Do You Know How to POD?
In today's Internet age the traditional publisher
has a new competitor. It's called Print on Demand,
or POD for short. Until recently, aspiring writers found it difficult
to have their books approved and into print by
established publishers. With POD you become your own publisher, printing
and shipping out your books as they are sold. This
means no unsold inventory and no lost money while
your books are sitting around gathering dust in
boxes. Ebooks are pretty popular online but there are
still some "old fashioned" consumers who want
to hold a book in their hands. POD allows you
to offer them that option inexpensively. Unlike traditional publishing, which
can cost a small fortune to print hundreds
of books (with no guarantee that they'll sell),
POD is very affordable. When shopping for a POD Publisher to work
with you'll want to find out what the set up
cost is and the charge per book.
You'll also want to inquire whether there
is a minimum number of books you have to
purchase. Make sure to read the fine print
of any agreement to make sure you are not
giving your rights away. Most will allow
you to keep your rights and they'll also
get an ISBN number for your book. Here are some of the more popular POD
publishers online: 1) Author House: http://AuthorHouse.com If you list with Author House your book will
be available at more then 25,000 retail
outlets worldwide, including Amazon and
BarnesandNoble.com. They do prefer that your
submission be in electronic format (CD or Disk).
There are three sizes of books available; 5X8,
6X9, 8.25X11. You retain all rights to your
work. 2) Action Tales: http://ActionTales.com Publishes in electronic or hard copy format.
Set up charge for POD is $197.00 and includes
an ISBN number for your book. You maintain
all rights to your work. Once printed, your
book becomes available in retail outlets
nationwide. All books are 6X9 trade paperback.
One side note: they only accept top quality
work, so make sure yours is up to par before
submitting. 3) Aventine Press: http://AventinePress.com You retain all rights to your work. They only
accept work by authors who live in the U.S.
They will make your book available to leading
bookstores such as Ingram, Wal-Mart, Amazon,
and others. Your book is stored in electronic
format with copies printed as you need them.
Your paperbook and hardcover royalties are
80% of what is received when a copy of your
book is sold. 3) Ebook Stand: http://EbookStand.com Published in paperback, hardcover or in ebook
format. You retain all rights to your work.
Pays 30% of the sale price or your paperback
book and 25% for other paperback trim sizes.
They also pay 50% on ebook sales and 20% of
hardcover books sold on their site. 4) Universal-Publishers: http://Universal-Publishers.com Books sold in paperback format through thousands
of booksellers including Amazon and Barnes and
Noble and in digital format via the Net. Authors
receive royalties from 20 to 40% of the retail
price. Non-exclusive publishing agreement. 5) EbookoMatic: http://EbookOMatic.com Publish unlimited ebooks for a one time registration
fee of $147.00. Ebooks will be available for sale
on multiple websites. Audio enable your sales page
with your own voice.They do prefer your manuscript
in Word or PDF format. They also have a free
10 day trial so you can take them for a test
drive. 6) LuLu: http://LuLu.com You can publish books, calendars, music, video,
software, ebooks and more with LuLu. You set
the selling price of your product and they take
20% of the royalty you set. Can sell in POD
format or strictly ebook format. 7) BookLocker: http://BookLocker.com They have a $199.00 set up fee, and an $18.00
per year hosting charge. You supply the book
cover and books are printed as trade paperback,
soft or hard cover. They pay you 35% of listing
price and you keep all of your rights. So, if you've always dreamed of being a published
author or you're tired of rejection letters, why
not take the task upon yourself and publish your
own book. With Print on Demand some dreams can
come true and your book can be lying on your
coffee table tomorrow.
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