Dog Ear Pub or Infinity Pub?

[pohaver]

Has anyone used Dog Ear Publisher or Infinity Pub? Both are PODs.

 

[MickRooney]

Paul,

Haven't seen you on here in a while. Is this a personal choice of POD's you whittled your list down to?

You know a lot of this is pretty relative down to your needs as an author choosing an author solutions service.

FWIW, my reviews of both very recently. See what you think, but I take it you have already had a look at their services. Perhaps an insight into why your are choosing a self-publishing service and why you have earmarked these two would be interesting.

http://mickrooney.blogspot.com/2009/08/dog-ear-publishing-reviewed.html

http://mickrooney.blogspot.com/2009/09/infinity-publishing-us-reviewed.html

 

[pohaver]

I read the book by Mark Levine "Fine Print of POD" and checked the websites offerings. Dog Ear is a little expensive to get what I want, but I like their services. Infinity is much less expensive to get published, but royalties are low. It's not about making money, just getting my book in print. I plan to build my own website and direct people to the "Buy Books on the Web" at Infinity with a link to my book page. I like that they have a "returns program" without additional cost. I plan to have someone do a custom cover for me for $300.

 

[Nandi]

FWIW, Infinfity receives a "Not recommended" on Preditors & Editors. Dog Ear has no such warning.

 

[StephenJSweeney]

I wouldn't choose either of them, to be honest. I'd never pay to use such services: they should generate their money from book sales, not upfront from the customer.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[plugger]

I just got my first layout and dust jacket proofs from Dog Ear Publishing and, so far, couldn't be more pleased with their quality of work and their level of service.

 

[StephenJSweeney]

Which of their services did you go for?

 

[plugger]

The Basic package for $1099. I didn't make the decision, but my backers did upon my recommendation. I chatted and emailed one of Dog Ear's owners and liked his open and above board explanation of their services and options.

The folks picking up the tab for this project want to do the web thing and the other marketing their way, since they come from that field. So, Dog Ear's web efforts weren't of any concern.

Dog Ear has some very creative people. From a verbal description of how we wanted the dust cover art to appear, their artists were close to being dead on the money with their first effort.

There's still plenty to be done on the book, but at first blush, Dog Ear seems to have been a good choice.

We would have liked to have used their proof reading service, but at two cents a word, the cost would have been thousands of dollars.

We are also going to publish an audio book, but the audio POD industry really doesn't exist, so we are doing it ourselves. During the first recording session, we learned typos and other written goofs jump off the page. (sort of a backwards way to edit, but it sure works)

 

[Nandi]

We are also going to publish an audio book, but the audio POD industry really doesn't exist, so we are doing it ourselves. During the first recording session, we learned typos and other written goofs jump off the page. (sort of a backwards way to edit, but it sure works)

A critical aspect of self-editing is reading your manuscript out loud. All kinds of errors and awkward phrasing can be detected.

 

[StephenJSweeney]

Plugger - Are you hiring an editor, too? I hope so.

 

[plugger]

No, no editor. The folks putting up the cash, The Carolina Literary Group, after reading the third or fourth draft, suggested too many acronyms were used, so I constructed a glossary. That was the extent of editorial input.

 

[plugger]

An update: The staff at Dog Ear just suggested a font change. The change looks good and we're going with the suggestion. I like their attention to detail.

 

[plugger]

It was decided to bring the book, Ten Ring, by Joseph L Cooke, out in paperpack as well. There is a $200 charge for that. We hadn't considered there might be.

 

[Barbarique]

There is a $200 charge for that. We hadn't considered there might be.

As someone whose subsidy-pubbed novel just went to the printer after nine(!) revisions, I can tell you that it's safe to assume there's ALWAYS a charge... for EVERYTHING.

Nothing untoward about it, just the rules of this particular game.

 

[StephenJSweeney]

There is a $200 charge for that. We hadn't considered there might be.

I'm assuming this is for an ISBN and a charge for the admin that goes with it. If so, that's rather standard.

 

[plugger]

No complaints on my part; just inexperience raising its head. ISBN's come in blocks of ten and go for $300 - so there's $30 right there.

 

[mikehippo]

No complaints on my part; just inexperience raising its head. ISBN's come in blocks of ten and go for $300 - so there's $30 right there.

ISBN pricing is a bit of a con, while ten may cost $300 the price would fall to around $600 for 100 and even cheaper for larger quantaties, so the cost to the published of each ISBN would only be around $5 each, that is quite a hefty markup.

 

[plugger]

That sure makes it tough for the small guy.

Thanks for the info.