Self Publishing Information - Cost of Printing

This page contains all the details you need to know about our POD self publishing service. Print on demand is a good way to get your book out in the market - you will not need to sign away any printing rights - so at any time you will be able to use other methods of publication in conjunction, or instead of the POD service.

Importantly, with our POD service, depending on your requirements, distribution channels covering the UK and North America are available - whereby anybody will be able to order your book through Amazon and/or most bookstores throughout these regions (books often appear in catalogues in other regions but we can not guarantee this).

As part of our initial communications with you, (before any contracts are signed), we will provide you with precise and detailed explanations of how book price is made up (e.g. the relationship of page counts, cover price, various commissions, etc) along with an illustration of exactly who gets what from a sale of your book.

The main features of our standard POD service were listed on the Welcome page - and we will now go through each one to explain each point in more detail.**

**(Please note: We are able to publish your work through a variety of channels. The details of trim sizes & costs described below relate to just one channel available. The other channels (not specifically detailed here) are similar in price but can offer some other advantages such as any variation of trim size equal to or below 295mm x 205mm (height x width), colour inserts, and/or landscape books. Please contact with details of your book and we will help you decide which channel is most suitable, as each has its own advantages and disadvantages.)

As soon as we your book has been accepted by us - and we have received a signed contract from you, we will allocate you an ISBN number. This number will be used to generate a bar code and this will be inserted onto the back cover of your book at print time.

We can offer you a variety of different paperback (called perfect bound) sizes. The different sizes carry slightly different unit costs - generally between £0.01 - £0.02 per page and £0.70 - £1.00 for the full colour cover. Click here to see a list of commonly available trim sizes - though please note that we can actually offer you any trim size under the maximum of 295 x 205 (height x width).

Our service offers you the printing of a colour front and back cover. However please note we do not provide you with a cover design. We do require that all books have a professionally designed cover, but rather than increase the standard fee to cover our doing this - we prefer that you work with someone of your choosing (we can put you in touch with skilled and reliable professionals).

Inclusion (for public ordering) into main catalogues (Amazon, Books In Print, etc)

As part of the service - your book will be registered with the appropriate catalogues, so that it is available through online and high street stores.

Our contract doesn't tie you up at all - rather it just deals with the process that should take place between us regarding readying and printing your book. We do not believe that if you are funding the printing of your book that you should be subject to any constricting and limiting conditions. You are free at all times to print with another publisher publisher and/or or sell your work via other methods. Further - if you no longer want us to print your book you can cancel it at any time (subject to a short notice period). Please email us for a copy of the contract.

The option to purchase unlimited number of books at standard unit cost + 20% (+ Handling & Shipping) - one of the lowest rates around

To work out your own book purchase rate - (as an example - let us say your book is £0.01 per page and £0.70 for the cover) - take the number of pages @ £0.01 plus £0.70 for the cover and add 20%. This is your price per book. You will also need to cover shipping and handling charges from the printer to your self. Shipping and handling will be charged at the exact rate we are invoiced.

You will receive 75% of net receipts from the sales of your books via the distribution channels to bookstores, Amazon, etc. These will be paid on a six month basis along with a breakdown of the number of copies sold.

To work out this figure you first need to arrive at the total (100%) net receipts. Basically this will be the wholesale price (cover price minus the discount offered to bookstores) minus the unit print cost - times by the number of books sold in the period. You are then paid 75% of this figure.

Though we suggest you work with us on this - as long as the final book price works financially, taking into account book printing unit costs (note: in this case the book unit cost does not include a 20% surcharge as for books supplied directly to yourself) and the bookstore discount percentage rate - then you are free to set any price you wish.

Usually there is a bit of juggling between what you receive as royalties, the book retail price and the discount offered to bookstores. We will help you arrive at the most suitable combination. Generally speaking, the cost of POD books needs to be a little higher than 'large run' produced books to cover all the various production expenses - though if you are willing to forgo a percentage of your profit (along with ourselves), you will be able to bring the book price down slightly.

The remaining 40% covers the distribution of your book (to the appropriate bookseller anywhere in the world) and the booksellers profit. 60% is a good rate in that it allows both yourself and the booksellers to make a reasonable profit. Out of the 40% the distributor will take approx 15%, leaving 25% for the bookseller (booksellers are not particularly enamoured by less percentage than this).

