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Margaret I. Carr

Finding it hard to wait through the lengthy process of submitting, waiting and then submitting again? Many writers now are choosing to look for alternatives, and the most glamorous appearing alternative today seems to be Print on Demand "Self" Publishing. Unfortunately, those who dive in without thoroughly researching and planning are quite likely to find themselves swimming with sharks.

The best shark repellant is to educate yourself. Find as much information as you can before making any commitments. Learn what the warning signs are that tell you sharks are in the area. If you are interested in self-publishing, explore the options before making any commitments. Maybe there's a local printer who will make you a good deal.

The businesses offering Print On Demand 'publishing' either on the web or advertising in magazines can help you develop your shark alert system. Often you can download their promotional material without even giving an email address. I just did a quick check and found I have about 80MG of files, mostly pdf, from web accessible POD publishers. There's a lot of Puff, those first few paragraphs or pages where they tell you how great they are and how happy you'll be if you sign with them, a great deal of Fluff, all that stuff that sounds good but really has nothing to do with your project, many testimonials and some actual figures.

When I first started researching, I skipped everything and just searched for the cost figures. How much for setup, how much for per book and how much for shipping went into a spreadsheet. As I continued searching, I went back and added a column for the hourly charge. I joined a dozen of lists run by or for writers and browsed through the archives of more. After eliminating unreasonable expectations of instant success simply because a book exists, I came away with some definite impressions. The commonest complaints were of many hours of extra charges and of having the process stopped and being charged the setup fee again.

I also learned that although there were dozens of companies supposedly doing POD, most of them actually just did the initial contact and the books were then sub-contracted out to one of two printers in the United States. Both have setup fees just under a hundred dollars and pretty much the same charges per book. They break the charges down differently but it adds up the same. Both have detailed instructions on how to submit and offer templates to make it easier. Both assure the writer that POD means YOU have complete control.

Complete control? All of the POD firms stress that. What does it really mean?

Let's see. For the basic fee you send them two pdf files, one with the book contents and the other with the cover, and they print it, assuming it passes their quality control check. The check is to make sure the layout will feed into their printers properly, that's all. They send you the first one to check. If you find a mistake they made, they correct it free. If you want other changes, well, you pay.

They will either do a book-at-a-time fulfillment where you take the order and send them the money and they print the book and mail it to the buyer, or you can order twenty or more at a time to be shipped to you.

They have other options, but again, you have to pay for them.

So, you get to do the copy-editing, the format, the conversion into pdf, the finding of a cover artist and getting that into pdf. Then you get to proofread, set up a website, a merchant account, a method for getting orders and payment to them and the promotion. You can also pay someone to do some or all of this for you. Yes, you're in control. You're paying the bills.

I'm trying hard to stay neutral but I'm sure you've realized that I am not in favor of writers paying anything they don't really have to. True, even with conventional publishing, most authors find that the main burden of promotion is their responsibility, but publishers underwrite most of the rest of the costs.

Wanting to make a profit isn't shark-sign, just good business, and publishing is a business. It is rather an odd business in some ways. Paying more for something two or three times in a row than you expect to make back from sales in the hope it will build a market and the third or fourth release will pay off isn't your usual business practice.

One of the big problems with POD companies is that they all seem to encourage prospective authors to ignore the practicalities of the process. They push dreams and mostly unrealistic dreams.

When you submit to publishers, you are asking them to invest a relatively large sum of money in your work. Take a look at http://www.sfwa.org/bulletin/articles/profit-motive.html for some cost estimates for conventional publishing. Look hard at the list of expenses. With POD, you won't be spending that much on any of the areas, but you will spend something on most of them. It won't be just money you spend. Time will go into each of them.

Back to shark detection. I found the Puff part of the brochures and such material was very useful. Now, Puff is closely related to the Hook we try to get into our stories and queries. It is telling someone we're good and they will profit from associating with us. We can learn from the good Puff how to better present ourselves and our writing. The other Puff, well, that's where we develop our shark detection.

A writer friend asked me about a new POD company. I didn't recognize the name so went online and checked the site and downloaded the pdf brochure. Eighty pages worth of pdf! The first three pages are Puff and loaded with shark warnings to my eyes. Most of them, by themselves, are minor. I wouldn't rule this company out, for one or two particularly since they seem to take files in word processor format rather than requiring pdf. The $499 setup fee is still a bit high but not excessive if they do the conversion and they do have detailed instructions on setting up the word processor file.

But...

Dubious association alarm. They name Big Name Author as one who has self-published, not mentioning it was an e-book.

Mud slinging alarm. This is a big one for me. If they can't get my interest by telling me what they do, they certainly aren't going to get it by saying their competition doesn't do whatever it is. They claim they ship in 48 hours while the competitors take weeks. Hmm, Booksurge claims 48 hours or free. Lightning Source has different times, but not weeks.

They claim they print in the U.S. while competitors print overseas and may charge extra for shipping. Check Booksurge and Lightning Source again and both are in the eastern U.S. These two are the ones most other POD companies in the U.S. use for printing.

There are more like that. Pretty much the same except for the attack on e-books. Now, I like e-books. You may not. That's okay, tastes differ, but the fact is I've read a lot of books both on my computer and on a PDA (electronic personal desk assistant), and the blurring vision and aching eyes they state e-books will cause aren't a problem for me. Maybe they need to replace their monitors! Next is the tired old "vulnerable to piracy" accusation. So, they think print books aren't pirated? Finally the charge that e-books cost as much as hardcover books which is at least half true. There are publishers who do that, usually coupled with very restrictive DRM, digital rights management. They are the ones quitting and predicting the demise of e-books. Huh! Drop by http://www.baen.com and check out the Free Library and Webscriptions. Reasonably priced e-books are available there and other places, too. Our own ePress-online.com will be bringing you some.

Is that a good idea alarm? This company is the only one that accepts returns, or so they say. They don't say how they handle the allowance for returns. Also, they list all books purchased on your royalty statements, including those you buy with author discount. This, they assure you, could be important if your book is a best seller.

They are quite critical of Lightning Source. Then they say they can get your book listed with Ingram. Then they say Ingram only accepts books printed by Lightning Source so they have to charge you an extra $95.

If you are really determined to go the POD route, I'd suggest either Booksurge or Lightning Source. There've been complaints about both of them but that is true of all but the ones that are too new to complain about and at least you won't be paying their price plus add-on charges.

Before you do, however, check out Small Press. There are thousands of them. Some are affiliated with universities and others are independent. Most specialize in a particular area so you'll have to do some research, but you will get editing and they will invest in producing your book rather than just printing it and having you do all the work and pay all the costs.