Inquiry about Instant Publisher

[Ardiva]

Is there anyone here who has used InstantPublisher.com?

If so is there any warnings about them?

Thanks a bunch for your help on this. :)

[Ardiva]

Bumping up here!
Anyone familiar with this publisher?

[jlgwriter]

Hello Ardiva,

I may be able to answer some of your questions about InstantPublisher.com, and I can also refer you to others who have used them. My writer's group, Writer's RoundTable Phoenix, published an anthology with them last year. I was not directly involved with the contract side of the publication, but as far as I know, we didn't encounter any serious problems. In our case, we had 10 authors who contributed to the anthology. (I was one of them.) Each one of us proofed and edited the submissions of the other nine contributors. We also hired a professional proofreader to make a final pass over the document before sending it to press at InstantPublisher. There were some small glitches, I believe--an extra blank page or two and some issue over interior graphics--but nothing serious and nothing that IP didn't respond to.

Two other of our members have also used them to self-publish. One was a book of poetry, called Facade, and the other book was science fiction titled Alien Log. Both members were satisfied with the final result, and I think the poet is getting ready to put out another book through them.

I will tell you that their stock book covers are pretty blah. In all the cases I've mentioned, the covers were designed by the leader of our writer's group. He has a background in graphic design and actually produced some fabulous cover designs. The cover of our anthology has drawn a lot of positive attention, in fact.

All of the books I've seen from IP have been quality products with good binding and clean printing. As with any self-published product, you, the author, are responsible for proofreading and editing your ms. before printing. You are also responsible for distribution and marketing, as well acquiring an ISBN. InstantPublisher may be able to help you with the last one, but I'm not sure about that one.

InstantPublisher doesn't do any promotion of your book except advertise it on their own site. We've sold over half of our first print run (in less than a year) of the anthology by advertising it on individual sites, book signings, networking, and book festivals. With 10 people marketing the same book, it has improved our odds of selling out the first printing. I can't tell you how successful the individual authors have been selling their books because I don't know how much marketing they've done or their original print run.

If you'd like to see copies of the covers of the books we've published through InstantPublisher, you can find them at: http://www.dynamicwriters.com
Our anthology, Sonoran Mirage, is also displayed at my Web site:
http://www.jeannelyetgassman.com
If you have more questions about the experience with InstantPublisher.com, you can contact the leader of our writer's group, John Safin, through the DynamicWriters site. Just click on the author's link and click on the "S" to find a link to John. I'm sure he could give you more detailed information. All of the InstantPublisher books appear on the DynamicWriters site. Those books are:
Facade, by Kay Meier
Alien Log, by Bob Farrell
Sonoran Mirage, an anthology by Writers RoundTable Phoenix

Hope this answers some of your questions. Feel free to send me an email (click on my handle) if you need more information.
_________________
Jeanne

[Ele]

I also continue to be interested in these folks as they are the very first POD publishers I researched. What still sets them apart in my mind is that they are print-on-demand but you pay for the full service like a regular self-published book. This differs from other PODs who print and pay royalty on sales. Also, they have a nifty on-line questionaire that will quickly give you an estimated price on publishing your book. I haven't yet figured out their software system in which your download the program, format your own ms, and then upload the finished work to a reserved file on their site. You then order your book as you need it. It's an interesting arrangement and I have several books that would probably work best with their system in that I have a quite large but vary narrow market and would prefer to handle my own fulfillment.


Also, you might check here:

www.booksandtales.com/podforum/

Not much activity on this site, but I still check in regularly just in case.

[Ardiva]

Thank you for your feedback on this. :)

I will return here after I research some others as well.
*hugs*
Helen

[wexfordpress]

[quote="jlgwriter"]Hello Ardiva,


Two other of our members have also used them to self-publish. One was a book of poetry, called Facade, and the other book was science fiction titled Alien Log. Both members were satisfied with the final result, and I think the poet is getting ready to put out another book through them.

I will tell you that their stock book covers are pretty blah. In all the cases I've mentioned, the covers were designed by the leader of our writer's group. He has a background in graphic design and actually produced some fabulous cover designs. The cover of our anthology has drawn a lot of positive attention, in fact.

