Saturday, December 31, 2011

Wanna Be in Print?

All the buzz is about e-books, but we can’t forget print. With that in mind, I came across a good article on self-pubbing your book in print form. It’s not too long, but the author, Kim Komando, offers tips on publishing your own book.

She list three print-on-demand sites: Lulu.com, Blurb.com and CreateSpace.com, then tells you the basics about each and their good and bad points, as she sees them. She also touches on the cost of using each. In her opinion, CreateSpace wins price-wise over the other two, but she warns that you also need to check other factors specific to your book.

She then goes into marketing and how each site rates on getting your book out to the public – and points out that once you self-publishing, you have to do the marketing and you’ll have little help, unless you’re willing to pay for that.

I think the article is a pretty straight-forward breakdown of the ins and outs. So, if you’re thinking of doing your own print book, give it a read. I’d love to hear what any of you would like to add.

23 comments:

  1. Concise, and some great tips. I'm going to save this one.

    Have a very happy new year, Helen. The best to you and yours.

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  2. I'm heading over now. Thanks, Helen.

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  3. I'll check it out. I'm using CreateSpace. I like the commission, although the formatting is difficult and I needed help from someone to format BREAKTHROUGH (who was kind enough to do it for free!).

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  4. It helps when someone who knows what they're doing gives advice to those of us who don't. (And I'm talking about myself here since I'm one of the ones who don't!)

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  5. True, print books aren't dead yet!

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  6. I've used Createspace for three of my books, and I like it. For the first book, I paid for their formatting services. After that, I figured out how to do it myself and saved a bunch of $$. Their staff is very helpful, regardless of whether you bought their services or not.

    A couple of words of advice: 1) try not to upload more than one version, as I have heard a story about the older version somehow being used instead of the newer one, and 2) always order a full proof copy and check it through. It costs a pittance (depending on how you price your book) and you get to see exactly what you're selling.

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  7. Thanks for the tip - heading over to check it out :)

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  8. I like Create Space too, but the comments I hear over and over again from my writing group is the difficulty in formatting. This isn't so much a create space thing as being familiar with using Microsoft Word to set up headers and footers and the body of the document. I also like the option to use the Create Space templates for the cover.
    Ann

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  9. Happy New Year Helen. I'm going to click on the links...but I sigh! Oh for old traditional publishing. Sometimes I'm tired of all this change!

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  10. This is exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks for the link.

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  11. I use Createspace and love it. Like Ann said, it's more a matter of learning Word, not any difficulty with formatting for Createspace.
    I would never use Lulu because of the prices anyway, but my experience with them when I tried to BUY a book left me with a rotten taste in my mouth. They made me set up a storefront name ??? before I could buy anything. When I picked "whydoIneedthis" I found it was already taken. :)

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  12. I'd still say using Lightning Source is better than all of those, as it's MUCH wider distribution (available from Ingram, so available to all) and B&N still has a policy against Createspace books because they are an 'Amazon' product. One has to be proficient in InDesign or Quark or hire someone to format though.

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  13. I tried Lulu but they kept rejecting my cover image as being the wrong size. When I switched to Createspace, I had no problem. Their template is great and easy to use. Just cut and paste. What the article didn't say however, is Createspace implies that you will get wider distribution if you buy the ISBN from them. In fact, Their ISBN doesn't add anything. It's more important to get the barcode from Bowker, which will require you to get the ISBN fron them.

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  14. BTW, my Createspace books ARE available at B&N. There is a $39 charge for Createspace to make your book available for expanded distribution. This means you can walk into any bookstore and order my book. Well worth the price.

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  15. Mark is right - don't use their ISBN's - buy them yourself from Bowker.
    Gayle, but it's still at a fee. And I just read last week B&N and Amazon are still squabbling over these kinds of issues.

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  16. Now you tell me ... I knew I shouldn't have used that Shifting Sands of Lit outfit.

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  17. Happy New Year, Helen! I've not heard of this blurb.com. So it's good to know another avenue. Thanks for the heads up.

    The Spinster’s Vow

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  18. Thanks Ann.

    I agree with you Liza!

    Laura, your experience was not funny, but you made me laugh at the end.

    Diane, I don't know either of those! humbug.

    Thanks Mark!

    Christopher, never trust anyone with the word "shift" in their name.

    You're welcome Enid.

    Thanks everyone for stopping by.

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  19. Dropped by to wish you Happy New Year, Helen.

    The post is a timely one for me, thank you for the link.

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  20. Self-publishing sure seems to be gaining a lot of momentum. Thanks for the info.

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