How can you determine the amount of money you will make from each book sale for books printed by Lightning Source Inc. (LSI)? There is no single answer…although there are two formulas that will lead you to your answers.
OK, first, let’s clear up a common misunderstanding among self- and micro-publishers. LSI is not a publisher. They are a digital, print-on-demand PRINTER. This means that you — as a self- or micro-publisher — set your own book’s retail price, its wholesale discount, and its return policy. LSI provides that data to their distribution partners (Ingram Book, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com et al) as well as to other book retailers who have accounts with Ingram Book. There is a $12 annual fee per title to have your books listed in these databases.
When one of those outlets buys a copy of your book, Ingram/LSI sells it to them at your defined wholesale price (your retail price minus your wholesale discount rate), subtracts their printing cost, and pays your the remainder.
The industry standard wholesale terms are 55% discount with full credit for return of unsold books. You will be charged the full wholesale price for any returns that come back to LSI (even though you were only paid wholesale minus printing cost) and will have the option of having LSI ship those returns to you (you pay the shipping) or having them destroy the returned books.
Returns are the bane of self- and micro-publishers and I have blogged about this in the past. Should you accept returns or not? I’m afraid you will have to make that decision for yourself and your book. Without returns, your book will most likely only be purchased by bookstores when a customer special orders it. Of course, that’s generally the case for all print-on-demand books, anyway.
What wholesale discount should you set? I wish LSI would allow us to use a discount schedule based on type of company placing the order (retailer, library, or wholesaler/distributor) and quantity ordered. But they don’t. You have to set one discount rate for everyone no matter the quantity. One thing to remember is that Ingram will take a portion of that discount (which is normal for a wholesaler) and pass the rest on to the retailer. Amazon’s selling price for your book will depend on your book’s retail price and your wholesale discount (as well as on how it’s selling and how much competition there is).
One nice thing with LSI is that you can change your discount and returns policy so you can experiment with it. If you submit the change before the 15th of the month, it will effective at the start of the next accounting month. So, give it some thought and make your initial choice. Track what happens, try a different discount, and try again.
Once you’ve decided all of the above, you can determine how much you will make on each book sale. It will NOT depend on what the retailers sell your book for. There are two situations with slightly different formulas — books you order for your own direct sales and books ordered by wholesalers, retailers and distributors to sell to their customers. The following formulas apply to standard trade paperback books in trim sizes 6″ X 9″ or smaller and are current as of today (but might change). You also have to pay a one-time set-up fee of $37.50 for uploading cover files and $37.50 for uploading interior files.
Books you buy for your own direct sales (LSI calls this Print to Publisher):
Profit/book = (retail price) X (1-wholesale discount) – printing cost
Printing cost = $0.90 + $0.015/page (for books less than 104 pp, a flat $2.52)
You will also be charge a $1.50 per order handling fee plus shipping costs.
Book purchased by retailers, distributors, etc. (LSI calls this Print to Order):
Profit/book = (retail price) X (1-wholesale discount) – printing cost
Printing cost = $0.90 + $0.013/page (for books less than 104 pp, a flat $2.30)
There are similar pricing formulas for larger paperbacks and small and large hardcovers. But that gives you an idea.
Note that there your profit will not increase with higher quantities (printing costs remain constant). However, if you need a large print run, LSI can print 1,500 or more paperbacks (750 or more for hardcover) using their partner offset printers. They can use the same cover and interior files you’ve already uploaded. You have to get offset quotes through your client services representative.
What terms (discount rate and returnability) you set, combined with your retail price, are variables that you can control. Printing costs are whatever LSI says they are. So, set your retail price carefully and make certain that, when combined with your discount rate, it leaves you a reasonable profit margin!
I hope that helps clear this up.
Well done. This is bang on.
Very good post. Do you know what discount Amazon takes on books? Do you know the printing costs for hardcover books at LSI?
If you print through LSI, Amazon accepts the same wholesale discount terms as every other wholesaler/retailer who orders via LSI or Ingram. So whatever discount you set for the book will apply to Amazon, too.
As for hardcover pricing (minimum page count is 108):
Printing cost = $6.00 + $0.013/page (for library binding) or $7.55 + $0.013/page (with dust jacket)
Thanks, Walt. This article is just what I was looking for. I’m doing a book with LSI in the next few weeks and just needed some reinforcement on what I’m doing. Looking through our self-Pub group’s archives I found a post by you that brought me here! Thank you for all the great info
you provide. Always.
