How Self-Publishing Companies Mark-Up Book Printing Costs
Mill City Press is the only self-publishing company that doesn´t mark up the printing costs of books. Our authors pay what we pay for book printing. Period.
Keep reading and you´ll understand how our commitment to never mark up the printing costs of your book will save you hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars.
Visit any other self-publishing company´s website and you´ll see what they tell authors it costs to print a book, usually in the form of how much of a discount the author receives when he or she orders copies of his or her own book.
On average, one 200 page, 5.5 x 8.5 paperback, with a laminated, full color cover costs a self-publishing company $3.90 to print ($.015 per page plus $.90 for the cover).
Below is a chart that shows you:
- How much other self-publishing companies pay to print the above book
- How much they tell authors it cost to print a copy of the author´s book; and
- How much the publisher makes each time an author´s book is printed (this doesn´t include what they make in royalties).
|
Publisher
|
Actual Print Cost of 200 page, 8.5 x 5.5. paperback
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Cost at which Author can purchase book at a discount from Publisher
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Printing profit Publisher makes EACH time a book ordered (by public or Author)
|
Profit Publisher makes when 200 books printed.
|
|
Mill City Press
|
$3.90
|
$3.90
|
$0
|
$0
|
|
iUniverse*
|
$3.90
|
$10.37 (35% off retail price, for orders of 6-19 books)*
|
$6.47
|
$1,294
|
|
Lulu.com
|
$3.90
|
$8.53**
|
$4.63
|
$926
|
|
Trafford
|
$3.90
|
$8.37****
|
$4.47
|
$894
|
|
Xlibris
|
$3.90
|
$13.19
|
$9.29
|
$1,858
|
|
Authorhouse
|
$3.90
|
$9.71*****
|
$5.81
|
$1,162
|
Since most self-publishing companies use the same book printers and pay the same amount to print a book, the cost to the author shouldn´t vary from publisher to publisher. Right? Sadly, the chart above demonstrates otherwise.
Mill City Press is the only self-publishing company that doesn´t make a profit every time your book is printed. By inflating print costs and taking royalties, most self-publishing companies ensure that the only one profiting from your book sales is the publisher.
Mill City Press believes that the author should be the one who profits from their book, not the publisher.
At Mill City Press, you pay the exact wholesale price that we pay. We pass the pricing the printer gives us directly to our authors. There is no mark-up at all.
You can order as little as one book if you wish and still pay exactly what the printer charges us. (On all orders after the initial one, we do charge a fee of $23 to cover our administrative time to submit and track the order for you, but that´s it).
Publish Your Book Now Without Overpaying for Book Printing
If you are already a Mill City Press author, click here to learn about a smart way to manage book reprints.
* http://www.iuniverse.com/how-we-work/pricing-royalties/author-discounts.htm
** http://www.lulu.com/help/index.php?fSymbol=book_pricing
*** http://outskirtspress.com/calculator.php
**** http://www2.trafford.com/calc/main.htm
***** http://www2.xlibris.com/bookpricing/chart2.pdf
****** taken from section on Authorhouse in The Fine Print of Self-Publishing (p.184)
NOTE: the fees charged by the publishers listed here were current as of 7/2006. Their fees / prices for book printing may have changed.
