Whitechapel - CENSUS: People Who POD

Whitechapel - CENSUS: People Who POD Wed, 22 May 2013 06:42:12 -0700 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.1.4 & Feed Publisher CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119362#Comment_119362 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119362#Comment_119362 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:24:56 -0800 warrenellis
-- W ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119366#Comment_119366 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119366#Comment_119366 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:29:18 -0800 Steve CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119369#Comment_119369 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119369#Comment_119369 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:36:26 -0800 Finagle
If she were actually interested in marketing it, it does seem to have a pretty healthy margin for creators. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119376#Comment_119376 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119376#Comment_119376 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:42:09 -0800 Pooka
that's the address for a friend of mine who told me that's how he's publishing his book.
For the life of me though I couldn't find his publishing company... ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119394#Comment_119394 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119394#Comment_119394 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:25:51 -0800 Finagle
* iUniverse is rather expensive for pictures for whatever reason, so it may not be a great venue for creative visual artists
* You do get to work with a human on corrections; included in the price of the initial self-publishing run is a certain # of correction they will accept before the print version is finalized
* Unlike traditional self-publishers, they are entirely print on demand, so you don't have 400 copies moldering in your attic
* Automatic listing on Amazon.com
* Margin was 10%
* The price for generating a ~200 page book with a handful of b/w photographs was around $500
* Print quality was decent but not amazing, about on par with your average small print run university textbook
* Overall price per copy was a bit high at $17 - $18 for a ~220 page paperback, and this is set by iUniverse ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119519#Comment_119519 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119519#Comment_119519 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:47:10 -0800 Alberto press copies for a webcomic I make using Lulu, but I'm still not sure about opening the purchase to the public. (Is it really worth? If anybody has some experience there, insight would be appreciated).

48 pages + full color + the standard comic-book size + staples + shipping + no gain= prize per unit around 12€ / $15.7 / £10.8
The printing was good, the soft cover paper is really good and the interior paper could be better but It's still Ok.
One of the books arrived without staples. (GROARRR!!)
Also, It seems like It's impossible to print on the inside cover.

Overall, 12€ for an unknown book that you can't read right now because the shipping takes 10-15 days. Things may differ for an established creator, but I can't compete with what's in the regular market right now. Maybe in a few years, If Diamond keeps turning the screw. Who knows? ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119525#Comment_119525 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119525#Comment_119525 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:55:45 -0800 Rootfireember CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119575#Comment_119575 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119575#Comment_119575 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:28:50 -0800 chris g I created a graphic novel through Ka-Blam.com. It's okay. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119588#Comment_119588 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119588#Comment_119588 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:47:16 -0800 dispophoto test photo book thru blurb.com, came out pretty well. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119692#Comment_119692 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119692#Comment_119692 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:40:17 -0800 frequentcontributor CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119696#Comment_119696 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119696#Comment_119696 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:46:01 -0800 Steve
From what I've looked at with createspace (their site right now is down, so this isn't accurate), they don't charge anything to get started. They make all of their money from selling the finished product. I think they take something like $1.50 per book sold, then take 40% of whatever else is left. You choose the price of the book.

So, if you put your book up for $11.50, you'd get $6 off of every book sold.

I'm surprised though, we're 11 hours into the life of this thread, and no one has yet really used POD on a large scale. No real success stories here, or even fail stories. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119700#Comment_119700 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119700#Comment_119700 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:05:23 -0800 Tom Akel CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119701#Comment_119701 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119701#Comment_119701 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:07:01 -0800 Randall_Kirby Cop Comics and Bop! Comics through my company, FLOP Productions
(www.stopstealingmystuff.com)
I haven't quite got to my goal skillset, but I'm not too bad. Mostly I sell through the Stumptown convention or Prism comics.
I liked Comicxpress all right. There were some minor difficulties, so I tried Ka-Blam. That was a terrible idea. Not good. They blew my deadline twice, and sent me the wrong files three or four times. Never again. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119702#Comment_119702 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119702#Comment_119702 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:11:26 -0800 whatever
http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Web-Comics-2nd/dp/0974959820
http://www.amazon.com/E-mail-Nigeria-Todd-Allen/dp/0974959804

I use Lightning Source, which is owned by Ingram, the book distributor. They're available on most online bookstores. Brick and mortar bookstores can order them. The first one was adopted as a college text at the Savannah College of Art & Design. The concept works, but it works better if you're doing it with an ISBN number and available through traditional book channels. CreateSpace will get you on Amazon, which is 3/4 of the battle.

You pay a little more upfront and you have to buy the ISBN #'s, but you get "real" distribution from websites people recognize and you can also put your own publishing imprint on it to avoid the old "self-published" stigma in the book world. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119703#Comment_119703 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119703#Comment_119703 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:13:01 -0800 m.bagen http://stores.lulu.com/m_bagen for anyone who's interested. I published a collection of short stories and three novels, all of which are available for download or print orders. I've been considering putting out another collection.

I also have a comic book in the works at the moment, fully scripted and being worked on by the artist. It'll be POD if it is not picked up by a publisher.

Thanks Warren for this opportunity to talk about my work and I do apologize if this sounds too much like an impersonal advertisement. You reach a point where you just expel the details in consolidated nodules (not unlike bile) so as to spare everyone those pretenses that make advertising very nearly a genre of modern horror. Here's the stuff, free for download and please, let me know if you like what you see. You can find it on scribd as well, albeit in electronic form only. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119704#Comment_119704 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119704#Comment_119704 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:15:03 -0800 gracelandwest
Something like this works well for someone like Ellis, who has a following that would probably march right along with him to lulu and pay for a book (as opposed to finding it on amazon). He would make plenty of cash just from the people on the badsignal list.

For me, it's a different story. I'm marketing to middle school students, so I'm blogging and visiting library conferences (I'm attending one in Shanghai in a couple of weeks).

As for POD success stories, there really aren't any. I'm banking on the 1000 true fans theory and hoping to cultivate that. I'm releasing my book as a free pdf download, a kindle download, and I'm submitting my iphone app today (I've got some friends in Beijing doing it for me). However, my book has 100 pages of "bonus" short story material in the print copy that you won't be able to find in the electronic versions.

Either way, look for my book in a couple of weeks! Boyd McCloyd! (You can download it to the Kindle right now!). ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119708#Comment_119708 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119708#Comment_119708 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:18:06 -0800 funklord CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119711#Comment_119711 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119711#Comment_119711 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:21:24 -0800 Perilous CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119712#Comment_119712 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119712#Comment_119712 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:21:52 -0800 katiewest I would certainly do another one. It is easy, and rewarding. Though I would like to have an ISBN as places asked to sell my book, but couldn't if it didn't have an ISBN. But those puppies are hard to come by, in Canada, and then it becomes a whole tax issue and such. But just to sell some good quality books, POD is lovely. I recommend it! ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119714#Comment_119714 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119714#Comment_119714 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:25:44 -0800 BritMandelo HeavyGlow: Two Years Burning Brightly.

All my other stuff is through regular publishers, though. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119721#Comment_119721 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119721#Comment_119721 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:35:11 -0800 PaulChapman CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119725#Comment_119725 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119725#Comment_119725 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:36:37 -0800 whatever
The direct market for floppies is waaaaaaay more front-loaded than the book market and you do need to give these things a little time. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119731#Comment_119731 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119731#Comment_119731 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:42:51 -0800 jju CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119733#Comment_119733 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119733#Comment_119733 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:43:45 -0800 Chad Michael Ward
I'm a bit suspicious of their sales data and plan on doing my own audit soon, and there's been a few printing complications (1 hardcover shipped with the contents of an entirely different book, a few softcover copies had a serious bleed/alignment issue), but overall I've found POD to be a great way to release stuff that I might otherwise not want to hassle with through normal channels.

