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Hi, guys.
I have a question about your experience with print on demand. I want to print about 15 books for a start, hardcover. Are there some trustworthy but cheap websites that will print and mail them to me?
I have a book with different fonts and colorful illustrations embedded into the text body, about 115 pages, 6x9 inches, 15x20 cm.The cover is very colorful.
I hear, Amazon does that, but turning such a book into MOBI was a huge pain in the lower back, how is their print-on-demand quality?

I don't know of any way to make a cheap hardcover, unless you squeeze it down to as few pages as possible, and that won't look good. I use Lulu, and I'm impressed with their quality. Their prices, if you buy from their site, seem reasonable. You can get an estimate using their website to calculate the price from the materials you want to use and the number of pages. I use the same document and format as with my paperbacks

I'm also quite happy with Lulu - there was a time when their quality was a bit less consistent in the UK than in the US, but they seem fine now. As Ken says, they have a handy calculator. BookBaby will also print for you now, though I suspect that for an initial load of 15, Lulu would be better.

They often have brief promotions where they offer (say) 20% off print books for a 24-hour period, or free postage for a weekend; so it could be worth making sure you are getting these promotions and placing your order when there's one going on.

Ingram does hardcover as well.

When I looked at Ingram, they had an up-front cost that you had to pay if you ordered less than 50 books. I've heard they waive the charge at certain times of the year, but it's why I went with Lulu.

Yes, Ingram has a title set-up fee. If you are outside of the US, you may make that back in one delivery, by not getting dinged at the border for taxes, duty, handling, etc. like you do with Createspace. I haven't used Lulu (yet) and can't speak to how they handle these things.

Thank you for your quick and consistent replies! I'll definitely try Lulu!.. And consider paperback...
But what about Amazon? Has anyone tried it yet?

Createspace is the company that does the print on demand that is affiliated to Amazon. So far, I've been very satisfied with what they did, be it my own books or the 30+ indie books I have that have been printed with that company. They do not do hardcover though and that's probably why everyone is recommending other companies.

Witch Createspace, you pay nothing to publish and if you order directly from them as the author, you get them at print cost plus postage fees. No quantity limit. You just save a bit more on shipping if you buy a bigger quantity just like most other shipments.

P.D. wrote: "Yes, Ingram has a title set-up fee. If you are outside of the US, you may make that back in one delivery, by not getting dinged at the border for taxes, duty, handling, etc. like you do with Create..."

Lulu print in a number of locations so delivery is at local charges and should be mostly duty-free.

I've just used Createspace to publish my book in Germany. As G.G. mentioned, they only offer paperback. But my experience with CS was really great. I think they are under so much pressure to have good customer service with all the competition out there.

The online previewer function was VERY helpful, considering that I didn't want to order too many proof copies with international postage. I ended up ordering 2 proof copies (one where the page numbers were way off-- my bad--, the second was fine). Both times, I was relieved that the cover was perfect, and the interior (besides my own errors) was very solid and professional-feeling. Also, my proofs and my author's copies actually arrived one day early in Germany from CS's printers in South Carolina. Before that I had read horror stories about shipping delays. I didn't have that problem.

The production cost of your book will be more expensive because you have color images embedded in the interior. Once you have one color image, the whole book has to be printed "color." A colorful cover however makes no price difference. A friend of mine published a color photography book on CS and the quality was very professional.

Duty-wise, I only paid 4.50 EUR for 30 books ($5/book) in Germany.

Mike wrote: "Lulu print in a number of locations so delivery is at local charges and should be mostly duty-free."

Good to know. I'm doing a spiral-bound soon, and they are the only ones who do that, so I'll be using them for that project!

Have you tried the IngramSpark ship + print calculator, as you can change it from hardback to perfect bound to see the difference in pricing. However you must use Indesign for the files to make the PDF. Lulu are easier and handy for those in northern hemisphere.

I used CreateSpace, and found the formatting was very easy to do. Load up the template into LibreOffice, add content, and hit the PDF button.

I am just using Createspace for my paperback.
It's super easy (once you choose the trim size and paper). Just download their formatted page, copy and paste your book in. Go through and make sure it looks right. Then upload into the system. You then get the previewer to double check, and then order a proof.

One thing about these (and others) I've been told is that if you sell books on their own site you get higher royalties than when they're sold through Amazon. Just something to bear in mind when you're setting your price.

xx

Lots of helpful hints on here, and some people said about hardbacks: /topic/show/...

Mike wrote: "P.D. wrote: "Yes, Ingram has a title set-up fee. If you are outside of the US, you may make that back in one delivery, by not getting dinged at the border for taxes, duty, handling, etc. like you d..."

Audrey wrote: "I've just used Createspace to publish my book in Germany. As G.G. mentioned, they only offer paperback. But my experience with CS was really great. I think they are under so much pressure to have g..."

Hi. I'm living in Germany as well. I will be using Createspace. I have heard horror stories about the amount of time it takes to get proof copies sent to Germany. Yours only took a couple of days or did I read that wrong? I have read things that it took weeks. Interesting thing I was told to do is publish the book, then order a copy, once it's received, use that as the proof. If something is wrong, unpublish it. The copy will come from a European distributor not from the US. Hence gaining time. Anybody have experience with that?

I'm not in Germany, I'm in Canada. Their predicted delivery time is 3 weeks but it usually gets here in 2 days. I can only repeat what I've heard, that Ingram is better for those outside of North America.

Just to say the OP wanted to print hardcover - CreateSpace doesn't do that.

Createspace also offers the opportunity to proofread your book online.

Hi, guys. Thank you all!
I found the address of ISBN office in my country, but it's full of bureaucracy... I'm trying to fill the information correctly now. They say I'll need several ISBNs for each paper/hardcover/ebook version and each translation.
I don't use createspace because they don't offer all the design options I need, but I found them on ingram.
Thank you, you've been of great help in my time of confusion :)