Publishing On Demand - Fee Based

If you´re doing well with an ebook, or have trouble finding a publisher, you might wonder about self publishing your book in a publishing on demand manner. Here are some of your options involving publishing on demand, or POD, that involve an up front fee. Note that usually you are getting something for that fee! Publishers who ask for a fee up front usually give you a break on the per-book cost, offer marketing services, and much more. So consider your options carefully before you skip over the fee publishers and go with a free one. You might do better in the long run, by putting in money up front.

With publishing on demand, the printer only prints out a book when it´s needed - either because a customer asks for one or because you, the author, ask for some to bring to a bookstore. This means the initial cost is low - but it also means you do most of the work.

Note that most of these companies charge you these fees EVEN TO SELL EBOOKS. The fee is to be in their system, not to do some sort of "printer setup".

http://starpublish.com/publishing.html
Cost: $1000 base fee plus 50% of all sales

http://www.iuniverse.com
Cost: $499 base fee plus 50% of all sales

http://www.xlibris.com
Cost: $500 base fee plus 25% of direct sale; 10% of 3rd party sale

http://www.authorhouse.com
Cost: $599 base fee plus 50% of sales

http://www.outskirtspress.com
Cost: $399 base fee plus 30% of sales

http://www.virtualbookworm.com
Cost: $360 base fee plus 50% of sales

http://www.booklocker.com
Cost: $299 base fee plus 65% of sales
Booklocker User Reviews

http://www.lulu.com
Cost: $100 base fee to advertise nationally plus 20% of your royalty
[note - VERY bare bones but also cheap]
Lulu Details

http://www.booksurge.com (run by Amazon)
Cost: $99 base fee plus 75% of sales
Booksurge Details

An important task is to figure out what your average per-book sale price will probably be, and then figure out what the break-even point would be in terms of book sales. For example, say you went with XLibris and were selling books at $10 each. The equation would be to find out when:

your outlay = your income
$500 = #Sales * $10.00 * .25
# Sales = 200 books

So at 200 books sold, you´d just have made back the money you put into the project, and would start earning $2.50 per sale after that point.

Note that in order to be sold at many stores (including Amazon) you need both an ISBN number and to be listed in the Ingram Book Company listing. So be sure to factor those prices into your costs, if the publisher you choose does not do those things for you. I explain how to do those tasks in my other pages here.

Publishing On Demand - Free Options
Publishing On Demand - FREE comparison chart

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