The Print On Demand Industry's Dirty Little Secret

The dirty little secret of the Print On Demand (POD) industry is that most of us use the same service to do the 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

The large POD services - Authorhouse, iUniverse, XLibris, and Trafford, (now all owned by the same parent company, Author Solutions, which is a creation of venture capital firm Bertram Capital) - and many of the smaller POD companies have a business model built around selling a base publishing package, and then upselling you 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 of you 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 you 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 quickly into the market (usually in a month or less) with the lowest out-of-pocket cost to you. 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 you because it aligns our business interests. When a sale happens, you make money and we make money. Both of us win.

And our model works. The majority of BookLocker's revenue comes from public book sales, not service fees.

BookLocker's Costs Compared To The Competition

Some of the other POD companies appear to charge low upfront fees, and even no upfront fees. 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: $517 (deduct $200 if submitting your own cover)

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

iUniverse - $599 (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) and never allow more than 50 graphics/photos in a book. No expedite service. Turnaround is 3-4 months. NOTE: IUNIVERSE IS NOW OWNED BY AUTHOR SOLUTIONS, A HOLDING COMPANY THAT ALSO OWNS AUTHORHOUSE, XLIBRIS, AND TRAFFORD. (SEE THOSE COMPANIES BELOW.)

CreateSpace - $763 (Deduct $259 if submitting your own cover). Add $500 to price if you want more than one color and image featured on your cover. Limit of 10 interior images; charges $15 per image and $25 per chart/table/graph thereafter (cost of first 25 images included above). Does NOT publish hardcover books. IMPORTANT: BookSurge was rolled into CreateSpace in November but they're still using the same employees, equipment, etc. We recently ordered some BookSurge books and one looked so bad they inserted an apology note inside it, saying it was the best they could get from their supplier. They ARE their supplier! Another one arrived with the interior pages appearing upside-down. Some CreateSpace authors have been complaining about their high shipping costs.

Trafford - $1073 << IMPORTANT - Does **not** include full distribution! Choose the $2297 package if you want that. NOTE: This company is based in Canada, and TRAFFORD IS NOW OWNED BY AUTHOR SOLUTIONS, A HOLDING COMPANY THAT ALSO OWNS XLIBRIS, IUNIVERSE, AND AUTHORHOUSE. (SEE THOSE COMPANIES ON ABOVE AND BELOW.)

Lulu - $1369.00. Deduct $450 if submitting your own cover. Lulu now charges directly for many services they previously farmed out to other companies.

AuthorHouse - $1468 << Charges extra for photos/graphics ($10 per image after first 10 - included in cost above). Expedite fee ($500) is for publication in 30 days instead of 6 months - included above. Claims ownership of files you pay them to create. NOTE: AUTHORHOUSE IS NOW OWNED BY AUTHOR SOLUTIONS, A HOLDING COMPANY THAT ALSO OWNS XLIBRIS, IUNIVERSE, AND TRAFFORD. (SEE THOSE COMPANIES ABOVE AND BELOW.)

Xlibris - $1922 (includes 5 "free" copies) << Does NOT offer ebooks! Charges expedite fee of $349 (included above) for publication in 2 months instead of 4-6 months. Charges $10 per image; $20 per table. NOTE: XLIBRIS IS NOW OWNED BY AUTHOR SOLUTIONS, A HOLDING COMPANY THAT ALSO OWNS AUTHORHOUSE, IUNIVERSE, AND TRAFFORD. (SEE THOSE COMPANIES ABOVE.)

***Prices based on least expensive package offered by each publisher on similar offers targeting U.S. authors. Fees 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 how BookLocker authors got traditional publishing contracts and built businesses for their books.

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

Submit a manuscript for consideration.

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