You have to imagine that a site with the URL Selfpublishing.com gets a lot of traffic – it comes up first in Google results for “Self-Publishing.” That’s impressive but how’s the actual service? Overall, Selfpublishing.com offers well-priced packages that include services such as marketing, which makes Selfpublishing.com a good to choice to print a book. Though SelfPublishing.com is affiliated with an online bookstore, like every self-publishing service, the recommended use of selfpublishing.com is if your interested in starting an imprint, rather than publishing a book with AuthorHouse or iUniverse, which will bear the stamp of those presses.

What this means is that Selfpublishing.com is more of a printing company than a publishing company – which is exactly what some aspiring authors are looking for. In addition to printing services, Selfpublishing.com offers custom book cover design, book interior design, editorial services, and marketing services, such as:

• Web design
• Press release distribution
• Online bookstore distribution via ISBN
• Podcast interviews

These are similar services to other self-publishing, but with the capability of marketing your own brand, rather than marketing the brand of a self-publishing company. The prices are competitive as well. Though people talk of the flexibility of using a self-publishing house with no set-up fee, like Lulu, the actual long-term cost for printing in this way is more expensive. For example:

1. 500 copies of a paperback runs $2,953.74
2. 500 copies via Lulu is $3,250.

The difference isn’t just $300: as the price of a Lulu book is just the base price for printing a book of similar length. It doesn’t factor in cover design, ISBN distribution, and other services, which ultimately make a Lulu book much more expensive, regardless of the initial set-up fee.

Quality of the Books

Generally, the quality of Selfpublishing.com’s books is high – more professional than your average self-publishing book design. Certainly, “Selfpublishing.com” is a generic brand to stamp on your book – but that’s not the best way to use this service. Use Selfpublishing.com’s designers to design a book using your own publisher’s imprint and use the site’s Thor Distribution to have the book distributed to online and retail outlets. If you’re looking for a way to print books, as separate from the stigma of using a self-publisher, Selfpublishing.com can cover both book design and distribution.

About the Author: Henry Baum

I’m the author of The American Book of the Dead. The novel won Best Fiction at the DIY Book Festival and the Gold IPPY Award for Visionary Fiction. Largehearted Boy says it's "reminiscent of Philip K. Dick and Haruki Murakami, a book that boldly explores the future and defies genre." I'm also the author of North of Sunset, winner of the Hollywood Book Festival Grand Prize, and The Golden Calf - first published by Soft Skull Press, with editions in the U.K. (Rebel Inc.) and France (Hachette Littératures). Visit henrybaum.com for more information. I’m the editor of Self-Publishing Review.

9:10 pm in Publisher Reviews by Henry Baum 3 Comments »