Best
Jan
Something that LSI initiated subsequent to this blog post is a quantity discount schedule:
50 – 99 copies: 5%
100 – 249 copies: 10%
250 – 499 Copies: 20%
500+ copies: 25%
Just FYI.
Hi Walt,
Thanks for all your posts. They’re very informative. With respect to LSI’s “Print to Publisher,” my question is as follows: if someone orders 50 books and I want LSI to mail the books directly to them so I’m not doubling up on shipping, I assume this is possible. Now, if so, does LSI automatically include an invoice in the shipment? I wouldn’t want the person ordering to be able to see the print cost displayed on the invoice – that’s my main concern. Please clarify. Thanks much.
-David
Yes, LSI does offer a drop ship service (which is what you’re asking about is called). This will result in a shipment that shows you as the shipping company. However, you pay for the order and shipping when you place the order, then it is up to you to bill your customer appropriately.
Good deal. Thanks for your timely response.
Hi Walt
for drop shipping, is only bulk purchases or can it be for individual orders too? this was in the manual- “The publisher is responsible for consolidating individual customer orders for transport and delivery to a single
destination.” will they drop ship individual orders?
great blog page, thanks
Tony
Yes, you can drop ship single-book orders to individuals. I’ve done it on occasion, most recently last week. We don’t do it often, since you either have to spend $8 or so for UPS Ground or send it Media Mail with no tracking number. If we ship from our office, we can send single-book orders via Media Mail and still get a tracking number — and the cost is a bit less than LSI’s Media Mail charge (they call it something else but that’s what it is, I’m sure).
Thanks for this info. I’m weighing pros and cons and comparing prices with different POD companies.
I’m considering using LSI and am curious about shipping prices. Do you know how much they charge to ship per copy? I can’t find any guidelines for this.
First, just to be sure there’s no misunderstanding, LSI does not offer a retail outlet. They are a printer with a direct connection to Amazon (and other online retailers). They also have a direct connection with another sister Ingram company — Ingram Books, which is a major wholesaler, where brick-and-mortar retailers can acquire the books.
If you order books to be shipped to you for stock (and resale), you can select your preferred shipment method. The standard is UPS Ground, but you can select faster UPS shipping or even USPS Media Mail. With the latter LSI will not give you a tracking number. On the other hand, LSI has excellent rates through their corporate UPS account, which is what we always use. The price will depend on the total weight of the shipment and the distance it is to be shipped.
If you order books to be drop shipped to a customer, you can get the same shipping options and rates. In general, we find that it is not cost-effective to process small orders (say less than five) using the drop ship method; we fulfill those ourselves using our small inventory stock.
If any retailers order an LSI book through Ingram, they will be charged shipping (so you don’t have to worry about it).
If Amazon or other online retailers order from LSI, they will also have to pay shipping.
You really cannot compare the oxymoronic “self-publishing companies” with LSI directly. They are very different entities offering very different services. To deal with LSI, you have to act like a small publishing company but you will also stand to make far more profit than with those other outfits (which are really just online incarnations of the old subsidy press model).
Hi Walt -
This is a bit tangential to the thread (forgive me) but re LSI and amazon: Having gotten set up with LSI and amazon.com’s Advantage program, do you know if there is a way to ‘link up’ to amazon.co.uk without creating a completely separate account over there across the pond?
Also, any tidbits about which additional online retailers to consider (or consider avoiding) would be helpful.
I just today came across your page; good stuff, I’ll be back for more – and, someday, contribute my own bits from the trenches.
Cheers,
Kevin
Kevin,
Just FYI, there is no good marketing reason to have an Advantage account if your books are being printed by LSI. Amazon will get LSI-printed books directly from LSI or Ingram, and you can make more per book and not have to pay shipping.
To sell on Amazon UK and have your books available through the other LSI partner distributors over there, all you have to do is ask your LSI rep to set up the UK account (you’ll have to sign a separate agreement) and then set a GBP price — be sure to review the UK printing prices and check on current exchange rates before setting that price.
You can do the same thing for Canada and the EU, setting prices in Canadian dollars and euros, respectively.