This wholesale rate only applies to books being sold via the automatically included distribution channels (e.g. such as online and high street bookstores). It does not apply to any drop shipments you order - and so you are free to make your own discount arrangements with any individual booksellers if you chose, outside of our agreement.

Provision of CIP (cataloguing in publication data) for inclusion on reverse of title page

CIP data is that strangely formatted data containing some library type subject reference numbers often present on the copyright and/or disclaimer page at the beginning of a book. We will obtain this information for you - though it may need a few weeks to do so after your book is completely finished (and for instance, we know size and page count).

Copyright registration service (i.e. submission of books to appropriate libraries)

We will send off (and cover the cost of) the 6 books that need to be registered with the appropriate UK libraries. This is a legal requirement and will act as your copyright registration (though mailing and keeping the sealed postmarked package is also considered sufficient in the UK).

Ability to submit your work as an electronic file & check PDF conversion before printing

After you have submitted us your file - we will then convert it to a PDF file. You will then be provided with a copy of the file to check that everything is as you wish it to be. Before printing we will allow you 3 edits to this file (i.e. up to 3 re-conversions from the new word file you supply to the PDF file). After this there will be a nominal charge for each conversion.

Include B & W halftones, tables & graphics (no extra charge if part of submitted electronic file) + Colour pages @ £0.15 each

B & W halftones, tables and line drawings can be included as standard - as long as they are part of the electronic file. Colour images can be included at £0.15 each. It is important to make sure images are scanned into your file at a high enough resolution (i.e. 300 DPI) - please contact us for more details. (Please note: colour images may carry some small additional setup charges.)

Our aim is for you to submit your work using the exact layout you would like to appear in print. However, individuals have different word-processing and desktop publishing skills and sometimes it maybe that an individuals work will need the help of a layout professional to bring out the best. If this is the case we will indicate this to you when you first submit your work for review, (and if possible, before you sign the contract).

We will work with you to coordinate these aspects of professional book production & provide reliable and skilled contacts for you to work with. As described above, we do require a professionally designed cover, but we don't necessarily require you to have your work edited, proofread & typeset. However, it makes a big difference to a book if these services are utilised - and we encourage you to think about using them. They are actually reasonably priced services and if you are serious about your book it is far more satisfactory to do them at first printing - rather than catching up on yourself later.

There is a small yearly charge (after the 1st year) to maintain your book on the various systems (printing and ordering systems).

Even after your book contents and cover have been set up on the system, it is possible for you to make alterations to either. Alterations are made by uploading a whole new cover or text content file that you supply (and each file can contain any number of updates). We charge a fixed fee of £70.00 for either a text or cover file update (i.e. £140.00 for both).

Up to 2 hours of Internet Marketing consultation to help you begin marketing your book

The internet is one place you can begin marketing and selling your book. It maybe that you can do most of the work yourself - or you may need the services of another professional to help you design a website. We will be able to give you 'tips and tricks' to help you get a listing in the search engines and so attract traffic to your site. We can also host websites for clients (including full online & offline email facilities) for a very reasonable fee.

Additional service we offer (not included as part of the standard package above)

The price of a standalone hardback package is £499.00 and includes all the equivalent standard paperback package (as detailed above). Our lower cost hardback is available in the sizes and formats listed in the table.

In terms of the unit cost of hardback books the following applies (before the London Press per book charge - 20% per book in the case of hardbacks):

Available Sizes	Hardback 216 x 140, 229 x 152, 234 x 156
Cover Type	Stamped Cloth or 4-Colour Case Laminate*		Stamped Cloth & Jacketed
Type of paper	Cream	White	Cream	White
Per Unit	£4.00		£5.00
Per Page	£0.01		£0.01

Please note: we also offer a slightly more expensive & higher quality hardback option in any size equal to or under 295mm x 205mm (height x width). The unit price of these starts at £8 per book, before the page count & London Press charges.

We hope this page has provided you with a good explanation of our services. If you have any questions at all - please contact us using any of the methods listed on the Contacting Us page.

* Please Note: To maintain quality all manuscripts are screened to ensure they have a high standard of content, layout design, editing and language. If assistance is needed in some of these areas, we can help you make contact with an independent specialist who will be able to help you make improvements.