Pros and Cons of Book Printing Online

Book Printing

There was a time when self-publishing a book was an extremely challenging, and expensive, task. Book printing costs alone were often a small fortune. But now, thanks to the Internet and countless technological advances, self-publishing your own book is easier and more affordable than it's ever been before.

Book Printing Costs

One of the reasons self-publishing online is so much more affordable is that book printing costs aren't really a factor up front. In the past, a self-published author would have to already have enough money to buy copies of his book from a book printing company. These companies usually have a minimum order, so the author would have to order hundreds, or even thousands, of copies of his book. And if he didn't manage to sell those books, that was money lost.

Now, thanks to print on demand, a book is only printed when it's already been bought. This means a writer doesn't have to invest as much money upfront in order to start selling his book. And while selling only a handful of copies might be disappointing, it won't be a great monetary loss.

Know Your Options

When it comes to online book printing, or print-on-demand companies, you have many options. While Lulu is probably the most famous POD company, there are countless others, and all operate in more or less the same way.

At a POD company, a digital file of your book and its cover is created. When an order comes in for the book, the book printing process begins. After printing is finished, the book is delivered to the customer.

If you're going to self-publish online, it's important to know the book printing costs of each POD company, because this can affect the amount of profit you make from each book sold. Some companies, for example, charge a base price for each book depending on the length, the type of cover it has, and so on. You, as the author, decide how much to add to the base price, and that will be the amount of money you make from the sale of the book.

Say, for example, you've decided $15 is the most you can charge for your book if you hope to sell it. If the POD's company's base price is $10, you will make a respectable $5 profit. But the higher the base price, the less you are likely to make.

Pros and Cons of Self-Publishing Online

There are several advantages and disadvantages to going the POD book printing route. One disadvantage is that each book costs more to print than it would if printed by a traditional book printer, so you have to charge more for each book to make a profit. This means there will probably be a lot of people who will never read your book because they think it costs too much.

On the other hand, with POD book printing, you don't have to worry about paying to print out a thousand books, and being stuck with 970 of them that you're never able to sell.

Are you thinking of self-publishing your book online? If so, there are plenty of print-on-demand book printers who can make your goal a reality.

David Dobson, Manager Digital Print Australia

At Digital Print Australia we specialize in Personal and Business Printing.

For more information on book printing be sure to check out Digital Print Australia

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Out With the Old, Updating Mental Software

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is:

Romans 12:2... Be transformed by the renewing of your mind

We run into big problems when we try to put new things in old containers. If you have thoughts or ideas in your mind about how Book Publishing works, make sure they are based on how the system actually works in this day and time. Self-Publishing will take a commitment of your time and energy, and it will require some hard work. Self-publishing gives the author more control of where and how their materials are used, and the profitability is much greater.

The "old way" of publishing required: Publishing Deals, large dollar investments for printing large quantities of books, and required hiring Publishing houses to promote and distribute your books. This is the 'Old School' model of publishing. The Internet has overhauled the way books are documented and sold.

The Internet did not eliminate the hard work and time investment of book publishing, but it did create options so anyone can become a published author. It is important to 'educate' yourself on the meaning of terminology as it is understood today. In past times, 'publishing' had a much different understanding and meaning than it does today. So often we try to accomplish 'New Things' with old understanding. After having said that, in today's terms, Publishing basically means Printing. That line needs to be repeated, and memorized until it becomes understood; 'Publishing basically means Printing'.

I have talked to so many authors who for some reason have the old Model of Publishing cemented in their minds. This thinking disables them from moving forward in their writing projects. The technology is available, affordable, and easy to understand for anyone with basic computer skills. There is a powerful verse that so characterizes what happens when we refuse to update the latest version of available information;

'People are destroyed for lack of knowledge.'

Destroyed, may seem too harsh a term, but it speaks of many aspects of an authors work. 'Destroyed' can mean: being shut down, hindered, frustrated, discouraged, prevented from progress, and creativity stifled due to lack of current and relevant knowledge. It does take some time to research and educate yourself on the subject of 'Self-Publishing, but there is a lot of information available to help you get started.

Do not allow 'Old Thinking' to stand in the way of your works remaining unpublished. Others can enjoy and benefit from your ideas, thoughts, and inspirations. If you are sitting, hoping and waiting for someone to offer you a 'publishing deal, it most likely will not happen. Decide to 'Self-Publish, and accept the challenge. May your motto become: 'Out with the Old...

