| Print-on-Demand and Online Self-Publishing | |||||
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In a previous column, I discussed various ways of printing, publishing, and/or sharing your writing. I promised a more in-depth look at various ways to do this, and now I’m ready to share my self-publishing and POD publishing experiences.While I have published memoirs, a writing guide, and a family tribute, this information should be useful for anyone considering publication of other types of non-fiction, fiction, poetry, photo books, or anything else. Helen Gallagher, in her new book Release Your Writing (Virtualbookworm.com, 2007) says, “Attract a publisher if you can, but if not, don’t wait your life away . . . Self-publishing is not settling for second best. It’s the right choice if your book won’t likely capture the attention of a large publisher and you don’t want to spend years waiting to see your book in print.” Some of us older seniors may not have years to wait. Your writing can move from your computer into a printed book in three months or less (with Infinity Publishing) or within a week or two (with Lulu.com), and it’s neither as difficult nor as expensive as you may think. I published my first two books, Reinventing Myself: Memoirs of a Retired Professor (2006) and Seniorwriting: A Guide for Seniors Who Want to Write (2007), with Infinity Publishing. Both are for sale on line at Amazon.com and Buybooksontheweb.com. Infinity, like many other POD publishers, will send or let you download a free guide. I found their Become a Published Author very useful. It explains how to use Microsoft Word to format a book in the proper size, among other things. It also explains procedures, schedules, and costs very clearly. Publishing with Infinity costs approximately $500, including cover design, ISBN number, and bar code. The number and bar code are essential if a book is to be sold to the general public. Infinity prints its books in-house, keeps only a small inventory, and provides high-quality paperbacks quickly on order. The original order includes proof copies only; the author can buy copies for ½ price (first order) or 40 % off (subsequent orders), plus shipping charges, but shipping for quantities of 20 or more is free. The book will be listed for sale on the publisher’s website, www.buybooksontheweb.com, and on www.amazon.com and other online book sellers. The book’s list price depends on its number of pages. Small royalties are paid, even on those books you buy and resell yourself. Of course Infinity offers a few optional extras too: copy editing (one cent per word), marketing packages (posters, postcards, bookmarks, etc., $125 to $470 per package), and listing with Ingram (a distributor which prints its own books through Lightning Source), $149. Actually, most other POD publishers use the Ingram system, and it makes it possible for some additional retailers to order the book, but Infinity prefers its own in-house printing system. I’ve found that Infinity-printed books look slightly better. I didn’t order any extras for my second book. For books with a potentially larger audience, or for an author not skilled in word processing or editing or without able, willing friends or relatives to help, some extras may be necessary. I was happy with Infinity Publishing. Everything was spelled out, and everything was done as promised, on schedule. I like both cover designs. I have not tried the other POD publishers, such as Xlibris, iUniverse, Outskirts Press, Authorhouse, BookSurge, and many more, but you can find their ads in magazines such as Writer’s Digest. All have web sites, too. Be sure to read all the fine print. Don’t give up the rights to your work, and beware of unexpected extra charges for things you don’t want or need. For my third book, Remembering Violet, actually a collection of tributes to my late mother from her family and friends (her first name was Violet), I am the editor. This is a labor of love, not for general sale, so it does not need an ISBN number or a bar code. I expect to distribute only about twenty to twenty-five copies, free of charge, so I searched for an even less expensive publishing method. I would not have been satisfied with a pamphlet from the local copy shop. I decided to explore on-line self-publishing on http://www.lulu.com. When I mentioned that site in my previous column, it emphasized a simple instructional video that I praised. The site has since become more complex, but I finally found the video, now  Basically, one chooses a size and format and type of binding, color or no color (color inside the book costs more), etc. Then it’s possible to get a cost estimate based on book size, number of pages, and number of copies. There are per-copy price discounts on orders of more than 25 books. You’ll need to sign up (free) to begin. Once you’ve decided to proceed, download a template for the book size you want or follow directions to format your book properly. Unlike Infinity, which has a basic page size of 5 ½" x 8 ½" (there are other possibilities, too), Lulu’s basic size is 6" x 9" (along with others). Type or paste your text into the page size provided by the template or the instructions. Insert your photos, if any, in the standard Microsoft Word way. The program will keep saving your project (that’s good). Once your book looks good on the screen, you can find your project under “My Lulu” and continue. I tried to upload a PDF file at first, but even though I did not use any unusual type fonts, I discovered that I needed to embed the italic and bold versions of the fonts in the file. I simply could not figure out how to do that. (I’d had no trouble saving PDF files on a CD to mail to Infinity). Anyway, on to Plan B: I uploaded my Word file. That worked fine, and Lulu did the converting. No problem. I was able to download and check the PDF file, and it looked good. For me, the main problem was the cover. Lulu offers quite a lot of standard cover designs, and you can personalize a few things like colors. However, I had already designed a cover with Adobe Photo Shop Elements (mainly a photo of a field of violets with the book title and editor’s name in white on it). It’s a very unusual, non-commercial cover, but I like it. The problem was that, even though I followed what I thought were the right directions, I could not upload that cover: wrong format, wrong number of pixels. I contacted “Live Help,” and my questions were answered immediately, except that I had trouble understanding the answers. I’m not a graphics expert. I’ll give the Live Help staff credit for being efficient and trying to be helpful. My next step was to give up and choose one of the Lulu covers. It featured a bouquet of flowers, and it looked beautiful, but I was still thinking about violets. Anyway, I went ahead and completed the book, version one. Fortunately, Lulu not only offers, but strongly urges, the purchase of a single copy to check over before ordering more. The cost was $5.65, plus shipping, which about doubled the price. (I was too impatient to choose the slowest, least expensive shipping method). Still, this beat ordering a lot of books and discovering serious errors later. Lulu has a no-refund, no-return policy. I eagerly awaited my shipment, and when the book came in less than a week, it looked good–but I still wanted to use my violets. After further experimenting with Photo Shop Elements  That was not quite the end of the story. I was so elated to be able to use my cover that I did not check the first book’s contents carefully enough. I discovered some indenting and text justification inconsistencies I hadn’t noticed before, so I needed to do a second revision, version three, perfectionist that I am. That’s it! Now I’m ready to order copies for my (and my mother’s) relatives and friends, and I am pleased with my efforts. I’d sum up my self-publishing experience with Lulu.com this way: it was frustrating at times, but a very effective way to produce a small number of books for friends and family. The more skilled you are at word processing, the better, and unless you have graphics skills or a friendly cover designer in the family, it’s best to choose your cover from Lulu’s gallery. One of them may actually fit your subject matter quite well. My total cost for 25 copies of my 56-page book will be only $141.25, plus shipping and the cost of the two proof copies I’ve already ordered and received. Easy? Not exactly, but I enjoyed the challenge. If yours is a book you plan to sell, you can offer it on the Lulu site if you want to, with or without an ISBN number. Publishing this book with Infinity and ordering the same 25 copies would have cost more than $600.00, but that would have included professional cover design, an ISBN number and bar code, and distribution via the Infinity site, Amazon, and other online book sellers. Those are things I don’t need for Remembering Violet. My self-publishing experiences have been positive. Anyone with some computer skills and do-it-yourself enthusiasm can produce a book. For a book with possible commercial potential, I’d recommend Infinity or a similar POD publisher. If cost is a major issue, and especially if it’s a book only for friends and family, on-line self-publishing on a site like Lulu.com can be very effective and inexpensive. Yes, all three of my books look great! You can see them if you wish: Reinventing Myself at http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/product.aspx?ISBN=0-7414-3208-0 Happy writing and publishing! |
