What do you think about Author House buying IUniverse?
What do you think about Author House buying IUniverse? – At my age I find that there are very few surprises in life but I find myself still scratching my head with this one as well as several other developments in the self-publishing world. This, of course, includes the follow-up on my publishing adventure with Amazon’s new publishing service, CreateSpace.com.
Let me start by finishing off last month’s article about my experience with CreateSpace. (Click here if you missed last month’s article). I believe I left off with having uploaded and “Published” with Lulu, uploaded with Thor (Lightning Source/Ingram) and attempting to upload with CreateSpace, a new book of mine titled Ask Ron – The Plain Truth About Self-Publishing. Within a few days of uploading my printing file to the Lightning Source/Ingram (Thor) database, my book appeared on Amazon. An interesting difference between this book and one’s I remembered uploading in the past is it said it was available in 2-4 weeks rather than saying the book was in stock and available for shipment in 24 hours,.
When I asked my contact at the printer about this, it was explained that they were backed up but once Ingram put an imaginary 100 copies in inventory, the book would show up as “in stock” and available for shipment in 24 hours. In case you are wondering what an imaginary 100 copies in inventory means, it is just what it sounds like. Print on Demand means “no-inventory”. Individual books are printed as they are ordered. A selling point of the print on demand industry is that there is no inventory. Unfortunately much of the bookselling world interprets no inventory as no inventory so, if wanted, a no inventory title would have to be back-ordered and many outlets have rules against backordering. To get around this Ingram started putting 100 copies (that don’t exist), in their database, as if they did exist, and somehow everyone is happy. Don’t ask me to explain why, it’s just the way it is.
I went ahead and ordered a copy from Amazon and it arrived in a week or so. The copy was easily identified as a Lightning POD copy by the barcode tattooed on the last page of the book. My guess is that this was my first sale. Whoopee!!! The way the Ingram system is set up, I’ll get paid for that sale sometime next year, even though I paid Amazon cash but… that’s the Ingram/Lightning POD system. I also ordered an above average quantity of books, two, from Lulu. Their average print run is 1.8 copies.
Meanwhile, the CreateSpace website was finally up and running and I was able to upload my file. Unlike Thor/Lightning or Lulu, the service was free but I was required to buy a “proof” copy to OK before it was officially made available to the book buying public. I received my proof copy about a week later. It arrived in a Book Surge package. This didn’t matter to me because I know it’s all the same organization but I can see how this could be a bit confusing to others. In the meantime, back at my Amazon listing, my book received its first review. That was pretty neat even though the reviewer said he had not actually read the book. I only mention this to demonstrate the point I am going to bring up next.
I remember reading an article about Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, which stated that the original name of Amazon was to be “Abracadabra”. Well I was soon about to see why. I went online and OK’d my proof at CreateSpace and as fast as you could say “Abracadabra” the Ingram/Lightning listing was gone from Amazon and replaced by the CreateSpace listing. Poof, the listing was changed, although they left the review. They were a little overzealous with this change because they also bumped me off the site as the publisher and changed it to CreateSpace even though I was the publisher and owned the ISBN. While there is never any human contact with anyone at Amazon I complained, via email form letter on the CreateSpace website, and the publisher was corrected within a few days. Of course I do not know this because anyone contacted me to apologize for the mistake. The computer probably couldn’t figure out which form letter response to send so it sent none. I found out by going back each day and seeing for myself.
Meanwhile, the minute I saw the listing change, I ordered another copy from Amazon just to see who printed it. I forgot to mention that the availability changed from available in 2-4 weeks to available immediately in that same split second. I was able to order with my free 2 day shipping so the book showed up not too many days after the first book I ordered. A quick glance confirmed that the book was definitely not a Lightning produced book. In the blink of an eye, my book changed from POD non-returnable printed at Lightning Source to POD returnable printed by Book Surge. Which do you think that Amazon prefers? Should Ingram/Lightning and all the non-returnable short discount POD publishers be worried? You tell me.