If you want to be able to order books printed in the UK for drop shipping to European addresses, you have to ask your LSI rep to set that up, which includes having a separate login for that account.
You will get a separate sales report and separate payment from LSI-UK, but you can arrange to have those payments made directly into your US bank account in US dollars.
By having the books available from LSI through Ingram, you really don’t have to do anything to get it in the various online retailers’ systems as most will carry the Ingram catalog (except Borders, which rarely will offer any LSI-printed titles).
With Advantage, you don’t have to pay shipping to the customer but you will have to pay shipping to get the books to Amazon.
If you just let LSI/Ingram handle it, then Amazon (and any other online or offline retailer) will pay the shipping from LSI or Ingram to the Amazon warehouse. And you still won’t pay shipping to the end customer.
Ergo, you make more money per sale.
Also, with Advantage you must accept their 55% discount terms while by letting them buy directly from LSI/Ingram you can set whatever discount you want. I do recommend that you buy Aaron Shepard’s excellent book POD for Profit to gain a full understanding of the ins and outs.
Thanks Walt-
After trudging through all the info on amazon the advantage program seemed the way to go – I don’t have to deal with any of the logistics and I don’t pay shipping on orders. But I defer to you. What route is best for an independent author/publisher?
Cheers,
Kevin
A newbie here: can people order single issues that will be shipped to them from Lightning source? I am assuming they don’t have a webpage like other pod’s do (Createspace and Lulu) where you can send people to buy your books. If I set up my own webpage for people to order the book will Lightningsource ship say a single book to them? And if so how would I link up the my webpage to Lightningsource to do this?
There is a cover generator with the ISBN number where they ask for the price.. how do I determine the price. I didn’t see a price calculator (for my fee, Lightning sources fee and retail mark up) on the website so how do I know what to put on it? I’ll need more information on all of these details so that I can figure out the price to put on my back cover…. how do I do this or get this information?
Can they put a barcode on with the price for you?
And, I can’t figure out the PDF submissions. I have a color cover and all color insides, do I make one PDF that has the front and back called cvr,pdf? And then what is the middle called?
I also don’t know what to pick for retail discount, I read if you go to low they won’t pick you up. How do I choose and when does Lightning source ask for this.
P.S. if my book is 7×10 and it’s a graphic novel that I want to print all the way to the edge, what information do I put in for trim etc.? It is exactly how I want it right now at 7×10…
P.P.S. if I want to sell through Ingram, amazon all retailers, library exposure and individual sales do I pick this one? http://www.lightningsource.com/print_to_publisher.aspx
Thank you! Gina
Gina,
Your questions indicate that you really need to do more research and study before going any further. The questions you asked go far beyond what I can provide via this blog. I recommend you buy Aaron Shepard’s book POD for Profit and maybe his Aiming at Amazon, too.
Re: LSI
LSI is not a publisher, they are a printer with connections that will get books they print listed in the Ingram Book catalog. LSI will fulfill orders from wholesalers, distributors and retailers, or orders you place directly (you can order books for drop shipment to a customer but doing so is not very efficient). Ingram is a wholesaler/distributor and will fulfill wholesale orders. There is no way to link a retail sale on your website to either LSI or Ingram for fulfillment, as that is not what they do.
You have to set up a business account with LSI before they provide all the details of printing costs. The article above explains how it works but may not reflect the latest prices from LSI.
You get to set the wholesale discount price, just about anything at 20% or higher…but there are ramifications you need to understand before making that decision. Again, see Aaron’s books.
Your book likely is not a good fit for LSI’s services, given your specs — full color interior with full bleed.
We do offer coaching services through our subsidiary Five Rainbows Services, which can include or even be limited to getting set up with LSI and preparing and uploading your books to them.
We also offer some downloadable guides on various related topics.
The discount rate is applied to the RETAIL price you set for the book. If the book’s retail price is $10, the retailer (e.g., Amazon or B&N) will pay $4.50. From that, LSI will deduct the book’s printing cost ($0.90 + ($0.013 x #pgs)).
If that $10 book is 200 pages, the printing cost would be $3.50, so LSI would pay you $1.00.
I am not aware of any other book printers with a similar arrangement with Amazon, although many of the euphemistically self-labeled “self-publishing companies” (subsidy publishers) do have such arrangements. However, you will make far less money per book…or have to set a much higher retail price (which will probably reduce your sales dramatically).
