nitty-gritty publishing details: getting the ink on paper

[Leela]

It seems a little early to be discussing this but it keeps coming up,
so let's get it all in one place. How should we print and
distribute?

[Leela]

copied from "The Grand Experiment", the printing digression:

Adam Lowe wrote:

More options Jan 23, 9:20 am
For printing, here are the options that spring to mind:
- CreateSpace offer the cheapest POD service, and they're owned by
Amazon
which means we get automatically listed as 'in stock' on Amazon.
- BookSurge are much the same, but they'll only work with
publishers with
25+ titles, I think.
- Lightning Source offer distribution via Ingrams, but since every
other
POD publisher uses Ingrams too, we'd need more than just LSI as the
printers
to get noticed.
- Green Button (US) will publish quality paperbacks rather cheaply
on
their digital presses with print runs at a minimum of 20 copies.
They also
do free warehousing and will drop ship at a small cost.
- MPG Biddles (UK) offer a similar service to Green Button with
even
better print quality, but require a minimum print run of 100
copies. They
fix the per-unit cost price forever and supply hardbacks at only £1
extra
per copy than the paperback versions. They work with York
Publishing for
warehousing and dropshipping, although there is a slight charge for
this
service.
- Antony Rowe are another excellent POD service, although they
charge
slightly higher set-up fees than some of the other POD companies.
Their
print quality is unrivalled in POD, however, and Lulu use them for
all their
colour print work in the UK.
- Lulu.com is easy and efficient, except where colour books or
hardbacks
are concerned. However, Lulu titles are not automatically listed as
'in
stock' on Amazon and unless we can offer 55-60% discount to Amazon,
will not
be a viable option for sale on their website (discount for Amazon
Advantage
is 55% in the US and 60% in the UK and elsewhere, plus we have to
pay
shipping).
The thing to bear in mind is that the unit price has to be equal to or
less
than {cover price - [60% + postage + warehousing + other costs]}. A
traditional formula is:
COVER PRICE = per unit print cost * 5
However, with POD and digital printing, this often results in books
that
cost £10/$20. If we can keep postage, warehousing and additional costs
down,
we can keep costs at the standard price ranges of £6.99/$13.99-
£7.99/$15.99.
Also note that the weakened pound makes printing with Biddles more
preferrable because a $13.99 book is now nearer £9.99 rather than
£6.99.
That gives us the leeway of producing books at £2/unit. With Biddles'
Publishers' Choice package that's easily feasible (a 144pp B&W book is
about
£1.75, I think).
Obviously I'm working more in GBP than USD.
2009/1/23 mordi...@gmail.com <mordi...@gmail.com>

