Is Print on Demand Really a Bad Idea?

Back in May, 2010, I blogged this post about POD printing. At the time I had just read an article mentioned below that was extremely critical of POD printing. I wrote some things back in May's post that I re-read the other day and I think they're worthy of another mention for my new followers.

Here's the post. I hope you find it useful.
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May, 2010

I just read this article, the title of which is "7 Things to think about before you go with Print on Demand."

http://bookcoaching.com/wp/advice-before-print-on-demand/

I'm all for thinking before leaping. In fact, there are those who would accuse me of over-preparedness.

But my reading of the "7 Things" article is that its author doesn't believe there is ANY good reason to POD publish. I disagree.

Let's look at a few realities that are, indeed, important to consider before you self-publish -- whether POD or via a traditional printer:

1) Don't be guilty of "author discrimination." POD publishing has made it possible for ANYONE to publish a book. The natural result is a dilution in the overall quality of the books being published -- when taken in aggregate. But let's not practice author discrimination by generalizing about the quality of writing in POD books. There are some POD's out there that would compete on every level with many NY Times Best Sellers. They just tend to get lost among the rabble. There are actually MORE GOOD BOOKS out there right now then ever before. Don't discard a book just because it's POD.

2) Publishing costs. "7 Things" says:

"These [POD] companies aren’t really publishers just because they take your book and create digital copies for you. They are printers.

"If they are printers, then they are really charging too much. And, they have control of your book and can charge you 40-50% commission before you get multiple copies of your book. If you go Print on Demand, it’s much better to go with a POD printer such as Deharts.com where you maintain full control of the book."

I'm not familiar with Deharts.com. But I have researched various traditional printers and their costs. Traditional printing is not cheap. And you really need to order AT LEAST a couple thousand dollars worth of your book before you know if you'll be able to sell any. The per book cost will not be cheaper than a good POD service. And the quality will not be better than a good POD service. The commission the author mentions should only be charged when your POD printer also markets your book. I don't pay a commission to get author copies of my POD book. My book has a color cover and is a 300 page 6 x 9 perfect-bound trade paperback. I pay $4.37 each -- in ANY quantity. Average shipping cost for my book is $.56 per copy.

Once your book has been printed and shipped to you, a traditional printer is out of the picture. But my POD printer also offers me sales connections. They're not mandatory. But they do cost something by way of commission, should I choose to pursue them. Usually my net take on books sold through my printer is about 30% -- twice what a large publishing house would pay me.

Even when my book is resold through wholesalers like Ingram, my take is still over 15% -- and I have no up-front costs in those sales. I don't need to worry about order-taking, or fulfillment, or non-paying accounts. That's what I pay the extra commission for.

If I want to take my $4.37 books and arrange my own sales channels, I am welcome to do so. And in some cases, that is a part of my sales strategy. But what I typically find is, retailers want a 40% discount off of list. Now with my upfront book cost of about $5.00 including shipping, and the retailer's 40% discount off my book's $15.95 list price, I make less than the 30% I would have made through some of my "printer's" wholesale channels.

So POD gives me choices I wouldn't have otherwise had, with less initial investment, less risk, and less hassle. Huh . . . imagine that.

3) Book Sales. "7 Things" cautions us to "make sure you can sell this book before you spend time and money with Print on Demand."

Personally, I don't find this admonition very helpful. If we KNEW we could sell our book, wouldn't that mean that we already had a contract to sell it? It's sort of cart-before-the-horse thinking.

I would respond that, since we don't know that our book will sell, we should minimize our upfront costs and not spend thousands (or tens of thousands) on traditional printing, when we could spend only a few hundred on POD.

I have a good friend who tells me about his experience self-publishing his book using a traditional printer.

"It's a million seller," he says. "I've got a million in my cellar."

I don't know about you, but I'd rather stick my toe in before I throw my whole self into the pot.

In summary, please go read the above article to receive it's author's unedited sentiments. Then you can for yourself decide if POD makes sense.

Disclaimer: I get no remuneration whatsoever from any POD company and will not benefit financially in any way from the content of this blog. It's all just my humble opinion.

Best regards.

John

Virtual Book Tour - Progress Report

Hello All.

Just checking in to give you an update on my November/December Virtual Book Tour for The 19th Element.