Hi Walt,
I am new to this so please excuse my ignorance.
When you say “The industry standard wholesale terms are 55% discount with full credit for return of unsold books”, I am a little (or very) confused what this means. Does this mean amazon.com (or whomever) would take 55% of the wholesale price? So if the book costs $5 to print wholesale from LS, Amazon would take around 55% of $5 (or $2.75)? I don’t think I am getting this right. It is the word “discount” that I am misunderstanding here.
Also…do you know if LightningSource is the only POD company that is just a printer who works with amazon, etc? Are there other printing companies that are similar to LightningSource?..or are all others ones that offer other services that increase the price.
Thanks,
Patrick
Hi Walt,
At LSI is the price for the Publisher to buy his own book the same as the price that the Print to Order companies pay?
You show the same basic formula for each.
It would be better if the Publisher could buy the book for Printing Costs plus S&H.
-SS
Not quite. Look closely at the printing cost formula, and you will see that Print to Order is $0.013 per page while Print to Publisher is $0.015 per page (plus the $1.50 handling fee per order). Your cost for Print to Publisher purchases consists only of the printing cost plus the handling fee plus shipping.
The profit/book calculation for books your purchase for resale depends on the discount you offer the buyer (whether wholesaler, retailer, or individual customer).
I have recently published a book, “IELTS – The Complete Guide to Task 1 Writing” through Lightning Source and want to promote/distribute my book in Asia. Lightning Source do not seem so geared to distributing in Asia any suggestions how I can get my book online more in Asia?
Sorry, I can’t offer any help. We’ve never paid much attention to the Asian market. I know LSI books show up on Amazon-Japan. You might want to search for a distributor who handles that region or look for a possible foreign rights deal where the overseas publisher will handle translation, printing and distribution and pay you for the rights to do so.
Is there a difference in pricing between color and b/w as far as the per page pricing is concerned?
Absolutely. For a 6×9 paperback:
Color Interior Printing cost = $1.00 + $0.09/page
Which means it costs about 5.5 times more to print a book with a color interior.
This is slightly off topic but I hope an interesting issue to raise.
I am currently printing through Lightning Source but (as you know) distribution to Asia is poor. Am I breaking contratc with LS if I print books with another printing company in Asia to distribute there? And, if it is OK, do I need to use a diffeent ISBN to my first run of books with LS?
Many thanks in advance for your suggestion and comments.
Phil,
You have no exclusive contract with LSI. Remember that they are just a book printer. You can use as many different book printers for the same book as you wish. As long as the book’s content AND language doesn’t change, you may continue to use the same ISBN, even if you print with a different printer.
The overriding question you must answer when considering whether to assign a new ISBN is: Will the reader feel they’ve been misled or cheated if they buy your book? For instance, if they thought they were getting a hardcover but receive a paperback or thought they were getting the latest edition (with new, revised content) but receive an earlier edition.
Some publishers use LSI to take of the online retailers (Amazon, B&N, etc.) and to gain their Ingram distribution, but then print quantities for direct fulfillment via other printers. I think this is becoming a less attractive offer, given LSI’s volume discount options that didn’t used to be available.
Dear Walt,
Many thanks for your informative reply.
Prices for printing my book in Singapore is actually more expensive than from Lightning Source which was surprising. LS do send books to Asia but do you think that some Asian online book sellers would prefer to deal with me if they know that the printer is in Asia. Quicker delivery time being one factor they might consider.
I note what you say about volume discounts but at present I am not reaching those kid of sales to benefit from that. However, can I sell my book at a different price (from LS) to a new printer? I suspect not.
Best regards and thanks again,
Phil
If those retailers can get it cheaper from Ingram or LSI, why would they order it from you for more? By June, LSI will have their Australian printing plant up and running (barring unexpected delays). Maybe you should hold off until then, as that plant will handle distribution throughout the Asian market, too, I believe.
Besides, trying to sell the same book at two different suggested retail prices is fraught with problems. I’m not even sure it’s legal in most countries, but IANAL.
