POD Covers and POD....

[alfreda89]

Everyone, I am about to plunge into the world of custom artwork for my Alfreda novels. (Yes, I have pretty much decided not to submit them to NYC. The agent will get other things from me, but I do not expect a house to offer me a contract I could sign.)

This is not going to be cheap, and apparently I need to decide up front which group I'm going to work with for the POD version. The templates vary. The artist can make a print cover and then create the ebook cover from it, but the reverse doesn't happen easily, if at all. So -- this is your chance to express yourself.

Have you tried any of the POD suppliers? Create Space? Lightning Source? Lulu? I'm going to search for quality vs.cost vs. distribution options. I want acid-free paper. We're talking three books that I hope convention vendors will be interested in trying out, that I hope might make their way into bookstores. But I also realize that sales online, even of print, may be all that will happen, since trade paperback books are so much higher in price (last I checked) than mass market books.

I'm interested in your experiences and opinions, if you would like to share them. You can contact me by message, if you want to comment privately.

I want to hear your war stories. I can only afford to do this once -- screwing up will set me back years and money I don't have to spare. So, anyone who has time to share their story? This is the moment.

And yes, I will share conclusions. An Excel spreadsheet will be born!

Thank you.

Comments

[davidlevine]

I have been happy with lulu.com. It took me quite a while to figure out how to output a PDF on a Mac that would work properly... the secret is to use PDF-X rather than plain PDF.

I found Lulu easy to use and there's zero up-front cost... you just upload your files, set the price, and whenever someone buys a copy (through lulu.com or amazon.com) you get your cut. You can set the price to any value above the cost (they are up-front about how much of that is the cost of printing and how much is their profit) and you get the difference on every sale. You can also order copies yourself, at cost... I always keep a few in the trunk of my car.

Selling through lulu.com and amazon.com is free, but you can also have the book listed in the Ingram catalog for $75. Getting any kind of print-on-demand book into brick-and-mortar bookstores is hard, though, because the cost of producing the book is high... you have to either price the book much higher than a comparable traditionally-printed book, sacrifice your own profit, ask the store to accept a much lower discount (profit margin), or some combination of the 3.

"Lulu uses FSC certified, lead-free, acid-free, buffered paper made from wood-based pulp."

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Thanks, David. Everyone talks about Create Space and Lightning Source as if they're the only game in town, but I seem to know a lot of people who use Lulu. Good to know that you still consider them a contender. Have you had any problem with Amazon keeping the books available? And will Barnes & Noble carry them?

[davidlevine]

The book has been in stock on Amazon every time I've looked, but as I did not pay for any distribution beyond the basic it is not available at bn.com (though bn.com does list it as available from 3 resellers at $125 and up -- which is astonishing as it is still available from Amazon and Lulu at $20). Are you asking whether Barnes & Noble's brick and mortar stores will carry the book? I haven't tried, but I suspect the answer is no.

Like msagara, I did not expect to sell many copies of this book. It's a collection of blog posts from the crew of my "Mars" mission in Utah and I did it mostly so the crew members could have copies to send to their relatives. But I have sold a few copies to people interested in my "Mars" experience, and someone bought ten copies last year from lulu.com (I suspect it may have been the Mars Society) which resulted in an unexpected $150 check. But unlike msagara it has not been a "money sink" for me because I invested zero dollars in it. It was a couple weeks of my spare time to do the layout and cover and there were no up-front costs. However, I do have some experience in layout (fanzines and convention program books) and I wasn't trying to come up with a cover that would really sell, so I was able to avoid those expenses.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I paid for the Global distribution, but as for the amazon.com availability, my book has never appeared there (it was up in, I think, July 2012).

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Hummm... I'm finding a lot of people like a mix of Createspace and Lightning Source? I'm wondering about Createspace for basics, and LS for hardback, in case anyone wants a collector copy?

Have you asked about what's going on with global, Michelle? I'd think Amazon could sell paper for you, if they offered it. But of course no one is looking out for the little guy, if Amazon isn't printing it.