CreateSpace, Quality, LightningSource and Print Quality

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Print-Quality

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Print book guru Aaron Shepard wrote in a recent article The Limits to Quality:
“Lately, I’ve seen a lot of author-publishers ask questions like, “Which POD company should I go with to give me the highest quality—CreateSpace or Lightning Source ?”

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His answer to these questions: “That’s the wrong question. In most cases, it makes no sense to choose your POD company on the basis of quality. You don’t choose POD for its quality, you choose it for its distribution. You choose your company on the basis of which one helps you sell the most books.”

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Why not quality?
“First of all, comparisons are always shifting one way or the other, so any decision you make now could be wrong by next week. But more important, neither company has quality to get excited about. POD quality is never, has never been, and probably never will be more than good enough.”
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Shepard who works with both companies since many years, explains that self-publishers should never choose POD (Print-on-Demand) printing if print quality is their primary concern. Both companies, CreateSpace and LightningSource are more or less digital copy shops, not high-quality printers – and do not employ experienced “real” printers.

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His advice: “So, almost any new publisher should start with CreateSpace. See how many books you sell. Then, if selling an additional 10% to 25% would be worth the effort—because that’s likely all you can expect—add Lightning Source—or rather, Ingram-Spark, its gateway for self-publishers.”

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But read Aaron Shepard’s whole article, where he also explains the hair-raising experiences he had with both companies. Another important of his many articles is regarding ISBN’s at CreateSpace and LightningSource can be found here and here to get more background info about POD and book distribution.
And don’t forget to sign up for his newsletter, where he gives lots of valuable insider tips about the technical and distribution aspects for author-publishers.

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http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UAVL3LE

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