POD - The Quality Question
Over at the WBA, John put a question to me concerning the quality of print-on-demand books - not only the quality of content, but the physical quality and (if I get his meaning) quality of service (ie. speed, customer service, etc.)
On quality of content: I've gone over this before, since it's the biggest hindrance to the POD market ever really taking off. The fact is, unfortunately, that most self-published books flat-out stink. Therefore, manuscript screening is an absolute must (plug, plug, Apodis...though Llumina also screens for quality).
On physical quality: I've never had a complaint. Although I've heard some horror stories from authors who've received books with pools of ink splashed across pages, or faded printing, I assume this is something that isn't specific to POD printing. In my personal experience, all the books I've ever ordered (a number of boxes of my own book and a few copies of those by other authors) have been produced to a standard of quality equal to traditionally published books (of course, I'm still a little bitter that LSI doesn't produce matte paperbacks, which I think look a lot better than glossy). The books that do have flaws in their physical quality usually have the author and publisher to thank, not the printer. For example, authors sometimes submit cover art files with less than a 300 dpi resolution. The publisher won't check it (as most don't bother ordering proof copies...though Apodis does, plug, plug) and, as a result, when the author gets the first shipment of their book, it's a generally negative experience. The other thing I've seen that results in poor physical quality is when the publisher does a half-hearted job of typesetting. Generally, this means that they justify all text and don't bother with any hyphens, thereby creating a book that looks extremely amateurish. The moral of the story: If you're the author of a POD book, automatically assume that these things are your responsibility. Make sure your cover art conforms to the required specifications - your publisher probably won't tell you if it doesn't. When you get your proof, don't skim, check everything.
On availability: John asks specifically about the length of time it takes to get on Amazon. Well, most POD publishers use LSI (that's Lightning Source, by the way) to print their books. LSI is owned by Ingram, which is the biggest distributor in the US. So, when your book is setup with them, it automatically goes into their distribution catalogue (provided you've signed up for distribution). From there, it's just a matter of when Amazon.com, or barnesandnoble.com, or all the various other online booksellers update their catalogue, which most do every few weeks. For example, when I published with PageFree, it took about five days for Blurred Line to show up on Amazon. When I re-published with Apodis, BL showed up on barnesandnoble.com almost immediately, but didn't show up on Amazon for two weeks. If you're using Booksurge, which is owned by Amazon, there's no difference (as far as I know - a book I beta read for was just published with Booksurge and took about a week to show up on Amazon). Another issue that plagued the industry until recently, was the availability (ie. shipping times) once a book had shown up on Amazon. Generally, one copy would be stocked at a time so, as soon as that one copy was sold, shipping times would drop from "24 hours" to "2-3 weeks" making it near impossible to sell books from one online retailer on a regular basis. However, earlier this year, both LSI and Ingram rectified the problem and now most POD books have a shipping time of "24 hours" no matter how many copies are in stock.
On customer service: The quality of customer service can range from good (iUniverse) to moderate (PageFree) to nonexistent (PublishAmerica, Authorhouse). The big thing to watch out for is pressure before you sign a contract. Many companies are very responsive up until the point you sign with them and, after that, their customer service departments seem to fall off the face of the earth. Since this ranges wildly from company to company, make sure to do your research.
On...er...not ripping people off: I would be remiss, I think, if I didn't mention something about book pricing. John asks specifically about Booksurge, a company which scares me not only because it has one of the worst reputations of any POD company (before it was acquired by Amazon, anyway), but because of the retail prices they charge for some of their books (which I'll admit, vary wildly on a price per page basis). Consider this, this, and this. Likewise, at Xlbris, consider this, this and this. These prices are, to put it simply, criminal. Although these are the worst offenders, it's something that afflicts most companies out there. When I republished Blurred Line with Apodis, I was able to set the retail price to $9.95 US and still make a profit (the book is 172 pages). Additionally, that prices takes into account the standard 55% bookseller discount, while other companies such as iUniverse don't even allow to give more than a 30% discount. What this means is that BL will eventually be discounted a further 20% off that $9.95. Sometimes, this is a result of companies artificially inflating retail prices, sometimes it's a result of authors being greedy and wanting to make $5 per book. Either way, it's turning into another large drawback for the POD industry.
So...any other questions?