We're almost at the midpoint of the tour. I'm not ready to pass any judgments. I want to see the full benefits of the tour strategy and the order of appearances before I do that. But I do have some observations to share.

Scheduling SNAFUS.

First of all, shortly in advance of a Virtual Book Tour, you post a "Tour Page" that contains a schedule of your appearances, so your followers are able to . . . well . . . follow. So far, my book tour schedule, although professionally organized by Pump Up Your Book, hasn't exactly helped my followers as much as I would have liked.

I'm not blaming anyone. I think it's just a reality to be recognized. Out of 16 originally scheduled and publicized blog stops thus far, my posts have failed to appear as per the schedule three times. Emails to my tour guide were not able to keep these appearances on schedule. To be clear . . . my appearances either were or will be posted sometime -- just not per the schedule.

Blog Selections.

In my opinion, some of the blog tour stops were not very well matched up with the thriller genre of my book. I make this observation based on other books recently appearing on these blogs. For example: If the blogger constantly reviews chick lit, she may not appreciate a thriller. And her audience may not appreciate one either. Moral: I would recommend that, if you're planning on touring, you might ask for the reasons why each blog is appropriate to your genre.

Other Technical Difficulties.

-- On one occasion, a blog book reviewer lost my book. I had to prove convincingly that it had been sent. Then she managed to find it. Okay. Nobody's perfect. Moral: It's a good idea to keep records of when, where and how you sent off your materials to the bloggers (or the tour director).

-- On another occasion, my tour director asked for posts for four different blogs in a single email. I managed to not notice one of them. As a result, even though I had subsequently asked whether my director had received all the needed posts, the omission resulted in a missed post. Moral: Double check all your assignments and don't expect the tour director to catch them for you.

-- On another occasion, my Author Interview was posted on the right site and on the correct date, but the introduction to my interview indicated that I was going to tell about the time I met Stephen King. Since I've never met Stephen King, my post was obviously on a differing topic. I didn't catch this one until later in the day. So the blog post was incorrect for the majority of the blog's followers. Moral: Check your blog posts early on the day of posting and look for errors.

What About Results?

As I stated at the outset, I'm going to allow my tour director to complete her job before I pass any judgments on results. Sorry. That'll have to wait 'til then.

Thanks for hanging with me during this Tour. I will be posting more frequently when we get into December.

Happy Holidays!

John

Book Tour Stop at PUYB

Here's a link to my blog interview, while touring to promote The 19th Element, at Pump Up Your Book. Learn a bit more about me and the roots of my writing and publishing career.

The 19th Element at Pump Up Your Book.

I'll probably continue to link posts from the book tour when they have value for Self-Publishing Central Followers.

All the best!

John

Guest Blogging This Month

Hello Friends.

As some of you may know, I'm on a Virtual Book Tour this month. I've been writing furiously to meet my obligations for guest posts and author interviews. When the tour is over in December, I plan to report a detailed description of the VBT experience and its value to a self-pubber.

In the meantime, I would appreciate it if you would join my tour and learn a bit more about me. The tour schedule is here.

Today's stop is at Writing Daze. The best way to get a sense of the tour is to follow along.

Thanks much and all the best!

John

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Hello Friends.

Today's post addresses some difficult decisions I have had to make lately to prioritize my writing and self-publishing time. Now that my books have been in distribution for a few months, and have received some positive reviews, I've started to receive some tempting requests.

Offers to participate in online writer's groups

I've received more than a dozen requests/invitations to participate in online writers groups. I want to network with other writers. So initially, I accepted almost every offer. Each certainly presented an opportunity to increase my platform as an author.

Gradually, I began to realize that I was unable to meet the demands and commitments of all these new organizations. I started receiving lots of emails from the web writer's groups I had joined. I found that I couldn't even remember joining some of them. And I certainly hadn't been an active participant.

I wondered if merely belonging to these organizations was doing me -- or them -- any good at all. If I wasn't able to be active. And I wasn't building relationships. What was the point in belonging?

I've come to the decision that I need to drop my membership in many of these groups because I am simply unable to do them justice. I don't like doing anything half-way. And I felt that was what was happening to my participation in these groups. So I have withdrawn my membership from many online writer's groups entirely -- electing to continue my involvement in only those in which I could truly remain involved.

Invitations to local writers' groups

And I have begun to decline (or at least postpone) invitations to join local and regional writer's groups as well.

