Print on Demand in the UK

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Print on Demand in the UK

I've been attempting to get some info from people at the following forum...

http://www.homeworking.com/discus/messages/17/31418.html?1148335344

...as to whether or not a UK-based version of Lulu exists, but so far all I've managed to do is cause a bit of an argument... Oh dear!

Anyway silly me didn't think to ask the people at the obvious place... here! So...

Anyone know of any (free if possible (vis a viz Lulu)) decent UK-based Print on Demand publishers?

Ta!

* pepsoid *

(Here's my blog! - http://oddcourgette.blogspot.com/ )

Pulbish and be Damned are UK, I think.
Looked at them... not free... I'm beginning to think Lulu are unique! :-) * P * :-) ( Read my blog! - www.oddcourgette.blogspot.com )
I'm not sure to what extent PABD are still offering their original service but, when they did, it was more or less free in that you only paid for copies of books. It wasn't really a functional business model though. The people who actually print a lot of these books in the UK are Lightning Source. You could go direct to them. https://www.lightningsource.com/index.htm Fascinating to see that guy on the message board who seems to have completely missed the technological developments in printing over the last five years.

 

I've seen this debate before! It seems to be a fairly common occurence that people who have been involved in publishing in the past don't seem to be able to grasp the concept of Print on Demand - they always apply their old business models to it and come out with 'vanity publishing'. It can be *used* for vanity publishing, of course - but it doesn't have to be.
Yeah, I think it's an increasingly ridiculous debate. It probably is true that the real vanity publishers - the we'll send you 200 copies of your book for £3,000 brigade - are being squeezed by POD publishing but that's a very good thing. As long as authors understand the difference between getting published by Publish Brittanica or using the service offered by Lulu or PABD, and getting a major book deal (and don't go and quit their job on the basis of earning a living through sales) then I think these options help to make the literary world more democratic. All publishing that doesn't enable the author to make a living could reasonably be labelled vanity publishing. And on that basis, anyone who publishes a living poet other than Seamus Heaney is a vanity publisher.

 

I want to get registered for that forum so I can rip this Ken fellow a new one. I have looked at Matador/troubador in the past, they aren't free of course but the quality seems very high, and there is a selection process, which I haven't seen before.
Thanks for the link about Lightning Source. I've had a bit of a look, but I'm buggered if I can find how much it actually costs! I'll scour the website later, when I'm feeling more patient... :-) * P * :-) ( Read my blog! - www.oddcourgette.blogspot.com )
I use Lightning Source and can both vouch for them and give you an idea of prices U.S., though I do not know the location of their printer in the U.K., I doubt there's any difference in quality and so forth. Lightning Source is a sister company of Ingram, which together with Baker&Taylor make up the two biggest book distributors in the world. Initially, it's somewhere around $150 U.S. to have a book-length file uploaded, and all the processing and listing you with different .com's comes to about $200. Printing proofs are $35 a piece and they send them overnight. They charge a specified amount depending on the type of book you print. A 6x9 perfect bound softcover, for example, is somewhere around $6.00 U.S. to print. A 6x9 hardbound is $11. If you charge $30 for your book, everything other than shipping goes in your pocket. They pay in 120 days, after all returns have been worked out, usually electronically. Paperbacks take about 3 days to print and hardbacks are supposed to take 10 days, but it usually doesn't take that long. Also, you have to sign up for a separate program to have Lightning Source ship to individual buyers, as they will only ship to bookstores and libraries. Down side of Lightning Source is they do not offer any sort of editing services and do not even pre-flight your book, so your files (your text and cover files)have to be perfect before you upload them. Also, they do not do any marketing, other than a listing in Advance magazine, although they do list you with the big .com's Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Hope this helps. Warren

 

Forgot to add, Lightning Source will also sell your book as an eBook. I believe there's a free ebook upload promotion going on right now for new titles, but otherwise it's something like $50 U.S. to get it uploaded and distributed from the .com's as an ebook. I forget what the discount for ebooks is, I think it's like %25 or something. Not much. But it's not a big market, yet. Warren

 

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