Memoirs of the Self-Published: Part III - Print-on-demand, or print the book yourself?
I decided to not go with a print-on-demand publishing service because I would make little to no profit selling my book on Amazon. I'm selling my book of experimental short stories, Papers for the Suppression of Reality for $14. Amazon.com takes 55% of the cover price, so for each book sold online, I get $7.70.
This sounds okay, except that lulu.com charges $4.30 to print a 120-page perfect-bound black and white 5.5" x 8.5" softcover book. With tax, shipping from Lulu to me, and me shipping the book to the Amazon Advantage warehouse, the total cost comes out around $7. I would make very little profit selling on Amazon.
I think Amazon is a great service, in that it provides authors to get their work out there, but this model obviously wouldn't work for me. I didn't want to just print a few copies for family and friends, but do a first run of 1,000 copies.
Also, I decided against lulu.com because I wanted full control over the book: the writing, editing, copy editing, layout, design, printing, biding, etc. I wanted the experimental writing in the book to be reflected by its physical appearance. That's why I included a massive 11" x 17" crossword puzzle in the book and also a reproduction of a large-scale map of Buenos Aires in special editions of the book:
When I interned at McSweeney's Publishing, I worked on some innovative publications like McSweeney's Issue 17 and the San Francisco Panorama. Working on these projects, I saw that the physical appearance of the publication can be almost as important as the writing. If you're going to print your book on newsprint-like paper that will yellow in 20 or 30 years (as many cost-cutting, Manhattan-based publishers are doing) then what's the point of printing a book, if the ebook will look sharper, cleaner, and provide a better reading experience?
I wanted my book to hold artistic value and give a reason for people to buy the physical book over the ebook.
This sounds okay, except that lulu.com charges $4.30 to print a 120-page perfect-bound black and white 5.5" x 8.5" softcover book. With tax, shipping from Lulu to me, and me shipping the book to the Amazon Advantage warehouse, the total cost comes out around $7. I would make very little profit selling on Amazon.
I think Amazon is a great service, in that it provides authors to get their work out there, but this model obviously wouldn't work for me. I didn't want to just print a few copies for family and friends, but do a first run of 1,000 copies.
Also, I decided against lulu.com because I wanted full control over the book: the writing, editing, copy editing, layout, design, printing, biding, etc. I wanted the experimental writing in the book to be reflected by its physical appearance. That's why I included a massive 11" x 17" crossword puzzle in the book and also a reproduction of a large-scale map of Buenos Aires in special editions of the book:
When I interned at McSweeney's Publishing, I worked on some innovative publications like McSweeney's Issue 17 and the San Francisco Panorama. Working on these projects, I saw that the physical appearance of the publication can be almost as important as the writing. If you're going to print your book on newsprint-like paper that will yellow in 20 or 30 years (as many cost-cutting, Manhattan-based publishers are doing) then what's the point of printing a book, if the ebook will look sharper, cleaner, and provide a better reading experience?
I wanted my book to hold artistic value and give a reason for people to buy the physical book over the ebook.
