What is On-Demand Publishing?
What do we mean by on-demand publishing? It’s simple. Today’s technology allows us to order any number of your books at one time—even a single book if that’s all you need at the moment. The amazing thing about all of this is:
- The cost is not prohibitive as it was before.
- The quality is excellent, rivaling books done on any printing system.
This is why we call this new technology revolutionary! It’s one of the true marvels of the twenty-first century, and now we can use it for the Gospel and for getting your message out.
What are the benefits of doing your book with an on-demand system? There are many:
- It’s quick: Your books can usually ship within 48 hours of us placing the order. (Hardbacks take more time.)
- There’s no inventory to store: Now you order only what you need for the immediate future because you can order more at any time, and there’s therefore no need to keep more on hand than you can actually use.
- It’s less expensive: Although on-demand copies of a book typically cost about twice what you would spend per copy if you printed several thousand at a time, if you can’t use several thousand copies, ordering more than you need at any given time is just wasteful. In the end, therefore, using this system comes out costing you less.
- Your expenses are spaced out more: Because you order only what you can use in the immediate future and then plan to order more when you need them, your total expenses are spread out over a much longer period of time.
- You can avoid packing and shipping: Instead of packing and shipping your books to a given location for some special event, let us order them from our printing partner, and let the printer send them directly to the location where they will be needed.
- Your book becomes available on Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and many other websites: Once your book is in the POD system, it automatically becomes available on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and through major Christian distributors, Ingram Books and Baker and Taylor, to bookstores everywhere. When anyone orders a book, it is billed, produced, and shipped to them without you doing anything at all. At the end of each month, all sales are reported to us, and at the end of 90 days, payment is received. We report sales and disburse payments to our authors quarterly. The amount each author receives is the difference between the wholesale price of the book and the production cost for that particular copy. There is no guarantee that your book will sell, but at the very least this gets it out there to the general public.
- Your book can be easily revised at any time: Because the process is all digital, the files needed to print your book can be easily revised and updated at any time. This is a major consideration for many.
What are the costs involved in doing on-demand publishing? They are surprisingly small:
If a physical proof is required, there is a fee of $35, which includes shipping. Most proofing is now done online, however, so this is not absolutely required.
- After that, your charges will be per copy for the number of books you order. (This can vary from $1.54 per copy and up, depending on the size of your book, plus shipping and state taxes. Email us for specific quotes.)
* If you can use 1,000 or more copies of your book, we can get a much better price. Let us give you a quote today.
Our POD partner is Lighting Source International, with presses in the U.S., the U.K., Australia and the UAE.