Print-On-Demand is a great option for self-publishing your comics.
It allows you to print one, or just a few books at a time and the books will ship directly from the printer to your customers.
But there are a lot of Print-On-Demand Publishers.
Paper Wings Apprentice Alan Evans reviews five different POD publishers to help pick the right one for you.
To help us compare publishers…
Here are quotes from four companies all for the same hypothetical product:
…a 132 page, full color, 6” x 9” book.
…and we want a hundred copies.
Shipping is not included and ISBNs cost extra.
But you only need an ISBN if you plan to distribute through channels like Diamond (the comics distributor in North America) or Amazon. (Good news for Canadian citizens–ISBNs for your books are free!)
Ka-blam
www.Ka-Blam.com
Cost: $1351 plus shipping.
Ka-Blam’s biggest strength is that they cater directly to comic creators. One look at their site and you can see that printing comics is their specialty.
Templates specifically designed for your comics are available and all of the information and options are right on the price calculator so you know what you’re getting.
They even also offer a small discount if you place their ad on the back cover. (Though, if you consider selling advertising in your book, I would suggest selling the back cover ad space yourself because you’ll make more money that way, over using Ka-blam’s back cover discount.)
Ka-Blam has no set-up fees and will send you a proof sample for a small price that will later get credited to your first order. You can also set up online distribution through their Indy Planet, ComicsMonkey and Indy Digital sites.
They even offer a 10% discount if you can hold off for 42 days. The down side is that the sooner you need your books, the more they will cost you.
Unfortunately emails have been known to go unanswered which adds unnecessary stress when preparing for a convention.
Also, the profit made by going through their distribution sites are slim.
Is Ka-Blam right for me? If you are are a comic creator who just wants a small, affordable print run and aren’t interested in listing listing on Amazon or digital distribution, then YES! Ka-Blam is for you. Ka-Blaam is arguably the easiest way to get your comics printed.
Createspace
www.createspace.com
Cost: $1759 plus shipping or $1,009 with their Pro Plan.
Createspace is the POD division of Amazon.
Through them you can create DVD’s, digital videos, books and comic books.
Createspace will provide you with an ISBN for a tiered fee– the more you pay, the more creative control you have of the ISBN.
And if you join their Pro Plan, the printing costs of your books will drop. The Pro Plan costs $40 for the first year but only $5 annually after that.
Distribution is through Amazon and Amazon only. No Diamond, Barnes & Noble, etc, but you can always set that up on your own.
Is Createspace right for me? If you’re looking for all-in-one setup–listing on Amazon, an ISBN, direct to consumer offerings–with great customer service, then YES! Createspace is for you.
Lightning Source
www.LightningSource.com
Cost: $905 plus shipping and ISBN.
Lightning Source is the POD division of Ingram, one of the biggest book distributors in America.
They do excellent work, turnaround time is under a month and have excellent customer service.
For $12 a year you get listed on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and any bookstores that ask for it. They also have printers in the UK and Australia, making easier for your international customers to order your books.
Lightning Source even regularly offers discounts on printing where you can save 10% or more on your orders if you time it right.
The biggest drawback is that you HAVE to have an ISBN because they are going to list your book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and anywhere else that Ingram distributes. But this is pretty easy to do yourself from Bowker.com.
Also, your PDF has to be X-2001 compliant which is standard in this day and age for printers. If you don’t know what that means, it can be pretty intimidating. Don’t worry! It just means that your PDF will print exactly as you intended.
Lightning Source also has a few one-time set-up fees that total about $80. And your book MUST be approved by you with a physical copy before they will sell it. They overnight a copy to you but you will have to pay for the shipping on that.
Is Lightning Source right for me? If the exposure and availability that listing on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Nobel appeals to you, and if you have a significant international readership, then YES! Lightning Source is for you. The profit shares aren’t as high but that might be offset if your book gets into the hands of more people.
360 Digital Books
360digitalbooks.com
Cost: $988 plus shipping.
360 Digital Books also does excellent work and has excellent customer service.
They offer fulfillment services that work directly with your own website.
360 will send you examples of their work, free of charge.
Unfortunately, there is a small set-up fee, and you need to sign off on a physical proof copy of your book before it goes to press, but that’s not really a bad thing. Signing off on the proof copy gives you the ability to see how your book is going to print and is the last time you can catch any errors or make any changes.
Minimum order is 25 books, but you were going to do that anyways, right?
You don’t need an ISBN as they won’t be getting you into Amazon. Of course, you can always do that on your own.
Is 360 Digital Books right for me? If you want to sell your book directly from your site and skip other book distributors, and if you’re only interested in a very small print run, then YES! 360 Digital Books is for you.
