Today, really this entire week, was big.
About five minutes ago, I submitted “Marked: A Dark Fantasy Novella” for copyright protection with the U.S. Copyright Office. As a permanently free e-book offering, “Marked” will hopefully traverse the fantasy world unrestrained. (All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter!)
However, I decided that my faithful wonderful beta readers needed hard copies, and if I established a good setup for printing, I might as well offer them for sale to those who want them. Right?
So I made the decision to do print-on-demand for softcover books, assigned another ISBN (for the different format), and investigated printers.
At this point, I’m signed up for both Amazon Kindle Direct Printing (KDP) and Ingram Spark, but will likely begin with Amazon KDP. Why? A few reasons:
- Amazon allows unlimited file changes and charges no set-up fee
- Amazon has slightly cheaper printing costs for paperbacks
- Amazon is better at providing immediate shipping and “keeping stock” for their own printer than through their partnership with Ingram Spark, even though they are both print-on-demand
Ingram Spark would be a better option for distributing to bookstores, libraries, and international distributors, but again that’s not really the immediate goal for “Marked.”
I simply want an easy way to get hard copies in the hands of my fans who love the e-book.
Once I get rolling on the printing process for “Liberation,” where the pricing and distribution matter far more, I will likely re-assess. I’d also like to do special editions and sell them through this website, as part of a big Kickstarter campaign.
In the mean time, if you want a free copy of “Marked” for your phone or Kindle, that’s easy! Just sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll have it in less than a month-and-a-half.