DANGEROUS BEAUTIES ordering info: http://chadmichaelward.livejournal.com/230523.html ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119742#Comment_119742 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119742#Comment_119742 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:57:44 -0800 Corey Waits
Is getting a professional designer on board pretty much a necessity if we want it to look, well, uhh, professional?
I've got a couple of designer friends, but they're always busy doing full-time, paying work... ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119743#Comment_119743 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119743#Comment_119743 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:00:06 -0800 Dreamline
I write...because I must. I publish through POD...because it's better than nothing.

www.seanpatricklittle.com ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119750#Comment_119750 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119750#Comment_119750 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:19:16 -0800 gracelandwest CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119751#Comment_119751 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119751#Comment_119751 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:21:12 -0800 oddbill
Someone above suggested making a personal imprint, to give the illusion of a publisher at a glance. The other side of that problem is that real publishers can get their books reviewed by professionals and talked about. Unless you already have a built in audience (which self-publishing novelists rarely do), it's almost impossible to get your book honestly critically evaluated and brought to the attention of readers.

Has anyone ever heard or encountered anything like a POD book review site? Other than the reviews on Amazon, which no one sees unless they are already looking for the book? ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119753#Comment_119753 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119753#Comment_119753 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:34:59 -0800 PhilipClark QUANTUM: Rock of Ages through Brenner but then saw the hopelessness in that and switched to POD ever since. I've used ComixPress for floppies and OPM for my TPBs. More than likely I'll be publishing my next floppy with Ka-Blam simply because ComixPress' communication leaves a lot to be desired.

Philip Clark
http://quantumcomic.net ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119755#Comment_119755 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119755#Comment_119755 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:55:11 -0800 gracelandwest
I think all it will take is one, major breakout hit to change the face of the industry in regards to POD. And really, imagine how many books Ellis would sell if he did it himself. I read about what were considered "successes" in self-publishing and few of them sold more than 1000 copies.

Not that I'm an expert... ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119760#Comment_119760 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119760#Comment_119760 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:13:58 -0800 thecolin1
http://www.amazon.com/Notions-collection-stories-Colin-Fox/dp/1438240058/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232430775&sr=8-1

I've just finished my second book, also a collection of short stories and also published through CS and it will also be up on Amazon within the week. I've just approved the proof copy and so it's gone up on the CS E-store at

https://www.createspace.com/3368080

I've found the whole experience to be very smooth, non-expensive and as I have friends who are professional graphic designers, was able to come up with a package that looked professional and nicely designed. For me, it's a way to get something out there, to start building my name up and showing that I can write and get things done. Obviously, I'll be hoping to get a deal with a major publisher but there are a lot of advantages to having an outlet where one can inexpensively put something out that might not be accepted as is at a major publishing house. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119764#Comment_119764 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119764#Comment_119764 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:17:49 -0800 waniyetuwi
I was also inspired by Katie West to try out blurb. I composed a book of self portraits of 10 women, each going through a different phase in their life. My Blurb book, They Be We should be on sale early March.

I believe with blurb you can purchase an ISBN but they do not have the setup lulu.com has with Amazon.

My roomates teacher publishes through Asphodel Press and I believe they use lulu for all their printing. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119765#Comment_119765 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119765#Comment_119765 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:20:47 -0800 thecolin1 CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119767#Comment_119767 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119767#Comment_119767 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:33:47 -0800 cblakeley New Podler Review with a handful of links there. There was a great one called POD-dy Mouth, but the project became too much for her as it was just going to be a lark, so the archives are still up.

I published a collection of three years of my burlesque photography at Blurb.com and I'm very pleased with it. Ordering details can be found here: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/167154

The process of putting the book together (barring the editorial work, which is its own series of "problems") was relatively easy and it's definitely the sort of thing where I'll always be more critical than the reader, so I try not to focus too much on that aspect of it.

My biggest frustration is simply the fact that it can be a bit of a pain to get people to order it. There's no easy Amazon link and they can't order it at Border's so I have a lot of friends who keep meaning to buy it but never get around to it. Eh. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119789#Comment_119789 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119789#Comment_119789 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:25:28 -0800 Cameron C. smeared on the back cover (Where their ad was placed). It shipped to me with sticker-like residue on the back (For whatever reason...) and so I took my pen thing that removes that stuff (My roommates are librarians and have a bunch of cool crap from their work) and have never had any troubles removing sticker residue except with the comixpress trade, where it smeared the artwork. Haven't had any quality issues with ka-blam printed books, though. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119790#Comment_119790 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119790#Comment_119790 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:27:45 -0800 frequentcontributor
So, to the creators who have had experience, how do you do your promotion? Besides telling your friends and family and local book/comic stores to get some copies, who do you go to for publicity? Even having your book on Amazon seems like it would take a pretty random series of clicks to just happen onto your book without going there specifically to order it. And if you're no Chad Michael Ward or Warren Ellis, etc., do you place an ad in Wizard (for comics) or something? Do you do readings at libraries and book stores? Do you try "viral" marketing (sorry for going buzz word on you guys, but it COULD work...)?

I was at an SDCC panel a few years ago, and the guy who was writing Stormwatch who then got fired for lying about being in the military said that he sent copies of the book to Soldier of Fortune magazine for review to stir up interest (although whether the books were ever actually reviewed is unknown to me...), and I heard that Chynna Clugston (previously hyphen Major) had sent copies of Blue Monday around to Scooter enthusiest mags (I assume something like that exists...) because scooter lovers will buy anything that has to do with scooters...

So what kind of promotional stuff are you POD-ers doing? ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119797#Comment_119797 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119797#Comment_119797 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:00:06 -0800 budgie

I've published The Fast Fiction Challenge via lulu.com.

Some time ago, I issued a challenge on my blog :

Reply with a title (maximum of four words)
about which you’d like me to write a fast
fiction of exactly 200 words, together with a
single word you want me to include in the text
of the tale.

Readers of the blog, and writers I know, all responded with challenges to me.

Three hundred stories later, one hundred and eighty of the best tales are collected in this volume.

Stories with titles like She Killed Me Twice, The Brain That Exploded, The Pachyderm Wore Pink and Single White Fee Male. And containing, as per the challenges, words like ranunculus, vaginate and carronade.

And yes, included in the book is a little (well, they're all little) story entitled Doctor Silence's Last Romance, using the word rectal. That challenge was issued by one Mr W. Ellis. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119798#Comment_119798 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119798#Comment_119798 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:12:27 -0800 frequentcontributor CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119800#Comment_119800 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119800#Comment_119800 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:32:35 -0800 Stephen_Mellor The Long Sleep through Lulu.com. It seems to be a pretty good site, well laid out and the final product looks nice and professional.

It's available through my website Samarcand Books ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119804#Comment_119804 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119804#Comment_119804 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:02:52 -0800 Puff Chrissy
EMPTY ROOMS LONELY COUNTRIES collects a decade's worth of short stories, wandering through two continents, five countries and multiple universes to explore love, loss and redemption in the 21st century. This collection brings together for the first time many of Christian A. Dumais’ previously published stories, including “Mad Dogs” and “Counting Nuns” from GUD Magazine, as well as some never before seen pieces.

Cover

If you send an email to emptyroomslonelycountries@gmail.com, I’ll send you a free PDF copy of one of the stories from EMPTY ROOMS LONELY COUNTRIES as an incentive to buy a copy. Simply title the email “SAMPLE” and your free story will be sent to you.