On quality of content: I've gone over this before, since it's the biggest hindrance to the POD market ever really taking off. The fact is, unfortunately, that most self-published books flat-out stink. Therefore, manuscript screening is an absolute must (plug, plug, Apodis...though Llumina also screens for quality).
On physical quality: I've never had a complaint. Although I've heard some horror stories from authors who've received books with pools of ink splashed across pages, or faded printing, I assume this is something that isn't specific to POD printing. In my personal experience, all the books I've ever ordered (a number of boxes of my own book and a few copies of those by other authors) have been produced to a standard of quality equal to traditionally published books (of course, I'm still a little bitter that LSI doesn't produce matte paperbacks, which I think look a lot better than glossy). The books that do have flaws in their physical quality usually have the author and publisher to thank, not the printer. For example, authors sometimes submit cover art files with less than a 300 dpi resolution. The publisher won't check it (as most don't bother ordering proof copies...though Apodis does, plug, plug) and, as a result, when the author gets the first shipment of their book, it's a generally negative experience. The other thing I've seen that results in poor physical quality is when the publisher does a half-hearted job of typesetting. Generally, this means that they justify all text and don't bother with any hyphens, thereby creating a book that looks extremely amateurish. The moral of the story: If you're the author of a POD book, automatically assume that these things are your responsibility. Make sure your cover art conforms to the required specifications - your publisher probably won't tell you if it doesn't. When you get your proof, don't skim, check everything.
On availability: John asks specifically about the length of time it takes to get on Amazon. Well, most POD publishers use LSI (that's Lightning Source, by the way) to print their books. LSI is owned by Ingram, which is the biggest distributor in the US. So, when your book is setup with them, it automatically goes into their distribution catalogue (provided you've signed up for distribution). From there, it's just a matter of when Amazon.com, or barnesandnoble.com, or all the various other online booksellers update their catalogue, which most do every few weeks. For example, when I published with PageFree, it took about five days for Blurred Line to show up on Amazon. When I re-published with Apodis, BL showed up on barnesandnoble.com almost immediately, but didn't show up on Amazon for two weeks. If you're using Booksurge, which is owned by Amazon, there's no difference (as far as I know - a book I beta read for was just published with Booksurge and took about a week to show up on Amazon). Another issue that plagued the industry until recently, was the availability (ie. shipping times) once a book had shown up on Amazon. Generally, one copy would be stocked at a time so, as soon as that one copy was sold, shipping times would drop from "24 hours" to "2-3 weeks" making it near impossible to sell books from one online retailer on a regular basis. However, earlier this year, both LSI and Ingram rectified the problem and now most POD books have a shipping time of "24 hours" no matter how many copies are in stock.
On customer service: The quality of customer service can range from good (iUniverse) to moderate (PageFree) to nonexistent (PublishAmerica, Authorhouse). The big thing to watch out for is pressure before you sign a contract. Many companies are very responsive up until the point you sign with them and, after that, their customer service departments seem to fall off the face of the earth. Since this ranges wildly from company to company, make sure to do your research.
On...er...not ripping people off: I would be remiss, I think, if I didn't mention something about book pricing. John asks specifically about Booksurge, a company which scares me not only because it has one of the worst reputations of any POD company (before it was acquired by Amazon, anyway), but because of the retail prices they charge for some of their books (which I'll admit, vary wildly on a price per page basis). Consider this, this, and this. Likewise, at Xlbris, consider this, this and this. These prices are, to put it simply, criminal. Although these are the worst offenders, it's something that afflicts most companies out there. When I republished Blurred Line with Apodis, I was able to set the retail price to $9.95 US and still make a profit (the book is 172 pages). Additionally, that prices takes into account the standard 55% bookseller discount, while other companies such as iUniverse don't even allow to give more than a 30% discount. What this means is that BL will eventually be discounted a further 20% off that $9.95. Sometimes, this is a result of companies artificially inflating retail prices, sometimes it's a result of authors being greedy and wanting to make $5 per book. Either way, it's turning into another large drawback for the POD industry.
So...any other questions?
2 Comments:
Cavan, many thanks for that detailed view of self-publishing. I've asked for a self-publishing chapter over at WBA. Maybe that post could be the centrepiece of the info-trail. I think it should be. Cheers, and good luck with all your enterprises.
I agree - an excellent post.
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