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Re: Publish On Demand with Booklocker / Writer's Digest
Subject:Re: Publish On Demand with Booklocker / Writer's Digest From:"Gary Robinson" <GXR -at- ddpmi -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 19 Dec 2002 12:47:50 -0500
Note that the publisher in question is an on-demand publishing house. I don't know the one under discussion but I have investigated Xlibris and iUniverse. These houses don't send a box of books, books are printed as needed, one at a time. The books are available for sale through the big online retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The costs are minimal and you have the choice of several plans. ISBN and LOC numbers can be included in the publishing services.
My interest in these houses is that I was coeditor and contributing author to a book published in 1994. It was published by a university press and was written for a small professional audience. Although the books are still available for sale Amazon, etc. reports that it is out of print. The university won't take any action to advertise it or advise the retailers that it is available. I am investigating acquiring the copyright and moving the book to an on-demand publisher where it would enjoy a much longer life than is provider by its current publisher.
This is not the way many vanity presses present themselves--they are not
printers, but publishers, that is, they promote your book, advertise it,
distribute it. What often happens is that they only print or bind a small
number of the agreed number of books and try to convince book stores in your
neighborhoud to stock a few copies.
See for example: http://www.poemtree.com/Jerome/Publishing-Chapter09.htm
Self-publishing is something different, and there is the example of this
Yale professor who published himself a book about the history of graphs, and
it became a bestseller. I can't find the reference for this book, I've seen
it about 17 years ago, and it really was a beautiful and interesting book.
Print-on-demand can also be useful to some authors, for example, they can
keep a book alive that has been declared out of print by the original
publisher.
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