I begin to sense a common theme in all of my
competitive reviews - but if you dig deep enough, you'll see that
self-publishing companies are only the same in the fact that we
all use almost the exact same technologies to print books.
On each of these self publishing company review pages, I include
a link to what I believe is important in choosing a company to
self-publish your book, click here
to see my list.
On to our discussion of self publishing company Trafford
Publishing.
I'm using the same specs for each self publishing company competitive
review - information and self publishing costs are derived from
the Trafford Publishing web site and contract.
- 6X9 trim size, 150 pages, one color interior, 4 color cover,
5 interior images
- Paperback or hardcover
- ISBN and bar code included, Library of Congress Control number
- Custom cover and interior - not just choices
from existing templates
- PDF or laser proofs delivered to author,
- 100 additional paperback units purchased
- 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.
(click here
to see the Dog Ear breakdown - our total cost for this package
and options is $1,527, our per unit book printing
price is $4.28, and you get 10 free author copies
of your book.)
Trafford Publishing
Trafford Publishing - recently released a new
self publishing guide and removed older information that was well
outdated. We continue to review the Trafford Publishing contract.
A very typical player at the more-expensive end of the self-publishing
industry. Trafford Publishing publishing packages
range from $799 to $2999.
Options of course increase as you spend more money ($1299, $1899,
$2499 and so on). In my opinion, I couldn't really find any package
that offered the identical items as Dog Ear Publishing
- so I had to add what Trafford Publishing calls 'extras'. I started
with the $1299 package. The only way to get truly custom design
and design proofs / consultation was to go to the $2997 package...
which was just crazy. SO... I left it off...
Trafford Publishing was based out of
Victoria, BC, Canada. Trafford Publishing used
to allow you to set your own profit and had a very nice
profit and pricing calculator. Trafford Publishing
allowed you to choose the price you would charge
for your book, as long as it was above their minimum
retail. The $1297 publishing package allowed for your
choice of interior design templates (no custom design)... get
an idea, from the use of italics above that things have
changed? Profit calculator is gone, defined author book costs
(printing prices) are gone, no more choice for interior design...
Hmmm...
Standard Paperback Publishing - $1299
Add Library of Congress Control Number - $75
Truly Custom Cover and Interior - $??? - NOT an option
Google Book Search - $75
Proofs - NA (not applicable - digital proofs are free)
Printing Services - $6.74 / unit X 100 units = $674 (printing
this book at Dog Ear is only $4.28 per unit - if you only wanted
1 to 49 books at Trafford, the cost jumps to $7.17 per unit)
Total Expenditure- Trafford Publishing: $2,123
($596 MORE EXPENSIVE
THAN DOG EAR)
BOOK DESIGN and PRODUCTION- Comparison
Dog Ear builds a unique design for both the cover and interior
for every book. The design is custom (literally from the ground
up) for each and every book - no 'templates' are ever used. Dog
Ear provides a Design Sample using your
manuscript and allows you complete freedom to revise what our
team has built. No other publishing services company provides
this service FREE OF CHARGE - only Dog
Ear. Every one of our books are designed and built by
professionals with long histories and lots of experience - from
the traditional publishing industry. Your book is being
built by the same staff that creates books for Harper Collins,
Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, Wiley, Penguin and many other
of the worlds most successful publishers.
BOOK PRINTING PRICES (author copies) - Comparison
Trafford Publishing charges a significant amount more than Dog
Ear to print author copies - as noted above:
#
of Units |
Trafford |
Dog
Ear |
per
unit savings |
1-49 |
7.17 |
4.28 |
2.89 |
50-99 |
6.96 |
4.28 |
2.68 |
100-249 |
6.74 |
4.28 |
2.46 |
250-499 |
6.53 |
4.28 |
2.25 |
500-999 |
6.31 |
4.28 |
2.03 |
1000+ |
6.10 |
3.00 or less |
3.10 or more |
Trafford Publishing will require a 'minimum' retail price for
your book - the book in our example would require AT LEAST a $15.07
retail price. This is calculated by multiplying the single per
unit author purchase price by 2.1. Is $15.07 a reasonable retail
price for a 150 page paperback? I'm not sure. Using the same multiplier
at Dog Ear Publishing your retail would be only $8.98... (which,
by the way is too low in my opinion, but you could easily do it
if you wanted; and at Dog Ear you have that option.)
AUTHOR PROFIT - Comparison
Author profit is also a great weakness of the
Trafford Publishing programs - at Dog
Ear Publishing, when you purchase your
own books, they nearly $3 LESS EXPENSIVE per unit,
with that money going straight to your pocket.
Your author profit when selling through Trafford's 'Basic'
distribution - even using their required retail price
-
Trafford Author Profit: $1.12
Your per unit author profit from each
sale is over $3.50 MORE for each book with Dog Ear.
Dog Ear Author Profit: $4.76
Watch what happens when you expand your distribution options
using Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble...
When using 'Advanced' distribution your profit
drops dramatically at Trafford - and a little bit at Dog Ear.
Trafford Author Profit: $0.22
Your per unit author profit from each
sale is over $3.00 MORE for each book with Dog Ear.
Dog Ear Author Profit: $3.26
Imagine what these numbers do to your profit over the life of
your book. It would be extremely challenging to recover any profit
from your book.
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