Meanwhile, what do I think about Author House buying IUniverse? It’s way too early to tell what the buyers have in mind. Off the top of my head, the biggest loser in the deal is going to be Google and Yahoo. Tens of thousands of online advertising dollars should be saved almost instantly when these two combine ad budgets. Winners? I don’t know the financial arrangements but there have to be a few winners depositing checks into their bank accounts. What will this mean to the average self-publisher? It’s hard to say, at this point. Unofficially, between the two, they publish about 1000 titles per month. This is a huge chunk of the total subsidy/vanity publishing market. The authors who opt for this form of publishing will remain pretty much the same. Both companies offer similar services, although IUniverse was much closer to traditional publishing than Author House. In the past, Susan Driscoll often referred to IUniverse as a “farm club” for traditional publishing. With that in mind, if it were my money, I would set the two companies up, one as an A team and one as an AA team. The really entry level people would come through one company and the next level would come through the other. The only thing missing is the AAA team but I guess that could be added later. I would combine the sales forces, triage authors and honestly place them where they best fit. Do I think this is what is going to happen? Hard to say. If it doesn’t, nothing really changes out there in the market with the exception of the winners and losers mentioned earlier.
I honestly think the big picture of all of this is how all of these companies I have mentioned in the past two months are affected by each other. First off, most of the sales by any of these POD companies are either to the author or through Amazon. I do not think there is a person out there who will debate me on this. I have made it clear that I truly believe that Amazon will eventually require all publishers, under a certain sales volume, to use their printing service if they want to sell on Amazon. This would include both Author House and IUniverse, who currently use the same Lightning Source/Ingram program as most of the other POD/Subsidy/Vanity publishers. On one level, the combined Author House/IUniverse organization competes with the two Amazon companies, Book Surge and Create Space. On the other hand, with 1000 titles per month, they are a very large customer of Amazon. My prediction is that the same money people from Author House will buy whatever exists of the subsidy publisher venture Book Surge. At the same time, I predict that they will make a deal with the printing part of the organization to print all of their titles, leaving Lightning Source/Ingram without a chair when the music stops. In the meantime CreateSpace is going head to head with Lulu for the 1.8 copy per press run business. I can’t believe that the money guys at Author House don’t have their eye on that business as well. The way Amazon or Author House/IUniverse can do an “end around” on that business is to buy the printer who prints all the Lulu titles…. But that’s another article all together. Keep your eye on this column. I’ll keep you up on all the developments, real or imagined, in this as well as the rest of the self-publishing business. See you next month.
Last 5 posts by Ron Pramschufer
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September 20th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
[...] SelfPublishing.com has a good article analyzing the move. I’m interested in seeing how Lulu approaches this new challenge. [...]
September 21st, 2007 at 11:09 am
Ron: Your column explained better than Outskirts Press, did as to why my book ,still in print, appeared on Amazon. My question, that they didn’t answer is: How could there be “used” copies of my book that Amazon is offering for sale, when the book isn’t even printed yet – I don’t have a copy myself
September 21st, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Ron, very insightful stuff although I would like to address your last paragraph specifically. But before I do, I’ll also answer Susan’s question for you about the “used copies” – these are Marketplace listings, Susan. Amazon marketplace is where 3rd party bookstores try to attract business by using Amazon’s eyeballs. Since POD books are available to order by anyone with a connection to Ingram, marketplace vendors lists books for sale even before they own them. When (or should I say “if”) they get an order, they order the book through Ingram just as Amazon would. At that point the POD book is printed. Although, what usually happens is that the vendors refuse the POD order by saying the book is out of inventory (because it usually costs them more to buy new from Ingram than they are listing it for sale). They’re just using this as a marketing vechile for their business.
Onto the last paragraph from Ron. In my opinion AuthorHouse and iUniverse joined forces to take on the competition that IS Amazon/Booksurge/CreateSpace. AuthorHouse cannot buy “whatever exists of the Booksurge publishing venture” because Booksurge is not for sale. Amazon acquired them in 2005. There also is not a separate printing arm off from LightningSource/Ingram. LightningSource IS the printing arm of Ingram. Lulu prints at two places (at Lightning Source fot their books that are distributed through their global distribution program) and Color Centric for those books (the majority) that are not. AuthorSolutions buying ColorCentric would be a good move. In fact, AuthorSoultions buying the top 5 PODs after iUniverse would be a good move (Xlibris, Trafford, Outskirts Press, Xulon, Tate).
