Print on demand vs. Kickstarter - any advice?

KathrynAdebayo

Hi! It’s really been interesting to see the forum lately - so much to learn from everyone.

I have a question for anyone with any advice or experience in this realm. A bit ago I shared a cover illustration (work-in-progress) for a book that’s been in the works for many years and is in the end stages of its development. The author originally was planning to work with a small publisher, but we recently decided to forgo that and self publish. It’s a bit late in the game to be changing to this route, but I think it’s for the best and is exciting in many ways.

This is a kinda unique book… I’d say it fits into the category of interfaith kids books. It’s 8x10 and full color.

I’m wondering about print on demand (with Ingram Spark and Amazon - for hard cover and paperback) vs. using Kickstarter and doing a traditional print run.

I think the author has in mind a beautiful book that may not be as high quality as he’d like if we use print on demand. I’d love a high quality book too, of course, but I know kickstarters are tricky and hard to pull off. I think either option would require a lot of learning about marketing and finding an audience. The author and I are connected to some rather large communities who may be interested in the book, but we don’t have an email list or even a website at this point.

Does anyone have experience with either of these methods and have advice or opinions to share?

Thanks so much for your time.

Katy

Melissa_Bailey

@KathrynAdebayo there are at least 4 factors that will affect this decision: quality, budget, marketing, and publishing goals.

Quality. If excellent quality is top of the list, offset printing is the way to go. Ingram Spark and KDP have just “ok” print quality. Using a POD (print-on-demand) to print is a dead giveaway for a self-published book. It’s nowhere near the high quality of offset printing, offers less printing options, and PODs require that the last page be kept blank for their use (which isn’t ideal).
Budget. If staying within a tight budget is a priority, POD is much more affordable than offset printing. There is hardly any upfront cost for POD — KDP is free and you can set up a title on Ingram Spark for less than $100. Both offer a free ISBN option, but that’s not something I’d personally recommend, as the POD would be listed as the publisher of the book, and in this case, the author is the publisher. The cost per book is around $4 for paperback on KDP and around $8 per book on Ingram Spark — this doesn’t include shipping. When everything is factored in, an author can expect to make about $1 of profit from the sale of a $17 hardcover book. Offset printing is a higher upfront cost; depending on the size of the print run, thousands of dollars. Still, the cost per book on an order of 500 might be somewhere around $6 and the price goes down the more books you buy. An order of 1000 might be around $4/book, 2000 around $3.75/book, 3000 around $3.50/book, and so on. There’s a much higher profit margin — after taking out the cost of shipping, it’s all profit after that. This way, the investment to produce the book can be earned back more quickly. Granted, that’s if all the books in the order are sold. A temperature-and-humidity-controlled place is also needed to store the books.
Marketing. A book sells only if people know it’s there and available for purchase. Does the author have a solid marketing plan? Are you going to help with marketing? Do they have a team to help with the launch and marketing? What are their plans to get eyes on the book? How and where is it going to be sold? Do they have an audience, platform, or email list? If a marketing plan isn’t in place and/or the author doesn’t have evidence to gamble on a certain number of books being sold (perhaps by a Kickstarter campaign or presales), then POD might be the better option instead of having a bulk order of books printed and having them sit in storage, putting the author deeper in debt.
Publishing goals. What are the author’s publishing goals? Do they want the book to be out in the world — this is a passion project for them and they want the highest quality possible? Or is this a venture where they need to make back the investment they put into creating the book and turn a profit? If they offset print, do they have the time, space, and wherewithal to fulfill and ship orders? Or would they need to find a distributor to handle fulfillment (which cuts into the profit)? Or are they looking for the least amount of effort needed on their part? (That’s usually POD.) Or is the plan to focus locally first, selling at book fairs, libraries, events, farmer’s markets, etc? (If most sales are going to come locally, the books being sold in-person, offset printing is usually the better bet.)

There are lots of different factors to consider, and the best route for one author might be different for another. The latest 3PP podcast is all about self-publishing, where the guys share their perspectives and experiences with self-publishing. Give it a listen. If you or the author are members of SCBWI, The Book (free digital download for all members) has expanded the section on self publishing this year and a self-publishing guide is being released soon.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any questions.

KathrynAdebayo

@Melissa-Bailey-0 Thank you! This is incredibly helpful! You probably spent a long time writing that, and I want to mention how appreciated your time is. I'm going to share these considerations with the author of the book! I'll keep you updated.

Melissa_Bailey

@KathrynAdebayo so glad you found it helpful!

I forgot to mention ... printing prices can vary wildly depending on the printer. The prices I quoted came from IAPC Books' online price calculator. They're a US-based company that works with self-publishers to facilitate overseas offset printing. But there are also other "middleman" companies like that, a ton of US printers, and authors can also deal directly with overseas printers as well.

KathrynAdebayo

@Melissa-Bailey-0 That's a great point. Figuring out which printer to go with if we do use Kickstarter will be an interesting endeavor in itself.