The Print On Demand Industry's Dirty Little Secret

The dirty little secret of the Print On Demand (POD) industry is that the most popular ones all use the same service to do our printing, and we all distribute our books through Ingram. So the quality of our books and the places to which we sell them are identical. The only real differences are the prices we charge, the quality of our customer service, and our business models.

Upselling Authors - Slowly Milking Your Pocketbook

iUniverse, XLibris, and Authorhouse and many of the smaller POD companies have a business model built around selling a base publishing package, and then upselling authors on additional services. Whether you sell a copy of your book to anyone or not doesn't really matter because their profit comes from upselling authors on products and services. This is why they take any book submitted to them, regardless of quality. They care more about how many authors they can squeeze through their doors than they care about quality. If they truly cared about quality, they wouldn't be putting so much garbage on the market, which actually hurts our entire industry.

BookLocker Is About Selling Books

Unlike the other POD firms, BookLocker is not into upselling authors on products and services. We're not going to sell you bookmarks and coffee mugs with your book's cover on them because it would be a waste of your money. Our goal is to get a quality book into the market, with the lowest initial investment for an author, and usually within a month. We then try to create an environment that favors book sales.

We feel our approach is a better way to do business. It is a sustainable model for both us and authors because it aligns our business interests. When a sale happens, you make money and we make money. Everyone wins.

BookLocker's Costs Compared To The Competition

Some of the other POD companies appear to charge low upfront prices, but those prices don't include everything you need to get the book into the market. Later, after you've signed the contract, they hit you with hidden charges - fees for distribution, graphics, ebook creation, barcodes, expedited service...the list goes on and on. By the time your book is actually ready for sale, you've probably paid over $1000 - sometimes much, much more - to get your book in print, greatly increasing the time it takes to make back your investment through sales.

At BookLocker, our published setup fee price includes everything to get the book out into the market, period. No runaround. No surprises. No hidden fees. And BookLocker keeps the setup charge low so you can make back the investment as quickly as possible through book sales. Here is what we charge for a standard paperback:

BOOKLOCKER: $492 (deduct $175 if submitting your own cover)

For that price you get... Compare that with the cost of other POD firms:

Lulu: $595.00 - Formatting, cover design, graphics, barcode, etc. are offered through a variety of third party services providers who run ads on their site. This firm does not use the same printer for all the books they print. Some authors have posted about the poor quality of their books online. Lulu outsources some of their printing outside of the U.S.

iUniverse: $599.00 (includes 5 "free" copies) - Warning: They own your files after creation and you have to pay $300-$1500 to get them back if you leave their service! They charge extra for photos/graphics (included above). No expedite service. Turnaround is 3-4 months.

Llumina: $954 - Contract is for three years. Charges $100 for an ad in Ingram's catalog (the actual fee Ingram charges is only $50). Takes 12-14 weeks to get a book to market.

Xlibris: $1383 (includes 5 "free" copies) - Does NOT offer ebooks! Charges expedite fee of $349 for publication in 2 months instead of 4-6 months.

AuthorHouse: $1567 - Charges extra for photos/graphics ($10 per image after the first 10 - included in cost above). Expedite fee ($500 - also included above) is for publication in 30 days instead of 6 months. (BookLocker usually gets a book to market within a month.)

Trafford: $1499 (includes 40 "free" copies) - Company is based in Canada. No expedite service. Turn-around is 3-4 months.

Prices based on least expensive package offered by each publisher on similar offers targeting U.S. authors. Fee comparisons include: setup, original cover design, print proof, ebook creation, up to 25 interior photos/graphics, an ISBN, barcode, a listing on the publisher's website and distribution by Ingram, all within 6 weeks.

NOTE: Many companies offer perks that others don't, some try to upsell authors on extraneous services, and a few even claim ownership of files the author has paid them to create! Study each publisher and contract carefully before making your choice.

Read Our POD SECRETS REVEALED Series to see what goes on at other POD service companies:

Find Out More About BookLocker

Ask us a question, we'll answer it (usually within a few hours).

Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal.

Read the reasons NOT TO USE US (or POD, for that matter).

Review our contract - considered by many to be the clearest, fairest, most straightforward in the industry (a pop-up window will open).

Read the common questions we get about BookLocker, and POD and ebook publishing.

Read how BookLocker authors got traditional publishing contracts and built businesses for their books.

Read testimonials from authors who've used (and are using) us.

Submit a manuscript for consideration.

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