Keith, POD (print on demand) is perfect for a group publishing project, because there is no inventory and no one has to take orders or fulfill sales, mail out books, etc. Once the book is uploaded to the POD service, that service takes orders, processes payments, prints and mails out the book, and (at specified intervals) sends any profit to the account holder. There is no upfront cost for using the service; the service provider takes a cut of sales.
There are two common ways to publish POD books: 1) through Amazon Kindle Direct (AKD - which now does paperback books as well as ebooks) or 2) through Lulu. Some other services exist, but I'm unfamiliar with them. When I started doing this about 15 years ago, the only practical way to publish was through Lulu, and I've seen no reason to change. Lulu has its own online bookstore, and one can optionally choose "global distribution" to get a book into other online retailers such as Amazon. Some considerations regarding global distribution: 1) Global distribution from Lulu requires the book to have an ISBN, which may cost money to obtain (the amount varies greatly depending on several factors). If selling only through the Lulu bookstore, an ISBN is optional. I am not sure if an ISBN is required by AKD. 2) The requirements for the quality of the content in submitted PDFs are higher for global distribution. For example, the line weights in some screenshots may be too light to be acceptable, and all transparency needs to be removed. These requirements have become more strict in recent years. I assume they are the same for AKD. 3) The price to buyers is higher for books in global distribution, even for the copies sold through the Lulu bookstore. For these reasons, I have not used global distribution for several years although I did for awhile. I found that I got very few sales through Amazon compared to the sales directly through Lulu. Most people apparently weren't finding the books by searching; they were following links from relevant websites (OOo, LO, or my own sites). So, the first things to decide are: 1) Do you want to sell through Amazon and other online retailers? Or would Lulu Bookstore be enough? 2) Who will be the account holder with whatever service is selected? Once an account is set up, one can publish a book. 3) Who will prepare the files for uploading? 4) Who will create the cover art? 5) Who will do the various publishing steps? These involve uploading a PDF for interior pages, creating and uploading a separate PDF for the cover, inputting other information and making various selections about paper type, black-and-white vs color interiors, pricing, etc.! But first! Do you want to print the book full-page-size (A4) or reduce the page size to something like 6x9-inch, which is a common trade paperback size. The cost of printing full size is much higher than printing smaller pages, but involves an extra step and software that not everyone has. I'm sure there's more that escapes me at the moment. Jean On Fri, Jun 10, 2022 at 3:43 AM Keith N. McKenna <keith.mcke...@comcast.net> wrote: > > Jean Weber wrote: > > Now that the Getting Started Guide for v4.1 is finished, what do you > > think about making printed copies available? As some of you know, I > > did this for OOo (and have been doing it for LO), publishing > > print-on-demand through Lulu .com and selling at only a bit above cost > > price as a service to those users who prefer a book on paper. > > > > Jean > > > Jean; > > In general I would be in favor of it. I myself much prefer a bound book > that I can mark-up and dog-ear pages. > > If you would send me details of all that would be involved, including > any costs associated with it, I cam discuss it with the team, as well as > take it to dev@ or the PMC as needed. > > If others that are following the list have thoughts on this Please feel > free to share them. > > Regards > Keith > > Regards > Keith > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: doc-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: doc-h...@openoffice.apache.org > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: doc-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: doc-h...@openoffice.apache.org
