[Printer] InstantPublisher.com / Fundcraft Publishing Co.

frisco · Sep 21, 2009

Anyone familiar with this company? In reviewing the website it appears to be a good option that might even offer a chance of financial success. I priced the cost for my book and if I print up 250 copies I can get it for about $5 a book--and hopefully retail it for about $10. At that price it should be affordable enough for casual readers to consider--hopefully.
Anyway has anyone had work done by them or know anything about the company?

MickRooney · Sep 21, 2009

Frisco,

I take it this is the company.

http://www.instantpublisher.com/

valeriec80 · Sep 21, 2009

I looked around on the site for a bit, but I couldn't figure out exactly what it is they do.

They print books for you, but you have to buy at least 25 of them?

So they are not a P.O.D service for customers then?

frisco · Sep 23, 2009

They print books and its pretty much up to you to sell them, but if you have 250+ printed the cost is fairly low--low enough that you could potentially realize a profit.
The reason I mention this at all is because a friend of mine just finished his book and did the whole self-publishing thing, but in order for him to realize a profit he had to sell it for $25 a copy. I don't beleive thats a good business plan for any self publishing venture. Why would someone buy a book from a new writer for that sort of money when they could get a best seller for under $10?
If I have 250 copies of my book printed the cost per book is under $5. I could resell them for $9--which is a competitive price for a paperback--and still realize a $4 per book profit. If I sell enough (God willing) it has a chance to be viable.

valeriec80 · Sep 23, 2009

But how will you get these books to your customers? Are you going to sell them door to door?

frisco · Sep 23, 2009

Through a website or at various collectors shows, hopefully Amazon and other online sites. A lot of it--hopefully--would be sold online.

ResearchGuy · Sep 23, 2009

frisco said:
. . . I priced the cost for my book and if I print up 250 copies I can get it for about $5 a book. . .

How many pages? B/W interior? Color cover? Shipping included? You might do much better with Amazon's CreateSpace (a print on demand option), and not have to buy hundreds of copies at a time. (That option can also make the book easily available via Amazon.com.)

Niche nonfiction can be well suited to self-publishing, but there are a lot of things to think through before sinking money into the project. And copies sold through third parties will take a whacking on the price. You might end up losing money on each copy of a $10 book that costs $5 per copy to print, after figuring the discount, shipping, etc. At best, profits would be slender. The picture is worse after allowing for promotional costs and your own time, plus any costs for editing, book design, cover design, typesetting . . . .

--Ken

zpeteman · Sep 23, 2009

If your only consideration is profit margin then just go with a traditional off-set printer. You'll only be paying about $2.50 per book. The catch is that you'll have to do a minimum run of 1000-1500 copies. Large initial outlay but the margins can't be beaten.

ResearchGuy · Sep 24, 2009

zpeteman said:
If your only consideration is profit margin then just go with a traditional off-set printer. You'll only be paying about $2.50 per book. The catch is that you'll have to do a minimum run of 1000-1500 copies. Large initial outlay but the margins can't be beaten.

The problem is that huge outlay up front, and then the costs to store and eventually pulp unsold books. POD can be far more economical, and certainly much lower risk, even at a higher per-copy price.

As for offset, much depends on the details, including number of pages, format (trade paper, etc.), color or b/w covers, type of paper, etc. Printers vary widely in their pricing. Several months ago I got a quote from what was supposed to be a competitive offset printer, and their price was FAR FAR higher than Lulu's, even at quantity 1,000. (And of course, higher by even more than CreateSpace or Lightning Source.) For offset printing, the price does not really drop until 3,000 copies. But then you have storage and carrying costs to worry about, and of course shipping.

--Ken

frisco · Sep 24, 2009

Well my thoughts are I want to have about 250 copies available for sales purposes. I just think it would be easier to get an impulse sale on a book if it is readily available. A person might hesitate to buy a $10 book online--where the shipping cost factored in would bring it to about $12. However the same person might find it at a collectors show or flea market and be more likely to pick it up for $10 because they can take it with them. I think the majority of sales would still be online and it would obviously be very important to develop an online presence in order to attract the attention of prospective buyers, but having 250 copies available to fill sales wouldn't necessarily be a problem.
The book is about 300 pages long and black and white, the only thing in color being the cover. It would probably represent about a $1500 investment, but thats still a lot cheaper than the cash up front a friend of mine recently paid to get his book done.
I was in Barnes and Nobles today and noticed Stephen Kings latest book--grandly displayed at an end cap and heavily promoted by the store. Now being an unpublished author even if I was lucky enough to get a publisher for the book i'm not likely to get much promotion; I don't think i'll be on an end cap in stores anytime soon. I think its going to be up to me to try and find creative ways to let people know about my book and do a little guerilla marketing to find ways to get them to discover my soon-to-be-made website where they can buy it. It might be a pipe dream, but i'm hoping the internet will provide a way for me to level the field and attract readers that I might never have been able to reach a decade or so ago.