I have been offered opportunities to speak to these organizations -- and even to be compensated for doing so. But since my major thrust at this point in my writing career is not becoming an expert among writers, but becoming a recognized writer myself, I have politely declined these invitations as well.

This has been very difficult for me. I want to network and exchange ideas with local and regional authors. I would love to share my self-publishing background with these folks, just as I do here on my blog. But if I were to accept these invitations, I wouldn't be able to spend the time I know I need to spend marketing my books, and working on new books.

I have come to the realization that I need to prioritize my time among opportunities. What a good problem to have! But still the source of many gut-wrenching choices.

When I make each choice I remember my short and long term goals in the writing/publishing business. I want to write and sell good books. And I want to give back to the writing community. But I must keep the two goals in balance. Right now, my give-back has to be limited to this blog and a few special exceptions. I cannot allow it to take over all of my time.

Offers to co-author

I have also received three offers (from reviewers who have read my books) to co-author new books with them. I am honored by their offers. And I would LOVE to do this. But accepting even one these offers right now would take a great deal of my own writing time from the Beck Series -- which I hope to build to a length of a dozen books or more -- and from finalizing another WIP that I have nearly ready for publication, and in which I believe deeply.

So again, I have to choose among great opportunities. And I have chosen to stay the course with my own writing -- though a collaboration with another author would undoubtedly help improve my writing skills and give me new insights into the publishing world.

I just can't do everything at once!

Keeping my focus

So I continue to struggle to keep my focus -- to keep my eye on the ball.

Right now, my priorities are:

1) to market my current books,
2) to keep writing to build my own series,
3) to undertake other writing projects only when they are of special importance to me.
4) to maintain this blog as my give-back.

(Did I mention a day job in there somewhere? My family likes to eat.)

I will do my best to cut back on other commitments to a manageable level, and stick to my program. I think it's the best decision for me right now.

I'd be interested in your thoughts as well. Please feel free to comment.

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping in.

John

Twin Cities Rain Taxi Book Festival Report

Hello all.

I had the enlightening experience of attending my first large book fair when I exhibited my novels at the Twin Cities Rain Taxi Book Festival in downtown Minneapolis this last Saturday.

I'll give you the scoop from the beginning.

How I came to attend the festival

Back in July, I submitted a summary of my newest novel, The 19th Element, to Author Beth Solheim at her Reading Minnesota Blogspot. Following that submission, an email conversation between Beth and I ensued. She recommended that I exhibit at the Rain Taxi Festival because it would be good exposure for me as a new author.

Beth has been around the publishing business for awhile. You can find out more about her on her website. Anyway, when Beth suggested I attend Rain Taxi, I took her suggestion seriously, and promptly signed up.

The cost for an "author table" at the Festival was $60. I didn't think that sounded too expensive -- particularly if it might give me some exposure in my native Minnesota.

So early this past Saturday morning, I packed up my books, tablecloth, display materials and candy bowl and headed for Minneapolis (about a one hour drive from my home).

The festival at first blush

Everything at the Festival appeared very well-organized. I inquired at the Info Booth as to the location of my table and found it with no difficulties. I was rather pleased that Beth's table happened to be directly behind mine, so I would get to speak with her without vacating my book-selling station.

Beth arrived shortly after me and we exchanged pleasantries. She turned out to be very nice in-person, just as she had been in our emails exchanges.

The authors who were at the two tables right next to mine were both from Wisconsin and were also very nice folks. (I continue to meet more and more truly decent people in this writing business.) This was a "first" book festival for each of them as well.

The crowd arrives

When the book-buying crowds arrived around 10:30, the entire scene was a bit overwhelming. There were 112 author tables, all of which were four feet wide or wider. Some extended over thirty feet and offered scores of books for sale.

I greeted a steady stream of festival-goers as they passed my table. Many said they were just "getting the lay of the land" and weren't really shopping yet. This was completely understandable given the quantity of wares available.

As the day went on, I continued to engage would-be book buyers as they passed my table. A good number stopped and listened to my "elevator pitches" for my two novels. Most declined to buy, but nearly all took one of the bookmarks I had placed within their easy reach. The bookmarks look very professional and feature all of my book and website info. A few customers were willing to purchase one or both of my books.

Book sales?