Hi Walt,
Great article. I’m sure you’ve already answered this in the article or comments, but I still didn’t quit get it. If I want to use LSI for printing my book (POD), and this costs me $2.30, and I want the book to be sold through Amazon. How do I predict the total cost per book? The $2.30 to LSI is obvious, but do I have to pay Amazon the $0.99 per-item closing fee, 15% referral fee and $1.35 variable closing fee? Or is this free through LSI? And what other costs can I expect? It’s crucial to know what I will be charged for, so that I don’t end up loosing money per book instead of making a profit!
Refer to the “Book purchased by retailers, distributors, etc.” box in the article above. There are no other charges, since Amazon will buy from LSI (or Ingram) for the same wholesale discount that you set in your book setup options on LSI. You do not have to deal directly with Amazon at all or, for that matter, any other retailers. And they will pay the shipping when they buy through LSI or Ingram.
published a book pod w/ Xlibris. royalty statement shows LSI Wholesale, their printer. 3 copies bought. xlibris said lsi bought a great deal of titles and this is why my title has been reduced in price with with lsi and not much of a dividend.anyway, could not set price originally. it is too high now for purchase, but they can do this selling to a printer and keep royalties down. Tell me what’s really going on here. i think i’m being lied and taken. some sales have not been listed either. i am extremely [angry]. not with you,Walt. i just need to choke the right person. Thank you for any clearing of misunderstanding about this market process. dan
This is only one of the many reasons that I never recommend Xlibris or any of the rest of the self-anointed “self-publishing” companies to our clients.
However, two things stand out in your comment:
(1) LSI does not buy books from anyone nor do they control the retail price or wholesale discount, since they are just a printer, nothing else. Xlibris may be using LSI to print their books (many “self-publishing” companies do) but Xlibris sets the retail price and wholesale discount.
(2) Your issues are not with LSI but with Xlibris. Consult your Xlibris contract. Unfortunately, you will almost certainly discover that you have virtually no control over what they do and how they operate.
Xlibris et al make money by selling books and services to authors, not by selling books into the book supply chain. And that is exactly why their business model is consistently profitable…for them, not for the authors.
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Walt – Up to now, I’ve used 35% for my discount rates for my three books. I read your recommendation to experiment with various percentages. Certainly I don’t want to increase the percentage for a self-published book that isn’t carried in bookstores anyways.
Walt, several questions if you are willing to answer them:
1. What discount rates you are currently using for your books,
2. What is the minimum discount rate that LSI will accept, and
3. Is there any loss of services from LSI or an on-line provider such as amazon.com that you are aware of?
Thank you, Tom
(1) Some of our books have 20% and others have 55%. Depends on our marketing plan.
(2) 20%
(3) “Loss of service” as a result of what?
I suggest your get a copy of Aaron Shepard’s POD for Profit book, which is filled with great info on this topic.
I think what Tom Clarke is getting at with “services” in nr.3 is this (i.e.):
will your books get a better placing in an Amazon search if one gives Amazon a high dicount? x: if your book title has the word “Latin” in it, and an amazon user searches for “Latin”, will your book show up on resultlist page 1 if you give Amazon 50%, but not until page 5 if one only gives 20%?
I’ve been wondering the same thing.
Thanks for the useful information. I have been on the LS website and have not seen the costs for printing books in colour. I have done a children’s book and really would love to know the cost of printing it in colour. It is 81/2 x 11 in size.
For 8.5×11 paperback with color interior:
Printing cost = $1.50 + $0.10/page
For 8.5×11 hardcover with color interior:
Printing cost = $6.00 + $0.10/page
Walt, you’re amazing!
When printing the same book with both LS (for its online connections) and offset with another printer (for other uses and sales), is it kosher to have the versions be identical except for not printing a price on the LS cover but printing it on the offset version?
Thank you so much!
First, LSI is just a printer. You can use as many different printers for the same books as you want.
Second, I see no reason not to print the price on the LSI-printed book. You can use the identical files for both printers (assuming they can both produce the same trim size and use paper with the same ppi so that the spine width doesn’t change).
Thank you Walt! The reason I ask is, if following Aaron Shepard’s advice, one would not print a list price on the LSI version in order to feel free to change the list price at various online stores. Yet many of the small outlets to whom we might directly sell the (higher quality and lower cost to us) offset version would prefer a price be printed on the cover. Thus the question… And thank you again! You’re an awesome resource.
