Print on Demand (POD) self-publishing – this opens new avenues for authors to get published with very little expense. You pay cut-rate costs for production and printing and MAYBE you get some marketing. Remember: You get what you pay for. POD books are digitally printed and stored. This is a plus. No warehousing fees. However, use POD for the following reasons only: if you have a small book of 50 to 150 pages, if you are doing a short run of 300 books or less, if you want to test the waters to see if your book will sell before you go to a much larger off-set printing run, or if you simply cannot afford to publish many books. Most POD publishers are only printers running a publishing mill. Their expertise is in printing, not publishing. That is how they make their legitimate living, printing books for weekend publishers. So don’t complain if your book doesn’t sell. Remember: You get what you pay for. There is no free lunch and if the offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. Think quality! This is your book, so invest in it wisely. Don’t cut corners to save bucks because it will show somewhere in the final product. Look up on the Internet “Quality self-publishers” to find a top notch POD book publisher and avoid the scam artists with their hidden hooks. Check out Collections Canada www.collectionscanada.ca and Access Copyright www.accesscopyright.ca for ISBN and copyright information.

Lastly, there is One-Stop-Shop self-publishing. This type of publishing offers the whole package – the three “Ps” of publishing: production, printing and promotion. Most publishing except for traditional royalty publishing, where there is publisher’s money to spend on marketing and sales, does not have the money to adequately market your book. Marketing is critical. Without the proper promotion of your book it will not get any exposure or visibility. Most One-Stop-Shop self-publishers should have a solid marketing and promotional program. If they don’t, then be smart, don’t publish with them.

Step Two - Choose the publisher which best suits your needs and pocketbook. Your initial step is to find the proper method of publishing your book. Then, without jumping the gun or going for that first offer (which you probably think is a great deal) do some research on the Internet to find out who is who, and what publishers do what and for how much. Don’t expect any deals. Remember: you get what you pay for. We can’t say that enough. Don’t expect any publisher to invest in your work if you are not willing to invest in your own work – why should they? You are either confident in the publisher you select or you’re not. If you have any second doubts, then don’t publish with them. Ask the critical questions which pin publishers down to truthful specific answers. Get all of your publishing work (production, printing and promotion) done with one publisher. So when you are deciding to spend thousands of dollars to publish, do it right – do it all under one roof! If it sounds too good to be true ...it is! And save money for advertising.

Finally, don’t look for guarantees in sales. Nobody has a crystal ball to confirm the number of sales you will get. When selecting a publisher, don’t let them tell you how well you will do, because they simply don’t know. Promises for sales are myths. If you are promised good sales, well, “a fool is quickly parted with his money,” Those are God’s words not ours. When you become involved in the promotional end with your new publisher, you will need money for advertising. Check with your publisher and see how many avenues for publicity they are using. SEVERAL should be the answer, along with your publisher telling you what they are. Read the small print, you don’t need any surprises.

Your next consideration is the production phase of publishing your book and what you should expect. It is much more than you may realize. It is not a simple edit, proof and spell check, then off to press. So, be ready to take notes!

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