Ingram has one ace in its hole that Amazon, Booksurge, and CreateSpace lack and that is distribution through Ingram. Tell a writer that with Create space he can get his book on Amazon or through Lulu he can get his book on Amazon AND Barnes & Noble, that author is usually willing to pay $99 for the latter.
Speaking of Lulu and CreateSpace going head-to-head, AuthorSolutions (the “entity” that now features AuthorHouse AND iUniverse) does have a player in that field,called WordClay.
My question is, what sort of attractive business model is it where there are no up-front fees and each book averages 1.8 copies sold? That’s not profitable – why copy it? When you consider the bandwidth and customer service costs associated with 1 million registered users, Lulu is on the losing end of a little thing I like to call business reality (known in other parts of the world as “math”).
PODdy Mouth
http://poddymouth.wordpress.com
September 21st, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Perhaps buying IUniverse will help them to get more books published on time with quality formatting. They had my book for two years without a single contact from the special team that was to be assigned. I designed my cover, sent it to them, the young lady said she didn’t like it and changed it to white with a big red stripe. This came after the argument from them that a white book would not be acceptable.
After several rejected galleys, I went with another publisher. So far so good. I’ll let you know.
September 21st, 2007 at 1:12 pm
I’m glad I could provide your POD book with a review, albeit a null version since I didn’t really get it. At least it helped you track Amazon’s changes to your listing.
I also find the changes in the POD world interesting, and appreciate your articles keeping track of it. It is going to stay very interesting to watch how the book industry evolves given the way technology is moving.
Take care,
Dan T. Davis
http://www.secondstar.us
September 22nd, 2007 at 5:48 am
It is interesting to see the results of three POD companies pitted against each other in a true test. I still think RJ communications gives you the most bang for your buck, that’s why I chose them to print and distribute my upcoming book. In the earlier comment, Susan mentions her book appearing on Amazon before it went to press, an even stranger thing happened to me: a couple of weeks after I had assigned an ISBN to my book through Bowker, Barnes and Nobel began listing it available for pre-order at a discount! It shocked me, considering the book was still being edited at the time and I had no distribution. Anyone know why this happens?
September 22nd, 2007 at 11:19 am
I think the thing that authors should be leery of is companies that start lying as a practice to spin opinion. It’s very much like what has happened in government as well and it always leads to corrupt practices. A believable lie is powerful and therefore irresistible to obtain business goals. It’s intellectual bullying. My point is, if they will lie to gain the simplest of objectives, why would they be a good business partner to you?
Amazon is constantly bending the truth to control opinion on their site. When my first book appeared on Amazon it was listed as a single-run printing that would take several weeks to be received, which was untrue. Infinity was the publisher who has their own printing shop and prints on demand. My experience is they can print and ship much faster than Amazon can.
I sent a letter to Amazon explaining that the listing was deceptive and would hurt sales. It makes people think twice about buying a book that would be “very hard to receive in a timely manner.” They changed the listing to normal shipping times, but added that the book could also be purchased in used format – not true again. All my books are published by Infinity Publishing that prints the books as soon as the electronic order hits their computer. There are no used copies around. This was done to masquerade discounts, I must assume. Used verses discounted sounds better, I guess.
The next thing Amazon did was remove a review a friend of mind made that favored the book. Then when other people that read the books tried to make a review they were blocked, because they hadn’t purchased the book from Amazon even though their criteria for a review was only, “I own the book.” It doesn’t require the purchase from Amazon. I queried them on this practice as well and they lifted the restriction.
