Comments on: 20 Top Print On Demand Services

By: GW Publications

GW Publications — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:08:37 +0000

Your top 20 is a well-intentioned attempt to outline the services available. As a publisher of fifteen books, I can emphatically confirm that print on demand is a farce. Let me enlighten y’all. If I have a book price of £9.99, the typical wholesalers and retailers demand about 40% for their ‘cut’. This leaves me already with £6. Once printing (and very importantly delivery charges) have been factored into the equation, the great services above leave no room for any profit whatsoever unless the small publisher or self-publisher shifts hundreds of copies, probably operating on a limited marketing budget. Waterstones and all independent retailers are no longer falling over themselves to order books from small and self-publishers. Therefore, the likelihood of hundreds of sales is quite remote, to put it mildly. Without hundreds of sales, the above services are an expensive waste of time!

By: LeetheGirl

LeetheGirl — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:37:28 +0000

This is an informative list.

What I would really like to see is a site that actually prints ON DEMAND and not one that required bulk orders that the author is then responsible for distributing themselves.

I want a pod site that prints orders the reader makes. For example; a readers checks out a review for a web comic that is available in print. They visit the pod store and place an order for that one book. They pay once. They get their order… done.

Are there any freakin’ pod or other kind of stores that do that? Please tell me…

By: Pete White

Pete White — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:53:37 +0000

Great article thanks, I’ve just had a book printed through Lulu and the quality of the photos is very poor. Going to give blurb a try, will hopefully be better.

Thanks