Oh, Stop Whining!—Talk to PODdy Mouth

By Yvonne DiVita - Nov 29 , 2007

…Self-Publish Your Book and Get On with It!

The Internet is simply flooded with content on self-publishing.

POD — Print-On-Demand – is the darling of a whole cadre of writers and bloggers, these days. A Google search on the topic brings up almost 2 million hits, with the most popular POD firms showing up at the top. If you go to Google Blog Search with the same term, a mere 10,284 hits show up, but they are true hits—the content is about Print On Demand publishing, not about people just chatting about the concept.

Why is POD so popular? Why not? I’m a firm believer that everyone has a book inside – and I know for a fact that those smart, courageous folks who decide to write the book they have inside will get shot down by traditional publishers more than 90% of the time. With all the new technology we have today, self-publishing has never been easier nor more cost-effective, if you know what you’re doing. Never forget that time is money. So, every minute you spend begging your traditional publisher to do things your way, is money you’re throwing out the window. With POD, it’s your book, you’re paying for it, and you get to decide how it should look and feel.

Now, I’ve been doing a bit of research on what’s out there on this topic, to help me better understand and serve the authors that call me for consultation. I’m surprised at how few are actually knowledgeable about this. Most authors think POD is just another form of vanity publishing (it isn’t), and that they will have to buy a sizeable quantity of books (they won’t), and many even believe that the publisher will market and sell their book for them (some do, some don’t, all charge for it).

Here are a few, just a few, blogs that have good information on self-publishing using POD. But I found them not only informative, but I enjoyed reading them. They don’t all write exclusively about this topic, but what I found at these blogs was content I think will be useful to anyone considering the POD publishing option.

• At Web Worker Daily the story of how one man wrote and published a children’s book is worth a read. Jackson West, who writes the blog (according to the About page), has a nice overview of the industry and places to find help. He’s promoting a friend’s book, which is a great thing—and what blogs are really all about—but that does not diminish his advice.
• I was especially impressed with Jack West’s link to Mondo Times, where you can connect with the right media to help market your book:
• Over at Under Observation (great phrase!), there’s a recent post on the publishing firm, Blurb. I first learned about Blurb at a BlogHer Conference. Blurb was brand new at the time, and I was very impressed with them. They do picture books using print-on-demand. This is no small feat! And, it’s not cheap, but it’s manageable. According to the post at Under Observation—

Prices begin very low — a 40-page softcover book measuring 7×7 inches costs $13 — and go up. A 240-page hardcover book measuring 8×10 inches (good for landscapes) or 10×8 inches (for portraits) costs $60. A 350-page hard-cover large-format landscape book, at 13×11 inches, costs $160. (Various discounts are available depending on the number of books ordered.) For now, all books are printed on 80-pound paper with a semi-matte finish . . . .

So it’s well worth your time if photographs are an important part of your book project.

• By far the best post I found during my search was this one at PODdy Mouth – Daily Dirt on POD and Self-Publishing:

This is actually Part III of a series the author of the blog has written to help new writers understand “break even point.” We often talk to authors about this — how many books do you have to sell to cover your initial investment and start actually earning a profit? It’s a hard calculation because distributors, like Amazon, take a big chunk of those profits. As this blog shows, an author with a book selling for $29.99 earns about $3.00 for each book sold on Amazon. This is why we recommend to our authors that they direct folks to our website – where we do not take a big chunk out of their royalties – because, to date, we do not charge a distribution fee.

One of the things that is so great about PODdy Mouth is her dedication to details. She’s done your work for you by comparing several POD firms and giving you the “dirt” on them, so to speak. The writing is clean and factual, and even though she admits to being “opinionated,” she doesn’t overdo it. I recommend you visit the blog and read her series on the top rated POD firms, how they charge, and what it means to you.

Anyone eager to be published today can be.

Any writer who desires to control the look and feel of her book, can do so, today.

Print On Demand isn’t free, not even at Lulu, but it’s a viable option.

You can fulfill your dream of publication by choosing the right POD firm, and by recognizing that this is a business venture, not a hobby. The only true predictor that your book will make a profit is you and how hard you work to sell it. That’s as true with self-publishing as it is with traditional publishing.

Just ask any successful writer.