Wild Pines Press

Mary Elizabeth Thompson

Writer, Artist, Web Designer

Choose a Self-Publishing Service

The world of self-publishing has grown at an amazing rate in the last decade. Whereas once self-publishing carried a stigma that put the author outside of the circle of respected authors, now it is again seen as a viable option.

And the services available for publishing your books are almost unlimted. In addition to old-fashion printers who would typeset, print, and bind copies of your book, Print-on-Demand (POD) and eBooks have opened the market. No longer must self-publishing authors warehouse 1000 copies of their books. Now anyone with computer access can easily order your book 24 hours a day, pay by credit card, and receive the book without you doing anything but collecting the royalties.

You still have to market your own book, including maintaining a website, giving readings and signings, put up posters, hand out business cards or bookmarks. This is the biggest drawback to self-publishing no matter which service you choose.

But I've heard many stories about authors publishing through the traditional publishing channels who got no marketing support whatsoever from their publisher. Some authors spend their entire advance marketing their own book only to never earn any royalites at all.

it's important that you, as an author, carefully read all the information provided by each printer, POD, or eBook service. Here are some things to look for.

• Costs up front for basic services (printing, distribution, and listing on their site)
• Costs for additional services you might order (ISBN, copyright filing, editing, page layout, cover art)
• Minimum number of books you must order
• Are the books listed on other large distributors (Amazon.com, Ingrams, Barnes & Noble)
• What rights does the company get and which does the author retain
• Percentage of retail book price that is the author's royalty
• Frequency of royalty payments
• Author's discount for purchased copies of book
• Time it takes to produce the book from the upload until it is available for purchase
• Shipping time and costs

You should also note the following technical matters:

• Minimum or maximum number of pages per book
• Page size of possible books (some offer more than one trim size)
• Necessary size of cover art, including bleed
• Is cover art uploaded as one file (front, spine, and back) or two files (front and back)
• File types they allow for upload of book pages
• File types they allow for upload of cover art

Below, I've compiled a list of POD, eBook publishers, and printers who have online information. Although I favor Lulu, please do not take any listing below as an endorsement of any services. Only you can decide what is best for you and your book.

Self-Publishing Services