SELF PUBLISHING

 

 

Mill City Press is a self publishing company built for authors. With superior services, upfront pricing, and honest business practices, they are dedicated to ensuring the success of their authors.

Mill City Press has just two publishing packages, a Basic plan at $1,497, and a Premium plan at $3,798. Many other publishers on this list offer several choices, but we liked the simple presentation of Mill City. Mill City Press knows what authors need in a package, and don't force to you try to pick and choose what you think you might want. This company provides a very straight forward, no hidden fee approach to doing business.

We were very impressed with the amount of services provided in the Basic plan. Included are

•  Custom book cover

•  Professional interior formatting

•  ISBN and Bar Code

•  Distribution to all major online book retailers

•  Distribution to over 25,000 retail locations

•  Registration with Bowker's Books in print

•  A basic website to market your book plus a free year of hosting

•  Amazon submission

•  Google Books submission

•  Marketing strategy sessions

•  Copyright registration

•  10 complimentary paperback copies of your book

•  Published.com featured listing

One of the most impressive features that Mill City Press provides is their position on author royalties. Unlike most self publishing companies, Mill City Press allows authors to keep 100% of the royalties from the sale of their books. This is almost unheard of in the self-publishing industry and really proves the point that Mill City Press wants their authors to succeed.

In addition to the list of inclusive services, Mill City Press also offers three professional editing packages ranging in price from $0.015 - $0.045 per word. The three levels are clearly explained on their website, and we recommend taking advantage of these services, at least at the basic level - which provides spelling and grammar correction, recommended changes in wording, and correction of common errors.

Besides allowing their authors to keep 100% of their royalties, Mill City Press also passes along the cost of printing books without any additional markup. The dirty little secret is that most self publishing services share the very same book printing services. Many self-publishing companies will tack on extra fees to these costs - so they make money every time a book is printed - and that money they make comes out of your pocket. However, Mill City Press passes along the book printing costs without adding a single penny, letting you keep as much profit as possible from the sale of each book.

The marketing and distribution services offered by Mill City Press are fantastic. In addition to facilitating the placement of books into libraries and bookstores, they can also schedule radio interviews for their authors. They help each author develop their own web site, and provide online ads for their books.

Mill City Press is a self-publishing company built to put authors first. They are upfront about their services and fees, maximizing their author's profits without any hidden fees. The quality of their service is professional and rivals those of the largest publishing houses. Mill City Press sets the standard by which all self publishing companies should be judged and clearly earn our highest rating.

 

 

If you can't afford the all-inclusive fee charged by our top-rated selection, Outskirts Press offers a number of affordable programs while still giving you a high level of service. Ranging from only $199 all the way up to $1,099, these levels let you choose which services can fit into your budget, while still letting you keep 100% of your royalties.

Outskirts Press offers a choice of 5 programs ranging in cost from $199 for the most basic "Emerald" package to $1,099 for the most feature-rich "Pearl" package. These packages are clearly presented and allow for an easy side-by-side comparison of features.

All five packages provide a good set of basic services, including:

•  Customizable covers. Depending on the package you choose, you can select from between 2 and 25 customizable covers. For additional fees you can have their graphic artists design a completely unique custom cover - or, you can upload your own.

•  Paperback format

•  Standard interior formatting

•  Author marketing toolkit

•  Free author webpage

Depending on the package selected, you also have a range of additional services available. Some of these include:

•  A choice of trim sizes and paper color

•  One-on-one assistance from a dedicated author representative

•  Document evaluation, including a marketability analysis of your book and suggestions for increasing its success

•  ISBN and Bar Code

•  Wholesale distribution to Ingram and Baker & Taylor

•  Distribution to several retail locations including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million

•  Online Marketing Coach toolkit

•  Additional manuscript discounts

In addition to all these features, Outskirts Press offers dozens of additional services for additional fees. These include such things as copy editing, illustrations, content indexing, bookmarks, business cards, posters, press releases, and more. This is a convenient place to supplement your basic book publishing needs.

