OLD POST ALERT! This is an older post and although you might find some useful tips, any technical or publishing information is likely to be out of date. Please click on Start Here on the menu bar above to find links to my most useful articles, videos and podcast. Thanks and happy writing! – Joanna Penn
Print-on-demand publishing is becoming more common especially in the self-publishing world.
Books are printed individually when there is an order placed for them instead of in bulk before promotion and sales. A print-on-demand publisher will have digital files of your manuscript and cover, and they will just print the book out when it is ordered and ship it to the customer.
The benefits of this are:
- No stock is held so there are no bulk up-front printing costs and no holding/storage costs
- Your book can be ready for sale immediately anywhere in the world on completion and upload of the manuscript
- There is the ability to change the text and publish changes more quickly
- It is more environmentally friendly as there are only print and shipping costs for actual sales
- It enables more power to self-publishers who want to get their books out there for little start up costs.
However, there are lower profits per book as printing costs are higher than bulk printing, but the benefits of not spending the money up front often outweigh this.
There are a number of options for Print-on-Demand publishing now.
Two of the biggest are Lulu.com and BookSurge (which is owned by Amazon). Here is an article from the founder of Lulu.com on the benefits of self-publishing and print-on-demand.
Here is my personal experience of Lulu
“I use Print-on-Demand for my Amazon.com sales of “How to Enjoy Your Job”. The files are held by a US publisher Lulu.com and when people order the book from Amazon, they are printed then and shipped direct to the customer. I get US$4.03 per book. However, as I am not a US resident, 40% of that goes in with-holding tax, so I receive about $2.90 per book. However, I do nothing for this. It all happens without me doing anything as they print and ship the books per order direct to the customer. Once sales increase, it is a brilliant business model! I don't have to hold stock, I don't do the shipping. I just promote my book and see it sold.”
You can see my Amazon page here, and this is my Lulu storefront so you can see it can be done. I will do another post on the exact process of submitting your book to these services. You don't need to be an IT genius but you do need to be reasonably comfortable with uploading and formatting.
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