I know and like Aaron and appreciate all the research he has done, and continues to do, but do disagree with him on some points. This is one of them. I just don’t see the point of screwing around with your list price on a print book. We prefer to determine a set profit/unit and determine a retail price based on that, printing costs, and what the market will bear.
Ebook pricing, on the other hand, is still in such a state of uncertainty and near chaos that we do experiment there.
Now that, Walt, makes things a whole lot easier! Much gratitude to you and what you do here.
Hello,
If I can change the theme of this topic a little.
I am in the process of distributing my book (already publsihed through Lightning Source) as an e-book. What would you recommend as the price? The same as the paper version or cheaper. At the moment my book retails at 14.95 GBP.
Also, would you recommend encrypting the e-books so that no printing is allowed?
Many thanks once again,
Phil
I cannot recommend a price without knowing anything about the book. You need to compare it to your competition and books typically purchased by your target audience.
Except for a very few specialized nonfiction titles, I won’t pay more than $9.99 for an ebook because I see very little intrinsic value in an ebook (unlike a book in print). In fact, I won’t even pay that much if I can get the print edition for a few dollars more.
The encryption you asked about is called Digital Rights Management (DRM), something that is more likely to irritate your readers and won’t really stop a dedicated ebook pirate. We opt out of DRM for our own ebooks whenever possible (DRM is applied by the ebook retailer and not all allow you to opt out). To me, applying DRM to an ebook effectively says that you believe your readers are thieves at heart, and I think that’s a lousy way to begin any relationship (unless it’s with a politician).
thanks for your response. Is the $8 the ground shipping standard 5-7 day cost? Do you mean if my book sells for $16.95 LSI drop ships UPS ground for $8?
I’m reading over the manual, it’s very thorough but I’m not sure about all the verbiage, first timer.
thanks again
Tony
Yes, they will ship UPS ground for approx. $8, but you will be billed for it, of course. For most single-book buyers, that is too much to pay for shipping. LSI is not really practical for that kind of service. We just buy short run of each title to keep in inventory for direct sales to customers.
Hi Walt
On returns
I understand that as the publisher I have to pay the full wholesale price for returns, as a small publisher that could be expensive.
can I limit the amount of books a retailer can purchase at a time?
thanks
Tony
No, you cannot limit the number of sales. The book is either available for wholesale orders or not. If your primary target is bookstores, you will probably have to accept returns…but then LSI may not be your best option. We do not accept returns, but B&M bookstores are not our primary market.
Thanks for the information, Walt … and also for answering questions so diligently! I have a question about setting discounts on LSI at 20%, while offering better (55%) terms with wholesalers directly (Brodart, B&T) for the same book.
I understand to some degree the legal ruling that different vendors of the same ‘class’ require the same discount, but retailers like Amazon have direct access through LSI and we have separate wholesale accounts (except for Ingram which goes through LSI). I haven’t found a definitive answer on this situation … what is your take? Thanks!
We used to have an account with B&T, but canceled it. Now that we have shifted all printing to LSI, we just refer B&T to LSI (they have a partner agreement with LSI much like Amazon does).
IANAL, but I believe you can set whatever terms you want for your various outlets as long as you are consistent and clearly define why company A gets a better deal than company B (i.e., they are members of a specific different “class” that you have defined).
I need advice on who I can contact to help me with submitting my book to LS. From what I understand, if the files are submitted incorrectly or do not fall within their guidelines, the publisher is charged a fee. Since this is not my area of expertise, I’d like help from someone who is already experienced with LS submissions.
Monique,
Yes, if you submit files to LSI and they fail to meet their internal quality assurance standards, you will have to pay and additional $40 to resubmit each file (i.e., $40 for the cover, $40 for the interior). LSI runs every file through a detailed preflight process to verify that it meets the requirements.
We have been working with LSI since shortly after they opened their services to small publishers. Four years ago, we set up our subsidiary Five Rainbows Services for Authors and Publishers through which we provide a wide range of publishing services. We have prepared a lot of books for printing by LSI, both our own and those of our Five Rainbows Services clients.
You can find full contact information on the top of every page on the Five Rainbows website.
Thank you. I will look into it.
Hi Walt
I have a question while i’m still waiting for my registration with LSI to be active. Is it possible through LSI to print a B&W book with color pages either , mixed or more standard : 20 color pages in the middle of the book ?
