I self-published my first book back in 2008. I was living in Australia and this was before the international Kindle, before ebooks and print-on-demand became mainstream. A print book was really the only option and so I did a short run with a local printer.
I paid a considerable amount of money to have 2000 books printed. I thought they would fly off the shelves, making me money and changing people's lives.
Despite being on national TV and radio, I only ended up selling around 100 books and I took the rest to the landfill, because later that year, I discovered ebooks, print-on-demand and internet marketing. I never looked back. So, now I’m passionate about helping others avoid my own expensive mistake!
What is print-on-demand (POD)?
You load a cover file and an interior book file to a POD service and when a customer orders one of your books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another online bookstore, ONE copy is printed and sent directly to the customer.
This has incredible benefits:
- No upfront printing costs
- No warehousing or inventory management or accounting for stock
- No piles of books in your garage
- No shipping costs, packaging or running down to the post office every day to manage delivery
- No pulping of leftover books and no remainders going to the landfill
It's free to self-publish on many of the POD platforms, and they just take a cut of the sale.
You set the profit margin on the books, so you get paid later without having an outlay upfront.
You can also order multiple author copies or do bulk sales from POD sites like Ingram Spark, as well as include discounting and return options so bookstores, universities, schools and libraries can also order your books.
After my own terrible experience with doing a print run, I think print-on-demand is pretty amazing. When I teach this in live classes, people's eyes light up with the realization that publishing print books is achievable without spending thousands of dollars.
With Amazon Prime, you can even get your own books faster with POD than you can get traditional books, which have to come from a warehouse.
Create multiple formats
It’s not just about doing a standard paperback anymore. I have paperbacks, Large Print Editions, Workbooks, and even Hardback editions for my books. All print-on-demand.
You can also get special paper, full-color and all kinds of other options now. These extras will impact the printing price, of course, but you get to choose what you want to create.
What about quality?
The criticism of POD books used to be their quality but if you order any of my print books, you'll find the quality is pretty much indistinguishable from those on bookstore shelves. Many publishers now use the same POD services that indie authors use.
When would you do a print run?
Of course, there are times when doing a print run can be a good option.
When the beauty of the finished product is important.
My friend and founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors, Orna Ross, did a hardback, gold-embossed, limited edition run of Secret Rose, a combination of WB Yeats A Secret Rose and Orna's own book, Her Secret Rose.
Orna did a crowd-funding campaign to raise the printing costs and then sold the book at a premium. It was also a special project for Yeats' 150th anniversary, and there was a lot of work involved. So, this is something to do rarely, on special occasions.
I'd like to do a limited edition book one day where I make the paper and do the bookbinding myself. We can do these creative projects as indies, but they can't form the backbone of our author business, because the overheads in time and money are so high. But you can combine these special edition projects with POD to offer experiences at different levels to your fans.
If you have an established distribution method for your books.
Professional speakers have been self-publishing and selling books at the back of the room for years, and many make very good money that way.
If you have a physical business, e.g. you're a chiropractor or consultant or someone who has a place to sell and store books, then it may also work. But you have to be sure of your distribution channels, e.g. if you print 2000 books, you can sell them at 20 speaking events in the next six months.
If these reasons don't apply, then print-on-demand is definitely the way to go. And even if you do a print run, it’s worth having a POD version as well, so you can distribute globally through online sites.