Captain Jack · Sep 24, 2009

Hi frisco ..... I just self published my book through CreateSpace, owned by Amazon .... It is 308 pages, black and white on cream paper ... I paid for the $39.00 ProPlan so my ordered copies would be cheaper, and the royalties would be more ... The cost of my book is $4.54 each .... Since Amazon owns CreateSpace, part of the program is the free listing to Amazon.com... To me that's a nice bonus, but like you, I sell my books through my website and to those impulse buyers ..... They will print out copies for you, as many as you want to order, and I end up paying around 50 cents per book in shipping.... so my per book cost is just over $5.00 and I get a quality book delivered relatively quickly and the added exposure from an Amazon listing ... I don't order large quantities, 50 each shipment, so I don't have a huge up-front expense and so far I have been pleased with the service ... There is also a very helpful bunch of people on the CreateSpace message board, you might want to check it out ....

...Give them a look ... it worked good for me and I didn't have to pay a lot to get started ...

Good Luck!!

frisco · Sep 24, 2009

Captain Jack said:
Hi frisco ..... I just self published my book through CreateSpace, owned by Amazon .... It is 308 pages, black and white on cream paper ... I paid for the $39.00 ProPlan so my ordered copies would be cheaper, and the royalties would be more ... The cost of my book is $4.54 each .... Since Amazon owns CreateSpace, part of the program is the free listing to Amazon.com... To me that's a nice bonus, but like you, I sell my books through my website and to those impulse buyers ..... They will print out copies for you, as many as you want to order, and I end up paying around 50 cents per book in shipping.... so my per book cost is just over $5.00 and I get a quality book delivered relatively quickly and the added exposure from an Amazon listing ... I don't order large quantities, 50 each shipment, so I don't have a huge up-front expense and so far I have been pleased with the service ... There is also a very helpful bunch of people on the CreateSpace message board, you might want to check it out ....

...Give them a look ... it worked good for me and I didn't have to pay a lot to get started ...

Good Luck!!

Sounds interesting. I'll check it out. Thanks for the info.

danhughes · Aug 17, 2012

InstantPublisher works for me

Didn't want to resurrect a 3-year-old thread, so here's a new one.

I've used InstantPublisher for two books, and I am happy to recommend them.

I ordered 500 copies of my first book (too many), and 250 copies of my second book (not enough).

Both of them are 8 1/2 x 11, appx 100 pages. Cost me about $4.00 each, and I sell them from my web sites for $20 each.

I have had slow but steady sales of 10 or 12 books a month for four years.

On a profit of $16 per book, I make just shy of $200 a month from these two books.

I don't allow Amazon or anyone else to sell them. Just me, through my web sites. That way I make maximum profit, and I know they will never go on a remainder table.

Not a huge profit, true, but very satisfying to see the constant interest in my work.

(If you want a peek, the websites are http://treasuremanual.com and http://slowpitchbook.com )

---Dan Hughes

CaoPaux · Aug 17, 2012

Please add to existing threads rather than create new ones. Merging.

danhughes · Aug 17, 2012

Sorry, didn't know the protocol here. The other boards I'm on don't like responses posted to threads that haven't seen action in a year.

Old Hack · Aug 18, 2012

danhughes said:
I don't allow Amazon or anyone else to sell them. Just me, through my web sites. That way I make maximum profit, and I know they will never go on a remainder table.

If you provide your books to a retailer on sale-or-return, as most big publishers do, then you're going to get some returns if your book fails to sell well, and some of those books will be damaged and not suitable for further sale, but your book will remain in print.

If you provide your books to those retailers on a firm sale basis then they will reduce them if they fail to sell well.

Your book being stocked by Amazon doesn't influence whether or not it ends up on a remainder table: publishers decide if and when to remainder their own books, not the retailers of those books. While I can see that you'd get a higher percentage of the cover price by not letting anyone else sell your books for you, it's highly likely that if your books were on Amazon and elsewhere they'd be seen by a wider audience, and so sell in greater number. Yes, you'd earn a smaller percentage of the cover price on those sales; but they're sales you're not making now, and so it's possible--or even likely--that you'd still make your core sales from your website and you'd sell more books than you're selling now, and so would end up doing better in the long run.

It's your decision, of course. But I don't think you've understood the remaindering process properly, and I'm concerned that that's led you to making some poor business decisions here.

danhughes · Aug 18, 2012

Old Hack said:
Your book being stocked by Amazon doesn't influence whether or not it ends up on a remainder table: publishers decide if and when to remainder their own books, not the retailers of those books. ....

Thanks, I shouldn't have connected Amazon and remainders. Here's what I SHOULD have said:

http://www.johntreed.com/amazon.html

---Dan

Also, I do this more as a hobby than as a business. I like the personal contact I have with each and every customer.

[Printer] InstantPublisher.com / Fundcraft Publishing Co.

frisco

practical experience, FTW

MickRooney

valeriec80

Got the hang of it, here

frisco

practical experience, FTW

valeriec80

Got the hang of it, here

frisco

practical experience, FTW

ResearchGuy

Resident Curmudgeon

zpeteman

Natural born...

ResearchGuy

Resident Curmudgeon

frisco

practical experience, FTW

Captain Jack

Starving Artist and Author

frisco

practical experience, FTW

danhughes

Retired college instructor

CaoPaux

Mostly Harmless

danhughes

Retired college instructor

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

danhughes

Retired college instructor