Michael McDermott is a motivational speaker, author, and musician. His series, Keepin' It Real, Volume's I, II, and III; Just Sayin' Volume's I, II, II; Successfully Single, Success isn't Accidental, Volumes 1,2; Keepin' it Real, How to Self-Publish Your Book, as well as Music and teaching audio CD's are available @ http://www.keepinitrealmichaelmcdermott.com/ and some titles are available as E-Books @ Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please read more @ http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Michael_E_McDermott

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Working Through Writers' Block

Having trouble making the home stretch? Is your deadline looming ahead like a dark cloud of stress and misery? Has your brain simply stalled? You need to stop and take a step back.

Working through writers' block is something that every writer has to do at some point. It isn't the end of the world; it's just a speed bump. Sometimes your brain simply can't take it anymore and needs to focus on something else. Try taking a break. Set your writing aside and go stretch your legs. Try taking a walk, getting your blood pumping a little might help the flow to your brain. You may find inspiration beyond the words and that gaping blank space where you need to put more. Get yourself a snack, or something to drink, or win a game of Minesweeper. There are a number of things you can do to give your mind a breather.

Do you listen to music while you write? Give it a try. If you do, try changing the track or perhaps try a little bit of silence. Read a chapter of that trashy romance novel you've been dying to open, watch someone cook blintzes on TV, or find an online art gallery and stare at pretty pictures. If all else fails and you have the time, try taking a nap. Sometimes sleeping on a problem is all you need to fix it. Let your subconscious poke at it until it jostles something loose that you can make use of when you wake up.

No man is an island; you may need the help of other people to work through your writer's block. You can consult an expert on how to work with this. You can also make use of the internet and search ways on how to solve this problem. Visit a forum and for sure, there are thousands of writers with the same issue and searching for solutions. Go out and have some fun! Go to a bar and meet people. You might be able to get ideas from them, who knows? Sometimes, when you least expect it, wonderful things happen.

You might also need a new working environment. Try writing at the park, coffee house, the library, or even in a mall! If that's still not doing it look for some inspiration. Think about the people you look up to. Look up on the internet those authors whose writings you truly believe in. Learn more about their life and their inspirations. Read about influential people and know more about their contributions to society. You can get enlightenment from just a simple spark of inspiration.

Another thing that might help is for you to list down everything that is going on in your mind. Just write EVERYTHING down. Doodle. Make sure you have lots of paper. It will surely look messy but leave the mess before going back to it. Don't go through it with a clouded mind. It will make you go crazy. All of your ideas are already written down and you just have to get back to it after you have rested.

Remember, though, that there's a difference between taking a much-needed break and procrastinating. Maybe, what you really need now is to try staring at that empty page again until the words come to you. Don't worry, they will.

http://www.Bookpal.com.au/ is helping self publishers all around the world to successfully self publish and market their books with cost effective solutions to create bestsellers. The website offers a free book for budding self publishers, and many other free resources.

Terence Tam is the founder of Bookpal, he previously spent 6 years as an academic and was a contributing author for several academic books. Frustrated with the level of service he was getting with traditional publishers, he set up his own self publishing company to help other authors publish and market books with cost effective yet efficient solutions

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How to Become a Successful Self-Published Author

With more and more authors reporting huge sales by self-publishing, it is not surprising an unpublished writer should choose to take the same route. So how does one become one of those self-published authors?

The days when you needed to contact a vanity press in order to get published are gone. Print on Demand means costs are subtracted from the retail price, so you don´t have to pay outright for print and distribution. It is even easier to publish your work as an eBook, making it available to the growing markets of Kindle, Nook and Smashwords. The trick is not longer to self-publish, but to do it in such a way that your book will be read.

When a traditional book is published, it undergoes an edit and proofreading. There are professionals to create a cover design most appealing to readers, and they are there to organize events and make sure your book is brought in front of readers.

When you decide to self-publish, you decide to manage all this by yourself.

You can only edit your own manuscript up to a point, because there are things you as the author of your work will always be blind to. You have spent days, weeks, perhaps months in correcting your manuscript. You might even know many of the sentences by heart. That´s why you as an author are too close to your own book to edit it the same way a professional editor can. Hiring a professional editor is therefore always recommended. They can suggest improvements to plot and characters, make your narrative as strong and punchy as it can get, and catch errors in style or tone you as an author might have missed.

The cover design looks easy. There are stock photos all over the internet ready to be used; add a little text and there it is. The trick is to make it captivating, to entice readers to pick it up, to make it stand out in a crowd. When you walk into a bookstore, some books catch your attention and others doesn´t.

Have a look at covers in your genre. The cover of a romance novel will look very different to that of a science fiction, and readers expect to be able to tell the genre by the cover. It also needs to look different to the books in your genre, because otherwise it won´t stand out when the reader approaches the bookshelf. It doesn´t matter that the bookshelf is virtual; your readers will still look for it among covers of other books.

