Printers for Self-publishing

The publishing world has experienced an explosion of new books, many of them from indie authors. According to Bowker more than 725,000 self-published works were registered in 2015. That should give you an idea of the number of books being published by indies. Most of those people will need printers for self-publishing their books, and they’ll be asking themselves the question that many independent publishers ask: who to use to print your book?

Most of the self-published authors have a pretty good handle on what to do with their ebooks, or at least they think they do. But they are lost when it comes to print. Questions abound.

• Who to use to print my book?
• How to price my book?
• Do I need a different ISBN?
• What trim size do I use?
• Should I use white or cream-colored paper?
• Gloss or matte?
• What discount should I allow?
• Who are the good printers for self-publishing?

And many more questions.

I try to answer some of those in blog posts. One of my most popular posts was one I wrote about using CreateSpace and IngramSpark simultaneously. I wrote this for ALLI (The Alliance of Independent Authors). You can see the blog here

There are a lot of questions that come up when preparing for your journey into print. So many that I recently wrote a book about the subject: Print on Demand—Who to Use to Print Your Books.

Who Do You Use to Print Your Book?

Most self-published authors automatically choose CreateSpace.

• It’s owned by Amazon.
• It’s easy to use.
• It’s free.
• It prints good books.

All of that is true. But is CreateSpace the best choice?

IngramSpark has a lot to offer also. So who do you use?

The answer is simple—both of them.

There are a lot of reasons why you should go with both, and there are things you definitely should not do when setting up your CreateSpace books, but if you don’t use IngramSpark to print and distribute your books, you’ll be leaving money on the table. And the more books you sell, the more money you’ll lose.

I did an analysis of one well-known author and concluded that he had lost thousands of dollars by using CreateSpace alone. That author is now using IngramSpark in conjunction with CreateSpace.

Before you venture off into the publishing wilderness, read up on where you’re going and what is the best way to get there. Most importantly, read up on the printers for self-publishing and who to use to print your book.

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Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of gritty crime dramas about murder, mystery, and family. And he also writes nonfiction books including the No Mistakes Careers series as well as books about grammar, publishing., and children’s fiction and nonfiction.

When Giacomo isn’t writing, he’s helping his wife take care of the animals on their sanctuary. At last count, they had forty animals—seven dogs, one horse, six cats, and twenty-five pigs.

Oh, and one crazy—and very large—wild boar, who used to take walks with Giacomo every day.

He lives in Texas where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with forty-five loving “friends.”

Tags: distribution, print, sales, self-publishing, writing