Cage Plans
I’ve been considering releasing some of my reptile cage designs in a dead tree and ebook format. For this idea I’ve been exploring print on demand printing services as I am not well known enough or have a product large enough to have a real chance at being accepted by a publisher. While exploring the world of print on demand a few facts, warnings and choices have manifested themselves.
Someone wanting to publish via print on demand has about 12 major companies to choose from. Each of these companies have their own set of pros and cons. Some are backed by large corporations such as Booksurge backed by Amazon.com while others are independent. Some require a package fee where others only charge on a copy-by-copy basis.
For my project I cannot justify paying a package fee, I don’t know how many copies I will sell as the niche is fairly small and I don’t see the sales outweighing the cost with such a service. Due to this my choices of POD companies are limited.
I have decided thus far on lulu.com. Lulu’s CEO is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young which is a bit ironic to me as it makes some of my interests come full circle. The cost is .02¢ per black and white page and .15¢ per color page. Lulu also has the ability to have an ISBN for the book, which is great because I would like to sell on sites like Amazon.
I’m still formatting the book and working with the design progress among other projects but it is something I have found fairly interesting.
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