The marketing department will make sure a number of pre-release copies hits the market before your book is even on the shelves. The reason for this is that they want to create a buzz about the book, a rumour that will spread by word-of-mouth how exciting and well worth waiting for this book is.

To create the same kind of buzz, you will have to spread the same kind of rumours. Use your author platform to hold contests for pre-release copies, send some out to friends and family. Scan your network and find out if there are some out there you know who might want to read and, hopefully review and recommend your book.

Alice Northwood is a marketing consultant at http://www.kindlekillermarketing.com, helping self-published authors to format and market their book. She also writes for http://kindlekillerblog.com, the reviewsite for e-book owners and publishers.

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Why a Self-Publishing Author Needs an Editor

The first thing a self-published book needs is a professional edit. Why? Because it will make the book stronger, tighter and better. If it´s better, readers will like it, and when they like it they will recommend it to more readers.

You've probably showed your book to someone already, a friend or a family member. They liked it, and you are encouraged to publish. These friends are probably not professionals, though. Most likely they are also too supportive to give you the harsh criticism you really need. Consider their comments but do not write them down as definite proof that your manuscript is ready for publication.

Editors represent the reader and can help you develop a product which appeals to your target audience. A common misconception is that editors tear the manuscript to pieces, that they ruin the manuscript the author has worked so hard to create. Perhaps that is even why the decision to self-publish was made in the first place, to keep it safe from those ripping keystrokes of an editor.

An editor´s job is to work with the author, as a team, not tear a manuscript to shreds. They will work with every part of the manuscript to make it as good as it can be. Not just that, but they are professionals who will bring in a fresh view on your words and spot mistakes and flaws you cannot see yourself.

There are many types of editors, and their roles might be separate or mixed, depending on the task and the publishing house.

One of these editors is the development editor, who will look at the concept and do her best to improve it. She looks at plot and characters, catches gaps in the story, suggests points to make the manuscript stronger. If a part of your story lacks credibility, it will be caught in the edit. If it starts at the wrong end or contains too many flash-backs, alterations will be suggested.

The line editor goes through the manuscript line by line to polish your writing style. It is not to be confused with correcting errors, but has to do with strengthening the narrative style of the author. This is why a professional line editor is infinitely more helpful than your friend or your mother. They can bring out the oh-so-important voice of the author and give it an edge.

Copyediting may or may not be included in the line editing. This corrects errors in punctuation, typos, misused words, unintentional word repetition, incorrect grammar and what else might be needed.

The proofreader is the last to look at the manuscript before it is published. Her job is to check that page numbers are correct and that the style is consistent throughout the manuscript in terms of hyphenation and capitalizing. It is also the job of the proofreader to make sure the words are integrated with other parts of the layout, like design, illustrations and graphs etc.

You might not think you need an editor, but considering the improvements they can suggest for a manuscript it is always highly recommended before a book is self-published.

Alice Northwood is a marketing consultant at http://www.kindlekillermarketing.com, helping self-published authors to format and market their book. She also writes for http://kindlekillerblog.com, the reviewsite for e-book owners and publishers.

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My Experience Self-Publishing With CreateSpace

Once I made the decision to self-publish in the fall of 2011, I spent a considerable amount of time looking for the right publisher. If you Google 'self-publishers,' you'll find numerous lists of vendors to help you with the process. The ones I ran across repeatedly were AuthorHouse, Lightning Source, Book Surge, Lulu, CreateSpace, Tate Publishing, Dog Ear, Smashwords, Infinity, Writersworld, iUniverse, and Xulon Press.

I visited all their websites and based on my needs, pricing and their terms, I narrowed it down to CreateSpace and iUniverse. I can't stress enough how important it is to fully understand their terms. The last thing you want are surprises after you're well into your project.

After discussing my book with each of the finalist's sales reps, I chose CreateSpace.

CreateSpace Packages (effective November 2011)

Marketing Pro - $4,999
Basic copyediting, comprehensive copyediting, custom book cover, custom book interior, press release with extensive distribution, LCCN assignment, ISBN assignment, promotional text creation, and video book trailer.

Advanced - $2,534
Basic copyediting, comprehensive copyediting, unique book cover, custom book interior, press release with extensive distribution, LCCN assignment, ISBN assignment, and promotional text creation.

Essentials - $1,798
Comprehensive copyediting, unique book cover, custom book interior, LCCN assignment, ISBN assignment, limited sales distribution.

Standard - $728
Unique book cover, custom book interior, ISBN assignment, limited sales distribution.

