The Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing

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The self-publishing industry is exploding with opportunity now. With all of the new options for an author, it’s even easier to get a book published and out on the market in a matter of weeks. An author doesn’t have to succumb to rejection after rejection from a traditional publisher or the high up-front costs of a traditional printer anymore. Since the arrival of print-on-demand or POD, authors realize they have another way.

What is a print on demand, or POD?

A POD is a company that will print the author’s books one at a time or in smaller quantities than with a traditional book printer. The idea is that it can be more cost effective for the author, but this is not always true. Here are some pros and cons to going with a POD.

PROS:

1. Your book can be ready in a short period of time. Traditional publishers can take up to two years or longer to publish a book and it can take years for the manuscript to get accepted. Most authors are ready to go as soon as the book is finished. Working with a POD can cut that time down considerably. It can take as little as 6 weeks from the time the manuscript is submitted to the POD until the time the author has a finished book in hand.

2. The book will never go out of print. The industry states that the average life span of a book printed through a traditional publisher is about a year and a half. For those who want to promote the book themselves, that’s not long enough. Going through a POD assures the author that the book will always be available.

3. POD’s do most of the administrative and legal work for the author.

There are certain requirements for a book if it is to be sold to bookstores, libraries, or other places. For example, the book needs an ISBN for information on where to buy the book, the material needs to be copyrighted which is self-explanatory, and it needs a US Library of Congress number and Dewey Decimal system coding for library access. Many POD’s will do all that work for the author.

4. They usually have different packages for the author to choose from.

What kind of a budget does the author have for self-publishing? POD’s usually have different packages for authors to fit their budgets and their expectations.

5. The more you order, the less each copy of the book costs. Traditional printers will also offer a discount with more books ordered. Their pricing usually starts out with printing 500 to 1000 books or more. Some POD’s will allow the author to buy just 1 book, and to be honest that’s expensive.

The author can buy in quantities of 50 or 100 or more at a time. The author can buy as many or as few books as he or she desires. This also keeps the author from having to store so many books in the garage.

6. The author keeps all rights to the book. Depending on the contract, a traditional publisher can keep all rights to a book. This is a big concern for most authors because it means that the publisher can do anything they want with the book and cut the author out of the deal. POD’s allow the author to keep all rights to the book and make changes as needed or even sell it to another company if desired. The author has full control.

CONS:

1. The ISBN is in the name of the POD. If a bookstore or a library orders the book by ISBN, they will get it from the POD and the author gets a royalty which is often considerably less than if the author orders the book at wholesale and sells it herself. Many bookstores, especially the chains, will not order books from POD’s because they can’t return them if they don’t sell. If the author wants the book in a bookstore, she will have to contact them herself or get the book sold through a distributor. The author will make a bigger profit when she sells the book outright.

2. Expensive start-up. The start-up costs with a POD can be very expensive, sometimes over $1000. Shopping around helps.

3. The books can be expensive to buy. In some cases, if the author only buys between 1 and 50 books, it can really eat up the profits. This is where an argument can be made for traditional printers and publishers.

The long term can go either way. If the author chooses a traditional printer, the books can cost a few dollars less each than a POD. If the author chooses a traditional publisher, he may get paid up-front and earn royalties for as long as the book is being sold. Over the long term, an author can earn less through a POD than with the other options.

4. The more expensive packages include all kinds of “benefits” that

sound good, but aren’t always what they seem. The POD will “sell” your book on their website. POD’s are in the printing business because that’s where they make most of their money. They won’t put too much effort into selling your book because they don’t make as much of a profit and that is not their focus. Many offer it in e-book form. How many ebooks have you read lately? How many people do you know who are reading e-books? My point exactly. They will submit your book to distributing companies, which sell to bookstores by the way. Remember that most chain bookstores will not buy a POD book and most distributing companies will want you to do some advertising with them so the bookstores know the book is actually available. The POD doesn’t do that for you, and if you do decide to advertise with the distributor, the bookstores will still find out it’s a POD book and not buy it anyway. It’s a waste of money.

5. The marketing materials that they provide will have their name and

contact information on it. So, the author does all of the work in selling the book, and yet the POD wants the profit. Hmmm… Again, it’s more profitable for a self-publisher to sell the book outright instead of relying on the POD.

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By: Wendi Moore-Buysse

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