Can someone explain to me how POD and subsidy publishing works? POD is Print On Demand. It is a technology. It produces commercially acceptable work. It is used, thorough a few digital printers for a true one-order=one- book system with distribution through wholesale databases and online retail stores. Any publisher can use one of these services. IIRC, some 4 million books were produced this way last year.

So called “POD self-publishing companies” (actually subsidy publishers) are not, per se, a bad thing. However the substantial majority, especially among the most popular, operate with various levels of unethical behavior.

Essentially, the unethical subsidy publishers prey on the hopes and dreams of authors to become “successful.” Many, embarrassed at their naivety, neither complain to government authorities nor admit to friends and family — or to other potential victims — that they were “taken.”

Subsidy publishers are easy, fast, and sometimes cheap — but they are also often a mistake. You pay up front, use the publisher’s ISBN, and most use a “POD” business model so you only print books as you need them.

If an author simply wants to hold a book of their work in their hands (a valid desire) then a subsidy publisher is a reasonable choice, the cheaper the better. If an author realizes that a book they’ve written does not have a market beyond 100 or so copies, then a subsidy publisher is a valid choice. However, if the author has other aspirations, then the choice quickly becomes problematical.

The best candidates for subsidy publishing are books that have little or no market interest. Typical candidates are church cook books, poetry (that generally has little market potential), family histories, or memoirs by someone who has done nothing memorable.

The immediate down side to subsidy publishing is that • You will have no credibility as a published author. Only those few people who don’t recognize the subsidy publisher’s name won’t immediately know you used a subsidy publisher.

• You will not get reviewed by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal or any of the other important pre-publication reviewers.

• Few, if any, reputable review publications will review the book.

• You will not get your book into mainstream distribution.
Booksellers are very unlikely to order the book, although you might get a local store to accept a few copies as “local author” if they feel sorry enough for you.

• Most of the time, the books will be priced above the market for similar sized books in a particular genre. Since subsidy published books include an extra profit for the publisher, the common trade discounts are not possible, so either the book will be sold with “short” discounts (making retailers unwilling to stock it) or at in inflated price to cover the necessary discounts in the supply channel (overpriced books don’t sell).

• Many subsidy publishers needlessly tie up your book with license terms that cut them in if you resell the book to another publisher (one wants 10% of any advance you get) or otherwise make it difficult to withdraw the book and republish it for yourself. There are a few who offer reasonable, time limited, non-exclusive contracts.

• Production work is usually mediocre, at best, and incompetent at worst. And there may be extra expenses not covered in the basic charge. Extra charges for cover design, charges from copyright registration, charges for using the publisher’s ISBN are often “required” options.  Even after you pay for a cover design, etc, if you republish, you may not “own” the design and will have to pay additional extra charges for your typeset interior and cover files — or be forced to hire someone to do it over. Be sure to check the contract for these “extras” and to see if any rights of use are transferred to you for artwork you pay for.

• You won’t sell many books. Paraphrasing from the New York Times (March 1, 2004) article, “Got a Book in You?…”, they report: Many titles sell just 150 to 175 copies. [Figures I’ve derived from subsidy publisher press releases suggest 40 to 100 copies.] Many authors are happy to pay for 50 or 100 copies to give or sell to family and friends. Forty percent of iUniverse’s sales are made directly to the authors. Susan Driscoll, president and CEO of iUniverse, is quoted in the article as saying: only 84 titles out of 17,000 published by iUniverse have sold more than 500 copies — and only a half-dozen have made it to Barnes & Noble store shelves.
(While this article is now several years old, there’s no indication that the situation for authors has improved. — about 1/2 of 1% of iUniverse books achieve sales above 500 copies. Based on press releases from other subsidy publishers, that result is typical.)

Lulu.com was most explicit about its business model. In a 2006 article in the Times (Great Britain), its founder stated the company goal: “… to have a million authors selling 100 copies each, rather than 100 authors selling a million copies each.” Very few Lulu titles have sold even 500 copies.

The less-than-ethical subsidy publishers may call themselves “self publishing companies” — a term that’s clearly an oxymoron. If you don’t own the ISBN, you’re not self publishing. Others may call themselves “POD publishers” — POD — printing on demand — is simply a production method. It’s nothing special that a publisher can claim as a unique idea. Anyone can use POD methods to their own advantage (and actually make money, which can’t be easily done with a subsidy publisher). (See Aaron Shepard’s Aiming at Amazon for instructions on how to do this.)

There are a handful of subsidy published book success stories: A few books have been resold to major publishers. One, Legally Blond, was made into a movie after achieving best seller status. You’ll hear about this and other triumphs — but not about the other 40,000 titles per year where the authors don’t even recoup their set up costs.

Some subsidy publishers claim to not charge, but actually have a variety of costs and fees. One, Morgan James Publishing, claims it doesn’t charge to publish your book — and also claims to pay generous “royalties.” However, they require all authors to take a $5000 “marketing course” before they’ll publish your book. Oh, you also get 10 copies of your book for “free.” (If the marketing course is actually valuable, this may not be a bad deal. I have no way of knowing without spending the $5000 to take the course.)

One of the most notorious subsidy publishers is PublishAmerica. They claim to be a selective, traditional publisher — they pay an advance of $1. That’s right, one dollar. While they claim to be selective, in reality, they publish anything. Some writers have tested their selectivity claim: one submission consisted of the same 30 pages repeated 10 times (to make a 300 page manuscript). PublishAmerica never noticed any problem with the manuscript. Another ‘sting’
manuscript was written as the worst manuscript possible. See <http://www.critters.org/sting/> to read the story of Atlanta Nights by Travis Tea (say that fast — travesty). What PublishAmerica does is they persuade authors to buy lots of copies of their books.  PublishAmerica once even claimed to have a “partnership with the New York Times” (they actually just bought some ad space) and if authors would just buy 500 copies of their book, then they’d be featured in the NYT (ad). Of course, this resulted in zero book sales to any of the authors. See <http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10211> for more about PublishAmerica and its practices.

More generally, unethical subsidy publishers simply offer more than they deliver — but their contract actually doesn’t commit them to deliver much of anything. Extravagant advertising claims are backed up with fine print contract language that specifically negates any advertising claims that may have been made. (Such a deal!)

Many companies offer “marketing packages.” They write rather ordinary media releases and widely send them out — usually to be simply tossed out by the receivers. You may as well put your money in a shredder.  They send review copies (printed at your expense) to reviewers, who dispose of them out-of-hand when they see the subsidy imprint. (The reputable reviewers know who they are.)

I must emphasize that while there are many subsidy publishing scam artists, there are a handful of these publishers who are ethical. So, be sure to read contracts and check references. Be sure to read relevant web sites such as the Predators & Editors™ web site warnings
page:
<http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubwarn.htm>. It has tips to help you recognize the scam publishers (and literary agencies). Also check out the Writer’s Beware web site by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.
<http://www.sfwa.org/beware/>. Finally, visit the National Writer’s Union web site <http://www.nwu.org> and read their information about publishing abuses.

Last 5 posts by Pete Masterson

• Did you read that New York Times article on self-publishing? - February 24th, 2009