Author's Advantage - $398
Standard book cover, standard book interior, ISBN assignment, limited sales distribution.

Author's Express - $248
For authors who have created their own PDF file and just require someone to review their file and provide phone support for getting published on their own.

I chose the Advanced option, but later paid an additional $600 to take advantage of their custom book cover service.

Steps Taken During the Process

Editing

• I submitted my manuscript according to their guidelines.
• Their editor edited the manuscript using Microsoft Office Word's Track Changes feature so I could accept or reject his recommendations. Changes included grammar, punctuation, spelling, and consistency. Along with the edited manuscript, I received a five-page letter that included the editor's thoughts on what I did well and where he thought the narrative could be improved. Comments included character development, plot flow, organization, structure, tone and style.
• I submitted a revised manuscript taking the editor's recommendations into consideration.
• They sent the manuscript back for my review and approval. At this point, I was allowed to make up to 80 more changes without incurring additional costs.
• I submitted a few more changes to the manuscript.
• They sent me a revised manuscript for review and approval.

Formatting

• I was offered various options for the formatting of the interior of the book (font style and size, left and right-hand page headers, page number placement, and paper color), and once I made these choices, they provided a dozen or so mocked-up pages for review and approval.

Promotion

• They provided several promotional text drafts for my review and approval. Included were a press release, a one-sentence story synopsis (maximum 200 characters), a short story synopsis (2,000 character maximum), an extended story synopsis (4,000 character maximum), back cover text (250 word maximum) and three versions of my bio (140 - 1,000 characters).
• I sent back the promotional text with some revisions.
• They sent back the revised promotional text for review and approval.

Cover Design & Layout

• I was allowed to choose the graphic designer for the front cover design from a list of six different artists. The graphic designer I selected provided a pencil sketch of the front cover based on how I completed their questionnaire in addition to some photographs I had sent her. I gave her my comments on the initial sketch, and she sent a second sketch incorporating my comments and including more detail. We went back and forth a couple more times before she submitted a full-color version of the cover. After I approved the illustration, she created two cover concepts that incorporated the title of the book and author name along with back cover and spine layouts.
• I chose the layout I liked best.
• She sent me final proofs for review and approval.

Final Approval

• The entire manuscript in a PDF book format was created for my review and approval. At this point, I was allowed to make 80 more changes to it without any additional charge.
• I submitted a few changes.
• After incorporating my changes, they sent the manuscript back for my review and approval.
• After I approved it, they printed one copy of the book and sent it to me for final approval at which time I was again allowed to make up to 80 changes without being charged.
• I submitted a few changes.
• They sent a revised PDF file for my review and approval.
• After I approved it, they printed another copy of the book and sent it to me for final approval. After I approved it, the book was ready to be released. The Kindle version was available two weeks later.

Marketing

• Once the book was ready for distribution, CreateSpace sent out the press release to 3,258 local and national media contacts they chose based on demographics for the book's genre. Within 48 hours of the press release, I was invited to be interviewed by a local TV station and submit a copy of my book for review by Midwest Book Review.

What I Liked About Working With CreateSpace

1. They assigned my project to a team (mine was Team Apollo) so that the same people worked on it from beginning to end.
2. They managed the project in short methodical steps, each of which required my approval before they continued with the next one.
3. I could contact the team's coordinator by phone or by sending a message from my CreateSpace project page. Their response time was excellent. Their staff was pleasant and very accommodating.
4. They offered a phone consultation before each major phase of the project so that I fully understood what was going to take place. There were no surprises along the way.

A Couple of Things I Wish They Would Have Done Differently

1. I preferred my bio to be printed on the inside back cover but was told they were unable to do that given their printing equipment. So my bio ended up as the second to the last page of the book, the last page being a blank one. That was disappointing. I suppose I could have revised the synopsis on the back cover so that the bio could fit there as well, but at that point, it would have cost extra because I had already approved the back cover. Lesson learned for next time.

2. The other disappointment was in the first-in first-out method they used for completing jobs in their work queue. This worked out well in the beginning when the work they did for me was in big chunks, but toward the end, when I had only very minor changes, my work had to wait in line behind other authors in front of me who were in the beginning phases of their projects. For example, the graphic artist who created my book cover (who was fantastic I might add) took a reasonable amount of time each step of the way. But at one point I asked for a minor change, something that couldn't have taken more than a few minutes to make, and I had to wait eight business days for her to do it because she had other jobs in her queue. That held up releasing my book - everything else was done at that point. If it were me, I would take care of the small jobs first just to get them out of the way.

