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Publishing and Promoting
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Is anyone making money with Lightning Source print?
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I use LSI for print and KDP for e-version. My choice for POD were limited because my address is in Tanzania. Create Space was not an option. Once I got through the initial setup process LSI was fine. Like another comment, I sell almost no Nook versions. some of my non-online customers only use Barnes and Nobles brick and mortar stores to order for them.
Hello all, I wish to set up my own publishing company, but am looking to outsource the actual printing and distribution of the book. Would LS be suitable for this?
Lightning Source is the main print book source for booksellers. They work directly with the large publishers.One of their divisions is Ingram Spark who work primarily with small publishers and independent authors. I use Ingram Spark for my publishing business (only my books at the moment). I find Ingram Spark very useful, and while they put you in their catalogue, printing and posting is all they do. You have to price your books adequately and market them sufficiently to make money.
Has anyone worked with booklocker.com for POD services? They are very reasonable.Is it correct that if I use them, I don't need to deal with CS or LSI?
Alan wrote: "Has anyone worked with booklocker.com for POD services? They are very reasonable.Is it correct that if I use them, I don't need to deal with CS or LSI?"
I published a contemporary romance through Booklocker about ten years ago. It was a positive experience, quality printing, great author support, and wide distribution (even Amazon). If I were to choose the POD route again, however, I'd give Bookbaby a serious look. They're a larger, local (for me) business, versus a family owned and operated business, which hurt me in the past after the family suffered several personal tragedies (Hardshell Word Factory).
I've had no luck with LS. Also I wanted a book with a spine and was informed they couldn't do it.
I have a book coming up that traditional POD services, such as CreateSpace, will not handle because it is “too racy.” I need to print the books myself. Has anyone used Lightning Press to print their books? Their prices are about 40% lower than BookBaby, which I've heard bad things about. LP's requirements for submission (PDF, etc.) are quite similar to CreateSpace. Anyone have experience with this Lightning Press printer?
G. wrote: "I have a book coming up that traditional POD services, such as CreateSpace, will not handle because it is “too racy.” I need to print the books myself. Has anyone used Lightning Press to print thei..."I don't have an answer to your question, G. Sorry. But I would be interested to know what bad things you've heard about Bookbaby. A good friend of mine is considering publishing through them and I'd like to give her a heads up on possible issues .
Cindy wrote: “I would be interested to know what bad things you've heard about Bookbaby.”II don’t recall specifically, I just remember seeing a post from someone who had some kind of problem with them and said they were never going to use them again.
Alan wrote: "Has anyone worked with booklocker.com for POD services? They are very reasonable.Is it correct that if I use them, I don't need to deal with CS or LSI?"
I use Booklocker exclusively for my books. Their prices are fair, the cover designs are terrific, the service is friendly and fast, and their follow-up with the e-book files is thorough and efficient. I LOVE this company for its personal touch and sensible contract. The bookstores who order from Booklocker say their shipment arrives ahead of schedule as do the copies I order for sale and marketing. I don't want to be involved with the production of my books which is why I hire a professional like Booklocker. Writing is what I do best, publishing is what they do best. Point made.
D.B. wrote: "I've had no luck with LS. Also I wanted a book with a spine and was informed they couldn't do it."I find that very interesting. I have thought about publishing with LS, thinking maybe they would have more options than Createspace, (where I can;t get a spine on my Chapter Books because they have less than 101 pages) but hesitated because of the extra cost. Createspace is completely free.
I am unfamiliar with Booklocker. Maybe I'll check that out. Thanks for the recommendation.
Gerry wrote: “D.B. wrote: “I’ve had no luck with LS. Also I wanted a book with a spine and was informed they couldn’t do it.”I find that very interesting. I have thought about publishing with LS, thinking maybe . . .”
What you mean is you couldn’t get a printed spine. Any perfect bound book is going to have a spine, but if it is too narrow, then they can’t print anything on it.
Hi G.I use LS/Ingram Spark for my print books and my eBooks on my three self-pubbed titles. I don't make huge sales, but I've had no problems with LS. So long as you make sure your files meet their specs, it's fairly straightforward and they have good distribution options, including TBD for print.
One thing to mention is that they only pay out to you once your sales reach a certain amount in each country/region. So I do have money owed from a while back that I've not seen yet because I haven't sold any more in that region since to push it over the limit for payout. I find that a little annoying, but that's my only gripe so far. The quality of the books themselves is fine and, yes, they do print spines, but not if it's too narrow/too few pages to put anything on.