Thank you. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119807#Comment_119807 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119807#Comment_119807 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:19:06 -0800 RichardFannon With A Stiff Upper Lip

It's a sourcebook for setting RPGs in the United Kingdom, but I guess that non-UK writers could also find it useful. I've just had another book (Limitless Horizons - for running pulp sci-fi games using the Spirit of the Century SRD) accepted by them so that'll be out later this year. In line with this Of Two Minds article, I'm going to try to persuade them to drop the prices until it becomes an impulse buy

Promotion-wise, I've tried targeted on-line promotion and word of mouth, but without a lot of obvious success. When Limitless Horizons comes out, I'll let the people on the Spirit of the Century forums know and if my Year of the Zombie stuff ever comes out, for example, I lurk on the Zombie Squad forums and I'll let them know about it ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119808#Comment_119808 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119808#Comment_119808 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:26:31 -0800 budgie CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119809#Comment_119809 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119809#Comment_119809 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:26:45 -0800 Mike Aragona Heaven Can Wait which is a cross between Scarface meets Ghost, and The Mysterious Minute-Men Omnibus, a superhero parody.

I'm working on porting those (while finishing up the sequel to The Minute-Men) over to Lightning Source for access to a wider distribution network (subsidiary of Ingrams which feeds places like B&N, amazon, chapters, etc).

Sales are brisk using word of mouth and email alerts and are enough to cover future books. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119810#Comment_119810 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119810#Comment_119810 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:30:31 -0800 stml Cover of Bookkake's Fanny Hill

Last year I started my own POD-based imprint, Bookkake (http://bookkake.com), which launched selling out-of-copyright classic dirty books (Fanny Hill, Venus in Furs, etc.). This year I'm going to continue with linked titles in radical politics and experimental fiction.

I used POD as a way of hacking the publishing industry. As a former editor at a small publishing house, I could and can see the way the industry is going (I write about this - POD and other issues around technology and literature - at http://booktwo.org). POD allows me to get books out to readers while bypassing the usual over-printing, warehousing and distribution costs that are killing the industry, and I can sell profitably to a smaller market. But I don't see it as reducing quality: all my titles are newly typeset, with original covers and introductions by excellent writers. It's all supported with free ebooks in various formats, blogging and the usual social gubbins.

I plan to take the model I've developed (POD printing hooked up to a bunch of [mostly free and/or open source] web services) to build a bigger and more grounded publishing business over the next year, which may also include traditional printing. If you've got any questions, do get in touch. Plenty more info on the site. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119817#Comment_119817 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119817#Comment_119817 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:04:47 -0800 whatever
1) low investment
2) no inventory storage
3) gaming the system with discounts/royalties (more on that in a second)

The nice thing is you can usually (though not always when color is involved) set things up so you're getting a $4-6 margin where you'd normally be getting a $1-$2 royalty. Lightning Source lets you dial down the discount offered to stores and you're still in Amazon, etc.

Moral of the story, your successful POD project probably isn't _supposed_ to be selling over 1000 copies _unless_ you're specifically gaming the system for royalties and know how to drive traffic to where it's for sale. If you're not on the bookstore site, just realize that you're creating a few barriers to sales: unfamiliar/possibly untrusted site, special trip, no free shipping, potentially having your book next to something weird like "Natural Harvest - A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes" (actual top seller at Lulu - though I suppose that's cross-sell for some books). That's not to say it can't be done on POD-specific website, but you're making your task harder.

Thing is, you can still make $2K - $3K off 500 copies sold if your margins and expenses tally.

That's more like realistic expectations for POD. They say most PODs sell under 50 copies - friends and family. If you can sell 100 copies, statistics say you're well ahead of the curve. And the other thing to remember about POD is to add up your checks at the end of the year. This isn't always something that's front-loaded. $150/mo is $1800 at the end of the year. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119824#Comment_119824 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119824#Comment_119824 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:21:19 -0800 houseofmystery Psychotronik Comics Presents..." released through IndyPlanet, which is what I assume to be the distribution arm of Ka-Blam. We've sold a few copies, mostly to friends, but it's damn hard when you're on these kind of sites, I think. We're not even indie, we're just... there. Which is fun, I guess... oh, and we've got a t-shirt thing going on at cafepress... basically, the plan is, if you see the shirt design in the comic, you can buy the actual shirt. I think that's bloody fantastic! I hope I've been vague and mysterious enough! ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119838#Comment_119838 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119838#Comment_119838 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:08:15 -0800 paladinb
My Pod book Fallen Heroes came out last year via Lulu(and most online sites) and it's been quite a year. To list a few things that have happened.

First off I managed to get the book stocked in seven branches of Waterstones( one of the largest chains of bookshops in the uk) to stock copies of the book. Waterstones ordered and paid for them there wasno Sale or Return involved which is good for me. It sold out in two of the branches, one of those being it's flagship branch in London which apparently is the Largest bookshop in Europe(and they have a very cool bar there!). They asked me to come into the store just before Christmas to sign some copies for the shelves. I also was asked to do an Official signing at the Waterstone's branch in Northampton last September. I was terrified on the day but I think it went well and I managed to sell some copies during the signing.

In this last week I managed to get another store to agree to order some copies and they've asked me to come in for an official signing next month. Waterstones also gave me a five star review for the book which has really helped other people to give the book a second look as the whole POD thing is a real stumbling book with a lot of people.

I was approached by a comic company towards the end of Last year who want to adapt Fallen Heroes as Graphic Novel. I also got a voice actor recording an audio version of the book of which he done about of a third of so far.

Last, but by no means least, luckiest of all was the artist (who, like me is a comic fan) I found to do the cover.

bookshelf

]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119854#Comment_119854 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119854#Comment_119854 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:24:23 -0800 TinySubversions a popular series of articles on my blog into a book for a few months now. The book is about networking (meeting people) in the video game industry. It's pretty niche. I never thought about turning it into a book until two textbook publishers independently contacted me and asked me if I wanted to write a book for them based on the blog. I thought, "Wow, this is a blogger's dream, right?" So I started down the process of outlining, doing the sample chapter, etc... then I realized that it's an awfully huge timesink for someone who also runs their own business. Long story short: I am more or less a marketer by trade, and also have print layout experience, so I figure that POD is perfect for me because I can lay out the book myself and market it myself as well.

So what I'm doing is, instead of re-writing my whole blog in textbook form, I'm just printing my blog as-is with some extra stuff to glue it all together and some bonus content. I'll be selling it for around $12. The value of the book is not necessarily the content (you can get much of it for free on my blog), but rather the fact that it will be pocket-sized and easy to carry around in context at industry events, which is where you need the advice the most. I'm going to market it through my website, and also directly to the many video game educators that already use my blog as a text in their classes. Since $12 is a pittance for textbooks, I figure if I can even get four schools to sign on, that's about 100 copies ordered every semester every year. At a $4 margin per book, that's $800/year right there. Which maybe isn't a lot, but recurring supplemental income is an excellent thing to have in one's life, no matter how small.

I'll be using CreateSpace, which for a book my size and dimensions works out to the $4 margin on $12. As a video game developer, getting $4 on a $12 sale is absolutely out of this world, regardless of volume sold. The fact that CreateSpace charges no setup fees and does automatic Amazon listing means that I'm going with them. I looked into Lulu, but I absolutely need Amazon placement, and the cost of getting on Amazon through Lulu in both money and time was too great for me. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119872#Comment_119872 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119872#Comment_119872 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:17:45 -0800 United Comics United Comics, a small comics publisher. Our model is producing comics POD through both Comixpress and soon through Ka-Blam, ordering a batch at a time for conventions and online sales. Some direct orders to stores willing to do that (some stores are adamantly against ordering any comic that doesn't come from the Diamond catalog, *sigh*). Our TPB are strictly printed short-run and solicited to any distributor that will order them.