The problem lies in the fact that Amazon is now in the publishing business and not just a distribution outlet. Now they feel the need to sway markets. It’s a conflict of interest that leads to deceptive practices. They receive the largest discount of anyone in the publishing chain. They shouldn’t be so greedy. Most authors are lucky to receive 10% of retail, Ingram sees 12 to 20%, and retailers like Amazon see 40%. The rest goes to the original publisher.
It is so slanted against the author that I recommend buyers go to the publisher by all means and avoid Amazon. I receive three times the royalty this way that would otherwise disappear into Amazon. So far I have never seen discounted books from Amazon inside this 40% margin, so they are taking the whole thing unless disguised as used books. All of this is to the disadvantage of the author. I do realize books that have been on the market for a long time have used components and they are listed and distributed by Amazon as such, but brand new books are treated the same way.
Then comes the next wave of bullies on the block – the larger self-publishers that are merging and downsizing, wielding very high costs and complex contracts, getting ever bigger, and owned by big corporations, heading toward shady practices as well, I would predict. How can you justify multiple companies or sub-companies within a corporate entity that all do the exact same job in the same facilities? Does this not smack of some sort of groundwork for deception? Enron was the champion of such practices to hide loses. It makes one wonder.
My whole point of view and advice to authors, since you stand alone, unprotected in the business world, is to avoid these complex entities or you will be taken to the cleaners. There is a movement afoot for self-published authors. Take advantage of it. See AuthorNation.com or NothingBinding.com. The idea is to provide unfettered books to the public at a fair price from the author to the buyer – no monkey business.
September 22nd, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I’d like to answer Mark Probst’s question. Barnes & Noble take their information from Bowker’s listing of books. If you assigned an ISBN to your book, Bowker has the information and Barnes & Noble will start listing your book. Don’t be shocked, be happy. As this way, your book will get some pre-publication attention and might start generating sales even before it’s even ready!
September 24th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Ron,
I think you\’ve nailed the merger/acquisition world of POD to a \”T\”. As long as there are people who are wiling to spend their hard earned money on their dream – there are people who are willing to take it. I\’ve done it the hard way three times. The first being with 1stBooks (Author House) and finally totally independent. Being an “indie” is the other option for people who want to self-publish. It’s a lot more work, but in the long run is far less expensive than Author House or iUniverse. I test ran my formula with my latest book, When The Force Isn’t With You and was extremely pleased with both the economics and the result. I would love to share this process with you and your readers if you are interested.
Regards,
Rich Neumann
We would love to hear of your experiences. It\’s a real \”hot button\” subject that needs some realty mixed in with all the hype.
Ron
September 25th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
About your Createspace experience. ^_^ You got the book, and…how was it? How was the binding? Print quality?
I\’m about to use Createspace in order produce a graphic novel, and then a novel [the mode works for me because I create a certain sort of erotica, and my buying market is primarily centered at Amazon]. I\’m curious about their production values are of interest to me.
^_^
Tina
Interesting question. The CreateSpace final product was not bad, for digital printing. Of the three I tested, Lulu actually had the best quality, followed by CreateSpace (BookSurge) and then by Lightning Source. To be honest, I don\’t associate \”quality\” with any of them. If I were you, I would try it and order a copy for yourself. Remember that you sign that you will accept returns with CreateSpace so if your customers are unhappy with the quality, they return the book and it comes out of your pocket. This is the biggest difference between going with CreateSpace vs. Lulu or other LSI reseller. I really think that authors, who are serious about publishing, should print an offset run (500-1000) for their primary sales and only use POD to supplement their other marketing activities.
Ron
September 25th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
I write for a very small niche audience, and so publishing 500 copies of anything and keeping them on hand, would be ridiculous for me. In most cases your advice is great, if I were making mainstream material, I could move the stock at conventions, or online outlets that sell to ‘everyone’; but the nature of the material I create, limits me on that front. Also, I’m a known author in the field of the ‘certain erotica’ I write, and most who’ve bought my work have done so through Amazon—this is why LuLu wouldn’t work for me because my market doesn’t shop there. ^_^
As for why I’m self-publishing: I’m trying to produce work that comes from me, and not made for my publishers [I still love them, and work for them, but I'm essentially writing for their market goals, and not always my creative ones. ^_-]
Thanks you for your advice though. I find your articles very helpful, including this one! I’ve spoken to one young man at Createspace so far [trying to hammer out the details on a graphic novel submission] so I think it’s going to be trial and error, and hope they get it right in at least ‘two proofs’. I’ve found, through dealings with my publishers that with graphic novels, even the offset printers run them through a rigorous and pricey proofing process until ‘everyone’ gets it right. I’m used to digital pre-press being very important with my publishers, before it even makes it to the printer; this helps them reduce the possibility of returns due to quality issues. Thanks for heads up about their ‘returns’ policy.
