An informed author is a happy author - and our goal is to help you make an informed decision when you publish a book. This page will help you discover the differences between iUniverse ™ and Dog Ear Publishing. To that end, I will do price and service comparison - for authors interested in publishing a book, I believe you will find Dog Ear Publishing is more than $500 LESS EXPENSIVE than iUniverse.

I'd like to open by saying this information occasionally confuses readers by making them think they must purchase 100 books from iUniverse ™(or from Dog Ear for that matter...). That is not the intention - iUniverse ™doesn't force you to purchase a single book, and can simply receive the books included in your publishing package. Dog Ear research and experience has shown that the typical self-published author purchases about 100 books in the first few months after publication. If you don't feel your book may sell over 100 units (or if you might purchase at least as many over the lifetime of your book) then iUniverse ™ may be the best publisher for your book.

One of the goals of this page is to demonstrate that the ultimate COST of publishing a book goes far beyond what you pay for the publishing package. Your final profit and cost is impacted tremendously by the per unit cost (and profit) of printing books.

On to our research...

To keep the comparison fair for both iUniverse ™ and Dog Ear Publishing, we are going to create a fictional book that we'll use to measure costs for both publishing and printing. The specs are very consistent with the majority of books produced in the trade category from any self publishing house. Self publishing costs are derived from the iUniverse ™ web site and other sources.

Here is our fictional book and project -

- 6X9 trim size, 150 pages, one color interior, 4 color cover, 5 interior images
- Paperback or hardcover
- ISBN, bar code and Library of Congress Control number
- Custom cover and interior design - no template designs
- a PDF or laser proof delivered to author,
- Available at Amazon and most major online retailers
- Available through major distributors like Ingram and Baker and Taylor
- Available for order at over 25,000 retail bookstores.
- Author wanting to purchase 100 additional paperbacks (please note that you are not required to buy any additional books from either iUniverse or Dog Ear.)

Let's start with the numbers... more in-depth comparisons will follow below. Here's how iUniverse ™ publishing costs stack up.

Every service outlined above is included in our Basic package - no hidden fees or charges.

Dog Ear Publishing is based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. All Dog Ear operations are based in the United States. Dog Ear Publishing allows authors the complete freedom to set their retail price and profit at any level. Dog Ear has the lowest per unit costs of any publishing company. With Dog Ear, you receive 100% of your Net Sale (no other major self- publishing house offers that level of profit for authors.)

Basic Publishing Package - $1099 (hardcover or paperback)
Printing Services - $4.28 / unit (any number of copies) x 100 units = $428
Total Expenditure: $1,527

(note we did NOT compare to the FastTrak program since it doesn't allow your book to be sold through most retail outlets - only by you the author, and the Select package doesn't match our service offerings - the most comparable package is the iUniverse Premier package.)

iUniverse ™ Select Publishing Package - $599

iUniverse ™ is now owned by AuthorSolutions (the company that owns AuthorHouse, xLibris and Trafford) and assigns authors specific retail prices for their books and pays royalties based upon the discount offered to wholesale and retail accounts.

From the iUniverse contract:

"...PUBLISHER shall determine the details of publication including the appearance, price, production and manufacturing of the WORK."

Who has control of your book? To be fair, the iUniverse contract does state that iUniverse ™ will follow author suggestions for design where practical - as long as the author follows the iUniverse ™ interior design guidelines. Guess what? We 'tested' this - they wanted us (as the author) to design and layout the book in MS Word.


No custom interior available
Google Book Search Submission - $75
Library of Congress Control Number - $75
Proofs - PDF only
Printing Services - $7.67 / unit (over 99 books only) X 100 units = $767.00

Want to actually OWN the files produced for your book - and from which your book is printed (after all, you paid iUniverse to create them...)? - $1500 ($750 for the cover, $750 for the interior)
Total Expenditure: $1,516.00 BEFORE I add in actually owning what you paid iUniverser to create... $3,516 if you do...

Nearly $2000.00 MORE expensive than Dog Ear Publishing... but what if you go on to sell even more? Even more money goes into the pockets of iUniverse ™ and not you the author. Our authors make far more for each book sold even through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any other retail / wholesale outlet.

Here's an author profit comparison on the sample book we outlined above - we'll use a $15.95 retail (iUniverse required retail price for this title at just a 20% NET royalty rate - at Dog Ear you may choose any retail you want)

iUniverse profit through Borders (or any retail outlet) for the author: $15.95 x 64% x 20%= $2.04 to the author per sale (iUniverse offers a 36% wholesale discount to accounts like Amazon.com).

Dog Ear Publishing profit through Borders (or any retail outlet) for the author: $13.95 X 60% (amount of the retail you get - see our page on setting wholesale discounts here) - $4.28 (your per unit printing cost) = $4.09 to the author per sale.

It doesn't take too many sales for that difference to become significant. iUniverse and Dog Ear handle wholesale orders and accounts in the EXACT SAME MANNER - so why would you want to give up an additiona $2 per sale to iUniverse?

As you can see from our web site, we believe in giving you as much as possible within each package - and letting you have as much control and input as you'd like. No one else offers the absolute freedom that Dog Ear Publishing does...

You can also find some additional information about iUniverse™ on our primary comparison page.

Items of note from the iUniverse ™ contract:

1) Book design, format, and retail price is controlled by iUniverse ™ - from their contract:
"...PUBLISHER shall determine the details of publication including the appearance, price, production and manufacturing of the WORK."

Who has control of your book? To be fair, the iUniverse contract does state that iUniverse ™ will follow author suggestions for design where practical - as long as the author follows the iUniverse ™ interior design guidelines. Guess what? We 'tested' this - they wanted us (as the author) to design and layout the book in MS Word. At Dog Ear Publishing you get the opportunity to create as custom a book as you would like - without having to be a designer!

2) You don't own the files used to print your book!

You've paid iUniverse ™ to create a book for you, but if you decide to leave and want to take your book with you, you can't - not without paying iUniverse ™ again. Upon terminating your agreement with iUniverse ™ "AUTHOR shall have the right to purchase [emph. added] the text and cover digital production files of the WORK in PDF format [meaning you can't modify them really] in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 7 of Schedule A." Why should someone you've paid to perform a service get to keep what you paid them to do for you? At Dog Ear Publishing you have access to all files used to create your book and may have them at any time (we even automatically send you the printer PDF when we go to press.)

Other iUniverse ™ details:

iUniverse ™ has something called the Star Program - for $249 you pay for an "Editorial Review", if the reviewer finds your book favorable, it is said to increase your chances of being eligible for the Star Program. The Star Program gets you on a special Barnes & Noble shelf in the store. According to Publisher's Weekly numbers, less than 1% of their books get in. Here's breaking news / interesting data courtesy of Publisher's Weekly (May 2005): only 14 titles actually were sold on B&N shelves in 2004. The "average" iUniverse ™ books sales is 41 units. Less than 1/2 of 1% (.46%) actually sold more than 500 copies (83 books out of 18,108)... A strategy for growing retail sales from iUniverse™ is trading your royalty to increase the discount offered to booksellers. For example, you can reduce your "royalty" to 10% (vs a standard 20% of net) and you can then increase the discount offered to booksellers - possibly increasing the chance of the book landing on a bookstore shelf. For direct sales, or online retailers, the discount is fairly set anyway (you'll also get charged a $99 fee to change your mind and adjust your royalty back). iUniverse ™ offers some NY Times and USA Today spots for $2,500.