Like top-rated Mill City Press, Outskirts Press allows authors to keep 100% of the royalties from the sale of their books. This incredible feature sets these two programs above the rest of the self-publishing services.

Outskirts Press is an excellent self-publishing service. They offer a range of resources tailored for the budget-minded author, and allow you the flexibility to pick and choose those features that you're most interested in. Their focus is to provide you with the services you need while allowing you to maximize your profit. Outskirts Press earns very high marks.

 

 

Virtual Bookworm provides full service publishing services at a reasonable price. This comprehensive company excels at providing fast publishing services. On average, Virtual Bookworm can turn around an order in 4 to 6 weeks. This makes Virtual Bookworm one of the fastest services available.

Virtual Bookworm has a number of publishing packages they offer to meet individual needs. They provide manuscript formatting, the assignment of a Library of Congress Control number, original cover design, author discounts, web domain registration, web design, the printing of bookmarks and more. They also provide information for authors related to writing and marketing.

As the author, your royalty is set at 50% of the sales price of the book. While Virtual Bookworm has flexible publishing options and quick turnaround they have room for improvement with their ability to sell books. Virtual Bookworm uses the wholesalers Baker & Taylor, Inc. and Ingram Book Group for distribution. Virtual Bookworm does not yet have experience printing thousands of titles.

Customer service and support at Virtual Bookworm is impressive to say the least. The representatives we talked to were well informed and very willing to answer all of our questions. We didn't sit on hold waiting to be served - this company is very responsive and exceeded our expectations.

Overall, we were impressed with the personal responsiveness quick turnaround offered by Virtual Bookworm. They offer a good list of publishing services that will meet the needs of most authors. However, we would have liked a longer track record in selling and marketing books, and a more attractive royalty program.

 

 

Books Just Books approaches publishing differently than many companies on this list. Books Just Books is not a Print On Demand publisher; instead, they are a book printer, first and foremost. While their publishing services will be useful to most authors, they don't have a long list of extra services available.

Books Just Books acknowledges that on demand is better if the author can sell only a few dozen or a couple of hundred books. Print On Demand can reduce an author's upfront publishing costs to just a few hundred dollars, and they don't have to stock inventory. However, if sales start to number in the hundreds, on demand publishing can actually decrease the author's profits.

With Books Just Books, the author has to order and pay for all the books he or she will sell with the initial order. This upfront fee can easily be $10,000-$20,000. This further emphasizes the author as both the book distributor and primary salesman. While this can be a negative for most aspiring authors, the profit potential of this option can be much more attractive if large numbers of books will be sold.

Books Just Books offers a surprising amount of marketing help for a company that is only a book printer. They assist their authors with getting listed in Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Books Just Books also has an online bookstore. They help each author with a website to promote and sell his book.

Books Just Books offers fewer services but allows the novice author to choose only want they want and need. We would have liked to have seen an on-demand option with Books Just Books to meet even more customer needs.

 

 

iUniverse provides an easy to navigate website and clearly laid out publishing package information. iUniverse provides on-demand printing and therefore does not require the author to purchase a specific number of books with the initial order. The only disadvantage to print on demand is the cost per book is slightly higher, but that is offset by not requiring a minimum upfront order size and paying for extra storage.

All packages offer a basic set of features, including volume book discounts, custom covers, ISBN assignment, and book distribution to leading bookstores.

With the two top packages the author can choose the best book trim size, from 5 by 8 to an 8 1/4 by 11-inch book. The book is available in both hardcover and paperback formats. They also include one round of author proof corrections and an editorial evaluation.

The Bookstore Premier Pro package also makes your book more attractive to bookstores by allowing them to return unsold copies. This encourages bookstores to stock your book and can improve your chances of scheduling book signings and appearances.