-Tina
November 13th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Dear Ron,
I so admire your tenacity regarding this complicated field. I think that you do a temendous service to writers everywhere!
I have published with Author House twice and am quite pleased with the quality of work they do. I Universe and Author House will make a very good team. They both do superior work. I have been disappointed in Lulu mainly because they are so complicated.
But, heck,what do I know? This business is so complicated and cut-throat, I am surprised that anything gets accomplished at all.
The advice I can render to anyone who wants to write is don’t quit your day job.
December 4th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Ron, I think the merger is a good thing, I blogged about this very topic on http://tombritt.com. The self-publishing (not vanity/subsidy press) industry has come a long way and the long-term stakes are high. Look at AuthorHouse’s http://wordclay.com and compare it to lulu.com or createspace.com.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Dear Ron,
My second book is finally out! I used Author House again. This time, I was not given the same rep to assist me through the process. Things were confused because of it. I felt that the new rep didn’t care about me at all. They have a huge turnover rate as the old rep had left. Everytime you call, you get a new person.
My cover was an ordeal. I spent a good amount of time explaining to the “design team” faxing them examples of simple ideas I had for the cover. I then find out it was too complicated for them. ( a simple sketch artist was needed. )
I was told to hire my own cover designer. I did. I received no compensation for this. They wern’t even planning on going to plan B.
When I asked for compensation of a measly $100.00 credit, I was told by my rep,” No Way”. I tried to go over his head to no avail.
I also was told by him to “send in my manuscript ‘as is’ and they will fix the mistakes.” (I had already hired an editor but I did have errors and hoped a simple word processor could fix it all. It cost me almost $500.00 more! )
I must insist these were my mistakes because my independent editor bailed too soon.
I will say that had a great young lady work very hard for me at Author House to correct my mistakes. (Actually, I don’t know why she didn’t come over and shoot me.) They were Russian and southern dialect issues. She was patient and professional.
Finally, I was told by Author House that they “found” some original notes from a person I spoke to from the creative team . ( He probably had quit .) I had asked for a slightly smaller book and other minor features such as clip artwork over the chapter numbers.
I was given the option of waiting two more weeks to re- edit the entire book because the format as well as the cover would be altered size wise or go with the standard POD size and forgo the clip art. I went with the latter because I was so tired from all of this.
Last but not least: My book came out for sale with Authror ouse before I ever proofed it!
Will I use Author House again? NOT UNLESS I GET
CREDIT FROM ALL OF THESE MISHAPS.
February 14th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Hmmm… we do NOT use Ingrams or Lightning Source or Color Centric. We work with an independent printer that understands POD. We are personally involved in every book that gets created at our company and work hand in hand with authors to help market their work. I published with Author House when they were 1st Books and was so appalled at the lack of customer service, and the discovery that my book was printed in my home town, that I opened my own POD firm, and we do very nicely, because we put clients first.
We sell books through Amazon because a whole lot of people go there to buy books. But, we are also very successful at having our authors push sales through our bookstore – where their royalty is much higher.
The one thing about Amazon that works for me is — they don’t take returns. Since we don’t take returns, that works for me. The traditional publishing world is gradually noticing that POD firms don’t have to warehouse and grind books to pulp. And, our books never have to go out of print.
So, Amazon is helping kill the return system, which is the only reason physical bookstores don’t carry POD books. Once the return system is dead… we’ll be in all the bookstores. Or, everything will be online.