Self-publishing is not limited to physical books. Ebooks, pamphlets, sales brochures, websites, and other materials are commonly self-published.

What is on-demand book printing?

On-demand publishers set up your digital manuscript to be printed one book at a time using a Docu-tech. You pay a set fee of between $320 and $1,050 and receive in return one hardback copy of your book and one softback copy. If they set the retail price of the softback at $15, say, then each additional book you order from them costs you $9.0 (40% off the retail price). If a bookstore, wholesaler, or on-line bookseller orders your book, you receive a royalty ranging from $1 to $3.30 per book. Think about it from a strictly business point of view. Every time you sell a book that you've paid for and published through Self Publishing.com, you recoup the cost of that book and more-perhaps double or even triple the cost. The sale of a book through an on-demand publisher recoups only a small percentage of that book's cost for you. If you don't think you can sell any more than five or ten or twenty books of a new title, on-demand is the way to go. If you think you can sell at least a hundred books, you want to stick with Self Publishing.com. On-demand printing also allows publishers to economically keep a book in print that may sell only a handful of copies per month after the book has run its course in the marketplace.

What makes self-publishing an attractive option?

The first copy of your book costs a whole lot, but they're pretty inexpensive after that" holds as true today as it did a hundred years ago. The setup charges are the same no matter what the quantity. The higher the setup cost, the larger the print run needed to amortize these costs into an acceptable unit cost. Whether you are printing a black-and-white novel or a full-color coffee table book today's technology has reduced these setup costs. Only a few years ago, typesetting made up a major portion of a book project's setup costs. Then, a standard 6 x 9 page cost between $5 and $9 to typeset and proofread. A project requiring two or three rounds of galley proofs and a set or two of page proofs could easily run that cost up to $12 or $18 per page. That meant that a 226-page book would cost $3,800 to $4,900 before you even got to the printer, who would then have to shoot and strip negatives at a cost of perhaps $7,300. Today, the $580 computer with basic word processing software has replaced the type houses of old. The laser printer has replaced expensive photo paper and chemicals. New printing techniques bypass film completely. The average savings to the small publisher amount to as much as $6,200 per title. As a result, writers can put their own books into publication cost-effectively in relatively low quantities.