I sold ten books over a period of seven hours at the Festival. Based on sales by the authors around me, that was pretty good. Each of the authors next to me sold less than I did. And I have read that typical sales at a book-signing event average four! So my sales were within expectations. But festival sales by themselves clearly did not justify the time and effort I had put into my presence there.

What I have yet to find out is whether some of the intangible benefits of meeting other authors and literary bloggers at the event will pay dividends in the long run. To be honest, I may never know for sure if my festival contacts will turn into book sales.

A note about candy at author tables

As an aside -- most authors had a candy dish of some variety or another on their tables. I had mints. One author next to me had snickers and small Reese's cups. I bet you can guess who gave out more candy.

But I didn't see the candy giveaway helping sales along. In fact, it seemed that the kids attending the festival with their parents (at least I hope they were with some adult) had the most fun of all. With free candy on every table, little hands repeatedly hit pay dirt -- whether an adult was paying attention to the books or not.

I noted one particularly happy, and somewhat chubby, young fellow as he passed by my table. His face was smeared amply with chocolate. As he followed his parent down the row between tables, I saw him stuffing a snickers bar into his mouth with one hand while getting an already-sticky Tootsie Pop tangled in his hair with the other.

So what's my take on attending a book festival?

I enjoyed this one and would recommend the experience to any author who hasn't tried one before. Even if you don't sell books, you can practice engaging strangers and discussing your book(s). You can rehearse and revise your elevator pitches, adjusting them to see what seems to work best. And you can meet others in the literary world. All good things.

That having been said . . . will I be back at the same festival next year? Probably not. I think I got most of the benefits I was going to get by attending once. I'll devote my $60 and day's-worth of time to other marketing efforts next year.

That's it for today.

All the best!

John

Why NaNoWriMo is Very Cool

I'm taking a break from my usual self-pub fare to bring you some info about NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month -- November, 2010.

I'm sure many of you are already aware of this novel-writing phenomenon. But please bear with me as I share with others.

According to its official webpage, NaNoWriMo is:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Where: You write wherever you’d like. On your computer, on your iPad, on a typewriter---anywhere is fine, just as long as you’re writing!

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Your NaNoWriMo novel doesn't go anywhere other than to the contest sponsors for word count verification. Then they destroy their copy. So you can feel free to let your creative juices flow without fear that your reading public will see what a crummy piece of writing you have produced.

The first NaNoWriMo was held in 1999 with 21 participants and six winners. (You win by completing your novel within the month's time.) Since then, participation has sky-rocketed, as shown below:

Annual participant/winner totals
1999: 21 participants and six winners
2000: 140 participants and 29 winners
2001: 5000 participants and more than 700 winners
2002: 13,500 participants and around 2,100 winners
2003: 25,500 participants and about 3,500 winners
2004: 42,000 participants and just shy of 6,000 winners
2005: 59,000 participants and 9,769 winners
2006: 79,813 participants and 12,948 winners
2007: 101,510 participants and 15,333 winners
2008: 119,301participants and 21,683 winners
2009: 167,150 participants and 32,178 winners

Number of official NaNoWriMo chapters around the world: Over 500
Number of K-12 schools who participated in 2005: Over 100
Number of K-12 schools who participated in 2006: Over 300
Number of K-12 schools who participated in 2007: 366
Number of K-12 schools who participated in 2008: 600
Number of K-12 schools who participated in 2009: 1,295
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2004 event: 428,164,975
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2005 event: 714,227,354
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2006 event: 982,564,701
Number of words officially logged by participants during the 2007 event: 1,187,931,929
Number of words officially logged during the 2008 event: 1,643,343,993
Number of words officially logged during the 2009 event: 2,427,190,537

Personally, I think NaNoWriMo is a great idea. I would participate myself except, this year, I have a November Virtual Blog Tour and two existing WIPs. I'll be writing my 50,000 words on those ventures for sure.

This is what's really cool about NaNoWriMo. It encourages creativity without fear of criticism.

Lot's of folks have been wanting to write a novel. NaNoWriMo gives them the support they need to get one started. And everyone knows that for normal humans, a novel written in a single month is going to be pretty bad. So all can feel free to join the party.

Check out the NaNoWriMo site for more details and related social activities.

If you need that push to start writing. . . here's your chance. Go for it!

That's it for today.

Cheers!

John