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Book Printing on Demand

DJ Watson

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Following are the responses I received to my question: Has anyone had any experience with on-demand publishing for books?

I had the most recommendations for DeHart's Printing (www.deharts.com), but there are also some other great resources and tips from your fellow speakers here.

-- Linda Brakeall

www.booksjustbooks.com -- Their interactive site lets you price various sizes and page counts almost instantly. Their site offers all sort of resources including cover design and registration information, and they were easy to work with and VERY reasonably priced. I was in a crunch and had my books in less than 4 weeks with hard-copy proofs.

-- Richard Bauman

Two of the best are iUniverse.com and InfinityPublishing.com. The quality of product is excellent. They are reasonably priced, and your books are available (ordered) through all bookstores, and on-line booksellers such as Amazon.com. The royalty structure at iUniverse is okay, but not great; 30% on the wholesale price of the book. You probably won't get wealthy on book sales. Some prefer Infinity because they have a good product and a better royalty deal for authors. However, they are more expensive up front. Nonetheless, books produced by Infinity are available through bookstores,and on-line bookseller.

-- Tom Terrific

I just finished the process. If you're interested I'll give you my experience with www.Deharts.com. I did my whole book for $500.

-- Laura Lagana

www.Xlibris.com -- Excellent to work with. They have several packages from which to choose; among them, one that includes printing charts, colored photographs, tables, etc. Expect to have a quality book within 4 - 6 months.Before and after the sale, they excel.

Two suggestions:

  1. Stay on top of things by working closely with your assigned team from the very beginning. I found that frequent, clear and concise communication throughout the process was mutual and made for a superb outcome. This step ultimately determines the quality of your book.
  2. Keep the page count to approximately 200 or below since this determines the cost of the finished product.

-- Lois Creamer

A client of mine just recommended www.instantpublisher.com. He used it and was thrilled.

-- Gayl Murphy

I can't say enough good stuff about DeHart's. Their work is great, on time, did what they said they would do, great customer service -- even on a Sunday at home! I was printing with One2OneDirect, but they went out of business while they were printing my book, yikes! DeHart's came to my rescue and helped me through my impossible deadline.

-- Jay Davidson

The company is DeHart's Printing Services.

-- Joanne Schlosser

I've used Print Partner in Phoenix for 2 POD books. They are great to work with and have contacts to additional resources if you need them for editing, layout, cover design, etc. Call Nancy or John Katrakis at 602-273-1404.

-- Mahesh Grossman

I just had a great experience with Dehart's in Santa Clara, CA. They had competitive prices and were able to turn my book around in five days. (This is not their standard procedure, but I needed books for a conference. I didn't get to look at the proofs, but the book turned out great.) They are at www.deharts.com or call Victoria Gonzalez, 408/982-9118, victoria@deharts.com.

-- Patty Hendrickson

My first self-publishing route was with a traditional and big (2,000 book) runs. I didn't want the hassle of boxes and moving them so decided to go to on-demand publishing on my fourth printing. It is more expensive per book, but it is a great way to get what you want. You can also customize the books for a particular client. The publisher I'm using was recommended by Rebecca Morgan on an SNN teleseminar. You could buy the tape of "The Secrets of Print-On-Demand: Print Your Book in a Week Without Filling Your Garage with Boxes" with Don DeHart for more information. The company is DeHart's Printing Services Corp. I'm working with Ed Santa Ana at 877/370-1555. Service has been exceptional.

If you want someone to do more intense consulting with you in the process of creating your book and design and maybe finding some markets. Jerrold Jenkins of Michigan (231/933-0445) is awesome. I haven't done a project with him, but know four people who have and LOVE their work. www.bookpublishing.com.

-- Kare Anderson

Mary Westheimer, founder of Bookzone.com, has a partner company that does print on demand.

-- Peter Lucash

I have been printing my two books using POD for about 2 years. The difficult part of POD is the binding. Few printers have the binding equipment. Some 50 Kinkos stores, however, do have it. Currently, I have been using a local company, Digital aka Booksurge. Stay away from them. They're trying to put everyone in a model where the author only gets a commission. I pay them for the books I print, and that's it. I do all of my own selling, shipping, everything. They also want to charge me for every change, including when they made the mistake. They never accept responsibility for their own screw-ups. They will also not let me make the change to the file and give it back -- that's another charge. Kinkos doesn't do that.

Your local Kinkos may be able to broker the work through another store, which solves your problem. Amazon is one sales outlet, although they now charge $29/year for small presses to sell through them. It's called the "Advantage" program. You will need an ISBN number, the bar code must be on all books in order to sell through any bookstore. Check around -- ask your local printers. The key is the binding - you need someone who has the binding machines for the perfect bind.

-- Dan Surface

I've used www.instantpublisher.com for 3 books and have always been completely happy with the results. You can order from 25+, know in advance the exact costs and use a custom designed full color cover. (Be sure to spend the extra $15 for the proof).

-- Marilynn Mobley

www.lightningsource.com

-- Mitchell Goozé

We use DeHarts in Santa Clara. Haven't found anyone less expensive and they do a GREAT job.

-- Ariane Goodwin

Infinity or Buybooksontheweb.com is a great company. They have a single package price with everything included. They are author friendly, with great royalty (pays every month!), and 3 choices of final book sizes. They worked with me at every stage with extreme patience and kindness. Compared to every other company I've looked into, they're the best.

If you call, tell Dave I sent you. Oh, yes, they actually answer their phones! P.S. THE most important thing, besides a great book cover, is to make sure you have professional editing before you publish. An amateur editing job is a sure killer for a self-published tome.

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