Ok, so I used Createspace for my 2 paperback novels and researched the others. Here is my 2 cents...Createspace (no hardback options)
15 copies ordered (no minimum required)
$85 total w/ shipping
$5.67 per book
Bookbaby
25 copies min.
$568.50 total w/ shipping
$22.74 per book
(They charge for ISBN and Amazon book distribution)
Booklocker
$25 setup fee (even though they say they have No setup/formatting fees)
$35 print proof
$18 annual file hosting fee
$78 Total and I believe I only have a proof to show for it.
Lightning Source (IngramSpark) - (paperback and hardback options)
1 copy for $11.54 (they listed minimums for certain types of books)
15 copies for $103 ($6.87 each)
Overall I prefer Createspace, but I might consider IngramSpark for some hardback prints in the future.
You may also want to consider blurb. I use it for physical copies of my 80,000 word book, which ends up being 250 economy pages at 6x9". There are no set up fees or hosting fees. The base price for each book is $4.73 but there are frequently sales where you can get 20% to 35% off an order. That means the net cost is generally around 3.07 to3.78 plus shipping and handling (which means it is really about a wash and the books will cost around 4.50 each). My only real complaint with Blurb is that the cut of the pages can be pretty inconsistent. Their policy is that it is supposed to be within 1/16th of an inch within the same book, but there can be a surprising amount of variation between books. That gives the book a slightly unprofessional look IMO. This might be common among all print-on-demand services, to be honest I'm not entirely sure.
If you are like me, though, and you are super new at this being an author thing and are mostly buying the books for promotion, then price is king, so it is worth considering.
Has anyone used Nook Press for their print books? They offer hardback and from what I can tell there are no set up fees and you will automatically be put into the B&N system. I am thinking about using them in addition to Createspace.
Andrea wrote: "Has anyone used Nook Press for their print books? They offer hardback and from what I can tell there are no set up fees and you will automatically be put into the B&N system. I am thinking about us..."I never heard of Nook Press before, but when I entered in the same info I used for my books on Createspace I found each book was about .15 cents less expensive. I can't speak for their quality or customer service, but their price seems right. Might have to try them for some customized hardback books.
Andrea wrote: "Has anyone used Nook Press for their print books? They offer hardback and from what I can tell there are no set up fees and you will automatically be put into the B&N system. I am thinking about us..."If you use Createspace expanded distribution, your book will be listed at B&N. Keep in mind, however, that being listed (either from CS or Nook Press) doesn't mean that your book will be stocked on the shelves in B&N stores.
Thanks Ken. Yep, I realize I won't get stocked on shelves, just looking for a way to be in the system in case anyone requests my book or prefers buying online thru b&n vs Amazon. Plus, I'd like to be able to set up local author signings but I don't think they want to do that unless you're in their system. The problem with EDC is I'd have to raise my price in order to get a royalty & I don't want to price my book out of the market. I do wonder how much of an impact being listed with b&n has on sales though. It seems like Amazon has so much of the market. Anyone have feedback on that?
If the point of writing a book is to publish and your name is on the cover, the book must be perfect. Why publish text that is not edited and production that is amateurish? Authors who do this give all self-published books a bad name.
Sarah wrote: “If the point of writing a book is to publish and your name is on the cover, the book must be perfect. Why publish text that is not edited and production that is amateurish? Authors who do this give all self-published books a bad name.”I agree--except for one point: there is no such thing as a “perfect book.” William Hazlitt once wrote: “The only impeccable writers are those who never wrote.” Nevertheless, anything less than the very best one can do is insufficient. Using a professional editor and careful formatting of one’s text are indispensable to creating a good product—not to mention having a good cover design.
Point made. I should have said: as perfect as possible.
Andrea wrote: "I do wonder how much of an impact being listed with b&n has on sales though. It seems like Amazon has so much of the market. Anyone have feedback on that? ..."I don't sell many paperbacks these days, but I do get a few sales through CS expanded distribution; I'd say it's about a 50:50 split between sales through Amazon and elsewhere.
So yes, I think it helps to be available in as many stores as you can. Overall, though, over 95% of my royalties come from e-books.
I don't have much to add to the thread, other than to say that I had a very good experience with Lightning Source. It was cheap, and though the cover design printing wasn't perfect - the colour reproduction was not that close to my original, but wasn't bad - the actual book itself was perfect. They don't charge much for the proof copies, and the books themselves were cheap to buy in bulk.
I'd certainly look at what other people are quoting now, since it's 5 years since I used LS, but at the time they were great as a PoD printer. I'd use them again.