Thank you
The only way to use color inserts with LSI is by printing the entire book on their color presses, which is much more expensive. Consult their color book addendum for specific prices.
Hi Walt,
I just found this site doing some research and like it a lot!
I was wondering if you could share your experience to help me resolve an issue I could not find a solution for so far.
What would you consider to be the best way to sell my books through my own homepage? Is there a way to link the customers to a Lightningsource “shop”?
Thank you very much!
Bastian
To sell through your own website requires three things: a good shopping cart system, the ability to accept credit card payments (PayPal is an acceptable method), and a marketing plan to drive qualified traffic to your site.
There is no way to route purchasers to LSI for fulfillment. Keep in mind that LSI is high-volume printer. Period. They are not a publisher, distributor, or fulfillment house. They will fulfill wholesale orders from companies with an Ingram account.
If you want to sell books from your site, you will have to maintain an inventory and set up procedures to track sales, generate sales receipts, gather customer data, and package and ship the books.
There are fulfillment companies that can handle that for you, but doing so requires shipping them books for inventory in their warehouse and paying them often hefty fees for the service. To get an idea, you can check out Amazon’s own Fulfillment by Amazon system.
Wonderful article, and I learned a lot by reading all the comments and responses. Thx so much for taking the time to assist all of us. Question –
in your opinion, is Lightning Source a good self publishing option for Canadian authors, as in those of us who live in Canada, would like to buy ‘back of the room’ books printed in Canada to avoid cross-border duty charges (ie does Lightning Source have a printer in Canada they use for Print to Publisher orders in Canada), and intend to sell to Canadians in addition to internationally on the various Amazon websites? I will be purchasing Aaron Shepard’s POD for Profit based on the recommendations in this article. Thank you for any comments you might have.
Wendy
No, LSI does not print books in Canada.
This is a marvelous site, Walt. I have used Dan Poynter’s book and will order the one you mention above.
I started my own publishing company and my book is at a designer right now. I have set up a website that announces its impending publication. I have questions about Amazon as I have read in several places that their Advantage program is not the best way to go. I read the details of the program on the Amazon site today.
How do I get listed on Amazon without getting into their Advantage program?
If I can circumvent their program and still be listed on the Amazon site, would Lightning Source wait until a certain number of books had been ordered through Amazon and then ship them to an Amazon fulfillment center? I understand that if I were in the Advantage program I would ship books ahead of time to Amazon for them to send as orders came in.
Thank you for your help. You have so much beneficial information here.
Dear Walt,
Thank you for the excellent (and well articulated) information. I have a 746-page black and white interior 6×9″ paperback book “ready to roll”–the formatted text PDF, the high-def color cover. I have been working with a POD company, but we have come to an unfortunate fork in our road together–and I am in a slight panic as my book has already been announced and early reviews are appearing.
From what I read in your blog, I can contract with LS, pay the $37.50 digital cover fee, the $37.50 digital text fee, and the $12 annual fee for Ingram and other catalogue listings. VERY reasonable costs, all.
My question really is this: We have a book launch party/fundraiser in Washington on 9/22. I already received the galley proof of the paperback (we’re doing e-book, too)–and actually believe it was printed by LS (this was through Booklocker.com). Would I need to do another galley proof? Do the digital files have to be setup all over again if in fact Booklocker.com has been working with LS on my book? I’m ok with spending the $$ to do so if required. My main concern is that I need to be able to get 100 copies of the book ordered and shipped to Washington in time for the 9/22 event (and of course many more books sold after that!).
I’m new to print-on-demand, and the do-it-yourself approach as an author who is also managing the printing, etc. for my book (I’ve done four earlier books via so-called “legacy” publishers. I like the idea of eliminating the middleman (e.g., Booklocker.com) and going full-fledged do-it-yourself directly with LS. One final question (forgive my “newbie-ness”), and I hope you can guide me through this: Let’s say a customer orders my book through Amazon. Amazon will then order the book from LS at its wholesale discount rate, and then charge the customer for the cover price. How do I collect my profits? Are my profits the difference between Amazon’s wholesale discounted price and the full cover price? Who pays me? And how often do they pay?
This is a lot and I appreciate any suggestions you can offer.
