Chapter Nine
How to Turn Your eBooks into Bound Books
When you begin telling all of your friends and family about the fact that you are now a "published" author you are going to hear a response like, "when are you going to publish a real book?"
Some individuals will never get over the fact that publishing is changing very quickly. Electronic books are taking over.
Now you can publish your bound books on-demand and never have to worry about getting stuck with a garage full of excess inventory.
This is the next best thing to publishing an eBook!
Books-on-demand are the digital files taken from your eBooks that are converted and turned into trade paperback books. In the publishing industry when books are published on demand the publisher of that style of book is called a POD. He is a Print-On-Demand publisher.
Print-On-Demand books look exactly like any 5"x7," 6"x9" or 8 1/2" x11" books, that you find selling in any traditional brick and mortar bookstore.
The major difference is that the POD books were printed one at a time. Instead of using an offset printing press, the book pages were digitized and stored in a high quality copy machine, collated and then perfect bound on another machine.
One of the largest book wholesalers, Ingram, provides books on demand to bookstores and distributors throughout the world.
What this means is that if you can somehow get your eBook printed on demand and placed into the Ingram data base, people can order your book from almost any bookstore and have it delivered within a day or two.
The book does not sit in a warehouse collecting dust and becoming a warehousing problem. The book is printed as it is ordered.
Since publishing on-demand realizes huge savings for bookstores and distributors everywhere, books on demand printed by the POD's are becoming very popular.
Internet bookstores like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble cut into the sales of traditional bookstores.
The major reason is that they can carry many more titles. A typical brick and mortar bookstore cannot afford to invest and inventory every book in print.
Internet bookstores can order from one centralized location and make special ordering of books very efficient for their customers.
As book wholesalers like Ingram carry more POD titles, they will be able to service bookstores in a much more efficient manner. Book wholesalers will be able to carry a greater variety of books as well as providing publishing and delivery of books within a day or two.
Soon Print-On-Demand books will be available at the bookstore level as well. Make sure you follow this industry very closely!
So, how can you participate in getting your eBook sold in a printed-on-demand environment? Where can you get it produced for a reasonable cost and at the same time get national distribution?
How can you keep your print and electronic publishing rights to capitalize on opportunities that will present themselves very soon?
Your questions will be answered in Chapter Ten.
Summary:
Print-On-Demand books allow you to expand into a huge market without the huge financial risk associated with traditional book printing.
Print-On-Demand books are available at the wholesale level with Ingram, one of the largest book wholesalers in the world.
Print-On-Demand machines will soon be available in many bookstores as well. Make sure you check out this option for publishing your books!