Costco Connection - April 2009

which the author can set. In other words, authors can charge an arm and a leg and hope the book sells, they can give it away at cost or they can charge a modest markup and earn a few dollars per book.

Getting your book noticed

Working with a POD company is no guarantee of sales. It takes work—marketing work—to get your book titles noticed, as three Costco members have discovered.

Joy Collins turned to iUniverse to publish a novel, Second Chance. “There was some interest from publishers, but they wanted more sex or cowboys or vampires,” she says with a laugh.

The Fountain Hills, Arizona, author is now working with a micro-publisher to market the book and broaden the distribution channels. She also uses her Web site ( www.joy collins.com) to sell the book, sells it on consignment in local bookstores, does book signings and has issued media releases about it. “While my goal was to be published by a bigger publishing house, I realized I can do just as well with my own endeavors,” she says.

Michael N. Marcus has self-published two books—a memoir and a how-to book— using LSI. The Milford, Connecticut, author used to write for Rolling Stone magazine and felt POD would give him “complete control” over the publishing process, with the potential to earn more money by cutting out the publisher. He promotes his books in his blog, through reviews in other blogs and in e-mail to friends and associates,

Dave Morris used LSI to set up his own publishing imprint, New Year Publishing LLC ( www.newyearpublishing.com). With a $300 to $400 investment, the Danville, California, publisher can make a book available online. His company now offers nine books, with seven more titles in the works. If he used traditional publishing methods, printing costs and returns—unsold books sent back by retailers—would make it impossible for his publishing company to exist. “POD is ideal for niche titles, for great books that otherwise might not have found a home,” he says.

Morris considers himself semi-retired, even though he is running a small but successful publishing company. “The technology used to run the company lets me stay home with my kids,” he notes. Among the books he’s published are I’m Having Twins and My Twins Are Coming Home—both written by his 10-year- old daughter, Paris. His daughter has sold more than 200 copies of each book, “and earned a royalty on each sale,” says Morris. C