BOOKSURGE.COM

Hi Eddie,

Don't mean to sound snarky, but do you have any point of comparison? You said:

I would argue that POD publishing is superior to the experience of a novice being pusblished by a big house

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And I'd emphatically say the opposite, but that's because I've had it both ways and can promise you that I've made far more profit, earned far more readers, etc. with all of my commercially-published works. I had one POD book that sold probably fewer than 100 copies. If my commercially-published books did that, I'd cry.

"Creative control" is highly overrated, too. If you have a problem working with editors in general, I'd wonder why. Editors are there to make you look good. They're not there to evilly take over your book and make it stink.

From what I have read you should never have to pay someone to publish your book!

It depends on what your goals are. Sometimes it makes sense.

kaztaylor said:

I regret ever giving money to BookSurge. At every turn, they either drag their feet time-wise or they make mistakes and charge me to fix them. If I had known how much difficulty I was going to have with them, I'd have printed the books myself. Are all the POD publishers this much trouble?
Karen

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No. Infinity has been easy to work with. They've done 3 books for me (each book was for a narrow niche local market). I needed my first book for a scheduled reading; they got it to me earlier than I expected. According to their authors' rep, they produce about a book a day. However, if you want changes made (that weren't their fault), you do have to pay extra if you've already signed for your final proofing.

Whenever I've called to order or complain, a live person answers the phone. When a bookstore tried to order my second book, it didn't come up on their list of books in print. I immediately called Infinity to complain and their oversight was corrected while I spoke to them on the phone. They have a toll-free number--not all PODs do. I've only emailed them a couple of times; each time I got a response within 12 hours.

They send a bound book to proof, so an author can proof both the cover as well as the content.

They have a limited return policy for bookstores. This has been helpful in getting stores to stock. Also, they get books to stores quickly.

They send a statement out every month. When royalties reach $20, they send a check. They give 40% discounts to authors as well as stores. The first purchase an author makes is 50%. Plus they pay royalties on author purchases. If the author or store buys at least 20 copies, shipping is free. I usually order 20 at a time for readings and appearances, and I have never waited longer than 5 days for a shipment--and that time I was told my books would be late because they were processing a big order. My books usually come within 3 days of order. They do their digital printing in-house.

At the 2005 Virginia Festival of the Book, Infinity had two display areas for their books by Virginia authors and a lounge stocked with snacks for us. Plus they paid parking and provided us with lunch (the $40 per ticket sold-out Crime Scene lunch!)

Infinity gives a discount on the set-up fee to authors who have previously published with them, and usually gives a discount to those who have attended their presentations at conferences.

I have found them easy to work with. Otherwise, I wouldn't have used them three times.

kaztaylor said:

I regret ever giving money to BookSurge. At every turn, they either drag their feet time-wise or they make mistakes and charge me to fix them. If I had known how much difficulty I was going to have with them, I'd have printed the books myself.

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Although I've learned a lot since I POD-published my first novel, a year and a half ago, I can say with all honesty that Booksurge provided me with an excellent product. I had no problems with mistakes, timeliness, or customer service. All my books came out looking professional, with a top-quality cover and even, nice-looking typesetting.

I didn't make a profit on it, but I broke even. I won't POD publish again, because now I know better, but on the whole it wasnt an awful experience. While I know everyone isn't as lucky as I was, my Booksurge experience was not a bad one.

Info on BOOKSURGE

I was just curious when i saw their add and filled out the info, got a call 48 hrs later they sent me some info and asked questions about mt project.

I know, Iknow, the traditional route is better. you're getting paid not the oppisite, but I am getting Soooo discouraged with rejection letters. Either I really suck or It's just not my year to win the agent lottery. I don't think I suck that bad! Anyone hear anything about this company? good or Bad, I am tempted.

Okay, without commenting on Booksurge one way or the other (since I don't know about the company), ask yourself one question:


How will you feel LESS discouraged when you've spent your money and can't sell enough books to pay yourself back?

The reason I ask this is that it's quite possible that the rejection letters aren't because of your book. It might have a very good plot, with wonderful characters and terrific dialogue. But your writing (as evidenced in your post) does need some attention to spelling and grammar. Really, I'm not trying to sound mean or snarky, but if the agent/editor can't get past misspellings and grammatical errors in your query and synopsis, neither will the readers if you use Booksurge, and word of mouth will slow your sales.

The money you spend on Booksurge will be like going to the amusement park. You'll have the experience to remember, but not much more. If you have the money, pick up a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style, or Strunk & White. They're pretty much the bible that the publishing industry uses. The closer you can make your book to a perfect, shelf-ready novel, the better the likelihood that it will get snatched out of the slush like the jewel it can be.

Good luck!

After a year of shopping a topical political thriller, I gave up and took it to booksurge. That was about ten days ago. My pfd files have passed their QC, and the book should be in Amazon sometime in December...I hope. As a do-it-yourself project, the up-front money is peanuts—$99, but of course there will be more expenses as I buy books and try to get it reviewed. But it’s a fun process, and not terribly difficult so far.

Thanks Julie and Cathy for your responses.

Cathy, you are correct, my posts do contain errors in spelling and grammer(lots Of them!) But I am ussualy posting online when my kids are talking in one ear and typing out of the other- so to speak. I can assure that anything an agent or publisher sees is proffesional and free of errors, but I do appreciate the comments because i do have a tendency to be sloppy and have to really watch myself.

Julie, thanks as well I am considering Booksurge. At this point I just want to see the thing in print- you know?

thanks again guys for the help
Ann

I put out my first novel at the beginning of 2004 with Booksurge, after two years which included an absolutely distrastrous relationship with an agent who turned out to be Completely Ungood. There are pros and cons to using any POD press. The benefits are that you get to see your book in print, and you have complete control over the final product. The downside is that you get to see your book in print and you have complete control over the final product.

