Authors, Writers, Publishers, and Book Readers

Want to do a side-by-side comparison of self publishing companies?

From Writers' Digest, an extremely useful and newly updated directory can help you do so. Any writer wishing to compare what self-publishing companies are offering in terms of packages and what they charge would be off to a good start if they began here! There are 66 listings.

2009 Directory of Self-Publishing Companies

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on February 1, 2010 at 3:22am

I've only published one book and yes it was self published, but aside from knowing that it was very expensive, I can't compare it with anyone else - not until I publish another book (or two). I'm planning on one through Smashwords and one through CreateSpace. Either one of those plans might change but just now I'm planning on both sometime real soon.

Permalink Reply by Kay Elizabeth on March 9, 2011 at 7:15am

Anna, have you looked at offthebookshelf.com too? I've talked with the owner Scott before and he's a nice guy. You can set up your own online bookstore there free and sell print, ebook and audiobook versions of your book. You set your own price for the book and I believe you can use it to sell previously published books too. It's been a long time since I was there so things may be different but it's always another option.

For print copies, you paid for the initial setup of your book at their printer. After that you sold it via your bookstore and the books were printed as needed at whatever price you chose. If I remember right it was about $35.

Ebooks were totally free to have there. You just uploaded them to the store and set your price. So if you decided to only offer an ebook version, it cost nothing to have a store there.

They take a small commission on any sales you make of any type of book and that's how they make money.

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on March 9, 2011 at 7:29am

Thanks Kay for the reference. I'll have to check it out. Probably not now though. Maybe when I have more than 1 book that doesn't do too well.

Permalink Reply by Drue "Dee" Miller on June 19, 2011 at 4:01am

If you want to compare self-publishing companies ... I am a GOOD one to come to for a comparison since I have picked 2 companies that are terrible to publish with.

iUniverse.com: only charged me $99. Never did anything for me on 2 of my books. They were good at setting up book signings at a local Books-a-Million bookstore. I had several signings/sold about 20 books per signing. B-a-M told me (I have been told this by several people in the business since then) that the amount of books that I sold was extremely good for a POD author and they did stock my books in their store. iUniverse kept selling my books on the bookstore websites after I cancelled my contract with them: they did stop this when I asked them to do so ... I just didn't receive any royalties.

PublishAmerica.com: Did not cost me anything ... until I published 2 books w/them! Now I think I am the only one who is buying my books. Also, price is so high on Soft Cover books ... no wonder no one is buying them! They are trying to make me pay for eBooks and all of these other things: even to "contact them" for anything ($59 for that one).

But what can I do? I don't have anyway of knowing what to do with 3 published books with PA and a 4th one ready to go. I mean, they don't even have to do my covers ... my youngest daughter does all of the artwork on them for me! Any comments?

Permalink Reply by Lee Wendling on June 20, 2011 at 8:47pm

Does anyone know anything good or bad about Friesen Press? I am thinking about going with them but have never gotten this far with something I have written and am so clueless about it all. Any info or advice would be most welcome.

Permalink Reply by Drue "Dee" Miller on June 21, 2011 at 12:51am

Avoid PublishAmerica and iUniverse.com. All they want is your money .... PA is the worst. At PA ... the only one buying the books is the author. Believe me, I have been taken advantage of with both publishers. I do not know anything about Friesen Press. Good luck to you in your search for a good publisher.

Permalink Reply by Lee Wendling on June 21, 2011 at 12:58am

Thanks Dee. I will continue to gather info and check things out. Good luck to you.

Permalink Reply by K. L. Parry on July 21, 2011 at 5:17pm

I published a book through Blurb and it came out beautifully but I did all the set up and my own book cover. It was free to publish which I liked being that I'm "financially challenged" and after the first printing I went back and revamped my cover an images without any problem or expense to me. They do have an online book store but that's where their help ends. The two problems with Blurb is limited distrubution and the lack of wholesale discounts to entice retailers to buy and stock your books. So basicly you would have to buy a large number of books (to get any real discount) then provided them to the bookstores you can convince to carry them.

I also just recently published the ebook version on smashwords..very excited about this as they promise once you have passed inspection they will put your title on a list that goes out to most of the national retailers of ebooks. Can't wait to see what's going to happen there.

My personal goal is, at some point, to move the hardcopy of my book from Blurb to another publishing house that is more wholesaler friendly and will allow me larger distribution opportunities.

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on July 22, 2011 at 3:57am

That's really nice to know about blurb. I've been thinking about it myself.

K. L. Parry said:

I published a book through Blurb and it came out beautifully but I did all the set up and my own book cover. It was free to publish which I liked being that I'm "financially challenged" and after the first printing I went back and revamped my cover an images without any problem or expense to me. They do have an online book store but that's where their help ends. The two problems with Blurb is limited distrubution and the lack of wholesale discounts to entice retailers to buy and stock your books. So basicly you would have to buy a large number of books (to get any real discount) then provided them to the bookstores you can convince to carry them.

I also just recently published the ebook version on smashwords..very excited about this as they promise once you have passed inspection they will put your title on a list that goes out to most of the national retailers of ebooks. Can't wait to see what's going to happen there.

My personal goal is, at some point, to move the hardcopy of my book from Blurb to another publishing house that is more wholesaler friendly and will allow me larger distribution opportunities.

Permalink Reply by K. L. Parry on July 22, 2011 at 5:00am

I think it's a great place to start.

Permalink Reply by Matt T. Schott on July 22, 2011 at 11:48am

I used Lulu.com a couple years ago to publish my scifi book. I brought a package deal THEN for $99. They got me my own ISBN # and I went on Brooker's list thats it. Once I was on Brooker's list 33 other book stores picked up my book including Amazon and B&N.

I also paid an editor that I found advertising in Writer's Digest for edits,$200 & $600. Then I paid $99 to have the book formated by Angel editinng. They adevertised on LULU. LUlu does nothing but give you a place to upload your book, orginize it and sell it from a free storefront on lulu. You pick and chose what you want. It has been a couple of years and I noticed things change pretty quickly with online publishing. I don't know if lulu has the same deal. I'll find out soon though I'm 50,000 words into the sequel.

Good luck and keep writing

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on July 22, 2011 at 3:47pm

Good for you Matt - sounds like you got a handle on things. Great advice. Thanks. I wish you all the luck on your sequel.