Self-Publishing Dilemma
With a fourth mystery launching late this spring, I have a decision to make. Stay with BookBaby or switch to Amazon KDP. Here’s how Bookbaby (and I assume Smashwords, et al) operates:
 I upload my manuscript to them for formatting in e-version. They design the cover for the e-version and they’re pretty good at this. They will then make it available to something like 11 e-book distributors. This includes Amazon, Barnes and Noble, SONY, Copia, Kobo, iBooks, etc.
If you want a paperback, Bookbaby offers those services too, but they’re expensive. Remember, all you have for artwork, is the front cover design, no back design or spine. Plus interior formatting is a bear but they will be happy to do it all for a fee. A large fee.
The really big hitch is that the Bookbaby printed books are not POD (print on demand.) That means you get a bunch of paperbacks printed and you have to distribute or sell them yourself or you’re stuck with them. By the way, bookstores will not usually take books from self-published authors. They must come from a big distribution houses. So I was never able to get my paperbacks on the Barnes and Noble shelves.
For my three e-books, I made the decision to go with Bookbaby. For the paperbacks, however, I went with Create Space. I used the Bookbaby cover art and hired an artist to complete back cover and spine. I struggled with the interior formatting until I finally paid Create Space a small fee to do it for me. In the end, Create Space did a good job of formatting, printing and, of course, the paperbacks are POD. Create Space does distribute to smaller bookstores but from my experience they never wind up on the shelves.
One more point here. Bookbaby is very slow to report e-book sales. They are usually three months behind. Right now, my last reported sales were in mid-November. Create Space is entirely different. You can find out paperback sales daily. Good for you, Amazon.
My next book has me re-considering this process. I’m thinking of going with Amazon KDP for everything. This means I lose any sales outside of Amazon, which, to date, I estimate to be less than one-quarter of all my sales. Amazon makes up three-quarters. If I make the leap to KDP it must be an exclusive contract for a specified amount of time. I can always switch back, I suppose, if I’m not happy.
I understand Amazon also helps authors with marketing the product but I don’t know if that really makes up for the lost sales. Or what it means at all, frankly.
Is KDP for me? I would love to hear about your experiences.
You could consider Lulu, if you haven’t already? You can upload your book and have it converted to an eBook, which they distribute to Apple, Barnes & Noble and others. They also have POD for the the printed version, and you can have a pdf version if you like on the Lulu site itself – some people still like pdf. For approximately $70, Lulu give your book details to Ingram, and from there it’s distributed worldwide. They provide a free ISBN for both the eBook and the printed version, or you can buy your own via Bowker. I’ve been with Lulu since 2009, and can recommend their support and service. The only issue for me is that, being in Australia, their local print partner does a rather awful job, whereas I gather the American production is very good (I have a professional writer friend in America, so have her recent experience to go by). Overall, when compared, I prefer Lulu over Createspace, but I also use Amazon for a kindle version – and no exclusive contract is required – that’s only if you want to opt into their scheme. I use Smashwords as my main eBook distributor, as they’re excellent in all respects, as long as you can either design your own cover and format the interior properly, or get someone to do these tasks for you relatively inexpensively. I do my own covers using Photoshop and found out fairly readily from the Smashwords documentation how to format the book interiors. It takes a bit of trial and error, but both Lulu and Smashwords have good help, FAQ and easy repeat uploads. It doesn’t anything to try Smashwords, and only the price of one printed proof copy to try Lulu (before paying for worldwide distribution of the print version). Smashwords don’t charge to distribute to all and sundry 🙂 (i.e. just about everywhere).
Amazon’s ‘help’ and scheme is called KDP Select, which you can read about on their website. Some people find it useful, many don’t. I haven’t chosen to enroll in it.
Hope this helps – feel free to ask any specifics that you can’t readily find out about on the relevant websites.
Hi Inge,
This is all very interesting and I will investigate Lulu for sure. They must not be POD, then, or else, how can they distribute the paperbacks? Thanks so much for the information. More later . . . Lynne
Lulu is POD via their print partners in various countries around the world. When the book details are sent to Ingram, Amazon and numerous other book retailers e.g. the Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, put the book onto their websites. When someone orders the book, the relevant retailer sends the order to Lulu, who then send it to the closest print partner to where the purchaser is located. This expedites delivery and minimises postage costs. This is how most POD companies operate (other than Createspace, unless they have recently changed their model). Some smaller companies will do POD, but without the worldwide distribution via Ingram. Fortunately, there’s one very good company in Australia who does do POD, but their books do cost a bit more – great quality and service, though (Digital Print Australia). I get my printed books from them now because of the issues with Lulu’s printer partner here.
Lightning Source, an Ingram company, is another good option to explore. They’re rather bureaucratic and pedantic, and can be costly if changes are needed to the manuscript post-production, but if, for example, someone is able to do the interior formatting themselves and the covers, the initial work to get the book into shape can be done inexpensively via Lulu, and then if their local print partner isn’t up to scratch, the book can be transferred over to Lightning Source – if you buy your own ISBN, of course. Lightning Source books usually cost less than Lulu’s too, but LS uses slightly lower quality paper than Lulu for the interior, although from what I’ve seen so far, the overall print quality is fine – although not for colour books, unless their Premium option is used (I’m currently trying them out for a colour children’s book and having rather a dreadful time with it all, whereas for a paperback version, Lulu were fine – they just don’t do hardback for anything other than 6″x9″ for worldwide distribution, whereas LS does do this).
