Publish your own book

Posted on 8 Apr 2009 at 15:49

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

 1 of 7

Gallery

Print-on-demand services are inexpensive and allow anyone to publish their own book. Jon Thompson explains all you need to know to see your name in print.

Everyone has a book in them, according to popular wisdom, but it's also true that publishers and literary agents very rarely take on first-time authors. For the vast majority of budding writers, the alternative has been so-called vanity publishing. For a long time, magazines aimed at writers thrived on adverts for vanity presses. The idea was that you paid several thousand pounds up front to have your manuscript professionally edited, typeset and printed. You then received a box containing perhaps 1,000 copies of your book.

The problem with vanity publishing is that you have to sell the books yourself. Without a publisher's publicity machine behind you, most of your stock might end up forgotten in the garage or attic, unless you have access to an eager niche market waiting for your work.

As with so many areas of life, however, the web has changed everything. Whether you're a serious writer or you simply want the thrill of seeing your name in print, there's now a high-tech way of seeing your latest novel, photo collection or even diaries in print. You can put a book together quickly and easily, and you don't need to order 1,000 copies up front.

How It Works

The reason companies are now able to produce tiny batches of books is that internet services have made it practical for them to provide print-on-demand (POD) services. When you use an online POD service, you upload your finished manuscript, including all the artwork and the cover design, to the service's website. You then create and customise a storefront area where you describe your work, decide what to charge for it, add any review quotes and generally make it look as enticing as possible to potential customers. If, for example, you simply want to create a single, private copy of your photo album to download a few times for yourself or to give away as presents, you can usually choose to keep your content private.

When someone wants to buy a copy of your book, they order directly from the site. The POD service automatically adds a copy of your book to its print queue, which is handled by a professional-quality, computer-controlled printing press. The service retains a small percentage of your book's cover price, hands the remaining money to you and sends the finished article to the purchaser. It's as simple as that. Print-on-demand services usually carry no costs up front, there are no agents to convince and no soul-destroying rejection letters. If no-one buys your book, you earn nothing but at least it's in print if anyone wants a copy.

POD also provides a very simple and efficient means of producing professional-quality pamphlets, programmes and similar literature for concerts, plays, seminars and training events. Local groups, such as conservation, hobby and historical societies, can also benefit from POD to raise funds. Charities may also find this way of working to be economical.

Some POD services also allow customers to download eBook versions of your work. If these electronic products are priced lower to reflect the lack of printing involved, this could be your key to success. Each month, the POD service calculates the balance of your sales and you receive an income, either in the form of a cheque or an electronic funds transfer.

We've covered the basics, so let's look at some of the technicalities of getting into print.