Seriously, if I had known then what I know now, I'd have realized that there was a reason I couldn't sell it to a traditional publishing company. My novel didn't suck, it just isn't as good as it needed to be. Marketing yourself is a pain in the ***, and good luck trying to get a POD book into bookstores.

On the flip side, I did manage to break even financially, and I was extremely happy with the quality of the book that Booksurge produced. Would I do POD again? Not a chance. Was it a good experience? Actually, yeah, because I learned a lot about what NOT to do, and it didn't cost me a fortune to learn these lessons.

i think the important thing to do is ask yourself WHY you want to do POD? Is it because no one else will take it? If so, there's probably a reason for it. If it's just because you want to see it in print, try marketing it to traditional publishers first. If it's good enough, you'll see it in print eventually, and you won't have to spend a dime.

If you are going to self publish don't just go with the company that spammed most recently -- compare the deals. there are websites that make this easy of you google POD, comparison chart etc. Look not only at up front fees but what the cover price will be and distribution.

Thank you everyone for all your input. It has given me a lot to think about.

Annie

I was recently very tempted to go this route myself, not with BookSurge, but with iUniverse, although I don't think there is literally that much difference. POD publishing is POD publishing, period. I was tempted because, at 1300 pages, I had been told over and over that my novel was not marketable unless substantial cuts were made, and frankly, I didn't want to make those cuts. I've received enough praise regarding this book that I felt confident it COULD sell; it was just a matter of getting it out there. I began to think POD could be a viable way to go.

But I did some homework on this, and uncovered several facts that changed my mind. These books are put together very cheaply, and are often shoddy and unprofessional in appearance. It's not unusal to have pages falling out, and think how embarrassing that would be if someone were reading your book, and it started literally falling apart on them? And due to their unprofessional appearance, it's harder to get bookstores to stock them.

Also take into account that, all their hype to the contrary, these books seldom receive reviews, are not taken seriously by the media, and are almost impossible to stock in traditional bookstores. Yes, it's true, your book will become readily available at outlets like Amazon.com and (with iUniverse) Barnes & Noble.com, and this is certainly a viable means of sales. But, as at least one source pointed out, most people who buy books still do so the old-fashioned way, by going into a bookstore and browsing. Besides, if your book has received nothing in the way of publicity or reviews, it's not likely that potential buyers will go to Amazon.com or other sites to actively seek it out (though they might stumble upon it by divine accident, I suppose).

I am happy to say that I now have a legitimate agent for my project, one who believes in it enough that she's willing to attempt (whether successfully or not) to sell it in its entirety. I know it's going to be a long process, and inevitably, I probably WILL have to make some cuts and compromises in order to sell it via traditional means, but I'm happy that patience and good sense finally won me out on that one. I would say just try to hold out a little longer before going that route-the right agent for your project is out there. Don't let the rush to see your work in print lead you to a costly-and ultimately disappointing-mistake.

Most of the POD publishers will boast of success stories; authors who intially published through their services who then went on to get picked up by traditional agents and publishers. I'm sure this probably happens on rare occasions, but you have to consider how many of these "successes" there are in comparison to the number of titles these companies crank out every year.
Those very few exceptions aren't really worth the financial risk, or worse, the humilaitian and disappointment of having a shoddy, unprofessional book sitting on bookshelves-provided, of course, it is on any bookshelves at all.

by Blackbird: I am happy to say that I now have a legitimate agent for my project, one who believes in it enough that she's willing to attempt (whether successfully or not) to sell it in its entirety.

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WOO-HOO, Blackbird! Congrats! Looking forward to hearing that it SOLD very soon!

Cathy C said:

WOO-HOO, Blackbird! Congrats! Looking forward to hearing that it SOLD very soon!

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Thanks!!!

blackbird said:

I was recently very tempted to go this route myself, not with BookSurge, but with iUniverse, although I don't think there is literally that much difference. POD publishing is POD publishing, period. I was tempted because, at 1300 pages, I had been told over and over that my novel was not marketable unless substantial cuts were made, and frankly, I didn't want to make those cuts. I've received enough praise regarding this book that I felt confident it COULD sell; it was just a matter of getting it out there. I began to think POD could be a viable way to go.

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There are two good reasons you couldn't go POD with this. One is that there's no printer that will print something this thick. The PODs I've looked at top out at below 800 pages. (600/800 softbound/hardbound at booksurge, 740 for softbound at lulu. That translates to about 1050 ms pages for a 800 page hardbound, though I suppose you could use the larger format and get the whole thing in there, or you could go to two volumes as iuniverse suggests.) The second is the retail price. This gets to be astronomical for thick books. (For an 800-page large-format hardbound at booksurge, you're looking at an Amazon retail price of $49.) Who is going to invest all that money, not to mention reading time, in an unknown author from a vanity press? And it's even more if you opt for the 2-volume route. A two volume softbound set of 600 pages each would list at $52 at Amazon if you went through booksurge.

Need Help

I have sent out my first manuscript out to numerous publishers and have had no luck as of right now. My second book is in the process of being done with my illustrator i used from the first book. The first book I had published by Booksurge and really felt for the quality of the book they were very expensive to deal with. I have many book fairs and literacy days at local elementary schools lined up for the early spring for my second book. My question to all is where can I get a good quality P.O.D. publisher for a good price and good hard cover quality. Please let me know.

thanks

Has anyone done biz with them and if so, how did it go?

Thanks!

I did. PM me. I'll tell you the tale.