Promotion? Web (Our own website, as well as social networking sites like facebook and MySpace), Postcards to comic shops, Comic Conventions (flyers and direct contact with dealers), Store Signings. Sales are OK, they tend to come in waves.

Videos on YouTube promoting the projects hasn't hurt. It's all about viral. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119934#Comment_119934 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119934#Comment_119934 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:29:40 -0800 Puff Chrissy CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119954#Comment_119954 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119954#Comment_119954 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:57:36 -0800 mckenzee Sinister Bedfellows: Anthology on Lulu, as well as Cthulhuvida and the North Carolina WebComic Coffee Clatch Anthology (Volume 2 appearing soon!)

I also published a collection of my wife's grandmother's poetry, transcribed from the backs of hundreds of envelopes and receipts. We made an old lady cry.

my Lulu store ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119956#Comment_119956 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119956#Comment_119956 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:01:50 -0800 budgie
Incredibly so... to the extent that I'd published something before I'd realised I'd done so (luckily, it was marked as "private" so no one could see it...)

A couple of issues though:

Anyone using them should be aware of this one: there's one stage where you convert whatever document you've uploaded into what they call a "print ready" document. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES click on "cancel" while it's preparing the document, no matter how long it takes (only a couple of minutes usually). ALWAYS let it complete and then do it again if you need to change anything.

If you click on cancel while it'd preparing it, the site locks the project for anything up to 24 hours.

Moving on... picking a sales price for your project is ease itself: you either pick how much margin you want to make OR the retail price; lulu calculates the rest for you.

One other thing to consider though, about price. FX rates. I priced my book at £6.50, thinking that the US$ price would come in somewhere around (with current FX rates) $10, ideally a shade under.

Nope - the US$ price was (and is) $11.21, an effective FX rate of 1.73 to the pound, at a time when the actual rate was around $1.50 to the pound... ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119961#Comment_119961 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119961#Comment_119961 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:08:51 -0800 blu
This isn't a book but print on demand art prints for my work on Newpocalypse.com. We've been using ImageKind and found them to be excellent in service and quality. Like most PoDs, you can sell direclty off your website (our store is here: http://www.newpocalypse.com/merch/prints.htm ) or on their site: http://newpocalypse.imagekind.com/

You have a lot of options as far as merchandise and pricing. I've ordered nearly one of everything they sell... canvas, low end paper, to high end paper and have been thrilled with the quality of the prints, the way its packaged and shipped and the time it takes to get products once the order is placed. I have NO complaints and highly recommend them.

Also, we're looking into doing a few graphic novels so this thread is excellent! Thanks for all the info and ideas! ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119971#Comment_119971 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119971#Comment_119971 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:27:34 -0800 bigtombiz
The first one was How to Start Smoking, which was with Diggory Press, who are one of the smaller providers based in England. Both the finished product and the service was excellent. One thing to note, however, is that the company is run by Christians, so they might not be amenable to publishing anything offensive. I didn't go to them for my second POD book The End Times Diary, as I thought it might offend them. Used Lulu, but didn't bother with an ISBN and distribution. Quality of the product was OK, but one batch I ordered were aligned too far down the page. Still readable, but a bit weird.

I'll probably do some other POD projects in the future, but I'm not banking on making any money out of it. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119976#Comment_119976 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=119976#Comment_119976 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:52:49 -0800 blu CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120000#Comment_120000 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120000#Comment_120000 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:25:24 -0800 Tramov CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120002#Comment_120002 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120002#Comment_120002 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:32:49 -0800 louobedlam
And for that snafu, their customer service was quick to remedy the problem. Quality has been consistently high, and I've sold about 150 book total. Their design software was easy to use, and gave me a wide array of templates to use and play with.

For promotion, I basically just let people know through the various websites I'm on: Flickr, Tumblr, MySpace, Facebook, and sent out a big ol' email to everyone in my address book.

For the book I sold through Blurb, I made $15 a book, and for the one I sold myself (where I took pre-orders, then bulk ordered from Blurb, had the books shipped to me, then shipped them to my customers myself), I made $50, though I sold considerably fewer of those, and it was a bit more trouble than I'd anticipated.

The set-up of Blurb ended up being far more convenient, as they handle pretty much everything, distribution-wise, and send you a check every month. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120044#Comment_120044 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120044#Comment_120044 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:12:47 -0800 waniyetuwi
You can purchase an ISBN outside of Blurb and incorporate it into the book. That is what I meant to say. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120095#Comment_120095 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120095#Comment_120095 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:34:08 -0800 Jason Green Low Key Comics. We've published a handful of books using POD services....

Low Key Comics #1
Low Key Comics #2
The Last Days of El Rey #1
Downhill From Here
Everyman #1
Everyman #2
Journal Sanders Vol. 1: Kentucky Fried Sketchbook

Our first experiences were with ComiXpress back in '05, and they were pretty terrible...slow to respond to e-mails, slow to accept receipt of files, and just barely got us our books in time despite well exceeding their stated lead time. We switched to Ka-Blam and I couldn't be happier...the print quality is better (if you squint you can see some very minor pixellation from both companies, but Ka-Blam's is just a hair higher quality), the turnaround time is better, and questions about an order are answered quicker. (They aren't always prompt, but certainly better than ComiXpress was in our limited experience there.) We've tried several different formats of books from them--black and white, full color, regular stapled comics, manga-sized TPBs--and they all look as professional as if they were done at a "real" printer.

Our sales through their retail arm, IndyPlanet.com, haven't been anything to write home about, but we also haven't done much in the way of online publicity. We mostly try to push the books at conventions, and get them in our local shops. Part of our "collective" arragement is that we all live in different areas, so we ship the books out to each other and get them in local shops spread around the country that way.

As to getting your POD comics reviewed, really all you have to do is to get it in the hands of the right people and put out a product good enough to make them want to flip through it. We've had books reviewed by Tom Spurgeon and Steven Grant without doing much more than mailing them the books and keeping our fingers crossed.

The one biggest frustration as far as using POD is the price. The price to get printed is very reasonable, but when you take your books to a comic shop that wants to do 100% markup, you find yourself having to crank up your price just so you don't lose money. Journal Sanders, for example, is a 100-page book that costs $5.42 to print through Ka-Blam. We charge $8 on it through their website and at cons and can make a fair bit of change off each one, but to sell it at a comic shop, we have to charge $11.00 just to break even. Getting someone to drop $11 is a hell of a lot harder than getting them to drop $8. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120143#Comment_120143 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120143#Comment_120143 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:36:47 -0800 huge_euge
The first one is called The Artifact. It is a scifi anthology that follows a cursed alien artifact as it passes through the hands of several doomed characters.

The second book is a short story collection called Keys: Unlocking the Universe. Each story uses the word "key" as a jumping off point with genres ranging from comedy to horror and scifi to romance.

We all met each other at the now-defunct fan-fiction site, FanLib, where we competed against each other in officially sponsored writing contests in such properties as Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Harry Potter. We are currently working on our third project. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120156#Comment_120156 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120156#Comment_120156 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:51:34 -0800 frequentcontributor
stml's Bookakke titles look really amazing. I'm guessing that the titles are public domain, but those covers are really great, and the new intros add a reason to want to pick them up.

Paladinb: That book looks really pro, and I'm interested in your seemingly tireless efforts to get your book seen in stores.

The art in the video for United Comics looks pretty great, although who knows what the books actually look like, but sounds interesting...

blu: Really nice art, but I'm not sure what you're selling... Prints? Seems cool, though.