- Hide quoted text -

> Adam, you are speaking my language-- I am a big booster of Southland
> tales! I ordered the graphic novel but never got around to reading
> it. I should-- thanks for the reminder.
> Anyhow-- ideas are great, but now I'm starting to feel like without
> discussing numbers & realities we are treading water. What kind of
> publishing platform are we going to use? I'm talking machines here--
> I mean, do we want to piggyback on Lulu's print-on-demand? Blub?
> Shop it out to a third party printer that other small presses use? I
> don't know anything about that world.
> What kind of laydown & distro are we talking about?
> Do we have a webmaster in the house? We could make some inroads
> there?
> I DO know a very small publisher-- he owns the Art Squared imprint-- I
> should see if he's interested.
*********************************************************************************
I would offer that even if profit is important, it may not be an
option if we're launching something new and different. If
OzPublishing (or whatever we are) gets a name and a reputation for
doing interesting things, we'll be well-positioned. But I'm not sure
that we're going to do more than break even. I also think that
warehousing and distribution is HUGE amounts of work (and postage,
and
space) and that we should seriously consider focusing on the
development end and leaving the actual volumes in the hands of an
outfit like Lulu--letting them POD and ship directly to people.
Listing on Amazon is a good thing, but are we trying to plug into the
existing distribution, or do something different? One of my major
concerns in the US is how much control major booksellers have over
what gets published, based on what they're willing to distribute or
what they charge for distribution. If we want to change publishing I
think we need to get outside the major distribution channels in order
to help open things up for small/controversial/experimental work.
Things that are relatively mainstream (like an anthology of known
spec
fic authors) are necessary to get people used to the idea of new
forms
of advertising and delivery so that the unusual stuff has a system to
use.
Leela
****************************************************************************
Well . . . we needn't be profitable, but I think it's in everyone's
interests to at least attempt, at this point, not to run at a huge
loss. Not
appearing on Amazon greatly reduces our stature and will have at least
a 10%
negative effect on sales. At this stage, we shouldn't be accepting
that off
the bat.
Another option is to actually print with a number of printers. Setting
up
titles with Lulu.com is free, and we'd easily be able to list the same
POD
title with Antony Rowe, CreateSpace and BookSurge for very little
cost. That
at least gives readers various choices in where to buy the book and
makes it
more accessible. Listing it with LSI too would also give us limited
bookstore distribution, but because LSI titles require a barcode page
at the
back of the book, I think that would require the LSI edition having a
separate ISBN because it would count as alternative content to the
other
editions. Otherwise, the Lulu, Antony Rowe, CreateSpace and BookSurge
editions will all look pretty much identical.
Cheers
--Adam
******************************************************************************
On Jan 23, 10:20 am, Adam Lowe <beyo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well . . . we needn't be profitable, but I think it's in everyone's
> interests to at least attempt, at this point, not to run at a huge loss.
Agreed.
> Not
> appearing on Amazon greatly reduces our stature and will have at least a 10%
> negative effect on sales. At this stage, we shouldn't be accepting that off
> the bat.
okay. So were the numbers you quoted for Amazon Advantage just for
Lulu, or would they also apply for the other publishers? I'm not
averse to using Amazon, but I do want to lift up the problems of
buying into a flawed distribution system. If there's a better way,
I'd prefer it, but that which works, works.
Leela
***************************************************************************
Well Amazon ALWAYS demand 55%-60% discount from cover price. The only
way
round it is printing copies with an Amazon owned/affiliated POD press,
such
as BookSurge or CreateSpace. They will then print the books at their
own
cost price and pay us any difference between that and their sale
price, if
any. However, they usually set a minimum retail price for you, so you
can't
cut the books down below their profit margin. It's another benefit of
making
the books available through multiple channels.

--Adam
*****************************************************************************
I think the author/creator/s percentage will take care of itself--
given that
we may well turn into a virtual publisher with v. little overhead. I
think
one of the most ripe for experimentation parts of publishing is not
the
supply, not the distribution, but the demand. We need to increase
reader
demand, and one way to do that is by increasing reader awareness: let
them
know there *is* a fabulous product. Let them know by showing them
the
physical object, by playing them music, running vids and book
trailers, by
getting reviews, putting on events, building a metaverse, by word-of-
mouth.
I can't tell you how many times I've had email or f2f conversations
with
readers who are fans who are surprised--no, shocked--to discover I
have a
new book out. They are interested in my work, yet they didn't know it
was
out there. There are hundreds and thousands, possibly millions, of
readers
in this country (I can't begin to guess about the world), who aren't
been
reached. That's one of the things I want to address.
That's the part that excites me.
How about everyone else?
Nicola
*******************************************************************************


I don't think Lulu or Blurb make since financially do they? They are
great for super small runs, but I'm not sure about for this type of
thing.
I'm wondering about a theme for the anthology. Maybe once we see who
we may be able to ask, we can see a way to go with that... Or maybe
we should be talking about a theme. If we are going to have one even.
Jennifer
As for Jennifer's reservation . . . a POD printer would be cost-
effective if
we're skipping the middle men. But it also depends what kind of sales
we
expect and how much we can invest. Offset printing is obviously much
better,
but we'd need $3,000 just to print 1,000 copies, and someone will have
to
warehouse the books, which can be costly. But if we're doing a
'tester'
product first, do we really want to fork out that much if it might all
go
wrong?
--Adam Lowe

[Adam Lowe]

I guess we're torn between litho printing and either digital small run or POD?

But that's all dependent on what budget we can get for the first product. I would prefer litho, obviously, but it's not cost effective to print anything less than 1000 copies.

2009/2/2 Leela <ell...@gmail.com>

--
Regards

Adam Lowe

Features Editor
Bent [http://mag.bent.com]
Editor-in-Chief
Polluto [http://www.polluto.com]
Publisher/Editor
Dog Horn Publishing [http://www.doghornpublishing.com]

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