Self publishing info

I found this article about self publishing that lists the top 10 publishing companies. I thought it was interesting enough to pass along. http://ourwriteside.com/the-best-article-ive-seen-on-self-publishing/

I use createspace.com for my paperback books on Amazon. I have found that most of my paperback sales do come from there. I also have an account with Lightning Source, which is part of the Ingram family.

To publish with Lightning Source costs me roughly $140 per book and $12/year to maintain the listing. It is also $40 anytime I want to update the book. With Createspace i can publish and update for free at any time.

So why do I use Lightning Source if I sell most paperbacks with Createspace? Barnes & Noble do not work with Createspace. Any paperback book printed by Createspace is only sold through the Createspace store or through Amazon. So if you want someone to be able to buy your paperback at BN, you have to use an Ingram company.

When I say “buy your paperback at BN” I do not mean that you will have shelf space in their stores, just that someone can use the BN website to order your books.

So what is the big deal of selling through BN if you only get sales online? People could just go to Amazon to buy the book then. Well, if your book is available at BN you can do author signings at BN if you talk with the manager and show them that 1) you have sales and 2) that there would be an interest in your book at their store. I think your book would do well with a book signing. But don’t be fooled. You will have to pay for the book signing (BN won’t just give you time in their store). BN will also order about 30-50 copies of your book and they will return what doesn’t sell. This will hurt your profits and marketing. No one wants to see more returns than sales within any given month.

So even if you do not want to do a book signing, is going with an Ingram company any benefit to you? Yes. All the “Mom and Pop” bookstores out there can order your book for their customers. They could even buy copies to keep in their stores. You could even do free book signings at these little stores because they love the publicity.

All of that is great, but what else do you get with an Ingram company? They will distribute your book for you. That is good, but also bad. A friend of mine writes wearwolf stories and I found her book available on a pet store’s website. Distribution is great, but you need targeted distribution. Also, once Ingram spreads your book out to everyone, you’ll find pirated copies of the book on websites from Indonesia, China, etc. Since they’re out of the US and out of our copyright laws, you can’t do anything about them. If the pirated company operates out of the US, you can send them a take down notice.

So it’s really a toss up. Lulu and Createspace are stand alone (I don’t think Lulu is an Ingram company). You can control distribution and they can help you to a certain degree. Ingram is great for spreading the word of your book, but security can be lacking.

Regina Morris