It's those kind of projects that show POD to not simply be "vanity" printing, when they look that great and when the talent is really there (although I'm judging books based on their covers, here, but sometimes that will get a book home with you, and after that the quality doesn't matter because you've already bought it.).

My main concern is still that quite a few people here seem to be content selling a few copies to family and friends. At that point, it seems like you should just ask them to borrow some money and email them the work for free... And perhaps some of it IS vanity printing, but I would still like to hear more about people who are really trying to get a work seen by new readers through promotional tactics; not just Myspace friends.

Anyway, it seems like the problem with family and friends buying your work is that they're doing it not because they want to read a Zombie Western novel, or whatever, but because they care about you and don't want you to slit your wrists if your book doesn't sell any copies. It's the same reason you can't ask those people for an honest critique of that same work; because they'll just tell you it's good. ...and that's fine if that's what you're doing it for... But as an actual way to make a living...

So congrats to the POD'ers here who are doing good and are happy with their results... Keep up the good work. All of this is just so interesting. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120163#Comment_120163 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120163#Comment_120163 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:08:32 -0800 deshan10 CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120175#Comment_120175 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120175#Comment_120175 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:05:57 -0800 Rachæl Tyrell CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120256#Comment_120256 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120256#Comment_120256 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:43:10 -0800 blu CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120296#Comment_120296 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120296#Comment_120296 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:44:23 -0800 DanMcGirt Jason Cosmo fantasy adventure series, originally published by Signet/Roc some years ago. Originals are out of print and I got a reversion of rights from the publisher. I organized my own publishing imprint, Trove Books, as a vehicle for doing so. Bought a block of ISBNs, registered as an LLC, etc. A bit more work, but it allows me to bypass intermediaries like Xlibris, iUniverse, Lulu, etc and work directly with Lightning Source, who does most of their POD printing anyway. (i.e. Lightning Source works with publishers, not authors, so I became a publisher.) Advantage of that is, I have full control over every aspect of the book and get to keep the lion's share of the (hypothetical, hoped for) profits. I can't speak yet to my success or failure with this approach, as I'm still putting the pieces together. --Dan McGirt ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120300#Comment_120300 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120300#Comment_120300 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:54:42 -0800 paladinb CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120301#Comment_120301 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120301#Comment_120301 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:58:37 -0800 paladinb CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120345#Comment_120345 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120345#Comment_120345 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:06:13 -0800 rothstei But here's a sample job-- 300 pages, 8.5 x 11", perfect-bound (paperback style). We do the pages in b/w digital on 60# paper, and print the covers on heavier stock on the offset press. We produce 100-300 books for the customer, at roughly $10 per book. I think that's a pretty good price, though I haven't really shopped around the POD market.
I would say this--for less than 100 copies, go online. But if you think you could move 100 copies of your book throughout its course, check out your local print shop (a print shop, not a copy shop!).
Here are some other tips:
Ask about digital. Many shops are still experimenting with it, and might offer you a deal if it fills up the time slots on a quieter machine. The iGen4 (by Xerox) is an exceptional machine, does full color almost photo quality. There are other good machines too. Often they don't even think of running your work on a digital press until you suggest it.
Ask them what the cheapest way to do things are. At a local shop you'll talk to a salesperson, who will pitch you a price. Of course, they want to sell you more print. But if you tell them what you're goals are, they'll help you with economical paper choices and other cost saving things, in the bindery for instance.
Get your files in order, in pdf. If they don't have to do much pre-press, that will save you.

Service is better, proofing is better, quality is often better. I'm not simply trying to say "go local" here--digital printing is the way of the future in my opinion, and now the tech is really catching up with desktop publishing. Even for color.

cheers and good luck
Adam ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120373#Comment_120373 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120373#Comment_120373 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:08:20 -0800 Neil Ofsteel Oddly enough, Ka-Blam only accepts TIFF files whereas Comixpress accepts damn near ANY file which is probably really inconvenient for them. I would like to switch to a printer eventually but that's only if I can get this thing off the ground. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120390#Comment_120390 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120390#Comment_120390 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:52:34 -0800 Puff Chrissy liberature, which is a movement that asks - among other things - the writers to be involved in the entire bookmaking process instead of handing the manuscript off to someone else. It's like writing music and then giving the sheets to someone else to play without any instructions on what kind of instruments to use. It's similar to how Mark Z. Danielewski went to the publishers to be hands-on with his book House of Leaves, because the book itself is so much more than the story, in some ways.

Anyway, I really like how when I look at my book, I know that the whole thing is how I wanted it, warts and all. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120537#Comment_120537 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120537#Comment_120537 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:26:12 -0800 whatever
Ordered as a one off from, say, Amazon the production cost would be $6.70 (no bulk discount).

Lightning Source: learn to love it. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120552#Comment_120552 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120552#Comment_120552 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:00:10 -0800 warrenellis
The appeal of things like Lulu and Createspace is that they'll take care of the whole deal if you want them to. I don't have time to stuff envelopes. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120554#Comment_120554 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120554#Comment_120554 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:05:32 -0800 whatever CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120565#Comment_120565 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120565#Comment_120565 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:43:08 -0800 Vetes
Any help? ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120600#Comment_120600 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120600#Comment_120600 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:37:07 -0800 Corey Waits
Start here. That's the book publishing overview page. From there you can easily get to Pricing & Royalty info, and whatever else you might need to know. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120637#Comment_120637 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120637#Comment_120637 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:49:10 -0800 WordWill Things We Think About Games (introduction by Wil Wheaton!), with Lightning Source and distribute ourselves. It's doable at this point because our operation is so small, because we're trying to maximize our per-copy profits, and because I'm willing to spend some of my TV-watching time filling envelopes in order to do that. If we'd known how many copies we were going to sell, we might have gone in for a distribution package. We're in our fourth printing since the book came out in August, which is much better than we expected. (These are tiny print runs made possible because they're POD.)

We sell copies from our site via PayPal, but we're doing the bulk of our business through Amazon and Indie Press Revolution. We had Lightning Source send one of our print runs straight out to IPR, which is essentially distribution.

Note also that Amazon isn't discounting our price at all, which helps us with the per-copy profits as we intended, but probably isn't helping us sell more copies. We're still refining our goals and our methods as we learn.

We chose Lightning Source based mostly on production costs — we knew we wanted a stack of books to toss into retail channels and have at the summer conventions, and the cost to have a stack of them on hand through Lulu was too much for us.

That said, I had a good relationship with Lulu when I was building the POD projects for White Wolf's Alternative Publishing projects and would recommend them if you want POD-style order fulfillment. The Lulu reps were passionate and helpful in lots of good ways, and we printed some special POD editions of Requiem for Rome as promos for conventions and writers. White Wolf's offered a lot more POD titles since then.

We're working on our next two titles now and, unless something changes soon, we'll be printing under the same model if only because it worked for us once. I'm eager to try out some other POD projects, though, and am loving the hell out of this thread. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120639#Comment_120639 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120639#Comment_120639 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:58:12 -0800 Widgett Mystics on the Road to Vanishing Point, a while back. Back before POD we have now, back before much of anything. Let's just say that I explored self-publishing (pre-POD) after I became convinced I was wasting my time trying to get my book published by a traditional publisher. And self-publishing in that way didn't seem to work for me for two reasons: overhead costs (I was in college) and lack of space to become a warehouse. To get enough books to bring the price point down, I could basically sleep on stacks of my books for God knows how long in my small apartment. So I waited. And when POD became viable, I leapt on it. This was...2003. I did mine through Three Moons Media, a front end to Booksurge and run by some people who were attached to the hosting company I used at the time. The people there were very easy to talk to, correspond with, revise with, and they gave me what I wanted. I designed my own covers and basically just handed them the text and the artwork and they assembled it. It was worth the upfront cost (which I think was $200 at the time...not sure what it is now) because just like Warren doesn't want to stuff envelopes, I don't want to learn Quark or other programs. I already know more programs than I want to at this point anyway. So it was worth it to me to save myself that headache.

