POD Vendors — Compared & Analyzed

Comparison Issues

What are the important things to look at when comparing POD vendors?

While initial costs and royalties/profits are, of course, very important, there are additional factors that also need to be considered:

Six POD Vendors

This side-by-side comparison looks at six of the larger, better-known POD vendors:

Table Notes

The tables below compare six of the larger POD vendors on services offered, costs, policies, and contract terms. The following notes apply:

 

Getting Started

Table 1: Getting Started — Vendor Comparison

  Author
House
BookSurge iUniverse Xlibris LuLu Lightning
Source
Vendor Basics
POD Type Publisher Publisher Publisher Publisher Hybrid Printer
Package Standard
$700
Advantage
$500
Select
$500
Basic
$500
Publish You
$150
(None)
Off-Shore (1a) No No No (1b) Yes - Phillippines LuLu - No.
3rd Parties - Maybe.
No
Screen Manuscript?
(For content)
No No No (1c) No No No
Print & Distribute Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ISBN &
Books in Print
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes $270 (1d)
ISBN Owned By AuthorHouse BookSurge iUniverse Xlibris You You
Free Copies 1 1 5 None None None
Distribution Channels
Distribution Channels Promised Amazon
BarnesNoble
Amazon
Borders
BakerTaylor
Amazon
BarnesNoble
Amazon
BarnesNoble
Borders
Ingram
Amazon
BarnesNoble
Borders
Amazon
BarnesNoble
Borders
Ingram
BakerTaylor
Annual Fee(1v) $20 (1g) ??? $25 Maybe None $12
Vendor Web Page
(To sell book)
Yes Not available (1r) Yes Yes Yes Not available (1u)
Domain Name (1s) $75 Not available Not available Not Available
(But included in Premium Service)
Backend to your site (1t) Up to you. (1u)
One-Time Charges
Initial Setup Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes $50 - cover $0.15/page
Barcode Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes $25
PCN (1e) $75 $75 Up to you $100 Up to you Up to you
Copyright Reg. (1f) $170 Up to you Up to you $250 Up to you Up to you
Page Formatting (1h) Yes (1i) Yes (Templates) Yes (1i) Yes (Templates) Yes (1j) N/A (1k)
Interior Artwork First 10 free, then $10/image $10/image 1-25 $100
26-50 $200
$10/image N/A (1j) N/A (1k)
Front Cover Design $250 - $1200 Templates or custom at $500-$1000 (1n) You or iUniverse (1m) Templates (1n) N/A (1o) N/A (1k)
Back Cover Design $119 Yes (limited) You or iUniverse Templates N/A (1o) N/A (1k)
Copyediting 1.8 cents per word (1p) 1.5 to 5 cents per word (1p) 1.5 cents per word (1p) Not available Not Available (can hire) Not available
Proof Copy Yes PDF free PDF free PDF - free
Paper - $60
Cost of 1 book $30
Corrections (Content) $25 plus
$2 per correction
First 50 free First 50 free $25 plus
$2 per correction
No charge ??? $80/hour (1q)

1a.) Are some (or all) services used by authors provided by workers in other countries whose English skills may vary from excellent to mediocre?

1b.) Design work is done in China, but authors only have contact with U.S. employees.

1c.) Does screen for "extremely objectional content." Does screen content for admission to certain programs.

1d.) For block of 10 ISBNs ($27 each).

1e.) Amount is what the vendor charges for obtaining a Preassigned Control Number (PCN). You can do it yourself for free plus two copies of the book.

1f.) Amount is what the vendor charges for registering your copyright. If you do it yourself, the cost is $45 plus two copies of the book.

1g.) First two years free, $20/year thereafter.

1h.) As an alternative to having vendor format the book, most vendors allow you to supply a pre-formatted PDF file.

1i.) Formatting performed in consultation with you.

1j.) Not entirely clear how this works. It may be that LuLu simply converts files as-is, but you can hire a 3rd-party to help design the book.

1k.) You are responsible for all book content.

1m.) You can provide a finished cover file, or illustrations & content that iUniverse will use to create cover.

1n.) Covers created from templates. Some templates allow you to incorporate an image you provide.

1o.) You can do it yourself, or LuLu offers various 3rd-party services at different prices.

1p.) Based on total word-count of the manuscript.

