So you’ve un cours en miracles france your manuscript. You’ve hired an editor to edit your book and a designer to create the cover and lay out your interior. Great. Now you’re ready to print your book. There are two ways to have your book printed. Your choices are to have it printed conventionally or print on demand (POD).
I’ll explain the differences and provide a price chart for two hypothetical books. But, before you can make your printing choice, you need to decide if you want someone to handle the printing process for you, or to deal directly with the printer.
General Contractor vs Self-Publishing Company or Vanity Press
You can act as a general contractor and work with a book printer directly to get the best prices, or you can work with a self-publishing company or vanity press to handle the printing for you. Since you’re already working with a designer who will prepare print-ready files for you, I suggest consulting with your designer on getting a list of recommended printers, setting up your printing account and uploading your files.
If you work directly with the printer you’ll save money on your printing costs because all self-publishing companies and vanity presses mark up the cost of printing by at least 15% or 20% or as much as 200%. This is how they make much of their profit.
You can have your designer send your book’s high resolution PDF files directly to the same POD printer (Lightning Source, Inc.) that almost all self-publishing companies and vanity presses use and save hundreds or thousands of dollars.
If you work with a self-publishing company or vanity press, they usually have various service packages that may include designing the cover and interior, doing the editing and proofreading, getting your ISBN number, LCCN number, copyright registration and bar code, creating a website, providing marketing services and distribution, all for a portion of your book royalties AND a printing markup.
If you act as a general contractor you’ll need to do these things yourself or hire people or companies to do most of these services, but you’ll have more control over the quality and price.
I’ve put together an award-winning team of experts in all these areas who don’t take a portion of your royalties. Once you’ve paid for the service, you’re done paying. You work directly with the team member or company and not some overseas service agent.
If you act as a general contractor and work directly with your printer, you don’t share any portion of your royalties with any company and you don’t pay a markup on the printing cost. However, you still need to pay a trade discount (the percent you pay to the wholesaler and retailer) for retail sales of your book. You will also pay a fee or a percent to the distributor.
Conventional vs POD Printers
Let’s compare what conventional and POD printers have in common. Both will have customer service reps who can help you set up your account and answer questions about their products and services: (ie: paper stock, bindings, finishes, turnaround, printing and shipping costs, etc.). You can find excellent and poor printing quality and customer service with either type of printer