Follow the Money

To paraphrase a famous old adage: "Money is the root of all publishing."

As you can see from Table 4 below, your costs, royalties, and profits vary according to the POD vendor you choose. But the financial implications of Table 4 also vary according to your circumstances. For example:

• Low initial outlay. If reducing your initial costs to the minimum is paramount, LuLu or Lightning Source provide the lowest initial startup costs of the 6 POD vendors compared — but you have to do your own book formatting and design.

• Early break-even point. If earning back your initial outlay and quickly turning a profit on your publishing endeavor is paramount, Lightning Source and LuLu (POD Printers) have the lowest break-even point if you can do your own book formatting and design, while BookSurge has the lowest break-even point of the POD Publishers who format the book for you.

• Long-term income. If you are confident that your book will sell well (hundreds of copies), then the amount of royalty/profit you receive per-book will likely be paramount. In that case, Lightning Source has the highest return per sale, closely followed by BookSurge.

Table 4 below is based on a hypothetical book of 300 pages, no interior color, 10 images, 6x9 page size, no index, cover art not included in costs, no copyediting or corrections by vendor, no promotional packages or costs, free PDF-based proof copy, a cover price of $20, and all books sold by Amazon.com at 40% discount.

Obviously, the figures will be quite different for books with different specifications — particularly number of pages. And sales through other channels will also result in different income figures.

Table 4: Follow the Money — Vendor Comparison Example

	Author House	BookSurge	iUniverse	Xlibris	LuLu	Lightning Source
Initial One-Time Costs
Package	Standard $700	Advantage $500	Select $500	Basic $500	Publish You $150	(None)
ISBN						$270
Barcode						$25
Distribution Fee						$12
Initial Setup						$54.50 (4a)
Interior art (4b)		$100	$100	$100
TOTAL INITIAL COST	$700	$600	$600	$600	$150	$341.50
Per-Book Amounts
Print & Ship Cost	$9.83 (4k)	Not germane	Not germane	Not germane	$10.53 (4c)	$6.90 (4d)
Your Net Income Per Sale	$2.17 (4m)	$5.00 (4e)	$3.00 (4f)	$2.00 (4g)	$1.47 (4h)	$5.10 (4i)
Break-Even Point (4j)	323 copies	120 copies	200 copies	300 copies	102 copies	67 copies

4a.) $50 for cover + $0.015 per interior page (300x$0.015=$4.50) = $54.50.

4b.) Total of 10 photos, drawings, charts, tables, etc.

4c.) Unit price ($4.53) + Print cost at $0.02/page (300x$0.02=$6.00) = $10.53

4d.) Setup cost ($0.90) + Shipping ($1.50) + Print cost @ $0.015/page (300x$0.015=$4.50) = $6.90

4e.) 25% royalty on cover price = $5.00

4f.) Cover price ($20) - Bookseller discount ($8) = iUniverse net ($12). 25% Royalty on iUniverse net = $3.00.

4g.) 10% royalty on cover price = $2.00.

4h.) (Cover price $20) - (Bookseller discount $8) - (Print & ship $10.53) = $1.47 profit

4i.) (Cover price $20) - (Bookseller discount $8) - (Print & ship $6.90) = $5.10 profit

4j.) In number of copies sold. (Initial-costs) divided by (per-copy-income)

4k.) Not clear if the $9.83 includes shipping.

4m.) (Cover price $20) - (Bookseller discount $8) - (Print & ship $9.83) = $2.17 profit.

Copyright © 2007, Bruce Hartford

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