My book got in print, I sold some copies, and the copies continue to sell at a steady trickle. I've since published a collection of short stories as well using the same means, Magnificent Desolation.

My first novel is available here from Amazon or here as a free downloadable PDF. It's a straight up fiction coming of age story. I tell people I got the normal book out of my system first. And it was just important that I prove to myself I could write a novel.

My short story collection is available here on Amazon or here as a free downloadable PDF. It's less normal.

If you download a freebie, all I ask in return is you tell me what you thought of it. widgett at need coffee dot com.

This year I plan to publish a collection of my poetry--two chapbooks I self-published that I sold out of and a third book's worth of unreleased material--and also the first two "seasons" of my Something Else short fiction pieces as one volume. Something Else is where I started writing on my phone wherever I could based on pics I took with my phone's camera--inspired by Warren's Available Light...which if you haven't read, I urge you to do so. So that's sixty-two finished short stories, of which the first two "seasons" make up forty-eight. I started thinking of them as episodes of the anthology television series I'll never get to make. So, hence the seasons.

One last thing and I promise to go away. I know there's been some concern about POD and what good it is. Why should I if I'm not going to sell more than just to family and friends...and the like. Here's my thing: the major problem here is that everybody has differing definitions of "success." To me, success was opening the box and seeing a bunch of copies of my book in print. I cannot tell you how unbelievably badass that moment was. And it was just as badass for my second book. I don't know how you guys reacted to that moment, but I don't see how that can ever get old. Maybe I'm just a total attention whore and like seeing my name in print. Anyway, I give more copies away of them than I should because I want to be read. That's what I do this for. If your idea of success is being able to get your friends and family to buy your book, then that's cool for you. If your idea of success is to be the next Insert Famous Author Name Here, for example, then POD is not some sort of magic bullet that will make that happen. You'll still have to bust your ass to market and sell and all of that. The main benefit is you get to start now rather than wait for a publisher to tell you when you can.

It makes me happy as hell to see so many people on this thread getting in print and using POD for so many different types of books. And I urge anybody reading this: stop waiting for permission from some traditional publisher to open a box of your own books. I don't care what service you use, but if you've got something you want people to read and you believe it's worth being read, then just use something.

Okay, rant-thing ends. Thanks for the thread, Warren. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120658#Comment_120658 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120658#Comment_120658 Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:49:30 -0800 Stew Wilson Æternal Legends (my first creator-owned RPG!) but that's not too unusual given that it's a roleplaying game. We point people to our Lulu page, or they can buy from Indie Press Revolution, or Lulu do distribution direct to game stores that order from us. Given that there's two people in total involved in the process, both of whom have day jobs, it abstracts the whole printing/warehousing/distribution chain nicely. We also use Lulu to provide copies to Indie Press Revolution, who act as a distributor. Which is damn handy, really.

The market for small-press pen'n'paper RPGs is tiny. Tiny. As in, the hundreds. Publishers know that and savvy purchasers know that. So the whole segment has jumped at the chance to do POD, mostly through Lulu. If it weren't for POD, we'd never get to publish physical product; gamers in general have embraced the PDF e-book in ways that other segments haven't simply because for the longest time it was the only way to get small-press stuff. Now a lot of stuff is being offered POD and that's in response to customer demand: people said "I'd be willing to pay the price of a book if this was actually a book, but the PDF price is too high." Publishers thus flocked to Lulu and the like so they could offer books. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120776#Comment_120776 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120776#Comment_120776 Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:39:05 -0800 mojojoseph Ka-Blam.com, which is the site we were considering publishing Zombie Death Squad through. Can anyone tell me if it gets you n ISBN as well? As then we can see about getting the book stocked at stores.

The whole POD thing is something I've just started looking into myself, as a way to maybe bring in some much needed money. I'm currently in the process of putting together and then deciding if I'll go ahead with it, a poetry book and a book of short stories. The comic is something I'm doing as part of a group, so that will definately happen. Ka-Blam seems to be the best site we've come across so far, and we know that Monkeys With Machineguns use them, so we kinda automatically assumed we will too. But if anyone knows a POD site that does comics that they think is better (and more importantly, cost effective), gives a shout like. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120938#Comment_120938 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=120938#Comment_120938 Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:35:42 -0800 whatever
@widgett: One of the interesting things about POD that really scares traditional publishing houses is that if the author has a certain amount of resources, it can be very hard to differentiate between "traditionally published" and "independent author." To be sure, there's an economy of scale for book store release, but in e-commerce/mail order world, more and more authors are getting shifted out of the stores. (Wish I had the link from the Fall about how chain bookstores can and can't choose their stock on a store by store level.) The e-Reader Device Wars are in their early stages, and those have the potential to further blur the lines in a few years, should something take off. Their are different service levels to the various POD offerings and if somebody's only interested in being in print and doing a friends & family run, Lightning Source isn't the way to go. Lulu and CreateSpace (which used to be BookSurge, IIRC) fill the one-off, low circulation run nicely with much less set-up costs. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121184#Comment_121184 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121184#Comment_121184 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:08:09 -0800 muse hick me at lulu
my wife at lulu
www.indiebookshelf.com my wife's site for independently published authors / musicians / comic creators ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121343#Comment_121343 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121343#Comment_121343 Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:22:24 -0800 Cinexploits
I am setting up my own publishing house using Createspace and have signed deals with a known author whose book series has been out of print. Sorry for the lack of detail, but we haven't issued the press release yet.

We are resetting all the text, adding new content (interviews, pics, etc...) for the print versions and keeping the Kindle versions as clean as possible. Kindle is for the "gotta have it now" types and the print versions (2 novels per volume with extras) is for the collector types. Both will be priced accordingly and are being designed to appeal to those comic / pulp / series paperback fans out there. It all came about when I couldn't find some paperbacks from my youth. Checking around I figured I'd have to spend way too much on EBay to get the stuff I wanted. That seemed wrong - especially since the authors weren't making any more money on these titles either.

Bookakke - love the company name, your aesthetic, and your publishing model. You make an excellent looking product. We aim to follow a similar path.
Thanks for the inspiration.

The endgame (beyond making money at it) is to embrace the pulp publishing model of "low cost, high volume, high concept" via the web. We will be using every free web tool out there to drive sales and publicity for our books and other media (yes, eventually we will be handling films, web serials and so forth).
Thankfully I can do all that from my laptop.

I can say that this guy is doing the covers for our first series of books - a full year's worth of content. I have other artists and graphic designers working their magic for a piece of the pulpy pie on other books for which we have deals. Again, sorry for the lack of info.

So, getting back to my original thought: What do the Podders here think of Kindle? ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121358#Comment_121358 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121358#Comment_121358 Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:13:41 -0800 frequentcontributor
Also, I love your concept of trying to use the pulp publishing model. I feel like comics could do well to try and go back to those roots; having a fast and cheap and easily distributable, low-cost product up front, with nicer "deluxe" trades to follow. Could work for some titles, and Warren and Matt Fraction certainly have started an interesting idea with Fell and Casanova...

Finally, love that artist that you got for the covers. Can't wait to see what product you put out. Hopefully when you get everything finalized, you'll post here again with an update.

