# Printing Your Own Book Vs. Using a Pro Printer + Publishing Company



## sage_seeds (Mar 10, 2014)

I am currently working toward publishing my first full-length book on mental wellness. I have had several other projects I've distributed in a zine format, and am attracted to the notion of printing and perfect-binding the book myself. I would probably have a professional printing house print the cover, but then print the insides myself. My first questions pertain to this - What type of paper and affordable printer (under $600, but more preferably $300-$400) is good enough quality for this? When doing zine printing on 20# computer paper, it would hold up but text would fade and smudge relatively easily. Was this dependent on the weight of the paper or on that as well as the ink/method of printing? 

So then onto my next questions. Would self-printing even save me all that much money? And if I don't go through a publishing company would I even be able to get my book into many stores and online outlets?

Thanks for your help! 

-Sage


----------



## spartan928 (Mar 10, 2014)

The world is rapidly moving to Print On demand (POD). I know at least 2 printing companies that were customers of mine that have gone out of business primarily because of the advent of Internet marketing and POD. Print runs of a single item are expensive and inefficient to produce. The only two worth mentioning in my opinion are Createspace and Lightning Source. That's just based on research, I have not published with either. Others can chime in here, but my understanding is chains like B & N won't carry Createspace books, but will Lightning Source because for some reason B & N is tied in with the ownership at LS (oversimplifying here). LS is a bit more expensive to start a book through, but the quality and support exceed what CS offers. Again, just cursory information I've gained from Google on the subject for my future possible needs.


----------



## movieman (Mar 11, 2014)

spartan928 said:


> Others can chime in here, but my understanding is chains like B & N won't carry Createspace books, but will Lightning Source because for some reason B & N is tied in with the ownership at LS (oversimplifying here).



My Createspace books, using my Canadian ISBNs, are certainly on B&N.com and various other online stores, can't vouch for brick and mortar stores. Another writer said their local B&N store wouldn't order their books when they had a Createspace ISBN, but would order them once she switched to using her own ISBN.

Either way, I'd go PoD and let them handle distribution. Createspace will sell you an ISBN in your name for $10 if you don't have your own.


----------



## sage_seeds (Mar 11, 2014)

That's too bad the little publishing companies don't have much of a chance these days. So will I still retain rights to my work and can step away from Createspace / LS whenever I want to? Also movieman did you purchase your own ISBN and format your book with it?


----------



## Schrody (Mar 11, 2014)

movieman said:


> Createspace will sell you an ISBN in your name for $10 if you don't have your own.



I thought it's free.


----------



## movieman (Mar 11, 2014)

sage_seeds said:


> So will I still retain rights to my work and can step away from Createspace / LS whenever I want to?



Yes. They're printers and distributors, not publishers.



> Also movieman did you purchase your own ISBN and format your book with it?



I live in Canada, where ISBNs are free . So, yes, I used my own.


----------



## krishan (Mar 12, 2014)

Printing and perfect-binding your own book is possible - but the startup costs could be very high, and it would be labour-intensive. If your book was successful it might also be difficult to keep up with demand. The quality of what you could produce at home might also be lower than the product produced by a professional printing company.

POD could be a good way to go. Or, if you'd like to be more involved in the process of producing and distributing your book, you could simply find a local printing company to print it for you in batches, and then handle the distribution yourself.


----------



## movieman (Mar 13, 2014)

The only time I'd consider hiring a printer myself would be for books that are primarily of local interest, where you'd be selling them direct to readers or through local stores. Or when readers will pay $500 for them, like one self-published non-fiction writer I came across a while back.

Otherwise, the sales, stocking and distribution hassles seem like far too much work.


----------



## sage_seeds (Mar 13, 2014)

Alright, you have all convinced me that POD is the way to go since I do want to distribute this as widely as possible. Maybe in the future for another book I'll do my own binding for an artistic piece, but efficiency calls! 

Could people who have used Createspace / Lightning Source give me a pricing idea for what they've created? My mental wellness guide will be about ~150 pages, already formatted to 5.5" x 8.5", already edited, and with about 25 black and white images. Just wondering what sort of money I'll need to initially get started. Thanks again for your help. I've been writing for a couple of years now  but the distribution piece has always been a blockade for me.


----------



## movieman (Mar 13, 2014)

sage_seeds said:


> Just wondering what sort of money I'll need to initially get started.



Not sure exactly what pricing you mean. To set it up on Createspace, $10 for the ISBN, unless you're using your own, plus probably $10 for a proof copy of the book. If you mean cover price of the book, it would likely be around $10 to readers and $4 to you, but I think Createspace have a price calculator on their web site that will give you accurate numbers. If you need to pay for editing, covers, formatting, etc, the sky's the limit.


----------



## krishan (Mar 14, 2014)

Setup costs are likely to vary from service to service - and the cost of editing, proofreading, cover design and formatting can be high. You'll be able to reduce these production costs if you shop around, rather than using the editorial service attached to any given POD publisher (these are usually astronomically expensive, and sometimes not very good).

In terms of how much an individual book might cost to print, you could try Lulu's book cost calculator. Obviously the price quoted only really applies to Lulu products, but it should give you an idea of the kind of price range you're looking at.


----------



## martinCHwriter (Apr 24, 2014)

my first thought is it would be good that everyone do what they are good at- that means leave the printing to the printing house unless you are not busy at what you are good at / writing.


----------



## swhibs123 (May 2, 2014)

POD or Offset, the choice is yours. LSI and CS (lightening Source, inc / Createspace) are the top PODs. How much they cost, obviously, depends on the dimentions or your book, if you want illustrations in color inside your book, and if you're talking hardcover or paperback. Luckly you can log on and get rough idea on costs with little trouble. Their costs are pretty much the same... except, LSI chages a $75 title set up fee, and $12 a year catalog fee. 

CS demands you use one of their ISBNs if you want to access some of their distribution options.


----------



## movieman (May 2, 2014)

swhibs123 said:


> CS demands you use one of their ISBNs if you want to access some of their distribution options.



Only for the library channel, which may or may not actually be operational yet. And you can always have two copies of the book, one with your ISBN and the other with a Createspace ISBN for that channel.


----------



## Terry D (May 2, 2014)

movieman said:


> Not sure exactly what pricing you mean. To set it up on Createspace, $10 for the ISBN, unless you're using your own, plus probably $10 for a proof copy of the book. If you mean cover price of the book, it would likely be around $10 to readers and $4 to you, but I think Createspace have a price calculator on their web site that will give you accurate numbers. If you need to pay for editing, covers, formatting, etc, the sky's the limit.



You no longer have to buy a proof copy of your book through Createspace. They have an on-line tool to show you exactly what your book will look like. You can approve it from that.


----------

