There are several ways of self-publishing the paperback of your books. I have used two of them myself and went for the second after I was not fully satisfied with the first.
1. Authorhouse.com
2. Createspace.com
I would say it was much easier going with Createspace than Authorhouse, especially on being able to have a more affordable book. When you go with the least expensive publishing package, both are about the same price at an average of $600. My biggest issue with Authorhouse is that cost of producing your book which was around $10 for me, and also this price is fixed so you can’t change it along the line. This translates to highly priced books and especially if you want to get any appreciable royalty.
On both I went with the paid-for service and did not have to worry about interior layouts or cover design issues. However Createspace has a completely free option where you design the cover, interior and do everything else yourself. The publishing consultants at CS were helpful and the customer service always on call. However I was a bit impatient with their time lags when any change needed to be done, it is usually 5 working days and no earlier. That said, that give me the leeway to be sure of what I really wanted.
The only drawback for me so far is that they only sell on Amazon.com. I had assumed this meant all the Amazons like AH did for me, but CS is basically American. They said my book may later be for sale on Amazon.co.uk and others but I won’t be getting the Amazon royalty but the third party one which due to my low price is almost next to nothing. I have complained about this to them and hopefully with time, they will rearrange it. The good part about them too is how responsive and willing to meet you halfway the staff generally are.
One final thing to remember is that bookstores will rarely stock your book as they regard CS and Amazon as competitors. And it’s not just CS, they do not like Print on Demand books because it’s usually non-returnable so this also affects Authorhouse and most other self publishers/vanity press. I later learned that a way to go behind this is to also publish with Lightening Source at the same time, since they distribute with Ingrams, which the bookstores use.
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Thank you for sharing this information. You mention publishing with Lightening Source at the same time as Createspace or Authorhouse. Would The Lightening Source version require a separate, unique ISBN or would it use the same ISBN as the Createspace/Authorhouse version?
Hello Ethan,
I think all paperback copies should have the same ISBN. But please confirm this. Cheers!
Self published authors don’t usually make much, so if you’re expecting to write books for a living the self published way, then you’ll be working a day job forever. Unless you’re exceptional at social media marketing able to sell thousands of books a month, but that is rare.