You did it! Your book is finally in print! After months of sweating over details like editing and cover colors and even the final list price, you’re ready to start that marketing campaign! You’ve even figured out that you can make more money buying copies at your author discount and doing your own fulfillment at appearances than you would if you sent potential readers to your publisher’s website. But, wait…

You just tried to place an order for 100 copies of your book…and discovered that your publisher is charging you around $1 per paperback book for shipping and handling! Say what?! That blows your budget right out of the water!

A few weeks ago, a new author approached several POD publishers and asked them how much they’d charge to ship 100 copies of his 248-page, 6 x 9 paperback to book to a specific address. He gave all the publishers the exact same specs and address. He said he’d like the books shipped via UPS Ground.

The Quotes:

$53.81 – Booklocker (owned by the author of this article)

$60.00 “approximately” – AuthorHouse (Did not give exact quote and hemmed and hawed about specifically answering other questions that were sent…while then adding the author to their marketing email list without his permission. More on that scenario later.)

$82.50 – Trafford

$100.00 (estimate only) – iUniverse: First quoted $0.50 – $1.00/book but later, when asked yet again for an exact quote (the author said it was a pretty “wide estimate”), the iUniverse rep. said the author never gave her an address for a quote….but she had previously responded to the author and included his earlier email that contained the address. When he sent the address again, she said it would be “about $1 per book to ship.”

$117.00 – xlibris: $7.00 base plus $1.10 per book

??? – Lulu: Their online help service said he’d have to place an order to obtain shipping costs. But, even to place a test order, you have to give them your credit card number before the shipping charges will even appear. No thanks!

You, too, should demand to know exactly how much your shipping will be before you decide on a POD publisher! Sure, while shipping costs do vary based on the economy and even fuel prices…they don’t vary THAT much! And, remember, most of the big POD publishers use the same printer, who ships their customers’ orders from the same place.

Next Week – List prices vs. royalties vs. author discounts. We’ll try to make sense of the financial side of self- publishing for you.

Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.

About The Author

Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).

Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.

WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.

BookLocker.com - According to attorney Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print, BookLocker is: "As close to perfection as you're going to find in the world of ebook and POD publishing. The ebook royalties are the highest I've ever seen, and the print royalties are better than average. BookLocker understands what new authors experience, and have put together a package that is the best in the business. You can't go wrong here. Plus, they're selective and won't publish any manuscript just because it's accompanied by a check. Also, the web site is well trafficked. If you can find a POD or epublisher with as much integrity and dedication to selling authors' books, but with lower POD publishing fees, please let me know."

Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.

PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!

Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.

Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)

See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.

ANGELA ON TWITTER https://twitter.com/AngelaHoy

BOOKLOCKER ON FACEBOOK - Provides links to free excerpts!
https://www.facebook.com/booklockerbooks

ANGELA ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/angela.hoy.750

ANGELA ON LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/in/angelahoy/

Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/

Read More Of Angela's Articles HERE