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