Best wishes,
John
(1) I see no way to get your book printed and delivered with LSI in time for your event. You have to set up and account at LSI, prepare the files, set up the new title, wait for their processing and preflighting, approve the proof, order your copies, and wait for delivery. You could proceed to set up the book with LSI but print just the copies needed for your event at another digital printer (e.g., 360 Digital).
(2) I have no direct experience with BookLocker so cannot advise or comment on them.
(3) With LSI, you get paid for sales through Amazon the same as sales through any other outlet. Refer to the calculations above in this blog post.
(4) If you require assistance beyond this, our Five Rainbows Services company offers publishing mentoring services, although we are booked up through the month of September. However, you might find what you need in our downloadable Instant Guides..
Back when I was making these decisions and I found Walt’s posts on ISBNs and this post too, I was grateful because with this information and a bit more from other sources, I was able to take total control of my book and of the publishing of it. This “problem” described by John is exactly what I was aiming to understand. So now the ISBN becomes the issue (one or two of them for John’s book: his own and the one I presume is owned by Booklocker.com), and not only that, the Amazon page and avoiding two of them is an issue.
While doing it all myself, I found out why services that help authors publish are needed. It is not easy. I have nothing bad to say about a company using LSI to provide services that an author could do alone. But it is nice to have total control of the ISBN because it links to my contact information, and I can manage to have only one per title.
Pingback: Why I wanted Total Control in the first place | Publishing Tips from the Trenches
Hey Walt–Great column! Quick question about Lightning Source. For a 6×9 paperback, their prices currently quote $1.00 per unit + $0.09 per page–and that per page increase is rather substantial from the one you noted back in 2009.
I was planning to use Lulu, until I found out they were basically a middle man, but the odd thing is that when I do the calculations, my 236 page paperback, using LS, would be $22.24 just in manufacturing costs, and yet Lulu quotes the same as $6.22. (Doesn’t Lulu use LS for printing??) How can that be possible? Am I miscalculating here???
Any advice or clarification would be helpful! Thanks.
Kergan,
The LSI prices you mention are for a FULL COLOR INTERIOR (see one of my comments on this post). The $0.90 + $0.013/pg price (or $0.015/pg for books you order for your own distribution) is for a B&W interior. Run those numbers and you’ll see a price significantly lower than Lulu’s.
Be sure to read all the comments on this post as there’s a lot more information plus some updates contained in them.
Thanks, Walt! I appreciate the help!
Walt, I am a newbie and was wondering about LSI’s ability to control my distribution, haVe rights to it. ONe self publishing consultant warned us to beware of contracts where a distributor makes the author ” NOT the seller of record, even if you supply your own ISBN. This also means they take your distribution rights, and if you sell your book to a traditional publisher, they will have to fight the vanity company for the distribution rights, which traditional publishers are usually not willing to do. By using a vanity publishing company, you essentially give up your rights to be traditionally published in the future.” Do we need to worry about this with LSI??
LSI is NOT a publisher. They are ONLY a printer who prints and distributes based on the options you (as the PUBLISHER) select. They retain no other rights to your work. They do expect you to have a certain degree of understanding of the publishing and printing process and an ability to produce proper printer-ready files meeting their specifications. In other words, they expect you to act like a professional publisher, something that might require some study and research on your part (and maybe the hiring of some experts to handle those aspects you can’t or prefer not to do yourself).
You do a great service in answering all of us needy authors. Thanks!
I have self-published books for 30 years through Spring Arbor/Ingram (and now also through AmazonAdvantage). Previously, I have bought my books in volume through regular printers. I am now ready to change over to LSI, but have a 10-30 month inventory on my eight tiltles. How do I switch to POD, but protect my inventory?
Should I wait until each title is almost sold out and then switch it, or start on all eight now but sell only the POD’s to Ingram while selling out my inventory to AA?
Rick,
I’m not quite sure how to answer without knowing more about your books, distribution & retail outlets, sales by outlet, and future sales expectations.
However, I would think you would be better off letting Amazon get books through LSI and handle other orders through your inventory. You might even consider using CreateSpace for Amazon fulfillment, depending on how many sales your titles are seeing on Amazon.
I’m afraid this is not something that can reasonably be handled via a blog, and I really don’t have time for these kinds of questions offline, either. Sorry.
You might want to post your question on the excellent Yahoo Self-Publishing forum.
Thanks, I will check Yahoo’s forum as you suggest. Rick