Ever Wanted Your Book In Print? -- Kimberly Rae

The idea of holding a book in your hands with your name on it is a dream many of us have had at one time or another. Was yours a fleeting thought you laughed away? A great idea you haven’t quite gotten around to writing? A 3-ring binder where you stashed scores of pages, but never had the nerve to send it away?

Traditionally, if you wanted your book in print, you had 2 options:

• Get a publisher—which is much harder than it sounds, wait months for them to print your book, go on whatever book tour or other marketing events they planned for you, and get paid a small percentage of the royalties and possibly a few complimentary copies of your book for your own use.
• Self-publish—not hard, but possibly unpleasant due to the thousands of dollars you have to spend up front, the hundreds of copies you might have to buy to get the initial print run, the lesser quality, total lack of marketing, and the not-as-good aura that comes with having to admit you published it yourself.

Fortunately, for all the dreamers out there, and especially since the economy has made getting accepted by a mainstream publisher harder than ever, there is now another option, fast becoming a major trend in the publishing world.

It’s called print-on-demand publishing.

I know about it because that’s the route I chose for my novel, Stolen Woman.

I chose print-on-demand for several reasons:

1. Timing. Human trafficking is a huge subject right now, and this gets my book in print fast.

2. I get a much larger percent of the royalties.

3. Freedom to make the cover and interior exactly how I want it, including a 2-page spread on my favorite human trafficking rescue ministry.

4. Freedom to stay at home and be a mom, marketing when I have time, so I don’t have to sacrifice my family for my work.

5. I can get the books I need, and only the books I need, so I won’t end up with 1,000 unsold copies filling up my basement (and depressing me!). I pay the same price per book whether I order 1 or 100.

6. I keep the rights to the book. That means, if a mainstream publisher does want Stolen Woman in the future, that option is still possible.

I can’t vouch for all of the options, but I can for www.Createspace.com , the Amazon subsidiary that I’m using for Stolen Woman.

So far, it’s been great. Their website explains things very clearly for techno-challenged people like me, and I even got to talk to a real-live person when I called with a question. I spent less than $50 by the time the first copy of the book was on its way to my house.

If you’ve been playing with the idea of a book, but maybe it’s a family memoir you want to give as Christmas gifts, or a book you’d like to print just for yourself, print-on-demand is a great way to go.

Here’s to being published, and holding your own book in your own hands!