Print-on-Demand Book Publishing: A New Approach To Printing And Marketing Books For Publishers And Self-Publishing Authors Paperback – June 1, 2004

I've read most of the available books about self-publishing and can recommend this one wholeheartedly. It begins with the premise that authors must think of their writing as a business. Even before writing, you need to research who the audience for the book will be, and how you will publicize the book to them when it's finished. The author advocates focusing your marketing efforts not on paid advertising, but by building an informative Web site that will provide free advertising.This book lays this groundwork, then proceeds through the practical steps of how to have your book manufactured, distributed, and publicized. All of the other self-publishing books talk about these things, but this book actually gives you the nuts and bolts of how to go about it.The author is able to give you these specifics because he has self-published several successful titles himself. He actually shows you the financial results from his previous books and explains why today print-on-demand is the best option for most authors -- instead of going through a subsidy press or even a trade publisher.I read this book about four months ago when I was in the midst of writing my first self-published book, "The Home-Based Bookstore." The advice helped me immensely; I know I would have made some costly mistakes without it. And I've referred back to this book at least a couple dozen times since then.When I finished reading "Print on Demand Book Publishing" (the first time), I e-mailed the author with a few additional questions (he prints his e-mail address at the end of the book and invites inquiries). Basically I asked him what type of discount I should apply to my particular book and what my online strategy should be. Later that same day, Mr. Rosenthal graciously responded with a lengthy reply chock full of specific advice. I'm sure I would not have gotten better advice if I had hired a consultant, assuming I could have found one well-versed in this field.

I purchased this book along with "Plug Your Book" and I have to admit that it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I guess I thought it would be more of a primer on how to self-publish using POD, but it's not.Now, that being said, I have to say that the book was worth the purchase price, well-written, and very useful for the beginner. I have been self-publishing successfully using POD for three years, so much of the information was not new to me. But it was still a good read, and Rosenthal covers quite a few things that I didn't know about. For example:1. I had no idea that authors paid Amazon for "better together" listings2. The information on libraries was useful and most of it was new to me3. I liked his examples on sales progression by month-- I have noticed that my own non-fiction sales follow the same trend and I was wondering whyBut the book needs an index-- considering how easy it is to generate one in WORD, this is the reason the book is getting 4 stars.One note about the cover-- I usually think that diagrams on book covers are a BIG mistake because they look terrible as a "thumbnail image" on Amazon. But I think that Rosenthal's cover is really clever-- the Tic-Tac-Toe motif is original and the design is clean. I think the book might look better if the background wasn't flat grey, but I really like it.

I have one book out on CD rom...and am an artist that teachers painting. Someone suggested I look into POD options...but I knew so little I went with the first good book recommendation. The book is okay, but so no one commits my error....if you are looking to write a how-to which would include good images, printing with POD is a toner method and images are not good. Save yourself time and money...

I've ben on a bit of a reading binge lately and must say that this book provides information I've not seen mentioned anywhere else. It's an easy to read book, concise and informative. How good? Good enough to make me write a review of it--something I VERY RARELY ever do for any reason. Better than Bly's books which are highly popular but also include to much 'feel good' rah-rah for my taste. If you are searching for inspiration then this books isn't for you--but if you need real INFORMATION...buy this book.UPDATE-It's now 2009 and in addition to doing a lot of Amazon reviews, I wanted to update my original review of this fine book and suggest signingup for his blog - which is infrequent but typically very informative as well. I do not know Morris but have since gone on to buy and read just about every self-publishing book created...this was one of the first I ever purhcased and is still one of my favorites. In fact, I still own this original copy.I also published a book using these exact methods a couple years ago. Did I make mistakes? Yes, of course and going forward, there are a few things I would do differently when writing or revising a book. However, those were specific to the book and audience I wrote for. Now for the results...I was able to get a finished product for sale within a budget very similar to that estimated in this book. Realizing my audience is a small niche field and this was my very first attempt at this, my goal was to reach $200 per month average in sales...something I was able to do for two years.Obviously I'm not ready to quit my day job however, for less than $15 dollars this book has brought in an extra couple thousand per year...a great return on my investment! It's simple, easy to read, the examples are right on target and anyone can do this. Morris provides superb advice designed to walk a newbie from knowing nothing to putting a book in print that can bring in a nice little bit of cash flow.

This book complements other books, such as "Aiming at Amazon" and "ePublish" - giving a very complete picture of how becoming your own publisher can help earn you more money from your book. Indeed, Morris Rosenthal gives a detailed and very interesting breakdown of the income and sales for one book - finally, someone brave enough to come up with actual figures!The book gives a helpful overall picture of where print on demand fits into the general publishing scene and why and how it's a respectable industry in it's own right.

I thought this was an excellent book. It was clear, informative and actually a pleasure to read: the author has a direct style which I found engaging. If POD is really as straightforward as he makes it sound then the publishing world is going to be shaken to its foundations.The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that it is (as other reviewers have commented) somewhat US-centric. Just for example, the ISBN authority in the UK is Nielsen.

It's out of date and readable only by someone already knowledgeable about book production and early POD services.