Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Publishing Evolution: Print on Demand

The Science Fiction Writers of America page on Writer Beware covers what you need to know before you get into print-0n-demand publishing. They also have a number of pages on small presses, fees and a list of thumbs down publishers.

Looking through Lulu, Xlibris, Author House, iUniverse, and Createspace (Amazon.com) I don't see any huge differences. They all offer publishing packages that seem about the same. I've looked at prices and mostly they seem compatible with regular publishing, the paperbacks seem to run a little higher. Most seem to offer artwork as an extra. Other specials cost more, but you would expect that even from a regular publisher.

Looking through some of the titles, I don't really see anything that I would want. Nothing really grabs my attention. I do tend to read certain authors and not buy stuff just from reading a blurb. If someone recommended a book that seemed like something I would enjoy, I might try it.

Something nice about Amazon's site, you have the option of publishing straight to Kindle. I've looked around and can't find where there is even a charge to do this. You can also publish music and movies online as well.

Online publishing seems to be doing well, going by the number of titles listed. I don't know that people are making that much money, it's a small part of the market. As more people do things online, there may be an increase in selling online.

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