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
I printed a one off with Blurb.com for a christmas present. They are significantly more expensive for a large run. The example order from this post woul come to $2120.75. The results were very nice and they were very responsive when I had a question. My only complaint woul be standard paper quality on pocket and 6×9 (trade) sizes was not the greatest. Not flimsy, but not the shiny thick paper you would expect in a photo book. It was matte and had a nice weight to it but wasn’t as impressive as it could have been. I think you can pay for premium paper but it was over my budget at the time.
One thing that intrigued me about this service was that they do Ebooks conversions for only $1.99. Good if you don’t have the know how yourself. Though I would still take the time to check out the guides for your ebook seller of choice.
Hope that was helpful.
Happy New Year!
Not to be a grammar nazi but, in “Is Ka-Blam right for me?” it says “interested in listing listing on Amazon”
For the rest; very, very helpful. Thanks!
I am most familiar with Ka-Blam (actually I can’t say I’ve heard of the others), and if/when I ever have a comic printed, I was planning on using them. I think the quality is good and prices are reasonable — but it’s great to have these other recommendations at hand!
It would be interesting to compare the quality of each of these printers, as well as the price and services, since, I think that matters a lot to all of us
I’ve bought some webcomics printed with ComixPress, and they look comparable to Ka-Blam… anyone know anything about them?
Thanks for this great write-up Alan! There’s a lot of great information here that I can save for later.
I see that this article is speaking more for comic artists, but do you think printing out a book would benefit illustration or VisDev artists as well? It is certainly a handsome way to present your work
I have reviewed a number of VisDev portfolios that were printed this way. It’s a very nice option but nearly impossible to update the book without just printing a brand new one.
Ah, great point. And you definitely have to keep updating with new work.. Thanks for the point Chris :]
Thanks so much for this. REALLY needed this info. I was about to check out createspace.com but now there are so many other options!
Thanks Alan, your awesome!
I’ll be needing this info sometime in the near future. I might check out lightning source first, sounds like they’ll have what I’m looking for.
Thanks!
Right on. It’s who I use for Rival Angels!
Hey friends,
Has anyone used DiggyPod? I have had a friend recommend them, and he has had great success. Check them out!
Don’t suppose you know similar pros and cons for UK based POD printers do you? Are there even any over here?
Thanks, Liam.
We are considering the international dynamic since we have such a broad, international reach with Paper Wings.
That said, I don’t think it crossed our minds wile we were doing this. We have such a significant number of Wingerz outside the US, we will definitely be looking for ways to represent that through the site and show.
The site, the show, the information presented should match the community. Granted, we are a team of Americans, but we will do our best to work in as much international perspective as possible.
And let us know if you find anyone over there that is good.
Hey Liam,
It looks like Lightning Source has printers in the UK. Have you checked them out at all?
Hey, look, a relevant article on Amazon publishing that I found today: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-rules-of-book-publishing.html?_r=2&hp
And… here’s an interesting reaction: http://www.chasingray.com/archives/2011/10/calling_bullshit_when_you_see.html
I don’t know yet… self-publishing is something I’m starting to consider more now that I’m starting to think about illustrating the story that I am writing (which has a goal of being at least novel-length). My dream, though, has always been going through the whole entire publishing process, with rejection letters and all, almost to prove that I can. I’ve been having this (internal) debate for years.
I use Ka-Blam! as well and love them! And as you would have it, we are interviewing Jenni and Barry Gregory of Ka-Blam! for the next Pond cast over on the illoppnd! This is Great timing. We will find out all that goes on at their end of the printing faze, and hopefully answer even more questions. They are an extremely busy pair, and I thought it would be a good idea to hear their side of things. Show will hopefully be up this weekend.
Can’t wait, Sam!
Yeah, I’m eager to hear what they have to say. Let them know that I know a ton of people who use them, but it’s sad that I hear over and over that they aren’t responsive to emails. Maybe it’s time for them to invest in a V.A.!
You bet Lora. Great question for them. As a matter of fact that is my biggest complaint too. No business is perfect. I pointed them to our lil corner of the universe here so they could take a minute too get the wide shot. I have faith in them, being the small company and good people they are, to be able to adjust to the needs of the creators that use them. And we are gonna discuss a lil project that really is exciting! We chat tomorrow! Can’t wait.
Our first book was printed through Ka-Blam and there were errors. The print quality was nice but the errors were troublesome. We printed through Staples in a pinch based on a recommendation from Max Ink and were very satisfied. The cost was higher but we had them in a matter of hours. A nice fall-back in case you run out of books in the middle of a two-day show.
That is a GREAT tip, Todd. What kind of bindings do they offer?
Ours was typical comic size so we went with stapling. Max Ink had a graphic novel printed with a glue binding and glossy wraparound cover. In fact, when we dropped off the files they told us their Comic Specialist would handle it. I didn’t even know they had a Comic Specialist
Max is such a good guy. I love Blink to death.
