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

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I have done one POD title, available through Lulu.com.

I paid for a cover that could be used for the ebook version, if it came to that; the designer did both the wraparound and the ebook version. But we used stock art, and the cost was 300.00. I also paid someone to typeset, which was more - 2.00 a page.

But.

I didn’t do this with the expectation that I would actually *sell* many copies. And I haven’t.

My book was a short story collection. I had released the shorts in ebook format, one per ebook. But print readers asked if there would be a print version available. The short stories are connected to the (continuing) universe published by DAW books; the shorts appeared in various anthologies, all but one of which are out of print. I reprinted as ebooks on my own, and people started to ask, on my web-site, if there would be a print version.

I think I’ve sold 30 copies to date (not including copies I ordered for my own use.

I *knew*, going in, that the print version would be a money sink; that the ebooks would pay for the costs of producing a POD version I could personally live with. I didn’t expect, ever, that POD would pay for itself. It’s possible that I should have gone for CreateSpace, because I think that *would* have appeared on Amazon, and I might have sold a few more copies - but I doubt I would have sold a *lot* more.

The book *can* be ordered from Ingrams, so in theory, the book can be ordered by bookstores. But. Well.

If you want a POD version for the print readers you have, that’s fine. I did, because the people who were asking were also people who have pretty much read all my books in print, and I felt guilty not making a print format version available for them.

But it’s in no way a money maker. It’s a money sink. The ebooks have done more than well enough to cover the cost of the print version -- but the print version will never even pay for itself. I could have skipped the typesetting, which was the most expensive part of the process - but I actually wanted interiors that looked, to me, like a print book; it’s one of the things that I really notice the lack of in POD books.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

It's a problem, because I cannot afford anything over the cover, so typsetting is beyond me. Unless I try to run a Kickstarter or something, and no guarantee it would make.

I wonder if the lack of break-even is because it's a collection? Some people are big collection readers -- but collections are so rare because publishers don't make money on collections.

Even Miller & Lee, who do chapbooks (or did) a lot, waited years before doing a collection. And they stored their own books. Not an option for me.

These are novels. To a certain extent, I simply want a paper alternative when someone EMFs all the digital stuff.... And I'd like an acid-free version because frankly these are my children. I am going to leave a few of them behind.

I know cover art is critical. I see PODs at my library (good SF/fantasy collection) from writers with prior major houses, and they don't get checked out as much because the cover art is not pick-upable.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the lack of break-even is because it's a collection? Some people are big collection readers -- but collections are so rare because publishers don't make money on collections.

It could be. I know that Jim Hines did one POD collection, and I think he only did the one, for reasons similar to mine. I’m trying to remember who the other author was - maybe Tobias Buckell? - who also came to the same conclusions, again for the same reasons. But I think he was also self-pubbing a collection. I’m certain about Hines, but less certain about Buckell, though.

Neither of us were doing novels that way. If I were to self-publish a new novel, I would probably make a POD version available - but I would probably attempt to do it through Lightning Source, because the book would then be available in the UK and in Australia.

But even then, I wouldn’t assume that the POD would pay for itself, necessarily. I think the novel would pay for the cover, if the cover were the same cost (300.00), though. The ebook sales have been good; I’d probably eat the cost of the POD because I’d be certain the ebook sales would more than cover it. If I were very tight for household income, I wouldn’t do it, though.

ETA: paragraph breaks - for some reason none of them were included =/

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

It's apparently possible to do setup at both Createspace and LS. I may investigate that -- some people do their hardcovers at LS. one woman dos her hardcovers at Lulu. Household money is totally out of savings while job hunting, so things are definitely tightish.

But there's a chance that the books will make back their covers and more, so decisions to be made...

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Household money is totally out of savings while job hunting, so things are definitely tightish.

But there's a chance that the books will make back their covers and more, so decisions to be made...


You didn’t mention ebooks in the original post - you intend to do ebook versions of the books, right?

The only reason I made my original comment was the money. I absolutely understand the desire for a physical book, because those are what I read when I formed a deep attachment to reading.

If you’re doing ebooks anyway, the money for those covers has to come out of savings; the additional money for the POD version wouldn’t (generally) be as much--50.00 or slightly higher per book cover.

But if bringing money in Right Now is part of the plan, I would seriously concentrate on the ebooks first. Some follow-up coming via email.