World Changes Again

[bryant]

Amazon now has a Print on Demand service. The pricing is a bit more complex than the competition (namely, Lulu), but everything gets an ISBN and you can publish into Amazon. Which is pretty huge.

I don’t think this is a Lulu killer, but it’ll definitely be competition, which hopefully will spur both companies to improve.

Originally published at Imaginary Vestibule.

Comments

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

Holy shit.

Those prices tell me it could very well be a Lulu killer. I ran the per-unit numbers on Spirit, and it definitely comes in a buck or two less than Lulu's costs.

And actually, the pricing isn't that much different in complexity from Lulu. Lulu just obfuscates some of the formulae with handy-dandy calculator widgets.

[bryant]

Yeah, I was thinking the prices would often but not always work out to be cheaper. Given that Amazon's using a royalty percentage as part of the cost, a lot depends on how much of a profit the author's going for -- people who want to make minimal money will do better at Lulu, yah?

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

Let's get specific.

Spirit of the Century, 424 page book, sells at $30. I'm not currently selling it direct at Lulu.

LULU
Manufacturing Cost Per Unit: $13.01
Gross Revenue per $30 sale: $16.99
Lulu's Cut (20% of Gross): $3.40
Net revenue: $13.59

AMAZON
Manufacturing Cost Per Unit: $11.63 ($1.38 less)
Gross Revenue per $30 sale: $18.37
Amazon's Amazon-Store Cut (30% of gross[*]): $5.51
Net revenue: $12.86 ($0.73 less)

[*] I'm assuming it's "of gross". If it's "of sale price", then Amazon's cut is completely non-competitive.

For less than a buck "lost" per sale, I can publish SOTC such that it shows up on Amazon and (if I didn't already have an ISBN for SOTC) an ISBN on my book, too. A lot of folks are going to see that as awesome-- especially when Amazon's cut drops to 20% if you're selling through one of their e-Stores (that's another assumption; I am not clear on what qualifies for the e-Store 20% cut).

[cityofbeige.livejournal.com]

I think the whole Amazon will register your ISBN for you will be huge to most people interested in publishing their own stuff... it sort of gives your book more "legitimacy", and you don't have to deal with finding out how to get one or how to pay for it.

According to the US ISBN agency, 10 of them cost at least $275.00, at $27.50 per. But if you were to register a ton of them (such as 1000), the price per ISBN drops to a mere $1.75. The fact that Amazon will probably put in a large number of requests from their customers, the cost of this extra service will be negligible, and can easily be covered by the higher cut fee of 30%.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

[*] I'm assuming it's "of gross". If it's "of sale price", then Amazon's cut is completely non-competitive.

If you click on their example/more info button they clear that up.

[drivingblind.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're completely right. It's about list price, which means my calculations above are in error.

I talk about this more over on my LJ:

http://drivingblind.livejournal.com/295398.html

[cityofbeige.livejournal.com]

I've read about Amazon or B&N contemplating on doing a Print on Demand thing a few years ago. The article said that the printing machines to pump out books have gotten so small, that you could fit them in a small room (kind of like the 1 hour photo labs), and that B&N would be smart if they had a Print on Demand service, where you could place an order to print the book at your local B&N and pick it up.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Rapid POD could apparently load theirs onto a leaky truck.

Here's a web page with info on the different Xerox units:

http://www.xerox.com/digital-printing/printers/print-on-demand/enus.html

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

That's crazily more expensive than Lighting Source, and Amazon carries those books too. The only diff is that with Lightning Source you have to provide your own ISBNs.

[bryant]

Way different niche, though. Lightning Source is great for publishers, and if I were doing anything largescale I'd use them. On the other hand, for someone who just wants to get their book out there with minimal fuss, it's the wrong choice. No instant gratification, you need to get your own ISBNs, etc., etc.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Actually, the submission procedures and turn around times are about the same. Really, the only difference is that you have to provide you own ISBN and pay about half as much.

So what's large scale now? More than 50 books?

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

Yay, one more thing I knew about from my time at Amazon that is now out of NDA space! (Not that I knew much, but I knew they bought the technology.)

What I really want to see happen is for some of the big publishers, like a Del Ray, to drop their back catalog into one of these puppies. Want that never-reprinted 1948 novel by E.E. Doc Smith? Sure, we can print you one!

It is inevitable, and will be wonderful. (Probably a lot of work to get it started, but at the very least, books published now should never have to go out of print.)