setup a General Discussion board area on my forums for POD companies and a board for Dog Ear Publishing specifically. I’m not endorsing Dog Ear Publishing as the POD publisher for you. Everyone should do their own research and choose the right company for their needs.