Alan! Thanks so much for sharing this wealth of knowledge is exactly something that I’ve been wanted to figure out for my upcoming Graphic Novel, this type of info is priceless!
I used Ka-Blam for my first self-published work, because they helped walk me through the process and increase my understanding. That alone was worth the extra price, for me. However, once I learned the process, I started bidding printers against each other to see who could get me the best deal. This has worked pretty well for me so far.
You want to be careful if you go this route, because sometimes the least expensive option is not your best option, but it does allow you to negotiate with the printers a bit and establish a price for your project.
I am in the midst of deciding how to print a comic and everything, mainly been looking at http://www.comixpress.com/ or a local printer in my small town, but they outsource everything to somewhere else and seem higher priced than what i saw on the comixpress site, now i’ve got more companies to compare, thanks for the info everyone!
Katie Cook is huge on local printing. I want to get her on the show/ site to talk about that process.
Katie and I graduated from high school together. I could get you in touch, if you’re interested.
We’ve met, actually. And we’re connected on Twitter. It’s just a matter of getting some interview episodes lined up. Right now, we’re still finding a groove with content.
I would be VERY interested in hearing that perspective. I have the funds to go big-ish on my first volume and intend to start with 750-1000 books, so POD doesn’t appeal to me much. Local printers and some of the printers in Canada, on the other hand, I’m looking into. I’ve heard China is cheapest, but not sure if I’d be able to overcome culture/language/shipping barriers to make it worthwhile.
China is the cheapest and I like Regent, http://www.regent-hk.com.hk/. You don’t have to worry about a language barrier but like anywhere, you need to have your files right. You don’t want to leave any room for interpretation. Also, your books will be shipped via boat, so leave about 4 months for delivery.
Canada printers like Transcontinental are good quality, but it’s freaky how much more expensive they are than Regent. Of course, you don’t have to wait 4 months either.
There used to be a ton of good US printers but the ones I remember are all out of business. I’m sure there’s a local one to you, but many times they’re not set up for your comic book dimensions (6X9 would be a better choice) so you end up spending more.
Alan:
AWESOME! Thank you for this! Hmm…4 months does not QUITE fit into my timeline for volume 1 — gotta have it ready for 2012 cons, and the content won’t be done until December 31st — BUT I plan to release a book every year, so I will DEFINITELY file this info away for next time!!
I’ve used local printers. I think it depends on if you can find someone who does what you need. The one I used was wildly more expensive than one of these specialized printers. They even made mistakes because they had never printed comics before and the entire job needed redone. Talk about stressful the day before you’re leaving for a convention!
Of course EVERY business will be different. I use a local guy for my poster-prints, and he’s very affordable and creates products I love and am proud to sell.
I’ve actually printed books with 3 of the 4 vendors above (I have not used lightning). While the folks at Ka-Blam are nice, their product is very average, and as mentioned, the communication issues are problematic. It can be very time consuming to work with them.
I’ve done 3 books on CreateSpace (2 for me, 1 for my daughter) and I can’t recommend them highly enough. CS is perfect for people who have a small-mid size audience and don’t want the hassle of pre-order money handling and shipping. (Although you still can ship the books yourself if you want by ordering a box to your home). The best part about CS is that you can actually make money on your books!
FYI, there’s no point in printing with them and not using the Pro account. That’s how you make the money. The book quality is very good, and the staff is responsive.
I printed two books with 360. They are more the traditional printer that has taken on a new POD service. Good one on one communication, you will be treated like a real client. The book quality is superb. But you will have to deal with forking over the money ahead of time (so taking pre-order $$) and your profit margins will be thin, unless you can order quite a few books (I’d say at least 250 – maybe more.) So much so that probably by the time you hit a good number, you could just print it traditionally.
I think right now the best solution for most people doing webcomics who don’t have a sizable audience is CS.
This is great info, Alan! Thanks for doing all this research for us!
I will add that I have been very happy with Ka-Blam’s print quality, and heard the same from others. (I’ve only printed comics with them so far, though, no book yet).
I have a question. I noticed you priced a 6″x9″ book, but standard comics are 6.75×10.25 trim. Do people typically use 6×9 when they put together a book?
Thanks!!!
6X9 was the in-between size between standard comic book size and manga size. Expect to pay a little bit more for bigger sizes and a little less for smaller. I personally went the manga size route after reading Runaways at that size.
When I did self-publish, I used Ka-Blam. I was always happy with how my books looked! I loved their vivid colors. My only problem was how stressful it was when they wouldn’t respond to emails.
I never printed a graphic novel length book with them, just individual issues. But they looked great every time!