1q.) You can make corrections yourself, or pay $80/hour for Lightning Source to do them.

1r.) BookSurge is owned by Amazon.com, so retail customers are redirected to the Amazon website.

1s.) A domain name like "www.booktitle.com" or "www.authorname.com" as opposed to "www.podpublisher.com/something."

1t.) Vendor can provide a "Buy" button (link) for your website that allows customers to buy the book on your site that vendor processes.

1u.) Lightning Source does not sell books directly to consumers. You can create your own website (with your own domain name) to promote your book, but customers will have to go to an online bookseller or bookstore order-desk or to buy it.

1v.) Annual fee to maintain your book distribution channels. In other words an annual fee to keep your book in whatever catalogs the vendor got it added to.

 

Costs, Royalties, and Profits

Table 2: Costs, Royalties, and Profits — Vendor Comparison

  Author
House
BookSurge iUniverse Xlibris LuLu Lightning
Source
Per-Book Costs
(6x9 Paperback)
Varies by page count Not germane (2a) Not germane (2a) Not germane (2a) Unit - $4.53
$0.02/page
Unit - $0.90
Ship - $1.50
$0.015/page
Cover Price Set By AuthorHouse (2b) BookSurge (2b) iUniverse (2b) Xlibris LuLu (2b) You (2c)
 
Per-Book Profit Yes (2f) (None) (2d) (None) (2d) (None) (2d) Yes (2e) Yes (2f)
 
Direct Sales
Royalty (2g)
(None) (2h) No direct sale 25% 25% (None) (2h) (None) (2h)
Online store Royalty (None) (2h) 25% 20% - 25% (2i) 10% (None) (2h) (None) (2h)
Bookstore Royalty (None) (2h) 10% 20% (2i) 10% (None) (2h) (None) (2h)
             
Your Discount (2j) ??? 30% - 70% (2k) 40% and up (2k) 40% and up (2k) Varies (2k) N/A (2m)

2a.) Since you are paid a royalty, cost per book is not germane.

2b.) Vendor determines minimum cover & wholesale prices, you can set higher prices.

2c.) Cover price has to be high enough to cover per-book costs and bookseller's discount.

2d.) No profit, you get royalty instead.

2e.) With LuLu, you specify how much you want to receive from each sale, LuLu deducts 20% of that amount as their commision.

2f.) Profit = (Cover Price) minus (Bookseller's Discount + Per-Book Cost).

2g.) Direct sales = Sales from the vendor's website to a customer. Does not include bulk sale of books to author.

2h.) No royalties, you get a profit instead.

2i.) Unlike other POD Publishers, iUniverse royalties are NOT calculated on cover price, but rather on what iUniverse receives from the bookseller — after the bookseller's discount and shipping costs are deducted from the cover price. This means that the 25% royalties paid by iUniverse to authors are LOWER than the 25% royalties paid by other POD Publishers.

2j.) Since you may want to sell books at signings and personal appearances, your cost to buy copies in quantity is important.

2k.) Discount increases according to number of books ordered.

2m.) You pay the cost of printing the book (unit + per-page cost) plus shipping.

 

Contract Clauses

Always read the contract before signing up with a POD vendor.

 

Table 3: Important Contract Clauses ~ Vendor Comparison

  Author
House
BookSurge iUniverse Xlibris    LuLu      Lightning
Source
Who owns copyrights? Author Author Author Author Author Author
Exclusive? No No No No No No
Termination 30 days 30 days 30 days Any time 30 days 45 days
Arbitration or Mediation
Clause? (3a)
No No   No   No   No   No  
Work Files Ownership? (3b) AuthorHouse (3c) BookSurge (3c) iUniverse
$300/$1500 (3d)
Xlibris You You

3a.) Without an arbitration or mediation clause, your only recourse is to sue. Unfortunately, none of these vendors offers such a clause.

3b.) When you buy a "package" of services from a POD Publisher, the biggest item you are buying is formatting the PDF file. If you own the file, you can use it elsewhere — if you don't own it, you have to pay again to create another file if you want to publish elsewhere.

3c.) Vendor may allow you to purchase your PDF files for an additional fee.

3d.) Depending on timing, You pay either an additional $150 each for interior and cover files, or $750 for each.

 

Copyright © 2007, Bruce Hartford


PREVIOUS

NEXT

(Labor donated)