Know any good Self Publishing Companies?

Question

I am composing a poetry book and wanted to know any free/inexpensive companies that I could use. I already submitted them for copyright so that step is done. So what I will need is printing and the ISBN.

Thanks

Answer 1

If you want an ISBN, you'll have to fork over money for it. And nothing is low-cost or free in self-publishing.

But first, you might want to ask yourself if you really need an ISBN at all. Have you published a lot of poetry in magazines? Do you have any sort of fame and recognition as a poet (even if it's small)? Do you expect you'll be able to get your book into lots of stores--and if so, how are you going to promote it?

If you're just starting out, getting an ISBN will be a waste of money. Sure, you'll be able to list your book on Amazon, and bookstores will be more likely to take it, but if you're only going to end up selling one or two copies, what's the point? And most bookstores only have so much room to devote to books by unknown poets (and a lot of times that means *no* room, because poetry is a hard sell), so having an ISBN won't help you there, either.

That said, Lulu.com might be your best bet; I've ordered a couple of books directly from them, and the printing and binding quality was good. If I were ever to self-publish something, I'd use them. You don't need to buy an ISBN, you can order as many copies as you need, as you need them, and you can get set up cheaply and have copies of your book in hand in a very short time.  

You could also look at Booksurge, which is owned by Amazon. I admit I don't know a whole lot about them or their services, but they are worth checking out.

Or, if you don't have a huge number of poems, you could go the way most poets have by using a local copy shop to make your own chapbooks, which you can then sell for a few bucks apiece at poetry readings. Occasionally indie bookstores will carry them without an ISBN, especially for local poets. If you have a lot of poems, you could produce several chapbooks, broken down by theme, or chronologically, or however you like.

But whatever you do, do not, under any circumstances, publish a book with PublishAmerica. Yes, they can get you into print, with an ISBN, for no up-front cost, but they make their money by charging you a fortune for each book. There are a lot of scam publishers and self-publishing services out there, so do be careful.

Good luck!

Answer 2

GOOGLE for Vanity Press Publishers... NONE are FREE and NONE are inexpensive...