Royalties

The way CreateSpace calculates royalties is as follows:

If bought through CreateSpace's eStore - Retail price X 80% less the cost to print
If bought through amazon.com - Retail price X 60% less the cost to print
If bought through any other source - Retail price X 40% less the cost to print

My book is 9X6 with 355 pages and retails for $14.95. The cost to print it is $5.24. If everyone buys my book through amazon.com, my breakeven point is 840 books.

Conclusion

The entire process took five months, and I can say it went quite smoothly. Based on my experience, I can recommend CreateSpace for self-publishing.

Florence Osmund earned her master's degree from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. After more than three decades of experience in management positions in corporate America, she retired to write books and just released her first novel, "The Coach House." Osmund currently resides in Chicago where she is working on the sequel to her first book. Please visit her website at http://www.florenceosmund.com for new author advice and other writer-related information.

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Three Steps To Overcoming Writer's Block

Got writer's block? As folks in rural Texas say, we're a'gin it.

Okay, so that's somewhat flip. But the truth is that here, we don't allow it. Don't believe in it. Don't succumb. It's one of the few things that will get you whipped into shape from this office.

Yes, many, many folks have huge problems with writer's block. I hear about it every day. And it does exist, as do a plethora of psychological problems and neuroses. And rest assured, that's all this is-a neurosis. We all know the origins of it by now: fear of failure (or success); fear of not being 'good enough' (or of believing your work is so much better than what's being published); of thinking the first draft as to be absolutely perfect (any 12-steppers out there want to respond to this one? J) Or a host of other deep-seated lies of the ego.

As any artist who's been practicing a craft will attest, the biggest hurdle to producing beautiful work is to get the ego out of the way. That, in turn, let's true creativity and artistry bubble up from the deep unconscious, where we plug into that numinous quality of beauty, from which all art originates. As Keats said, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all/Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." So, problem solved.

Okay, there I go being flip again. But far too much emphasis is given to avoiding writer's block, and what a terrible malady it is to suffer through. Because this is one of those instances-for certain-where the more focus you give it, the bigger a beast it grows to be. Especially for a monster that does not, in reality, even exist (except front and center in that dastardly ego).

As any scribe who's been at this long knows, writing is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. It's all about the work. And there's only one way to accomplish that: butt in chair, fingers on keyboard.

I have one prescription for my writers when suffering from this made-up malady, and it's failsafe. Works every time. Might not the first day, or the second. But if you don't give up on the process, it will work.

Step One: Carve out a time every day to write. Yikes! That sounds like work. Where is all the glamour of being Hemingway? (Note: he wrote every day, even if it was just a paragraph). Tough real-life schedule? Four AM has always been a favorite time of mine...

Step Two: Sit your butt in that chair every day at your appointed time. No matter what. Unless your hair is on fire or your child is in the hospital, I don't want to hear why you can't. Just do it.

Step Three: Write. Cat got your fingers? That's fine. Sit there. Write the yellow pages. Write why your husband/boyfriend/sister is a first-rate crumb and doesn't understand you. I don't care what you write, just write.

This is the key to the kingdom. I have yet to find the writer plagued with horrid block who after doing this for three days, didn't find himself back to work on the novel, short story, memoir, etc. (And conversely, I can always tell when someone wimps out and cheats. I have my ways. J Something about making those fingers work is kinda like the motion of the ocean for a child in a car-it puts your conscious mind (ego) into a lull and voila! Out comes art (or a dream, if you're in the car, which in essence is part and parcel of the same thing).

Julia Cameron in Finding Water recommends writing morning pages every day. A stream-of-consciousness set of pages first thing in the morning that just lets all your demons out-many of which you didn't even know were there. While I don't do that, I like the idea of it J If writer's block has set in, however, do this.

A few additional notes here as well.

Most importantly, forget caring about this first draft. Stop it. I order you. Doesn't matter if it's the worst schlock you're ever seen, and wouldn't even let your cat eat it. Nothing in a first draft is permanent. Not even that lovely line you're so amazed came out of you (half the time even those end up on the editing-room floor as well). First drafts don't matter.

Let yourself go. Let your fingers go. Quit thinking! This is the creative stage, and we're trying to get you, the you of the ego, out of the way. Just write. If your goal is to write for forty-five minutes every morning, and you end up with one well-written line, wow! Give yourself a big pat on the back from me. That's the entire point in a nutshell. Go have a nice cup of coffee and watch the sunrise.

And tomorrow, you can build upon that line...

Susan Mary Malone, book editor, has gotten many authors published, has edited books featured in Publishers Weekly & won numerous awards. See her services at http://www.maloneeditorial.com/editorial-services.htm & writing tips at http://www.maloneeditorial.com/blog/

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