It’s clear you’ve done a lot of research. I’d prefer to keep my research to my books, but alas, we writers must do more than write. Thanks for all this information. I will investigate and make a decision on how to handle my next book. There’s also the possibility of going traditional. I could try for an agent. Ach. Makes me tired.
Your information is very interesting. One point I saw confused me. I sell through KDP and it is not required to sign an exclusive contract, unless you want to do KDP select. My last contract was a year ago but I don’t think this has changed. I think as more and more writers publish their own books, the selling power dims. My first experience with KDP select was good, others not so. Mostly, it depends on how far you market the free offering.
Good luck in your decision.
Judith, you are absolutely correct. I should have said KDP Select. Thanks.
It’s a worthy question, Lynne. My clients ask me this all the time. Your experience is fairly typical. The majority of ebook sales take place on Amazon. For many readers, it’s the default retailer they go to in order to find new material to read.
In business, there’s a principle called the “Pareto principle,” which basically states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In other words, 80% of your business will come from 20% of your effort. Focusing more attention on the results-getting efforts is a wise move.
Therefore, I urge my clients to focus on Amazon first. If they choose to target other online retailers later, that’s fine. But don’t disperse your efforts or confuse prospective buyers by trying to be everywhere at the same time.
The same advice applies to which social media networks to use for growing a platform. Maximize your efficiency in one before trying to tackle another. Doing all of them poorly will not have nearly the same outcome as doing one or two of them extremely well.
Know where your prospective readers shop and socialize, and focus your efforts on those areas. You’ll see much greater results much faster.
Thanks again, Tara, for your valuable advice. Lynne
I have found that Smashwords is not all that effective when it comes to Fiction so I have concentrated on amazon KDP and gone global. This means my books in English are on Amazon Kindle in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, Brazil and Japan. I believe there are more countries. Now, this is only a recent event and I’m only just beginning to see the results. The problem is how does one market, promote books in these countries. For instance Spain. Facebook has a Spanish existence. My Spanish is muy poco so I have to believe that my Kindle books will be bought by English-speaking people in Spain because they should be on Facebook, or LinkedIn or Twitter’s English services. This then raises the point should one have tweets translated into Spanish or whatever language. Once one starts thinking about it, the marketing aspect for KDP global jars the mind. Should I haven a Spanish Page on my website, or whatever language I wish to target. It all comes back to the fact the books are in English therefore one needs to attract English speaking buyers in these countries. Is anyone else here doing KDP global? Just some thoughts.
Very interesting comments, Robert. I’m overwhelmed. I haven’t even begun thinking about global markets. I’m still working on this country. By the way, are you on KDP Select, which is exclusive to Amazon? Are you happy with them? Do they market your book at all or is it up to you? Thanks.
I recently attended the San Francisco Writers’ Conference, where there was a lot of discussion about self-publishing v. legacy publishing, print v. pixels, and so on.
One of the speakers was Mark Coker of Smashwords, and one point he made that stuck with me is that writers and readers will not be well-served in Amazon has a monopoly. The way the traditional publishing industry once did.
I have published through CreateSpace and KDP because that seemed the best place to start. (And my experience has been good.) But I intend to stay away from KDP Select, and to get myself diversified. Get my ebook to Smashwords and elsewhere.
Not just for myself, but for the future of independent publishing.
John, you make a really good point. It’s like buying at the big boxes instead of the mom and pops. Kind of sad. The world has changed and not necessarily in a good way. Thanks for your thoughts.
This is one of the reasons I prefer not to have an exclusive contract with KDP Select. Smashwords distribute to Kobo, which in my opinion, is perhaps the most viable global competitor to Amazon and Kindle, other than Apple/iPad. The Kobo eBook reader is highly sophisticated, relatively inexpensive and uses the global eBook standard (epub), whereas the Kindle format is unique to Kindle. Kobo are steadily growing, and Barnes & Noble, with their Nook Book (which also uses the ePub standard), is still alive and well, although not yet a truly global product.
All excellent points. Thanks, Inge.
There is a great post by Pamela M. Kelley in the Book Marketing forum on LinkedIn about inexpensive ads to run to promote your books. She outlined what to do very succinctly and I cut and pasted it and saved it into a Word document it appeared so valuable.
One quick word about formatting: I attended a great workshop on self-publishing by mystery author Christopher Lynch and he suggested ironhorseformatting.com. I went to their site, their prices are incredible, and when I emailed a query, I heard back the very same day, even though the owner was out of town at a conference.
I intend to use his services for correcting my formatting errors. I got into the horrible position of not knowing I had used section breaks, which Kindle’s auto conversion does not allow. Kindle wouldn’t help me correct the problem, nor would Lulu.com. I took a look at ironhorseformatting’s prices and will more than likely use him, especially as he came highly recommended by Mr. Lynch.
Hope this helps!!!! I wish you the best.
Love and blessings,
Dr. Ni
Thanks for the info!
You are most welcome. 🙂
Love and blessings,
Dr. Ni