Non-Traditional Publishing Options

Subsidy / Print-on-Demand (POD) Option

Subsidy, print-on-demand (POD) or vanity publishing is often called self-publishing. These publishers include iUniverse, Xlibris, Lulu, Author House and others. In subsidy publishing, you send your manuscript to the publisher, they produce the books and you pay for them. Subsidy publishing has generated lots of fraud and abuse of authors over the years; however, there are now several legitimate companies that do subsidy publishing for a reasonable price. The subsidy publisher sets the price, handles distribution, and pays royalties on sales. Authors may receive a small number of books as part of their contract, and may purchase additional copies at a discount from the retail price.

Subsidy publishing can be the best choice when the profitability of your book is not important (e.g., family genealo-
gies, or a memoir you want to see in print or give to friends and family but do not want to actively market). Cover prices of subsidy published books are often too high to be competitive, mostly because of the production method
used where books are literally printed as they are ordered. The typical subsidy published book sells fewer than 100 copies.

Printing minimum order quantities has come down dramatically in recent years. Therefore, authors can quickly and
easily print a few copies of their new book and risk less money than ever before. Obviously, this virtually eliminates
one of the major barriers to entry and an estimated 90% of all books being published today are self-published.

The clear upside is that nobody can reject your proposal. If you want to write it and print it, go right ahead. In many
cases, the printing houses you would use to get the book put on paper have respectable distribution channels in place as well, meaning your book could theoretically reach the same shelves as those published by larger publishing companies. The downside is a lower degree of credibility, but for many, that's a small price to pay for their dream to get realized.

Online Publishing Option

Over the past couple of years a new publishing option has evolved that eliminates ALL of the negative aspects of the traditional publishing model and adds a number of additional benefits. It's called the "Online Publishing Option".

This is a combination of online digital download delivery and print-on-demand (POD) hard copy publishing that sidesteps almost all of the pitfalls of the traditional book publishing model. It offers small-time authors / publishers an excellent alternative that will give them more control, and will increase their sales and profits by using little known online channels when publishing their books / ebooks.

The important thing to remember is that regardless of the publishing method you choose, the majority of the marketing effort is left to the author. Even with the industry majors, it's the author's job to promote and sell his or her book. So, if you have ambitions to publish your own book, sit down and think about how you're going to sell it. If you have an answer to that question, you have a much better chance of getting accepted by the big boys.

Kennette Reed
http://www.ideatoauthor.com/