Sarah wrote: "If the point of writing a book is to publish and your name is on the cover, the book must be perfect. Why publish text that is not edited and production that is amateurish? Authors who do this give..."Unfortunately, you're in the minority, there. There are plenty of businesses (and by that, I mean there's a guy/team--not author(s)-- dreaming up/shopping for products to market and some of them are "bound printed material") that either buy PLR or hire some college kid/overseas worker for pennies to write copy on a subject they think will sell. They're not authors and not trying to be, and don't really care if it's a good book or not as long as it's fast, cheap, and marketable.
There's even "information products" on how to do it:
1) Decide what you want to sell.
2) Go to some freelance contractor site like Fiverr or Upword (f.k.a. oDesk) and
3) Put your name/brand on it.
4) Put it on Amazon.
G. wrote: "Sarah wrote: “If the point of writing a book is to publish and your name is on the cover, the book must be perfect. Why publish text that is not edited and production that is amateurish? Authors wh...""Better than' is the enemy of 'good enough'"
Or as one of my knitting books described the differnce between hand and machine knitting:
hand knitter (paraphrased): My sweater is as neat on the inside as out with no raw edges and all the yarn ends tucked away.
machine knitter: Mine's done.
I like you Wendy! I believe we think alike.
Andrea wrote: "Thanks Ken. Yep, I realize I won't get stocked on shelves, just looking for a way to be in the system in case anyone requests my book or prefers buying online thru b&n vs Amazon. Plus, I'd like to ..."I coughed when I looked at the markup I needed to use for EDC. For my coloring books, that lead to a MSRP of about $5. Then I put them in a local bookstore: in order to cover the store's cut (40% of MSRP is standard) I had to raise my MSRP to $6. I sold a few books there, but I'm not sure it was worth the effort of trucking the books there and constantly checking on the stocks and keeping track of when the contract ended (if you hadn't done anything by the end of the contract, they considered any remaining inventory theirs to dispose of as they pleased) and putting together an invoice for the individual store to send to corporate for eventual payment.
Joy wrote: "I don't have much to add to the thread, other than to say that I had a very good experience with Lightning Source. It was cheap, and though the cover design printing wasn't perfect - the colour r..."
And I'll agree with Joy. My experience with Ingram Spark/Lightning Source has been very good, EXCEPT, unlike Joy, I've gotten excellent quality inside and on the cover. POD shipping has been timely. I've heard the grumblings about BookBaby ("They're expensive') but have not had experience with them. I think Ingram has the advantage over CreateSpace because (I've heard from several book retailers) that they are disdainful of Amazon's monopoly (Amazon owns Create Space) and some retailers don't tend to extend themselves for a CreateSpace POD book.
Do I want to put both the paperback and e-book version on IS, or just the paper? I can't remember how libraries can order e-books and where I have to put them. Too much stuff to keep track of for my little brain!
Michelle wrote: "Do I want to put both the paperback and e-book version on IS, or just the paper? I can't remember how libraries can order e-books and where I have to put them. Too much stuff to keep track of for m..."The best way to get e-books into libraries is Overdrive. If you use Smashwords, they can distribute to Overdrive. However, most libraries are reluctant to accept self-published books (whether print or e-book).
I do make make money from Lightning Source book sales. I also have a colleague who wrote a nonfiction book (grammar) and colleges order her book through Lightning source. So I think it's valuable, at least for nonfiction books. I don't use Lightning Source for ebooks; I've always used KDP and I plan to diversify my ebook presence starting with my next book. Hope this information helps!
Ken wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Do I want to put both the paperback and e-book version on IS, or just the paper? I can't remember how libraries can order e-books and where I have to put them. Too much stuff to ke..."If libraries are your thing look into Daniel Hall, Library Marketing. He seems to know a lot about the subject.
James wrote: "Paul wrote: "James, are you selling your ebooks through KDP or Lightning Source? I'm trying to decide if I need to add LSI to broaden beyond Amazon."I'm selling my ebooks at Amazon (through KDP),..."
How do you convert your file to ePub? it was a challenge for me last time as I am using MacAir.
Sandhya wrote: "How do you convert your file to ePub? it was a challenge for me last time as I am using MacAir. ..."
You don't convert a PDF to an ePub. You have to go back to your original document and then format it for an e-book. A PDF for a paperback and an ePub for an e-book are two completely different things.
I use Sigil (free) on a Mac for formatting ePubs and have never had any problems. It helps if you know HTML, though.
thank you all