Self publishing vs traditional publishing – profit

Self publishing vs traditional publishing. A POD book vs high-quality book printing with options. Better books and keep more profit!

Making more profit by self publishing vs traditional publishing. Are you choosing between traditional publishing, doing a POD book, printing your own book, and self-publishing? More authors are turning their backs on the traditional, or print on-demand services. And why not, when they can turn to self-publishing because they can make more profit?

Seize the opportunity … Control book revenue … Open the door to success!

Writers love to write, and if you are like most authors, you want rewards and recognition for your talent, and to make a name for yourself. Publishing your own work is a choice that is lucrative for many authors, novelists, photographers, and artists.

The traditional publishing model expects authors to marketing their book too.

If a publisher chooses to publish your book, they pick up all publishing costs. However, while they market your book, there is a limit to their budget. This is one of the pitfalls of traditional publishing. They expect the author to market the book too. That costs money for advertising, social media, a website, and more. Where’s the money for authors? In return, traditional publishing pays only a royalty. Self publishing vs traditional publishing is to be examined closely.

If your concern is cost, get a book printing quote and/or a book design quote. Check out Indiegogo and Kickstarter for crowd sourcing. Star Print Brokers works with some authors who are quite successful with crowd funding. Check out our crowd funding page to see success stories. Both crowd funding platforms are good sources according to their authors. The two platforms are different from each other, so evaluate them yourself!

Who is the publisher of your self-published book?

• If a publisher provides your title’s ISBN, they are the publisher.
• Self-publishers must buy their own ISBN from ISBN.org, or buy from an authorized agent. Note: Star Print Brokers is an agent and we can sell a single ISBN and barcode.
• If you are going to self-publish an ebook, or publish more titles, it is best to buy a pack of ten ISBNs directly from ISBN.org.

Quality Issues with a POD book. What you need to know about toner on paper versus ink on paper.

The quality of traditional publishing and self-publishing a POD book can vary greatly. A traditional publisher may use POD output on the cheap, or print your title on press. There is a wide array of self-publishing options. Often authors write a novel and want only 10 or 20 copies of their book. Books like this do not print on press, but are output. Small quantity books are print on-demand books.

The POD book is typically output from a digital device. It is something like a desktop printer. They use toner or worse yet, inkjet on 60 or 70 pound bond paper, versus press ink printing on better quality stock. Star Print Brokers almost always prints books, in signatures, on sheet-fed offset presses. If you examine a POD book, most often it is output as toner on paper. Rub a moist finger across the page and watch is smear. Not acceptable.

More issues to be aware of …

There are so many issues with a hardcover POD hardcover book. The especially relevant example is photography books, which use heavy coverage. If toner doesn’t smear, maybe there is a varnish covering. For just a few books, it’s an extra cost. Worst of all, expect banding across heavy coverage toner images. Also, the bindings are notoriously bad, unless binding is done by a professional bindery. Consequently, that is costly. If the book isn’t bound professionally, pages may fall out.

The endpapers are only the width of a single page, not twice the width as they should be in press quality books.

Leaving traditional publishing means that authors have the opportunity to self-publish and print high-quality books. That is, if they use Star Print Brokers. Most of all, you will like that we keep costs down, and as a result, you keep more profit per book.

Take a closer look printing on sheet-fed offset press, in signatures, rather than traditional publishing.

Here is our recipe for successful, profitable self-publishing:

• Print your book with Star Print Brokers, to assure high-quality books print on press in signatures, and at a reasonable cost. We have hard-to find options and sizes. Most importantly, we stand behind the books we print.
• If you need a designer, we offer options for all budgets.
• Check out crowd funding.
• Sell your book on Amazon, and drive traffic to your book they way a smaller website cannot.
• Market your book yourself, as you will have to anyway if you work with a traditional publisher.

In conclusion, self publishing vs traditional publishing seems like a good plan to most authors. Many of our clients return for multiple print-runs of their books, and recommend us to friends and associates. Clients return who print multiple titles too.

Join the crowd heading away from traditional publishing and the POD book, and on to Star Print Brokers! Call (844) 603-1777 toll-free, or (425) 603-1777 in the Seattle area. Maybe you can request a quote! We also offer optional book design. by Nancy Starkman, author of Book Design: Simple & Professional.