(And for my money, I'd love to see Fredrick Pohl's books from the 70's and 80's get put back into print. They're great, and really still quite topical. It's easy to find TONS of his old stuff at used bookstores, but at Borders or Barnes & Noble? Forget it...) ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121690#Comment_121690 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121690#Comment_121690 Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:04:37 -0800 Cinexploits
Yes, Rob Kelly rocks. He gets what we're trying to do and brings his best to the table. I have a couple of other artists and writers who I can't announce yet, and who are very pulpy in their own way.

Our model has been to always use the free services and devices at hand instead of paying for services out of pocket. It follows our pulp model which will eventually (fingers crossed) grow into original series books like the ones that inspired us in the first place and who we are republishing.
We want to become the "Hard Case Crime" of horror/scifi/pulp adventure.

You can't have enough good cheap fiction! ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121801#Comment_121801 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121801#Comment_121801 Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:51:57 -0800 PatrickBrown CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121886#Comment_121886 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121886#Comment_121886 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:49:40 -0800 paladinb Fallen Heroes. Anyway for those of you in the uk my signing is due to take place in the Milton Keynes branch of Waterstones between 11-1 on sat 28th Feb!

So anyway I'm excited about that news and then I check my availability today and I discover that another Waterstone's over in Banbury now has copies in stock!(I'm slowly making my way through every single waterstones in the country to try and get them to stock the book)

So when Milton Keynes get there copies it will take the grand total to 8 branches of Waterstone's now stocking the book! ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121901#Comment_121901 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121901#Comment_121901 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:33:37 -0800 RobSpalding The PDF version is free, so you can have a read of it and then buy the printed one if you like it enough.

I'm also putting together some novellas that all link together, looking to do that by the end of the year, with each one costing about £2.

My short story collection
A review of the collection ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121902#Comment_121902 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121902#Comment_121902 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:49:51 -0800 Puff Chrissy CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121931#Comment_121931 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121931#Comment_121931 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:33:36 -0800 paladinb
I did my own press release to go with the book and attached it to my initial email. If you can find a hook for the book be it similar book or movies so they know straight off how they can market is something I did. I was lucky last year as I was able to use the new Indiana Jones movie to hang it off which worked really well. I used used the dresden file book and the heroes TV show. I also attached an image of the cover as I knew it was pretty striking so I hoped that would help (which it did). I also had an eye catching title for the email (I thought newspaper headline) so they wouldn't just delete it without opening it. I think I had something like "Indiana Jones meets Heroes in new novel Fallen Heroes by Barry Nugent' I know it sounds cheesy but it worked.

Once I got it into one store I change my covering letter and press release to cover my success and I change each subsequent press release and email.

Best of luck and I hope some of that rambling helps. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121951#Comment_121951 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121951#Comment_121951 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:54:03 -0800 Widgett CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121979#Comment_121979 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=121979#Comment_121979 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:16:05 -0800 Puff Chrissy CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=122689#Comment_122689 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=122689#Comment_122689 Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:27:19 -0800 Dark Windows
The greatest conspiracy of the 20th Century is revealed by chance. The discovery of a devastating method of mind control leads to a desperate race through the history of cinema. A portrait of a disintegrating mind, confusing reality with cinema as the world cracks apart.

DARK WINDOWS or the Death of Godard by Neil Coombs ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=123739#Comment_123739 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=123739#Comment_123739 Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:56:02 -0800 frequentcontributor terribly unreasonable, but it seems like a bit of a maze to get to a page that actually tells you the synopsis of the book. Up until that point, everything sounded exceptionally vague and self-important...

Your websites are quite pretty, though, and despite your oddly uncredited and basically meaningless quotes ("...an important work."? What the fuck does that mean?), the story sounds like it could be interesting, especially to film historians (for those who didn't go find what the book was about, it seems like a Dan Brown thriller with foreign movie history instead of biblical history to provide the background info of the mystery.).

All in all, the Google Books preview is a nice way to generate interest, even though it was somewhat hidden amid all the other links on your site. Also, just the first chapter would be enough; there seems to be much of the book on there, but with the Google-norm random pages missing. Finally, for some odd reason found myself wishing that Douglas Adams had written another (finished) Dirk Gently novel...

Oh, and the use of the "play" and "pause" buttons, etc., between paragraphs is really quite brilliant. Perhaps will peruse the book further, later. But I would say that the VCR buttons are a real attention-getter, and if I go back it will most likely be because of those. If I sound at all like I'm giving you a disinterested review, it is because while I enjoy films quite a bit and have HEARD of Godard, I don't think I've ever seen anything by him, and therefore feel excluded from the get-go by the very title of the book! Just me, though... ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=129552#Comment_129552 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=129552#Comment_129552 Wed, 18 Feb 2009 13:42:53 -0800 Dark Windows are interesting and I'm glad you like the buttons between paragraphs - it's only a minor element but it sort of fitted the content. I hope the title doesn't put too many people off and you're right about the uncredited quotes on the website (they are pretty meaningless but I guess that the publishing industry is full of rent-a-quotes and I'm just doing likewise without paying - the quotes come from customer's feedback e-mails and I didn't feel I could use their names to any effect).

The Google Book preview is generated through Lulu and I don't get any control over the amount of content displayed. But in the final analysis, it's my first novel and you've got to start somewhere (maybe I should have left it sitting on my hard drive). I could be really self-critical here but I'm trying to feign some sort of literary confidence based on the mostly positive feedback that I've had to date from readers.

The problem with the Lulu pricing is that they add a hefty charge for postage and for some reason and the unit cost rises to £14.95 if I buy more than one for myself. The USA price has recently risen from $11.95 to $25.95 - again I'm not sure why but I assume that it's some sort of adjustment due to costs/exchange rate etc. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=198848#Comment_198848 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=198848#Comment_198848 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:40:03 -0800 Puff Chrissy Empty Rooms Lonely Countries in PDF for $5.00. You'll save $10 off the cover price, PLUS, there are 5 more stories not included in the print version. Just go to my website and find the PayPal button at the very bottom.

Also secondly, how about the rest of you, POD writers? How did you all do with your books since February? Any new books to share? ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=198885#Comment_198885 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=198885#Comment_198885 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:02:38 -0800 cussedness CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199338#Comment_199338 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199338#Comment_199338 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:08:45 -0800 .human.
heres the book.

ill be trying magcloud to put together a fun coloring book thing in the near future though.

neat. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199371#Comment_199371 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199371#Comment_199371 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:03:01 -0800 Puff Chrissy CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199384#Comment_199384 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199384#Comment_199384 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:50:52 -0800 Aurora Borealis
din krakatau cover

Amen City Chronicles: Din Krakatau is a manga/digest sized trade, 136 pages, full color... and I know it's kinda pricey, but that's the cost of color POD trades.

It can be purchased from Indyplanet, or, if you're not certain, you can read the entire thing for free over at DrunkDuck

I know that the art on early pages isn't great, but the story is entertaining, and any sales made from this book will help me finish my b&w sketchbook AND my future comics, all of which will be drawn MUCH better.

Future stuff will look something more like this, most likely:
cursed blade

]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199401#Comment_199401 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199401#Comment_199401 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:00:21 -0800 KPatrickGlover CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199408#Comment_199408 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199408#Comment_199408 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:13:40 -0800 warrenellis I am now a person who PODs. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199575#Comment_199575 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199575#Comment_199575 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:56:45 -0800 Will Couper
It's here: Cutting Chills

Will ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199581#Comment_199581 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199581#Comment_199581 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:18:26 -0800 chris g
$10 from IndyPlanet.com

Collects Chapters 1-3 of "Team Mummy" which you can enjoy here for FREE. But yeah, the physical tome is very pretty. Plz buy ^_^

Cover

]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199616#Comment_199616 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199616#Comment_199616 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:18:42 -0800 rickiep00h CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199662#Comment_199662 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199662#Comment_199662 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:20:09 -0800 TheDeeMan G.A.A.K: Groovy Ass Alien Kreatures thru Lulu. I love Lulu. It's cheaper then most other PODs. And if you get their distribution package you can get your books into online retailers like Amazon, Barnes&Noble, etc, which I did with G.A.A.K.

