A member of CompletelyNovel pointed me towards this thread so I thought I might try and shed some light. Full disclosure: I am a co-founder of CompletelyNovel.

First off, CompletelyNovel was started by myself and Anna Lewis (UK Young Publishing Entrepreneur finalist 2010) with a goal of going some way to democratise publishing and help books find the most appropriate route to market. Our vision was to empower readers and writers to promote and sell books and, in doing so, help writers and publishers decide which books have mass market appeal and which are more niche. Some of our best selling books have been picked up by publishers and other writers have found that self publishing is the most profitable and fulfilling route.

Our goal is to create an environment where readers, writers and publishers can help themselves get to where they want to be. When we started out we spent a long time considering each step which might limit a writer’s progress and tried to eliminate it. This influenced our decisions with aspects like ISBNs. We provide writers with an ISBN from our own block of ISBNs because it is easier, cheaper and quicker to set up a title. I would say that the most important things for a writer starting out are getting exposure and keeping the rights to their work (which you do on CompletelyNovel) so you can do whatever you want with your book later down the line. The ISBN is just an identifier to help others in the book trade to catalogue and order books. If you want to move publishers it is easy to mark one ISBN out of print and create another – this is often done by publishers with new editions.

Our approach to POD is different – we do not do the actual printing ourselves because companies such as Lightning Source and CPI do a very good, professional job. On CompletelyNovel you choose which printer and distribution distribution channel you want when you publish your book. As our system formats your work ready for printing, Lightning Source and CPI have removed setup charges and we are able to pass on the wholesale printing rates to our customers.

We’re here to help and we often put the feedback and requests we get into practice so please get in touch!