All of the books I've seen from IP have been quality products with good binding and clean printing. As with any self-published product, you, the author, are responsible for proofreading and editing your ms. before printing. You are also responsible for distribution and marketing, as well acquiring an ISBN. InstantPublisher may be able to help you with the last one, but I'm not sure about that one.

I[/quote]

Thus far no one has mentioned cost. There are loads of print houses , both offset and digital. What makes IP more attractive than say, Fidlar-Doubleday
(digital) or Central Plains (offset)?

You need to buy your own ISBN block from Bowker. An ISBN from any other source is someone else's and not really yours. This can give you trouble if you need to go to a second printing with another vendor.

BTW I have on file a bid from Fidlar Doubleday for a book at $3.68 per book plus $46.40 for setup etc. It pays to shop around.

John Culleton
_________________
Able Indexers and Typesetters
Short list of essential
publishing and marketing books
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf

Need layout? Need an index? Prompt
service, lowest prices, satisfaction guaranteed.
sales@wexfordpress.com

[Ele]

If memory serves me, Instant Publisher was cheaper across the board and especially in large quanities. I remember being somewhat amazed. Go to the site and explore for more info www.instantpublisher.com .... I still laugh when I think how I found out about them. I ran across one of those cookbook printing cards in an ad packet I got in the mail and thought to myself "Self, why can't you publish a real book this cheaply?" So I contacted the cookbook printer who referred me to their adjunct company and I proceeded to get my first lesson in POD publishing. I had no idea that the publishing industry had changed so dramatically.

[Ele]

PS The Wexford Press link doesn't seem to work. FYI.

[wexfordpress]

[quote="Ele"]PS The Wexford Press link doesn't seem to work. FYI.[/quote]

Oops! Mind not fully operational before putting mouth in gear. Try the
corrected link below
_________________
Able Indexers and Typesetters
Short list of essential
publishing and marketing books
http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf

Need layout? Need an index? Prompt
service, lowest prices, satisfaction guaranteed.
sales@wexfordpress.com

[jlgwriter]

Ele,

Can't tell you about Wexford Press but Instant Publisher's prices were extremely reasonable. At the time we contracted with them, they even had a deal on a print run of 25 books. To give you an idea of how our costs panned out, we had a print run of 500 books on a 240 page book (the anthology I mentioned above). We're currently selling that book for $9.95. I believe we needed to sell approximately 40% of the 500 copies before we hit the break even point on costs. As of this month, we've just about hit that point.
_________________
Jeanne

[Ele]

[marylou99]

I hired InstantPublisher to print two titles of children's books a year and a half ago. I ordered a proof in the mail, which was fine. Then I made a couple of small cosmetic changes and reordered without requesting a new proof.

Somehow, meanwhile, their program managed to insert hard returns into my format which were NOT there in my original file, sticking hyphens into chapter titles and bringing them around to the next line! It also double-exposed my logo, which was not like that in my original file. Chris would not make it good--said I should have checked the layout more closely in their viewer.

Well, didn't, because I only checked for my mistakes, not theirs. I had no idea this could happen! So I had to haul $2,000 worth of inventory to the dump and start over. Also, I didn't like their paper--it isn't regular book paper but more like the stuff magazines are printed on. (To their credit I do acknowledge they did cancel the second title at my request, which they had not yet started work on.)

If you have a small run of books and some extra time, you might want to consider doing the printing yourself. After the InstantPublisher fiasco, I went out and bought one of those Epson Stylus-series printers they advertise which uses water-resistant ink. BEST move I ever made! For an investment of only $100 plus materials I was able to print, hand fold, and hand collate the books myself, then take them to a copy shop for stapling and trimming. I got a real professional looking product for about $3 per book instead of the $5 I paid InstantPublisher. And what a great feeling to have control of the quality instead of trusting that somebody I had never met, living in another state, was going to do it right.

Good luck. But if you decide to use InstantPublisher, be sure and check the online viewer closely.

[Ardiva]

Thank you all very much for your input on this inquiry. As of this writing the IP site is down for me. Can anyone else get to it?

[Ele]

[Ardiva]

Thanks, Ele...jsut need to check up on a couple of things. :)