With all programs, you receive a number of free soft cover books for distribution to friends and family. With all of the programs, you can also buy copies at a discounted rate. The amount of the discount depends on volume.

Unfortunately, the author royalty provided by iUniverse is only 20%. This compares to 100% offered by our top-rated selections. That means for every $5 you earn from selling a book through them, you'll only earn $1 for selling through iUniverse.

Overall, iUniverse provides a good self-publishing site. They offer a range of services that should appeal to most book authors. Having said that, the author royalties at our higher rated sites are more, and the cost-per-book for printing copies is less. For these reasons, we suggest you first check out those companies for your self-publishing needs.

 

 

The Trafford Publishing website could use a redesign. The top-rated self-publishing services provide a variety of publishing packages to choose from and list detailed information for each one. In comparison, Trafford presents long pages of text which yo must read through to find the information you're looking for.

After navigating through the various web pages we found that Trafford is an on demand publishing company. Trafford requires the author to buy a publishing package when they submit a manuscript. When the book is ready to go to print, the process stops until Trafford receives orders for the book. The author can order books at a discounted rate, but it is not required.

Trafford Publishing sells their books in their own online bookstore as well as other major online bookstores. Packages range from the "Press Ready" option at $547, all the way up to the "Signature" package for $6,497. With these packages, you get a basic list of services that include cover templates, an author support representative, and complimentary books.

The entry-level "Press Ready" package is extremely basic. Services such as revisions, templates, basic copy editing, and even distribution are all add-on services. Without these, the value of the "Press Ready" package becomes questionable. Unfortunately, the next service level provided by Trafford Publishing is the "Standard" package, priced at $1,297 - and even then, some services that we consider basic are still not included.

Poor web design, steep prices, low author royalties, and missing services conspire to make Trafford Publishing a less-than-attractive option when it comes to self-publishing.

 

 

Llumina Press offers a middle of the road self-publishing service. Turnaround is slower than others at approximately 12 weeks. Services available are less lengthy than our higher ranked providers. They offer average royalties on the cover price.

You can anticipate 30 percent royalty on cover price of books sold direct through this publisher and only 10% if sold through a third party provider. Llumina offers the basic publishing services including Library of Congress Control Numbers and cover design service. One nice feature is that they are one of the few publishers to provide free editorial evaluations.

For additional fees, Llumina will establish a web domain registration, as well as a bookseller return program. Marketing and promotional services are limited. They offer the facilitation of author interviews. While they do use Baker & Taylor and Ingram Book Group, there books are currently only sold at four major on-line retailers and this brings some concern. Llumina is far from the marketing powerhouse needed for those looking to make their first million.

Customer service was generally responsive and able to answer most questions. Overall, Llumina Press doesn't stand out in any areas of self publishing providers. For the same amount of money and perhaps better returns we recommend a higher ranked provider.

 

 

Pneuma Books is a print on demand company. Their site states that Pneuma is not a publisher, subsidy publisher, or a vanity press. They are instead a book producer that will print in 4 to 12 weeks. We could not, however, determine their cost for producing books. The site does not list prices.

The author must submit an online form including contact information, details about his manuscript,and his publishing preferences. After we completed the form, the Pneuma site gave us a message stating that the prices would be emailed. In two weeks we received no price quote. Their book production services were difficult to determine, and they do not appear to be the primary focus of this company.

Pneuma offers a good variety of Publishing and Writing Seminars as well as books on those same topics. Some of the titles include Publisher Regulations and Getting Started Publishing a Book, Writing Your Book and Understanding the Editing Process, and Designing Your Book and Preparing Your Page Layout. These resources are available for free downloads. Pneuma sells more extensive materials on similar topics.

These and many other materials Pneuma Books offers could represent valuable information, but we lack confidence in the quality of their bookmaking deliverables, pricing packages, and author royalties. We recommend you choose a company that is more forthcoming with costs and fees - who has time for a guessing game?