Dee

....................................................
THE CONTINENTALS. Murder, mystery, intrigue, adventure--And steampunk! ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199665#Comment_199665 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199665#Comment_199665 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:35:30 -0800 TF
The Face of Human Error CD on demand via Amazon ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199687#Comment_199687 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=199687#Comment_199687 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:51:09 -0800 RobSpalding here ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=204875#Comment_204875 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=204875#Comment_204875 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:09:25 -0800 WordWill my Haiku Year project, in which I wrote a haiku a day for a year. I made it a little over three months, in the end. As I prepare to try the project again, I’ve collected 105 poems into this little chapbook, along with a few short articles about the project. This little book, also called Haiku Year, collects every poem from the project, including a few that were never posted online, and a few translating my video haiku back into text. I offer it here for you to (a) buy, as a little pocket-sized paperback POD book, or (b) to download for free as a PDF. Do either of those things at Lulu.

Haiku Year cover

If you buy the book, I get $2 and I'll see that you bought it. If you download the book, I'll have no way of knowing that you did. So, if you do, please leave a comment on this post at my blog, letting me know that you chose to download it and, maybe, read some of it. This is an experiment, after all, to see how many people might actually choose to get their hands on it (and what percentage of those people choose to pay for it in some way). So, if you do, I'd appreciate you raising your hand so I can count you as a download. The goal isn't so much to make a buck on this, but to just get these words out there in front of people — so please do download it if you like.

Thanks for your time. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=204888#Comment_204888 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=204888#Comment_204888 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:24:21 -0800 Rachæl Tyrell
"DAD SOLD CRACK HERE: Photographs of New York City"

Stray cats, broken shopfronts, the beauty of decay, unexpected color in a crumbling land of gray... the still and lonesome corners of a broken world.

This book has ended up rather Brooklyn-centric; most of the pictures were taken during the walks I'd take from Kings County Hospital, through Crown Heights, to my apartment in Bedford Stuyvesant. However, I did not entirely neglect all other areas of Brooklyn, and even Manhattan and Queens make some minor appearances.

I've chosen to only use photographs taken with my old, outdated, 5 megapixel brick of a camera that I once took with me everywhere. Because it's not about what you've got, but how you use it that matters.

(There's a preview of the first 15 pages at the link, of course) ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=207263#Comment_207263 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=207263#Comment_207263 Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:18:58 -0800 Dreamline
THE SEVEN is a YA superhero origins story about genetically modified teenagers who rebel against the faction that created them. Think RUNAWAYS meet MAXIMUM RIDE, but not as weak as MAXIMUM RIDE. Early reviews have been fantastic. I am currently reshopping the novel to see if I can get it published for real in order to get a bigger possible audience.

Check it out on my really weak website: www.seanpatricklittle.com

Thanks. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=222040#Comment_222040 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=222040#Comment_222040 Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:01:06 -0800 meaninglessnoise Shivering Sands, I decided to release a POD collection; so I immediately set off re-examining fiction I've already created and working on some new pieces.
My goal is first pressing by XMas 2010. I'll likely use Lulu, because I really liked the quality of 'Sands. It'll start as a friends-and-family release, just for fun, and then I'll examine everything again and see if I'm comfortable with a real/more official/I'd like to make money style release.
This thread is actually really encouraging.
So, no, I don't POD yet, but I will. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=222278#Comment_222278 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=222278#Comment_222278 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:15:55 -0800 Emperor Darklore (freebies to download from the site if anyone is interested), its published through Lightning Source and it gives a better cut to the authors so it does make it worthwhile, plus they have the Espresso Book Machines which provide in-store POD which is surely The Future - ordering some obscure tome before leaving the house and picking it up in the bookshop as you wander past, worth killing a tree for. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235496#Comment_235496 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235496#Comment_235496 Sun, 02 May 2010 12:12:10 -0700 spinnerin Summer Fieldbook with daily journal pages, blank notebook space, coloring pages, a map of Forest Park (a giant hiking area inside Portland city limits), plus a weekly events planning page (some Portland-area things listed, but it's mostly blank space to write in your own). This was a lot of fun to put together, so I'm hoping to turn it into a seasonal project. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235596#Comment_235596 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235596#Comment_235596 Sun, 02 May 2010 19:46:24 -0700 SilentObjector CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235606#Comment_235606 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235606#Comment_235606 Sun, 02 May 2010 20:25:19 -0700 steevo LIfe After Death, just had the second volume released today. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235709#Comment_235709 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235709#Comment_235709 Mon, 03 May 2010 09:55:24 -0700 krakatoakatie

]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235773#Comment_235773 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235773#Comment_235773 Mon, 03 May 2010 13:10:45 -0700 timkress The Wurly Burly Boy Has a Boring Day. You can view the book on this video I made here. Please check it out. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235774#Comment_235774 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=235774#Comment_235774 Mon, 03 May 2010 13:12:22 -0700 timkress timkressfiction.com. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=236182#Comment_236182 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=236182#Comment_236182 Wed, 05 May 2010 07:55:24 -0700 Winterman DREAMNASIUM that seems to be doing okay.

front cover

I'm a genre guy so you're getting variations on the fantasy, horror, science fiction and hardboiled subsets filtered through my little brain. To save cash I did all the design work, etc. myself.

There's also a bonus story in the dead tree version that is absent from the Kindle version (though the latter is massively cheaper).

You can find all my stuff, traditional, POD and ebook at THE WINTERMAN PROJECT.

Thanks for the use of the the hall, Mr. Ellis. ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=237822#Comment_237822 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=237822#Comment_237822 Wed, 12 May 2010 06:03:41 -0700 Jamie Coville
I'm assuming you all had to design your own book?

I've got a comic history website with a lot of content, I'm thinking of PODing it because I figure some people would rather read it in book format then spend an hour or so scrolling and clicking.

Only thing that's stopping me is thinking about how much work has to go into the design of the book. I imagine all the images of comic covers and creators must be high res and converted to CMYK in order to print right.

And I'm wondering if all this could be done in Open Office or if I'd have to get another program. My brother worked in print like 15 years ago and MS Word was NOT used, there were special, little known programs that were needed preparing it for print. Is this the way it is now? ]]> CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=237873#Comment_237873 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=237873#Comment_237873 Wed, 12 May 2010 11:18:50 -0700 spinnerin CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=237931#Comment_237931 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=237931#Comment_237931 Wed, 12 May 2010 20:03:52 -0700 Jamie Coville CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=237984#Comment_237984 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=237984#Comment_237984 Thu, 13 May 2010 07:03:22 -0700 Winterman CENSUS: People Who POD http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=240159#Comment_240159 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=4781&Focus=240159#Comment_240159 Sun, 23 May 2010 02:45:22 -0700 Vaehling Scribus, an OS alternative to InDesign and the likes. Took me some time to get into the work flow, but so did InDesign. So, if you're looking for a free program, you may want to look it up. Some printers frown upon it, though.

Oh, and while the project wasn't POD as much as digital print, I've adapted it into a hardcover version that will be strictly POD. Also, I'll upload it to Lulu as well. (Just to get back on topic.) (No link here, it's in German anyway.) ]]>